Tom Swift Writer’s Notebook

Writing Charles Bender’s story forced me to learn — with a level of understanding I did not acquire as a student; probably my fault more than my teachers’ — how important it is to recognize the cruel manner in which native peoples were treated over a period of time longer than this country has been [...]

We don’t know for certain the precise day Charles Bender entered the world. For a long time Bender was led to believe his birthday was May 3, 1883. As I explain in the book, that date is almost certainly off — by about a year. The established date, the one he came to recognize, is [...]

David Bender writes with a message that makes me warm inside:
As an ancestor of Charles Albert Bender and as an American Indian, I’d like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for writing “Chief Bender’s Burden.” I haven’t read it yet. I actually just discovered it today on the Borders Web site. What [...]

Question: How did you complete the research for this book?
Answer: Like a turtle completes a triathlon.
The running. I wanted as much of the book as possible to come from the observations of those who wrote about and talked to Charles Bender daily. That meant the most important sources were found in reels of microfilm of [...]

If Charles Bender was interested in a subject, he learned everything there was to learn about it. He essentially taught himself how to pitch a baseball at a Hall of Fame level. But baseball wasn’t his only passion. He also applied his curious mind to an incredible number of hobbies and sports — often with [...]

Question: Why the heck did you decide to write this book?
Answer: Charles Bender was Minnesota’s first representative in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and, for nearly fifty years, the only one. When other Minnesota-born players (such as Dave Winfield) started receiving consideration Bender’s name often popped up in local newspaper articles as a footnote. [...]