www.richardjespers.com
  • Home
  • Books
  • Journals
  • Blog

Journalist Caro Shares His Secrets to Success

9/13/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
A WRITER'S WIT
The object of art is not to make salable pictures. It is to save yourself.
​Sherwood Anderson
​Born September 13, 1876
Picture
S. Anderson

My Book World

Picture
​Caro, Robert A. Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing. New York: Knopf, 2019.

I took three important ideas from this esteemed journalist’s book concerning the books he’s written. One, his first editor, Alan Hathaway of Newsday, advised him: “Turn every page.” Don’t merely flip through a folder or skim a document. Overlook nothing. You may see patterns in the material, something which is unstated but apparent. Two, one’s goal as a writer is to compel a reader to see what you see or even feel what others feel. Three, slower is faster. Do a thorough job.
 
Caro divides his book into seven parts: Part I concerns his time as a newspaper writer. Part II, he shares how he wrote of Robert Moses in The Power Broker—how one man can accrue and use power. Part III, Caro goes into more detail about the forty-five million pieces of pages he “turned” to write The Power Broker. In Part IV, he writes concerning the importance of interviews, how important it is to get answers to questions, even if you must circle back as many as eleven times, as he did with Moses, when he asked him the most important question last. Part V explains how Caro develops what he calls “sense of place,” providing rich and telling details about each setting of his book. In Part VI, the author reveals how he researches and writes each of the first four books about President Lyndon B. Johnson, and includes a bit about the fifth and final one, yet to be published. And finally, in Part VII, Caro reprints an interview The Paris Review conducted in 2016.
 
In all, Working is an engaging and unique memoir, and I recommend it to any writer or reader who has an interest in the five or six topics listed above. The man is a pro.

NEXT TIME: My Journey of States-49  Wyoming

0 Comments

A Writer's Wit

9/12/2019

0 Comments

 
Once I've discovered the story, I might restructure it, maybe move things around, set up a clue that something is going to happen later, but that happens much later in an editorial capacity.
​Michael Ondaatje
Born September 12, 1943
Picture
M. Ondaatje
NEXT TIME: My Book World | Robert Caro's Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing
0 Comments

My Journey of States-48  Montana

9/11/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
A WRITER'S WIT
The nature of love is that it catches you off-guard, subjects you to rules you have never faced, some of them contradictory.
--Ivan Doig
Born June 27, 1939
White Sulphur Springs, Montana
Died April 9, 2015
Seattle, Washington
Picture
I. Doig
MY JOURNEY OF STATES is a series in which I relate my sixty-year quest to visit all fifty states in the U.S. In each post I tell of my relationship to that state, whether brief or long, highlighting personal events. I include the year of each state's entry into the union and related celebrations. I hope you enjoy my journey as much as I have. This is the forty-eighth post of fifty.

Montana (2014, 2015)

​I first became acquainted with Montana when, as a child, I learned that a great uncle lived there, was superintendent of schools in Miles City for nearly thirty-five years—although I would never visit the state until many years later. In 2014, while visiting South Dakota, Ken and I made a day-trip to cross over into North Dakota and Montana. We returned to the state mid-June 2015, to enter Yellowstone National Park. A mistake tourist-wise—way too crowded—but still, we did attempt to enjoy its stark and majestic beauty. We hope to go back either in May or September one year.
 
Montana became the forty-first state on November 8, 1889.

Historical Postcards & Trunk Decals

If you missed earlier My Journey of States posts, please click on a link:
1-Kansas                13. New Jersey     25. Michigan     37. N. Hampshire
2-Oklahoma        14. Delaware         26. Wisconsin 38. Maine
3-Texas                   15. New York        27. Minnesota  39. Rhode Island
​4-Louisiana         16. Connecticut     28. Iowa               40. Idaho
5-Missouri           17. Colorado         29. Hawaii           41. Nevada
6-Illinois               18. Arkansas        30. Georgia         42. Utah
7-Indiana              19. California       31. S. Carolina   43. Washington
8-Ohio                   20. Florida             32. N. Carolina  44. Alaska
9-Pennsylvania    21. Mississippi    33. Alabama       45. Nebraska
10-West VA        22. New Mexico     34. Kentucky    46. S. Dakota
11-Maryland       23. Tennessee      35. Massachusetts 47. N. Dakota
12. Virginia          24. Arizona            36. Vermont
NEXT TIME: My Book World | Robert Caro's Working
0 Comments

A Writer's wit

9/10/2019

0 Comments

 
I consider myself kind of a reporter—one who uses words that are more like music and that have a choreography. I never think of myself as a poet; I just get up and write.
​Mary Oliver
Born September 10, 1935
Picture
M. Oliver
NEXT TIME: My Journey of States-48  Montana
0 Comments

Americans in France

9/6/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
 A WRITER'S WIT
If you read novels of the nineteenth century, they're pretty experimental. They take lots of chances; they seem to break a lot of rules. You've got omniscient narrators lecturing at times to the reader in first person. If you go back to the earliest novels, this is happening to a wild extent, like Tristram Shandy or Don Quixote.
​Jennifer Egan
​Born September 6, 1962
Picture
J. Egan

My Book World

Picture
Peck, Garrett. The Great War in America: World War I and Its Aftermath. New York: Pegasus, 2018.

Studying history allows us to learn from past mistakes so that we don’t repeat them in the future, yet sadly, as the old saw goes, we see history repeat (or rhyme with) itself every day. Take isolationism, for instance. Both before and after the Great War, Americans wanted nothing to do with the rest of the world. After many decades of American stature following World War II, Americans are leaning toward isolationism again.
 
Peck’s book causes the reader to contemplate the Great War within the context of America only. Why did the U.S. stay out for so long? Why didn’t the U.S. have an adequate military force? Why didn’t the U.S. want to join the League of Nations following the war? Why were so many Americans disillusioned once the Armistice had been signed? Why was President Woodrow Wilson beloved by many yet only gained stature for his wisdom long after he had died? Peck explores all these questions and more and to a satisfying end. For him, history isn’t just facts and figures and chronology. It’s about relationships between individuals and relationships between nations, and he discusses these at length.
 
I have only one beef with the book distributed by W. W. Norton, one of the most respected names in modern publishing. I came across (I was not looking for) at least nine typos: the kind which reflects hurried or no copyediting: words are repeated needlessly or subject/verb agreement is in error because the letter “s” has been left off the verb. In this day and age, following thirty-five years of computerized book printing, with its sophisticated technology, there is no excuse for finding this many errors in a published book for which the public is paying a cover price of just under thirty dollars. Just saying.

NEXT TIME: My Journey of States-48  Montana
0 Comments

A Writer's Wit

9/5/2019

0 Comments

 
I once made a check of all books in my fourth-grade classroom. Of the slightly more than six hundred books, almost one quarter had been published prior to the bombing of Hiroshima; sixty percent were either ten years old or older.
​Jonathan Kozol
September 5, 1936
Picture
J. Kozol
NEXT TIME: My Book World | Garrett Peck's The Great War in America: World War I and Its Aftermath.
0 Comments

My Journey of States-47  North Dakota

9/4/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
A WRITER'S WIT
The idea of education has been so tied to schools, universities, and professors that many assume there is no other way, but education is available to anyone within reach of a library, a post office, or even a newsstand.
—Louis L’Amour
Born March 22, 1908
in Jamestown, North Dakota
Died June 10, 1988
in Los Angeles, California
Picture
L. L'Amour
MY JOURNEY OF STATES is a series in which I relate my sixty-year quest to visit all fifty states in the U.S. In each post I tell of my relationship to that state, whether brief or long, highlighting personal events. I include the year of each state's entry into the union and related celebrations. I hope you enjoy my journey as much as I have. This is the forty-seventh post of fifty.

North Dakota  (2014)

Picture
​Our visit to North Dakota was rather abbreviated. We were staying in South Dakota, and one day we got in the car and drove to their neighbor to the north. We had been aware that much in the way of oil drilling was going on because big trucks with oil rig business would pass us on Highway 83. When we actually crossed over the border we saw how intense the drilling was. ND’s area is 70,698 square miles. Its GDP is $52.527 Bn. Forty-four percent of its population  of 755, 393 is college educated. And its capital is located in Bismarck.
 
North Dakota became a state November 2, 1889, the fortieth state to enter the union.

Historical Postcards

If you missed earlier My Journey of States posts, please click on a link:
1-Kansas                13. New Jersey     25. Michigan     37. N. Hampshire
2-Oklahoma        14. Delaware         26. Wisconsin 38. Maine
3-Texas                   15. New York        27. Minnesota  39. Rhode Island
​4-Louisiana         16. Connecticut     28. Iowa               40. Idaho
5-Missouri           17. Colorado         29. Hawaii           41. Nevada
6-Illinois               18. Arkansas        30. Georgia         42. Utah
7-Indiana              19. California       31. S. Carolina   43. Washington
8-Ohio                   20. Florida             32. N. Carolina  44. Alaska
9-Pennsylvania    21. Mississippi    33. Alabama       45. Nebraska
10-West VA        22. New Mexico     34. Kentucky    46. S. Dakota
11-Maryland       23. Tennessee      35. Massachusetts
12. Virginia          24. Arizona            36. Vermont
NEXT TIME: My Book World | Garrett Peck's The Great War in America: World War I and Its Aftermath.
0 Comments

A Writer's Wit

9/3/2019

0 Comments

 
We are rag dolls made out of many ages and skins, changelings who have slept in wood nests or hissed in the uncouth guise of waddling amphibians. We have played such roles for infinitely longer ages than we have been men. Our identity is a dream. We are process, not reality, for reality is an illusion of the daylight—the light of our particular day.
​Loren Eiseley
Born September 3, 1907
Picture
L. Eiseley
NEXT TIME: My Journey of States-47  North Dakota
0 Comments
    AUTHOR
    Richard Jespers is a writer living in Lubbock, Texas, USA.

    See my profile at Author Central:
    http://amazon.com/author/rjespers


    Richard Jespers's books on Goodreads
    My Long-Playing Records My Long-Playing Records
    ratings: 1 (avg rating 5.00)


    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011



    Categories

    All
    Acting
    Actors
    African American History
    Alabama
    Alaska
    Aldo Leopold
    Andy Warhol
    Arizona
    Arkansas
    Art
    Atrial Fibrillation
    Authors
    Authors' Words
    Barcelona
    Blogging About Books
    Blogs
    Books
    California
    Cars
    Catalonia
    Colorado
    Cooking
    Creative Nonfiction
    Culinary Arts
    Deleting Facebook
    Ecology
    Education
    Environment
    Epigraphs
    Essays
    Fiction
    Fifty States
    Film
    Florida
    Georgia
    Grammar
    Greece
    Gun Violence
    Hawaii
    Heart Health
    Historic Postcards
    History
    Idaho
    Iowa
    LGBTQ
    Libraries
    Literary Biography
    Literary Journals
    Literary Topics
    Literature
    Maine
    Massachusetts
    Memoir
    Michigan
    Minnesota
    Mississippi
    M K Rawlings
    Musicians
    Nevada
    New Hampshire
    New Mexico
    New Yorker Stories
    Nonfiction
    North Carolina
    Novelist
    Ohio
    Pam Houston
    Parker Posey
    Photography
    Playwrights
    Poetry
    Politics
    Psychology
    Publishing
    Quotations
    Race
    Reading
    Recipes
    Seattle
    Short Story
    South Carolina
    Spain
    Susan Faludi
    Teaching
    Tennessee
    Texas
    The Novel
    Travel
    Travel Photographs
    #TuesdayThoughts
    TV
    U.S.
    Vermont
    Voting
    War
    Washington
    Wisconsin
    World War II
    Writer's Wit
    Writing


    RSS Feed

    Blogroll

    alicefrench.wordpress.com
    kendixonartblog.com
    Valyakomkova.blogspot.com

    Websites

    Caprock Writers' Alliance
    kendixonart.com

    tedkincaid.com
    www.trackingwonder.com
    www.skans.edu
    www.ttu.edu
    www.newpages.com
    www.marianszczepanski.com
    William Campbell Contemporary Art, Inc.
    Barbara Brannon.com
    Artsy.net
WWW.RICHARDJESPERS.COM  ©2011-2023
                    BOOKS  PHOTOS  PODCASTS  JOURNALS  BLOG