As is now widely known, thanks to stories posted during Black History Month, 2018 represents the bicentennial year of the birth of Frederick Douglass, who escaped from slavery on Maryland’s Eastern Shore to become perhaps the nation’s preeminent 19th century African American abolitionist, publisher, diplomat, orator and author. His birth is said to have occurred […]
ICYMI: And Some Shameless Self-Promotion
These have been a hectic few weeks, as we ramp up the long rollout of FIVE FOR FREEDOM: The African American Soldiers in John Brown’s Army. Its official publication date is June 1, but I just learned that finished books will be arriving at the publisher, Chicago Review Press, in April. Advanced Reading Copies (ARCs, […]
Literary Agents, Engaging Panels and You! Register Now.
Registration is open for the May 4-5 Washington Writers Conference. Don’t hit the pause button. Register now. Okay, this is an unpaid advertisement. Call it a PSA, call it whatever you like. I call it Books Alive! 2018, but my SEO betters insist on calling it the Washington Writers Conference. The sixth annual whatever will […]
“The Post” and the times
The movie of the moment seems to be “The Post,” a dramatic retelling of the weeks in June 1971 when the Washington Post raced to catch up with The New York Times, which first published portions of the Pentagon Papers, a secret government study charting America’s path to war in Vietnam, before the newspaper was […]
Of Men and Memorials: The Strange Case of Haywood Shepherd
Of all the monuments and memorials erected to the Lost Cause, there may be none more misleading nor more ironic than a stone sidewalk tablet inconspicuously located near the corner of Shenandoah and Potomac streets in the town that John Brown made famous. In Harpers Ferry, late on Sunday October 16 and into Monday, October […]
Stamped Out! But, oh, what memories.
Normally, I would not be blogging about an article I’ve written that was published elsewhere which could just as well have been, well, a blog. But, here I am doing just that, in reaction to the reaction to my op-ed published in The New York Times on Oct. 1: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/opinion/stamp-collecting-philately.html?_r=0 You will note that it […]
Leaked to? Or obtained by? It matters which.
The currently oft-used phrase “leaked to” seems to have largely replaced “obtained by” in the discussion of documents public officials would rather keep under wraps but that surface anyway in our nation’s media. The phrases are sometimes used interchangeably. They shouldn’t be. Both phrases are freighted with meaning and intent. Leaked suggests an image of […]
FIVE FOR FREEDOM: We Pause for An Announcement
I first met Osborne Perry Anderson nearly 17 years ago. At the time, he had been dead for 128 years. Not only dead and gone but forgotten, even though he had been the sole survivor of John Brown’s 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry and had written the only insider account of the event that further […]
“Rising Tides” and “An Inconvenient Truth”
Eleven years ago, the 2006 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” focused on Al Gore’s attempt to raise public awareness of the dangers posed by global warming. http://imdb.to/2sDOjEU The film made something of a splash with its stark picture of climate change and its impact on the planet. It captured public attention, for a time. But then […]
Last Week’s (#BooksAlive2017) News Tonight
Ghostwriting haunts some ghostwriters who don’t get credit, but the tradeoff for anonymity is payment. It can be as painful to write about your own culture as it is to cross the cultural divide to write about others. If you are an author and want to get rich, buy a lottery ticket. These were among […]