Nell Shipman - The scenic beauty of Spokane & North Idaho drew a Canadian movie pioneer to the area in the early 1920s.

By Mary Jane Honegger

Nell's strength and tenacity, her love of life and incredible will to survive, made her stand out, not only in a man's world but also in the global community because of her interest and work in animal welfare and ecology. She leaves behind a rich legacy with her restored films and autobiography.

Nell Shipman is one of Canada's unsung motion picture pioneers and was a true heroine both on and off the screen. She is deserving of far more recognition for her contributions and accomplishments. - Joel H Zemel (Nell Shipman: Brief Historical Backgrounder)

Nell Shipman, a beautiful Canadian actress, writer, director, and producer; moved to Spokane, Washington in the early 1920s to join the fledgling movie industry in the area.  A contract actress for Vitagraph Studios and one of the top movie stars at the time, Nell arrived in true Hollywood style with her director, Bert Van Tuyle, a staff of 20 technicians, her substantial wild animal zoo comprised mostly of animals common to the Northwest; and plans to make a movie. 

She partnered with Wellington Playter, an actor she had worked with in Back to God’s Country, to film a play she had written, The Grub Stake, at the Playter Studio, in Minnehaha Park in the Spokane Valley.  Nell was writer and associate director of the film which was shot with a $180,000 budget.  Unfortunately, due to the bankruptcy of her distributor, the film ended up in prolonged litigation, making money tight for Nell to continue making films.

Undeterred, and drawn by the rugged beauty of North Idaho, Nell and Van Tuyle decided to move the entire company to Upper Priest Lake in the North Idaho Panhandle to focus on making films centered on the character she had played in God’s Country and the Woman (1915) and Back to God’s Country (1919). 

These action-packed adventure melodramas, in which the heroine is called upon to rescue her husband and defeat the villain, were immensely successful. – Kay Armatage, The Girl From God's Country

Following a well-orchestrated plan, the movie company and zoo were soon perched among the towering pines on the northern edge of Priest Lake after a grueling journey by truck and a perilous 22-mile boat ride.  The crew built a new zoo to house the animals and other buildings as Lionhead Lodge, Nell Shipman’s movie camp, took shape.   

From this location, Nell and her crew filmed several movies, each time scouting out striking new locations which often made shooting difficult.  The hardy crew trekked to each location, lugging along their cameras, reflectors, make-up boxes, food and necessities for the animals which included huge rolls of wire netting and wooden boxes of peanuts and candy to keep them under control.

Despite low funds, Nell’s spirit never flagged.  Her cheerful demeanor and indomitable spirit kept her cast and crew at task despite cruel weather, harsh conditions and, sometimes, no pay.  During her time at Lionhead Lodge film camp and studio, Nell produced a series of short films, Little Dramas of the Big Places.

Sadly, by the mid 1920s, Nell Shipman Productions came to an end when she and other independent studios were forced out of the industry by the large Hollywood studios.  Unable to feed and maintain her animals, she was forced to donate them to the San Diego Zoo. 

With her movie production career at an end, Nell turned her energy toward writing novels and screenplays.  She died on January 23, 1970, shortly after completing her autobiography, The Silent Screen and My Talking Heart.  Her son Barry, who was 14 when she was in Spokane, followed in her footsteps, becoming a prolific screenwriter with a focus on Westerns; and her granddaughter, Nina Shipman became a recognized actor in the 60s.

Memorial Canadian Postage Stamp

In 1996, Canada Post introduced a limited edition series of stamps depicting one frame of a Canadian film from each decade since 1896. A scene (with Wellington Playter) from Back To God's Country honored Nell Shipman's contribution to 100 years of Canadian Cinema.

The Nell Shipman Awards of Excellence in Filmmaking

The Seattle Chapter of Women In Film is named after Nell Shipman, “director, producer and actress, a pioneer of early cinema.”  Inspired by her indomitable spirit, talent and courage, WIF Seattle began hosting an awards ceremony honoring that same spirit in contemporary female filmmakers of the Pacific Northwest.  This black-tie “Academy Award” style gala provides recognition for talented Northwest female filmmakers and showcases their work. The awards include: The Career Achievement Award
The Light of the Community Award, The Spirit of Nell Award, and Production Excellence Awards in multiple categories.

Films of Nell Shipman (either or all: writer/director/producer/star):
The Ball of Yarn (1910); Outwitted by Billy (1913); One Hundred Years of Mormonism (1913); God's Country and the Woman (1915); The Pine's Revenge (1915); Under the Crescent (1915); The Fires of Conscience (1916); Through the Wall (1916); Baree, Son of Kazan (1917); The Black Wolf (1917); My Fighting Gentleman (1917); The Girl From Beyond (1918); The Home Trail (1918); Cavanaugh of the Forest Rangers (1918); The Wild Strain (1918); Back to God's Country (1919); Something New (1920); The Girl from God's Country (1921); A Bear, A Boy and A Dog (1921); The Grub Stake (1923); The Light on Lookout (1923); Trail of the North Wind (1923); The Golden Yukon (1927); Wings in the Dark (1935); The Clam-Diggers's Daughter (1947) 
 

Read more about Nell Shipman

Nell’s amazing story is told in her autobiography, and other books about early motion picture history.  

The Silent Screen and My Talking Heart, an autobiography by Nell Shipman

The Light On Her Face, by Joseph & Juanita Walker

The Girl From God’s Country: Nell Shipman and the Silent Cinema, by Kay Armatage, 2003

Several of Nell's films are available on video through the Idaho Film Collection and Boise State University.

P.L. Travers, Walt Disney & Mary Poppins

Kathy Cooney Dobbs


   I was one of many moviegoers watching Disney's  popular musical , Mary Poppins  when it opened in theaters in 1964,  and like most, fell in love with the practically perfect Mary , the Banks family and chimney sweep, Bert.                                                   

   While I knew nothing about the author, I enjoyed the  book Mary Poppins , and was a  huge fan of Walt Disney -  a child of the 1950's , I grew up with The Mickey Mouse Club , Zorro, The Wonderful World of Disney and movies Old Yeller, Bambi,  Dumbo, Toby Tyler, Pollyanna and The Parent Trap . Living in Southern California allowed me , along with my family to visit Disneyland every summer. When I graduated high school we even had our all night party at Disneyland!  Walt Disney was like an old friend.                                                    

     Not until I saw the movie Saving Mr. Banks, the Disney account of  P.L. Travers and the  tug of war, what Travers referred to as 'uneasy wedlock' ,  between her and Mr. Disney  and the making of Mary Poppins, did I learn something about the author. That she was a   somewhat difficult,  determined woman, one without much  humor or joy. Her biographer, Valerie Lawson portrays the same in Mary Poppins, She Wrote  - The Life of P.L. Travers. Travers being a  rather humorless, difficult  woman, but also a woman with talent, imagination and fortitude. And most protective of what today she might call 'her brand' - her beloved Mary Poppins.

 

    Lawrence writes her search for Pamela Travers (born Helen Lyndon Goff) began with the discovery she was Australian, and  "like myself had been a dancer, actress and writer. For me, Travers became more fascinating the more I learned of her mystery."

    Travers began writing as young girl and wrote several poems , including  Mother Song published in The Triad in 1922

Little son,
you must be sleeping;
Baby stars are peeping,
One by one.

'Time for bed !"...
Hear the Dustman crying,
As he comes with flying
Wings outspread...

    Lawrence writes 'Mother Song' was an unabashed piece of sentimentality (I think it sweet) , notable only for its mention of stars , the theme of so much of her later work, the phrase 'time for bed' , one of Mary Poppins favorite orders, and  the idea of the flying angel in the form of the Dustman.

    On March 20, 1926 the Christchurch Sun published  "The Strange Story of the Dancing Cow" , accompanied by a panel boasting "Miss Pamela Travers, who writes this story of the Sun is rapidly winning fame for herself in London. Few writers  today can equal her in the realm of whimsical fantasy. Read here in the Old Red Cow who awoke to find herself smitten  with star fever." In the first Mary Poppins book, published in 1934 , Mary told the same story of the cow and a king within a chapter called , "The Dancing Cow."

    During one interview Travers  says, " When I was in my teens, I wrote a small story about someone named Mary Poppins putting children to bed. I can't remember what paper the story appeared in, but the name was a long  time a-growing, a long time in existence, perhaps."  While during her lifetime no one ever discovered when she created Mary Poppins, and she certainly didn't tell, one can surmise Mary Poppins was always part of P.L. Travers. I'm sure that's one reason it was so hard for her to relinquish any control to Disney for the movie adaptation. Mary Poppins belonged to her.

     Travers admitted she liked the movie, but was always peeved with the title screen,  'Walt Disney's Mary Poppins' and felt it should have been  Mary Poppins arranged for the screen by Walt Disney. In the end one might say, it was the  magic of Travers and the magic of Disney that brought Mary Poppins long lasting life, and generations of fame.

To Write About John F. Kennedy

   Below is essay I posted Friday November 22 on my blog 2 lane highway (http://2lanehighway.blogspot.com)  in memory of President John F. Kennedy. I share it again, on Writing North Idaho not only because  his meaningless death occurred a week prior to Thanksgiving, and for many of us of a certain age, Thanksgiving and the death of the  President of the United States  seem to intertwine in some surreal way, but  because as writers there is a mountain  of material left to write about    President Kennedy, his family, his politics, the assassination, the 1960's, his legacy and the impact  he had on the folks of  that era, and the continuing  influence he may  have  on future generations.

   Fifty years have passed since President John F. Kennedy was killed. It hardly seems possible so many of us, who were so young when the President was shot on November 22, 1963 , are now older than he was when he died, and yet we remember that horrific day and where we were like it was yesterday.  Several 'friends' on Facebook  posted memories :

*    I remember the day like it was yesterday! I was in choir and Mr. Salter talked to us after the PA announcement. Then we gathered in the cafeteria. No one was eating, and you could hear a pin drop.

* I was standing in the East Quad when I heard the news on the PA system. No one spoke, many shed tears, and most of us held our breath hoping it wasn't true.

* I was in P.E. and walked into the gym and saw Mr. Taschner sitting in the bleachers with his head in his hands, crying. I don't think I had ever seen a grown man cry before.

* I remember being in science class. It was such a sad day. I remember going home watching TV, and crying for days. I still have the newspapers from that horrible time. No matter the politics, everybody loved Kennedy.

   Yes ! I remember too, I  was in 8th grade  at St. Rose of Lima school in Maywood, California,  and  can see in memories eye,  an obviously sad, teary eyed  Sister Mary Agnesine tell the class the President had been shot, and feel  the solemn silence that followed like a darkened room after the lights are turned off. Then we prayed.

    That following Monday school was closed so students could be at home to watch the coverage of the Presidents funeral procession.  Perhaps the image of Mrs. Kennedy and her two children standing in front of the White House, and little John-John's sweet salute as his fathers caisson passed by has left the most lasting impression on us. So tragic, yet so tender.  If the bombing of Pearl Harbor joined our  parents generation together , the assassination of President Kennedy, the first Catholic elected president ,  certainly bound ours. And television played a big part. For the first time as a nation we not only grieved singularly , or within our own community , but collectively as a nation, witnessing together on live TV the killing of a president, his funeral and burial, then the murder of his assassin.

                                                                                               

     In a recent New York Times Book Review article titled Kennedy, the Elusive President,  Jill Abramson, executive editor of the Times wrote , An estimated 40,000 books about him (JFK) have been published since his death, and this anniversary year has loosed another vast outpouring. Yet to explore the enormous literature is to be struck not by what's there but by what's missing. Readers can choose from many books but surprisingly few good ones, and not one really outstanding one.

  Whoa! That 40,000 books have been written about President Kennedy is amazing to think about, but what strikes me more is Abramson's contention that none are worthy, that not one is really outstanding. She sites biographer Robert Dallek as saying historians are not really impressed with him , they see him more as a celebrity who didn't accomplish very much.

    In  the scheme of things , I suppose  a thousand days isn't all that long to accomplish goals set out in campaign promises.  But I would submit Kennedy's mark isn't necessarily his political imprint, but the imprint he left on the American psyche, and how his glow, and positive outlook  attracted young and old alike. And today, let  his  words sound loud and true,  Ask not what your country can do for you, but what can you do for your country.

THE LIBRARY

    After Bible study today I stopped by  Post Falls  library to return one book, renew another,   and browse the shelves for anything else  that might catch my interest.   I   put two books on hold - Jack 1939, recommended by my friend Patty,   the other, The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jona Jonasson , this one  my darling young cousin (actually my first cousin once removed - cousin Kim Cooney's  daughter)  listed as a favorite on Goodreads.   Rachel commented the story was hilarious  with a touch of Forrest Gump. Fun read.  I must say, the title grabbed me right away, and am looking forward to  reading  about the hundred year old man  who climbs out his window, and   what happens to him  next .

   One of the books I came home with is  The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and HER MOTHER by Eve LaPlante.  Because Alcott's Little Women remains a favorite of mine, I'm always interested in reading about this famed author and the influence that shaped her writing talent.  The  second book I checked out was  on the 'New Non-Fiction" shelf, She Matters A Life in Friendships.  This book  drew  my attention because as a writer,  it's a subject that interests me, and  know it's a topic  I could write; One about   the beauty and importance  of  girlfriends throughout  my life , and the special place they hold. From my youngest days when my childhood friend, Linda Mattix  and I played with our dolls for hour upon hour, rode bikes, went to the park, swimming pool, and  Saturday matinee together.  The memories she and I  hold in common can never be broken.  I think of my best  pals from high school , all  so very dear. To this day, we continue to  learn and laugh together. My brother's first love, Patty who became my cherished  friend , too, and remains close to my heart. And Phyllis, my friend and  mentor,  we've been  pals  like  ( Heckle & Jeckle)  since my first  days at the newspaper in 1971.

   I think also of dear women  friends  throughout my adult years, some mother's of my son's friends, some  friends of my mother, others  fellow church members, and writer friends -  each one adding  to the joy of my  being, and helping me grow as a person, to become a better me.

  This is what the library offers us, books on every theme and  topic - biographies of authors, artists, anthropologists; Stories about friendships,  family dynasties, financiers. Poets  and  politicians - saints and scholars. The library is the perfect place not only for those who like to read, but  for writers, too. Like one who is thirsty going to the well, the library can quench your thirst for ideas about writing , and reading.

   Libraries also feature displays, and offer events and presentations about  a variety of subjects to interest the community.  The other day I received an email from fellow blogger, Jennifer Rova reminding me about Coeur d Alene Public Library's annual writing contest.  This contest has always drawn many entries.  Writers age 6 to adult  can submit up to two entries  of fiction, two nonfiction prose (no poetry).  Entries are due March 31.  For more information  visit www.cdalibrary.orgary.org  or contact David Townsend DTOWNSEND@cdalibrary.org   

   While the internet and e - readers are extremely useful and wonderful ( I use both), our public libraries also provide a world of wonder, whether reading for pleasure,  academics or seeking knowledge on any subject.

 Visit your local library soon  ! You'll be sure to  find a treasure of people and places to read about ,  both  past and present.




 



 

   

RAYMOND CHANDLER

    Sometimes a writer’s life is so full of color and drama, it can be as interesting as the story he, or she writes. Raymond Chandler comes to mind.  In my younger years I read five of Chandler’s published novels, and just recently picked up a copy of his   Spanish Blood, A Collection of Short Stories copyright 1946. Chandler's writing never fails to capture, and hold my attention. 

     Because I grew up in southern California, I liked Chandler chose   Los Angeles, and  the landscape of southern California  for  settings  in his novels – his apt description allowed me to easily picture southern California of the 1940’s, and 50's .   Not necessarily the crime and grime,   but city and environment with its street lined palm trees , stucco apartments, and  Craftsman style  homes; the great detail Chandler gave to clothing his characters wore provided a wonderful description of  fashions of the time.   Santa Monica became Bay City, Idle Valley the San Fernando Valley, and his Lady on the Lake, Big Bear Lake – all places I was familiar with, and visited many times.

      After losing his job as an oil company executive because of womanizing, drinking and threats of suicide, Chandler began writing out of desperation.  He was 44 years old, and taught himself to write reading Perry Mason crime novels by Erle Stanley Gardner, and studying their format.

    Black Mask, a popular pulp fiction magazine, published Chandler’s first story, Blackmailers Don’t Shoot in 1933; His first novel, The Big Sleep was published in 1939.

     Born in Chicago in 1888, Chandler and his mother moved to London after his father abandoned them in 1890. Chandler was never to see his father again.  Residing with his maternal grandmother Chandler was educated at Dulwich College, the same school P.G. Wodehouse and C.S. Forester attended. He spent childhood summers in Waterford, Ireland with his maternal family, and according to Wikipedia also spent time in Paris and Munich improving his foreign language skills.

     By 1913 Chandler was back in the United States, and moved to Los Angeles where he worked odd jobs stringing tennis rackets and picked fruit – most probably oranges from one of the many groves decorating the landscape at that time, and finally finding permanent employment at the Los Angeles Creamery.

    Chandler enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I, upon his return he began a love affair with a woman 18 years his senior, the step-mother of his friend Gordon Pascal. Cissy Pascal and Chandler would eventually marry, and remain married until Cissy’s death in 1954.

    There are several good biographies of Raymond Chandler, including the recent The Long Embrace, Raymond Chandler And the Woman He Loved by Judith Freeman.  Another one I  highly recommend is Raymond Chandler Speaking.  Described on back cover as “a collection of fascinating letters, the legendary Raymond Chandler gives his tough –minded , idiosyncratic and always spirited  views on everything from writing, Hollywood and T.V. to crime, cats and the human condition.”

     At one time, I think even now, if I could write like anyone, it would be Raymond Chandler with his crisp, clear, succinct dialogue, and plot of story.

    In his own words he shares his thoughts on the craft of writing:

    In a letter dated Dec. 27, 1946 to Mrs. Robert J. Hogan (editor of magazine for writers, Lake Mohawk , New Jersey Chandler writes:

…My experience with trying to help people to write has been limited but extremely intensive. I have done everything from giving would be writers money to live on to plotting and re-writing their stories for them, and so far I have found it to be all waste. The people whom God or nature intended to be writers find their own answers, and those who have to ask are impossible to help. They are merely people who want to be writers.”

    In another letter to Mrs. Hogan, dated March 7, 1947 he says,

Another of my oddities (and this one I believe in absolutely) is that you never quite know where your story is until you have written the first draft as raw material. What seems to be alive in it is what belongs in the story. A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled. In the long run, however little you talk or even think about it, the most durable thing in writing is style. , and style is the most valuable investment a writer can make with his time. It pays off slowly, your agent will sneer at it, your publisher will misunderstand it, and it will take people you have never heard of to convince them by slow degrees that the writer who puts his individual mark on the way he writes will always pay off. “

    Raymond Chandler is one of the great stylistic and profound American writers to influence popular literature – not dated, but for all time.

***NOTE: Chandler's novels  The Big Sleep,  Farewell, My Lovely, The Lady in the Lake were adapted for the movies . Chandler  also wrote scripts for movies, including  the original  screenplay The Blue Dahlia (1946) . He   collaborated on the screenplay with Alfred Hitchcock's Stranger on a Train , and co-wrote Double Indemnity (1944) with Billy Wilder - based on James M. Cain's novel of the same name.

The Raymond Chandler website  http://home.comcast.net/~mossrobert/index.htm

Hey Boo: Unforgettable Book, Unforgettable Author

One of my favorite books turned 52 this year, and the movie made from the book turned 50. Over those years, the compelling story of Atticus, Scout, Tom and Boo has made a deep impression on millions of Americans.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a novel set in a small Alabama town during racial segregation, was published by J. B. Lippencott & Co. in 1960. It is a story of a small-town lawyer defending an unjustly accused man, and the story of a young girl trying to make sense of the world around her.

As someone who also grew up in a small southern community where I was a child during the final years of segregation, I could identify with Scout. Like Scout, I was also somewhat of a tom-boy; had a soft-spoken, gentle father; and like my brothers, kept small, insignificant trinkets in a cigar box.

In 2010, a 50th anniversary edition of To Kill a Mockingbird was published, and a film titled Hey Boo: Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird was released. PBS recently aired the film as part of their American Masters program.  As a writer, I was interested in learning more about Lee.

Born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama, Nelle Harper Lee left Alabama for New York in 1950 after completing college. There she spent eight years supporting herself as an airline reservation agent. She became good friends with a couple who had read and loved some of Lee’s essays. One year, knowing Lee was working on a manuscript for a novel, the couple gave Lee a Christmas gift of money with a note that said Lee could take one year off from her work to write whatever she wants.

Lee took her friends up on their offer and completed her manuscript, then titled Atticus, and secured a literary agent who sent the manuscript to several publishers. All of the publishers rejected the work.

Eventually, an editor at J. B. Lipppincott & Co.—even though the editor felt the manuscript was mostly a series of short stories and needed a lot of work—recognized Lee’s talent and the potential of the story, and signed a contract with Lee.

Lee described what happened next as a long and hopeless period of writing the manuscript over and over again. The writer and editor reshaped and worked on the book for the next two years, until it eventually became what we know today as To Kill a Mockingbird. The book was an immediate success and awarded a Pulitzer Prize, among many other awards.

Lee was 34 when the book was published. She gave several interviews about the novel and the movie, and then stopped. She stepped back from the publicity and public life and hasn’t granted an interview in more than 40 years.

Amazingly, Lee grew up only a few doors away from author Truman Capote. They became childhood friends and remained friends for many years, advising each other on writing and publishing. Lee assisted Capote in his research for his book, In Cold Blood. Eventually they grew apart as Capote embraced fame and Lee avoided it.

Even though Harper Lee never wrote another book, Lee remains one of America’s favorite writers. And 50 years and nearly 50 million copies later, To To Kill a Mockingbird remains required reading in schools across America and continues to be enjoyed by both adolescents and adults.

If you would like to watch the documentary, Hey Boo: Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird, it can be viewed for free at the following PBS link:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/harper-lee-hey-boo/watch-the-full-documentary/2049/

You can also check your PBS schedule for future showings.

Movies about Writers and the Writing Life: Sit Back, Relax, Learn.

I recently ran across the movie, Sylvia, on Netflix instant video. Sylvia focuses on the story of the relationship between American poet Sylvia Plath and her husband, the English poet Ted Hughes. I was intrigued and decided to watch the film because Plath was the first poet I studied years ago in my first poetry class. I still have her book of poetry, Colossus, on my shelf, which was the first book of poetry she published in the United States.

I had also read her book, The Bell Jar, which was an autobiographical novel that paralleled her life in many ways as it followed the life of a magazine editor who felt hemmed in by social conventions and was slowly taken over by mental illness. A movie based on The Bell Jar was released in 1979, and a new version is currently in pre-production to be released sometime in 2012.

Left: Sylvia Plath. Right: Gweneth Paltrow as Sylvia Plath.

The Plath story is a sad one. It is the story of a talented poet and writer who suffered severe bouts of depression and, tragically, ended her own life at the age of 30.

In watching this movie I realized that, although we know filmmakers add drama and story elements to make movies more appealing and exciting to audiences, if we can look past the added drama and beyond our curiosity of the individual’s life, we can take away important truths from these stories of well-known writers about the writing life. They will show us that, no matter what an individual’s life is like, if they are a serious writer, their writing life becomes an important overlay to their reality. From this, certain themes filter through that can be true, and helpful, in the lives of other writers.

For instance, as writers we can understand how everyday life can get in the way of the time we want to spend writing. We understand that we sometimes have to balance and adjust the distractions of keeping the home together, holding down a job, paying bills, cooking meals, taking care of our families, etc., in order to keep our writing projects going.  We can also understand how jealousy between writers could arise when two talented poets such as Plath and Hughes are married and one receives more acclaim than the other. We can understand how frustration and insecurity can overtake a writer in that desperate wait to hear back from a publisher, an agent, or reviewer.

These are recurring themes in the lives of many writers, and watching Sylvia showed me that these glimpses of the writing life of other writers can be useful to help us understand that we are not alone in our range of struggles and efforts to become writers.

Seeing the movie inspired me to look for other movies that might be helpful to writers. As a result, I have added two new pages to this blog for you to check out. One is a list of "Movies About Writing" and the second is a list of "Movies Based on Well-Known Authors."

These movies aren’t listed because of cinema quality, but because of their focus on writers and the writing life. I have not seen all of the movies myself, but have pulled the list together by researching Amazon movie lists, Internet Movie Database (IMDB) movie lists, and recommendations from other sites.

I imagine you will have ideas of other movies that would be useful to writers and should be added to the lists. If so, leave a comment with your recommendation(s) and we’ll add them to the list.

Enjoy!
__________________

Biography - Abraham Lincoln & a Passion for Writing

Whenever someone asks me what my favorite book genre is,  I quickly answer biography. Since I was a young  girl  in grade school I’ve enjoyed reading about kings and queens, the popes, saints and presidents.  As  I grew  older, my interests grew,  as did my  reading list — to include  biographies about poets and playwrights  like Emily Dickinson and Oscar Wilde, sports stars and movie moguls, newspaper publishers and famous cowgirls.

Yesterday, February 12  the United States commemorated  Abraham Lincoln’s   birthday. I was fascinated to learn more books have been written about the 16th President than any other person in  American  history.  ( Pictured  here  -  A three-story sculpture "Tower of Books" representing over 15,000 titles that have been written about Abraham Lincoln, are part of an exhibit at the Ford's Theatre Center for Education and Leadership in Washington, D. C )

Contemporary biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin , whose book Team of Rivals The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln  numbers one of the 15,000,   says she has always   been fascinated by President Lincoln, and alludes to   turn of the century biographer, IdaTarbell who said “One reason so many books have  been written about Lincoln is , “because he’s so companionable”.    Kearns  agrees and says , “ I wanted to live with him (Lincoln), but wasn’t sure I could come up with a new angle”.   Initially Goodwin  thought she would write about Lincoln and his relationship with his wife, Mary Todd, but  as she investigated  Lincoln’s life,  she  discovered the time he shared with his cabinet members  - Steward,  Chase, Stanton and Bates—to be more interesting , especially  in midst  of civil war.    Kearns  also tells of the many years of research she put into her work, and the research she had to do.  In my humble opinion, work and research that paid off, giving the reader a new, inspired and thoughtful look at President Lincoln.

 What Goodwin is telling us is this,   to write biography, research is most important.  That, and a passion for whom we’re writing about.   Someone we want to live with.  As biographer , that’s what we'll be doing—living with that person. Perhaps for many years.   To get the facts right is also important, to find what motivates the person, and makes them special.  What effect did they have on the world ? The immediate people in their lives ?

Other tips about writing biography come from Tameri Guide for Writers:

1. Begin with a defining event, regardless of its chronology

2. Maintain consistent voice and style

3. Use dialogue or excerpts from historical records when possible

4. Describe all scenes as they relate to your protagonist –especially if you are the protagonist

5. Omit events and even people when they add nothing to the theme

6. End the biography with another defining moment, a personal revelation, or a recounting of the opening moment.

Goodwin ends her biography of Lincoln in just such a way - with a personal revelation.

With his death, Abraham Lincoln had come to seem the embodiment of his own words - " With 

malice toward none; with charity for all" - voiced in his second inaugural to lay out the visionary 

pathway to a reconstructed union. The deathless name he sought from the start had grown far

beyond Sangamon County and Illinois, reached across the truly United States, until his legacy, as 

Stanton had surmised at the moment of his death, belonged not only to America but to the ages

-to be revered and sung throughout all time.

And  the same  for us—whether we choose to write about some famed historical figure or our mother, brother,  grand-mother, teacher,  dear friend or long ago ancestor. We must   determine our motivation and have a passion for what/whom  we write,  then focus on the theme of the work with a detailed , factual account of events - helping to make what we  write, who we write about interesting to others. 

*** Click link for list of books about Lincoln  http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1212.Best_Books_About_Abraham_Lincoln