Tom Swift News & Notes

Joey Robison kindly invited me to contribute a short essay to the ComPost, our food co-operative’s nifty newsletter.

Founded in 1915, the Society of Midland Authors includes published authors from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. I know one new member well enough to say: Man, that’s a big photo.

Prep for a talk I made this week reminded me how indebted I am to libraries and the people who serve them.

I titled my presentation “How a Librarian I’ve Never Met Helped Me Write a Book,” and I wasn’t kidding. While researching the book that became “Chief Bender’s Burden,” I hunted for a specific person I had read about in a magazine, a person who had known Charles Bender well during the final years of Bender’s life (years seldom chronicled in newspapers, making this interview a big “get” in my mind). In these pre-Facebook years, I had a name, a vague location, and some old phone books. Though I successfully convinced many strangers that I was not, in fact, offering them a great refinancing plan, I never called the right number.

I sent a Hail Mary pass to Bob Hunter, director of the Haddon Heights Public Library, as I had reason to believe my man lived in that area and, if so, he just might have a library card. Mr. Hunter didn’t know him, but instead of letting it go at that, he helped me, over a period of months, until I connected with another member of the same family (turns out, my target had passed away). Thanks to Mr. Hunter, I spoke to members of a family that had been close to Bender and his wife, Marie. Our conversations — as well as generously offered newspaper clips and photographs (one of which is in the book) — enriched my understanding of Bender in ways difficult to describe. I’m glad I don’t have to imagine my book sans this connection. And it was possible only because of a librarian who had every right to put a block on my e-mail address.

Several months ago, I scribbled a quote in my notebook from Isaac Asimov, who addressed his remark to children at the occasion of a newly opened public library: “[A library] isn’t just a library,” he said. “It is a space ship that will take you to the farthest reaches of the universe, a time machine that will take you to the far past and the far future, a teacher that knows more than any human being, a friend that will amuse you and console you — and, most of all, a gateway to a better and happier and more useful life.”

All that — and they’re indispensable to the writing of books.

My review of “The Murder of Jim Fisk for the Love of Josie Mansfield” by H.W. Brands appears in today’s Minneapolis StarTribune.

I was interviewed by longtime Minnesota Twins television broadcaster Dick Bremer for the team’s Fox Sports Net pre-game show (August 17, 2009).