Posts Tagged Carson McCullers
Sherry Kelly on The Big Life of a Little Man, Michael Dunn Remembered
Posted by admin in episodic TV, Film, Music, Uncategorized on April 14, 2010
Michael Dunn
I love it when an interview opportunity lands in my lap. I first found out about Sherry Kelly’s book about her cousin (The Big Life of a Little Man, Michael Dunn Remembered) from friend of the blog, Amy H. Sturgis. Kelly was willing to be email interviewed about the book. Here is the official description of the book: “”With the help of a treasure trove of letters, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, and personal journal entries from his mother, author Sherry Kelly has compiled a touching and comprehensive account of the life of Michael Dunn, the famous little person actor of the sixties and seventies. Michael was well known as Dr. Loveless in The Wild Wild West TV series and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the movie Ship of Fools. Dunn lived an amazing life from childhood until his mysterious death in London while filming a movie.” My thanks to Kelly for her time and to Sturgis for making me aware of this fascinating book.
Tim O’Shea: I take it that given the fact you had access to “letters, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, and personal journal entries from his mother” in preparing the book, you were fairly close to your aunt? Given that she died in 1990, I was wondering–did she hope someone might try to write a book about her son some day?
Sherry Kelly: (Note: I will be referring to my cousin both as “Gary” and “Michael”.) My mother and Gary’s mother were sisters and our families were very close. Both families lived on the same block in Detroit during Gary’s early childhood and then when Gary was 12-13 years old, my parents along with my older sister, LaRee, and older brother, Tim, and I, moved back to Oklahoma to be near our grandparents who were in declining health. Even with all the distance between us the families remained close and mother and my aunt kept up with all their respective news through letter writing. Telephone calls were expensive back then, considered a luxury, and made only occasionally – on birthdays or to report emergencies. Gary was especially close to my sister and brother who were nearer to him in age. Gary’s parents, Fred and Jewell Miller, moved back to Oklahoma to be near us in their later years. They had no other children and our family looked after Aunt Jewell during the last 15 years or so of her life.
Monte Schulz on This Side Of Jordan
Posted by admin in Literature on November 11, 2009
This Side of Jordan
Fantagraphics Books has surprised me on many levels this past year (all good levels, of course). So when I heard it was publishing Monte Schulz‘s prose novel, This Side of Jordan, I contacted the author (with some help from friend of the blog/Fantagraphics’ Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds) to discuss the book through an email interview.
As detailed by the publisher: “This Side Of Jordan is a story of another America, eighty years distant yet familiar, too, a vibrant and scandalous tapestry of eccentric characters from a nation embroiled in criminal liquor traffic, thrilled by Jazz Age fads and frolic, drunk amid the glittering showgrounds of a booming circus whose flag-topped tents are about to come down. Through mayhem and merriment, past the violence and hypocrisy of Prohibition, along miles of dirt roads and busy Main Streets, we see in this wonderfully evocative narrative a simple yearning for love and hope. This Side Of Jordan is about the distance we travel in America to find our rightful place. …
He spent ten years writing Crossing Eden, from which This Side of Jordan is drawn as the first of three interconnected novels; the second and third, Fields of Eden and The Big Town, will be published in 2010 and 2011.
Monte Schulz received his M.A. in American Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He lives in Northern California. He is the eldest son of Charles M. Schulz (PEANUTS).”
My thanks to Schulz for an interview in which the quality of his answers greatly exceed that of my questions. Once you’ve read the interview, please be sure to visit the Fantagraphics website for a 23-page PDF excerpt from the book.
Tim O’Shea: Your first novel, Down by the River, was published in 1991. How has your writing voice matured in the past 19 years?
Monte Schulz: My basic style of writing hasn’t changed in thirty years. The issue was always doing what I was best capable of. “Down By The River” was the pinnacle of what I could achieve in a novel back then, but after it was finished, I discovered I was capable of so much more. Stylistically, however, I’ve always favored and embraced a lyrical prose, and these ‘20s novels have just given me more room and opportunity to express it. Also, I’ve read much more than I had back then, so my work since that first novel has been informed by writers I knew nothing of at that time – Bellow, Marquand, Cozzens, Kantor, etc. Then, too, I think I’ve refined what I like best about artistic writing, while improving my sense of character and story, and better differentiating voices in dialogue, something that is very much on display now in “This Side Of Jordan.”
Twitter RSS- talkingwithtim: @BenJMorse @Remender That gem is not on sale yet is it? @gabrielhardman could draw 24 pages of heroes drinking coffee & I would love it.
- talkingwithtim: @j_bacardi @macabfilms Yeah, it's been that way for awhile. This is the second spam DM in several weeks I have received.
- talkingwithtim: Cannot believe #steveDitko is doing one of the #beforeWatchmen books #heh #iAmKidding
- talkingwithtim: All these years, I have never grown tired of Nick Lowe's Cruel to Be Kind #stillLoveIt
- talkingwithtim: @highway_62 I would not object
Recent Comments