TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books who will tell us about their new work as well as offer tips on writing, stories about the publishing biz, and from time to time, a recipe.
Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?
The Garretts of Columbia is a warts-and-all family
history that begins with an African who bought his freedom in 1819 and continues
with the stories of my great-grandfather and his family. “Papa,” as I call him in
the book, was a lawyer, newspaper editor, and teacher. Oft-sued for libel, he was
a quixotic idealist once dubbed black South Carolina’s “most respected disliked
man.”
What boundaries did you break in the writing of this
memoir? Where does that sort of courage come from?
The introduction, titled “Confessions of a Weary
Integrationist” is as close to memoir as “The Garretts of Columbia” gets. That
said, I often tell the reader what people in the book thought or felt, so
there’s a fair amount of imagination and interpretation. If I broke any boundaries,
it was in recounting family stories told at the holiday table when certain
older relatives were a little tipsy.
Courage? Nah. I waited till anyone who might complain was
gone.
Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s
road to publication.
Publication was relatively easy: The first university press
I sent it to accepted it. But “The Garretts of Columbia” was decades in the
making. Sometimes I thought I’d never finish. I spent time in many archives and
countless hours online, grateful that so much had been digitized. At one point,
the MS was more than 200,000 words—much too long! Part of it’s now another book
that begins with my grandparents’ courtship and their move to Washington, D.C.,
as part of the Great Migration.
What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?
Must I choose one? The bulletin board above my writing desk
is feathered with index cards and scrawled notes. Flannery O’Connor said, “You
can do anything you can get away with, but nobody has ever gotten away with
much.” Edgar Allen Poe said, essentially, make every word count. And Katherine
Anne Porter and Miles Davis gave me hope. She assured me that, while writing
can’t be taught, it can be learned. And he said, “Man, sometimes it takes you a
long time to sound like yourself.”
My favorite writing advice is “write until something
surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?
Sometimes the insights I came to, such as the notion that my
great-grandparents were Black Victorians. Sometimes what I discovered about
them. Papa, my great-grandfather, was a pugnacious sort—he was twice attacked
on the street because of his editorials, and he once punched an AME bishop during
a dispute! Some sources say he was the first person sued after South Carolina
revised its libel laws. Not surprisingly, he was fired from his teaching job
and his wife—I call her Mama in the book—had to go to work. She became supervisor
of her county’s rural colored schools (as they were called then), driving from
hamlet to hamlet to evaluate teachers, conduct literacy drives, teach home ec
to farm wives, and oversee the construction of schoolhouses. At age 51, she learned
to drive, braving narrow, rutted roads in a Ford “touring car” because she had
so many schools to visit.
And their children: One wrote a musical with Langston Hughes
in the 1920s. (It was never produced.) Another taught for nearly two years in
Haiti during World War II.
What’s something about your book that you want readers to
know?
This is a book about men and women who believed in the
possibility of America, even when America did not believe in them.
Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any
food/s associated with your book?
Apart from a description of two Thanksgiving dinners early
in the book, there’s no food to be found. Sorry!
*****
READ MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: www.davidnicholson.info
READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK: https://uscpress.com/The-Garretts-of-Columbia
ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK: https://www.politics-prose.com/online-ordering OR https://www.sankofa.com
