Books & Writing
Biographers, From Superstar to Novice, Gather in New York
How do you go about writing and publishing a biography when you’ve never done anything like that before? I owe Biographers International Organization (BIO) a lot in getting me to the finish line of my newly published book. For years, biography was a neglected stepchild of the literary world. A mashup of history, literature, area…
Read MoreQ&A: On Ups and Downs of Writing a Book
I’ve been an independent writer and editor a long time. But no one I know does a better job of running a professional writing business than Paula Tarnapol Whitacre. She kindly devoted space this month in her newsletter to interviewing me about my new book. Here’s the link to read it. Paula seems to quickly…
Read MoreScidmore Biography Set for March 1 Release
The book, published by Oxford University Press, is set for launch in U.S. bookstores on March 1, 2023. If you order from Oxford’s website (at www.oup.com), you can use the promotion code AAFLYG6 to get a 30% discount. Here are some other sources: Bookshop.org benefits independent bookstores with the convenience of online shopping. Politics…
Read MoreScidmore’s Alaska Travel Airs on BBC
Thanks to a recent posting, my brief appearance on BBC2’s “Great American Railroad Journeys” is now online. My interview with the program’s host, Michael Portillo, took place in Juneau in the summer of 2018 during my research trip to Alaska. [Watch the program via this Facebook link.] I was in Alaska at the…
Read MoreThe Englishman Who Saved Cherry Trees
Cherry blossom viewers love the variety known as “yoshino.” The white petals tinged in pink make up the clouds that encircle the Tidal Basin in Washington every spring. In “The Sakura Obsession,” the author Naoko Abe shows a flip side of that enthusiasm. Her new book tells the story of an Englishman so concerned about…
Read MoreGreat Art in This Book for Kids, and Other Readers
I have a soft spot for beautiful graphic art. And I plan to buy multiple copies of this children’s book — as a gift and for myself — so I can savor the illustrations as well as the words. A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader contains short pieces by authors and…
Read MoreScidmore in Book on Women Writing in WWI
(Reposted from October 14, 2015) Eliza Scidmore, the subject of my biography in progress, appears in a new book of writings by American women in World War I. Author Elizabeth Foxwell took a very different turn in compiling the anthology. Foxwell has spent much of her career immersed in mystery and crime fiction. A true…
Read MoreVeterans Day: “Quiet on Western Front” Sequel
To mark the hundredth anniversary of the end of World War I, the Library of Congress is previewing a newly restored film sequel to the classic war movie “All Quiet on the Western Front.” The 1937 film sequel, titled “The Road Back,” follows German soldiers from the Armistice through their return home. The film is…
Read MoreEliza Scidmore on Stage at National Geographic
Eliza Scidmore got top billing on stage Thursday night, March 29, in Washington. National Geographic Live! featured a staged presentation of her writings during the city’s cherry blossom season. I was there, and National Geographic VP Greg McGruder kindly introduced me to the audience as Scidmore’s biographer. I had served as an informal adviser to…
Read MoreIn St. Louis, Intrepid Women on the Frontier
I had never been to St. Louis until this fall. Funny I should have missed it, as I attended grad school in journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Mizzou classmates and I used to pile into a car and go eat catfish at a tin-ceiling hotel in Booneville. We drove to Kansas City…
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