Q&A with Ellen Meister

Ellen Meister is the author of the new novel Dorothy Parker Drank Here. Her previous novels include Farewell, Dorothy Parker and The Other Life. She teaches creative writing for Hofstra University Continuing Education, and she lives on Long Island.

Q: Why did you decide to write a second Dorothy Parker novel?

A: I call Dorothy Parker Drank Here the "accidental sequel," because I never intended to write a second Dorothy Parker novel. In fact, I ended the first book so definitively there was no way to continue the story.

So after I finished Farewell, Dorothy Parker, I went to work on a new novel with a completely different cast of characters. But the great wit seemed to remain at my side.

I tried to ignore the calling of my muse until at last I realized a prequel was possible, and so when my publisher asked if I might be willing to bring Mrs. Parker back to life again, it seemed like fate ... and I grabbed the opportunity.

Q: How did you come up with your characters Norah and Ted?

Maybe it's because I had a brush with Richard Yates in my youth, but I've always been fascinated with the idea of being drawn to a brilliant and belligerent literary figure. So in a sense, Ted has been with me for a long time.

And as I rounded out his character for Dorothy Parker Drank Here, making him sick and isolated, I understood his hostility and he became more and more sympathetic to me. Norah's character was driven by many things, including her connection to Ted.

(I feel compelled to note that despite his reputation, Richard Yates was always kind to me. I worked for his literary agent for a short time when I was in my early 20s, and gushed so terribly every time he called that he had many opportunities to cut me down, but he didn't. I'm truly grateful for this.)

Q:  How does writing novels about Dorothy Parker compare with creating your earlier novels? Is your writing process similar?

A: The process isn't that different, even though I'm using a character based on a real person. There's research involved, of course, but beyond that it's a matter of crafting a story that will engage the reader, and taking the characters on a journey that can result in a meaningful arc.

Q: What’s your favorite Dorothy Parker quote?

A: There are so many, but if I have to pick one, it's this:
“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.”

Q: What are you working on now?

A: God help me, I'm juggling three different possible novel ideas. Check back with me in a few months!

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: Thanks so much for this interview, Deborah. I always like to direct Dorothy Parker fans to my Facebook page, where I post quotes and poems daily. I may be biased, but I think the page has the smartest followers on Facebook!

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. For a previous Q&A with Ellen Meister, please click here.

Q&A with Scott Martelle

Scott Martelle is the author of the new book The Madman and the Assassin: The Strange Life of Boston Corbett, the Man Who Killed John Wilkes Booth. His other books include The Admiral and the Ambassador and Detroit: A Biography. He is an editorial writer for the Los Angeles Times.

Q: In our previous interview, you described the subject matter of this book as “another overlooked slice of American history.” Why did you decide to write a biography of Boston Corbett?

A: After I finished my last book, The Admiral and the Ambassador, about the guy who recovered John Paul Jones’ body after it had gone missing for more than a century, I was scratching around for a fresh topic. A few ideas surfaced but for one reason or another were set aside.

My editor at Chicago Review Press, Jerry Pohlen, knew I was looking for a fresh topic and e-mailed me asking if I had ever heard of Boston Corbett. No, I told him.

He replied that Corbett was a religious zealot who had castrated himself with a pair of scissors and killed John Wilkes Booth (with a few other details thrown in, including Corbett’s surviving Andersonville). I thought, I can do something with that, and that started the ball rolling.

I had to work fast, though. We settled on the project in September 2013, and knew we wanted the book out by April of this year, the sesquicentennial of Lincoln’s assassination. So it was a sprint from start to finish.

Q: You write, “As the man who killed the man who killed Lincoln, Boston Corbett found himself cast in an unaccustomed role: celebrity.” What impact did that have on the rest of his life?

A: For one, it made him a figure of intense public scrutiny, and both praise and condemnation. For some supporters of the South, Booth was a hero and Corbett an assassin, even though Corbett shot Booth in the line of duty as a Union soldier involved in a manhunt.

Threats against Corbett’s life, and his own paranoia, made him short-tempered in certain situations. He slept with a gun and always had weapons handy when out in public. But he also seemed to enjoy the spotlight, which brought him speaking engagements and endless opportunities to deliver religious sermons, which was the guiding force in his life.   

Q: You describe Corbett as “mad as a hatter.” How did that affect his life before and after he shot Booth?

A: His insanity was hard to define. I don’t have a background in psychology or psychiatry and have doubts about the wisdom of trying to diagnose someone 50 years later, but he clearly developed paranoid tendencies as the years went on.

His faith was an obsession, to the point where fellow faithful disinvited him from prayer meetings because his expressions were so over the top….

After he shot Booth, and became a celebrity, the public focus on his eccentricities equaled its focus on his role in killing Booth. Nearly a quarter-century later, he thought Booth supporters and fellow members of secret lodges like the Masons, which Corbett loathed, were conspiring to kill him, rob him of his land and other things. And stopping just short of a plot-spoiler here, Corbett was quick to pull his gun.

Q: Can you say more about the role religion played in Corbett’s life?

A: From the late 1850s on, it was the driving force in his life. He believed that if he could live each minute, each hour, each day as a Christian and in the footsteps of Jesus, then he could lead the perfect Christian life.

I’m not a religious person myself, but you have to respect that kind of devotion. And he lived it. While working as a silk hat finisher in New York, he would corral a street drunk, move him into his rented room, dry him out, get him healthy, and kick him out to make way for the next recovery project.

All of which left him broke, but he saw that as the right and moral action for a Christian who himself had been saved in the same way (he fell into a whiskey barrel after his wife died) by religious folks.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: Scratching around for a fresh idea. I’ve had a few, but last year I re-joined the Los Angeles Times as an editorial writer, which limits my time for archive diving. So I’m trying to find a project rooted here in the Los Angeles area.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. For a previous Q&A with Scott Martelle, please click here.

April 23

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
April 23, 1895: Ngaio Marsh born.

Q&A with Jane Singer

Jane Singer is the author, with John Stewart, of the new book Lincoln's Secret Spy: The Civil War Case That Changed the Future of Espionage. Her other books include The Confederate Dirty War, the basis for the History Channel special Civil War Terror. She lives in Venice, California.

Q: Why did you decide to write about William Alvin Lloyd? 

A: For many years, I’ve written about Civil War spies, sabotage, espionage, and I came upon a mention of Abraham Lincoln’s having his own personal spy named William Alvin Lloyd. My co-author and I were working on another book…and I said, Who is this guy?

We began a study of Totten v. United States [the Supreme Court espionage law case based on Lloyd]. I was riveted by that—the story of someone who lived during the Civil War and the case became something that’s haunting and operative today.

We took a pretty hard look [at Lloyd] and found that he was a scoundrel, a serial bigamist—that didn’t satisfy me. There are plenty of scoundrels in history. Did that mean he was really Abraham Lincoln’s spy?

We looked at things about him, and they derived primarily from an Allen Dulles book saying Abraham Lincoln had a spy. Everything since then was a regurgitation of a falsehood, but at the time we didn’t know it was a falsehood.

The case began cracking when I ordered [certain documents] from the National Archives—there was William Alvin Lloyd with a huge amount of testimony, things that began to show incredible contradictions.

It began with the idea [of] this creepy guy versus this masterful construct by this lawyer, Enoch Totten. When Lloyd came to D.C., the Lincoln assassination was not long ago; the city was fevered, the trial of the conspirators was going on…there was so much miasma and madness.

In stumbled this guy saying, I suffered for the late lamented leader. What’s so interesting to me is that when he left papers at Grant’s desk, in the papers Lloyd said he had a verbal agreement [with Lincoln]. A week later, suddenly it was written and was a contract.

Enoch Totten was the orchestrator and the architect. In the testimony, there are so many contradictions; people [appear] out of the blue. It was a masterful fraud. 

Q: Why did Lloyd claim to be a spy for Lincoln, and did people believe him? 

A: He had every reason to be in the Confederacy—he was the publisher of a steamboat guide and he needed to go South to get ads. His minstrel troupe had folded. He had expressed his anti-Lincoln [views] in editorials. Because there was so much divided loyalty, even in the North, there may have been some implication that he was a Confederate supporter.

I think the idea for the fraud happened after Lincoln’s assassination because he had the pass [from Lincoln], which is real, the only real thing in the story…

He was in the Confederacy, he was broke and under suspicion—not because he was a spy, but because he was roaming around with all these women. Colonel Rockwell, his jailer in Savannah, couldn’t stand that. It was a moral judgment…

[Lloyd] must have thought, Why not do what people accuse me of doing, and get some money. It was all about money, not about loyalty.

And people believed him. He was believed by the War Department—there was a real lawyer submitting testimony in 1865, and it sounded believable…

After Lloyd died in 1869, his widow tried to get the claim started again, and then the testimony suggests [he wasn’t believed]. It passed from, Do you believe this guy, to, Does a spy have a right to sue the government? It was transmuted, in my opinion. The Totten Doctrine is alive and well.

Q: So what is Lloyd’s legal legacy? 

A: I’m afraid it’s that doctrine with the name of the lawyer, which is based on a fraud. I’m hoping to have good conversations with constitutional lawyers, and ask, Does it matter that it’s based on a fraud?

What’s interesting to me is that out of the doctrine came the state secrets privilege, Totten’s evil progeny. It’s what the Bush administration took and ran with.

Lloyd’s legal legacy is the Totten Doctrine. I wonder what he would have thought; he died before Enoch Totten marched on with the case. He probably would have enjoyed it—he was an unusually narcissistic person. 

Q: How did he get the pass signed by Lincoln? 

A: They say he came to D.C. as did so many people—it was July 1861. The war had only started in April, and D.C. was abuzz with soldiers.

It was not a big deal to have the president’s secretary say, Here’s a guy with a steamboat and railroad guide who needs a pass to go South. It was as simple as that.

The pass was the only thing that was real in the entire story. I don’t think that was an issue. William Alvin Lloyd intended to go South because he was broke and needed to collect revenue for his steamboat and railroad guide.

This [knowledge of travel] was his métier. When he gallivanted about the South, he got passes from railway companies because he knew them. The only difference for him was that it was a war.

One of the other things that made us overly suspicious was that he billed the government for jail time spent in Memphis, and actually he was arrested for bigamy, not for being a spy….

We might chuckle today about bigamy, but it was a bad thing back then. You imagine these poor women—in the 19^th century, women didn’t have much recourse. It was punished by five to eight years in the slammer.

He came up with people to testify that he was in jail for being a Union spy. It alerted us to the idea that something was really wrong here.

There could not have been William Alvin Lloyd the spy had Lincoln been alive. Lincoln would have said, Who the hell are you? This extraordinarily tragic event takes place, and then we have fraud.

The other thing that knocked me out is that he said Lincoln was going to pay him a huge amount per month, $200 per month…According to the “contract,” that was the amount agreed upon—but there never was a contract.

They asked where it was, and [were told] that detectives swarmed into the hotel room in Lynchburg, and it was secreted in the dress of the nursemaid, or [Lloyd] tore it up—it’s like “the dog ate my homework” story.

The thing that amazes and saddens me is that they bought it. The magical name of the martyred president got this guy across the finish line…. 

Q: Anything else we should know? 

A: What I would want people to know is that yes, this is the story of an unknown person who skulked along under the battlefield—but who ultimately impacted settled law, and that is intriguing to me.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Phyllis Birnbaum

Phyllis Birnbaum, photo by Sheila Mabry

Phyllis Birnbaum is the author of the new book Manchu Princess, Japanese Spy: The Story of Kawashima Yoshiko, the Cross-Dressing Spy Who Commanded Her Own Army. Her other books include Modern Girls, Shining Stars, the Skies of Tokyo, and Glory in a Line. She lives outside Boston.

Q: Why did you decide to write about Kawashima Yoshiko? 

A: My friend, the Japanese novelist Funado Yoichi, was writing a long novel about Manchuria, and he suggested that I write about Yoshiko. He felt that she would give me a way to discuss not only her wild life, but also the historical background in all its fascinating, complicated aspects.  That was the direct reason for choosing her.

But there’s another, indirect influence on my book. Long ago, I read a book by Edward Seidensticker about the Japanese writer Nagai Kafu, called Kafu the Scribbler.

It was not only a biography of Kafu, but also told the fascinating story of his times, effortlessly weaving Japanese literature and Japanese history together. The writing shows Seidensticker’s love of Kafu and of old Tokyo, all introduced in a very engaging way.

In my biography of Yoshiko and other biographies I’ve written, I’ve kept Seidensticker’s Kafu in mind, as I try to find my own way to draw readers into subjects that they probably know little or nothing about. 

Q: What does Yoshiko's story say about relations between China and Japan during her lifetime? 

A: Yoshiko was born in China, the daughter of a Manchu prince, but when she was about 8 years old, he sent her off to Japan to be raised by a Japanese political associate.  

Yoshiko’s shift to an utterly alien country at that age was traumatic for her, and one might say that she never recovered. She was always confused about which was her home country. She forgot much of her Chinese so that communication during family visits to China was difficult; in Japan, she was disparaged as a “Chink” so she was not able to feel comfortable there either.

Then Japan’s war with China began in the 1930s and this confused, publicity-hungry woman found a calling. Born a Manchu royal, she decided that she would return to China and devote herself to restoring the deposed Manchu Qing dynasty.

She had convinced herself that this was better for China than the chaos that had seized China since the Qing’s fall in 1911. Because of her wish to restore the Qing dynasty, she opposed all other Chinese governments that tried to take its place.

This suited the Japanese, who used the cooperation of this Manchu Princess Yoshiko to show Chinese and the rest of the world that they were not occupying China for their own sakes, but rather, with her approval, bringing liberation to Manchuria first and then the rest of China.   

Yoshiko also benefited from Japanese support, financial and otherwise, in her various wartime escapades. When at last she understood the true nature of the brutal Japanese incursions into China, it was too late. She had become enmeshed in Japan’s ambitions in China and that’s why, after Japan’s defeat, the Chinese executed her as a traitor. 

Q: What does Yoshiko’s life say about gender roles at that time in the two countries? 

A: In 1925, when she was about 18, Yoshiko had most of her hair cut off into a man’s style and declared that she would from then on live as a man. She often dressed in men’s clothes after that and spoke the kind of Japanese that men use.

But in those days, she had to be careful about how far she went in this assumption of a male identity because society was not prepared to allow her to go too far, nor to make the biological and legal changes that are now possible.  

So sometimes she boldly dressed in male attire and proclaimed a female companion her “wife.” But at other times, she appeared in public in fancy women’s outfits…. 

Q: How did you research this book, and what surprised you most in the course of your research? 

I began my research in Japan and also traveled to Manchuria in  China’s Northeast--this is  the Manchu homeland and the region where the Japanese set up their puppet state. Along the way I read much about Yoshiko, and met her fans and foes.

I suppose that Matsumoto, Japan, where Yoshiko grew up, brought me the most surprises.  In Matsumoto there is still a lively band of Japanese who are intent on showing the world that Yoshiko, a hometown girl for them, was not a traitor as charged, but actually a Chinese patriot, who lost her life in her efforts to restore peace to her country.  

In Matsumoto too, I met some of Yoshiko’s Chinese relatives, who had left their homes in China and become Japanese citizens. In my book I describe the amazing reasons why these Chinese relatives ended up in Japan, but as they told me stunning stories about their lives, they also repeatedly expressed their hopes that Yoshiko’s name would be cleared in their lifetimes.  

Q: What are you working on now? 

A: I am in the process of trying to decide on a new topic to write about.  Meantime, I’m translating a fictionalized memoir Fertile Land, Land of the Dead by the Japanese poet Takarabe Toriko.

She grew up in Manchuria when it was occupied by the Japanese, and after the Japanese defeat, Takarabe and her family joined other Japanese settlers who suddenly were left unprotected in Manchuria because the Japanese army had fled. These abandoned Japanese settlers had to make a terrifying escape to safety.  

As you can see, I’ve become very interested in that period when Japan occupied Manchuria.  It’s fascinating and I simply can’t stop reading about it! 

Q: Anything else we should know? 

A: Do Japanese still talk about Yoshiko? Much of the generation born after the war knows little or nothing about Yoshiko. Of course, older Japanese who lived through the war remember her because she was a notorious character and a frequent subject of newspaper gossip.  

You may have heard that just a few months ago, Yoshiko was back in the news. Soon after I finished my book, I was astonished to learn that Yukawa Haruna, one of the Japanese hostages recently killed by ISIS, believed himself to be a reincarnation of Kawashima Yoshiko!  

Totally astonished, I read his blog and learned about his life and psychological troubles. I felt that there was an aspect to Yukawa’s personality that did remind me of Yoshiko—he was sad and lonely much of the time, and had big ideas about how he was going to save the world. His horrible death and his claim to be a reincarnation of this Manchu princess have brought Yoshiko a new and gruesome kind of fame.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

April 22

Louise Gluck, photo by Sigrid Estrada

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
April 22, 1943: Louise Gluck born.

Q&A with Garrett Peck

Garrett Peck is the author of the new book Walt Whitman in Washington, D.C: The Civil War and America's Great Poet. His other books include Capital Beer and Prohibition in Washington, D.C. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.

Q: You’ve written several books about different aspects of Washington, D.C. Why did you decide to write about Walt Whitman’s years in the city?

A: The idea for the book came up years ago; it’s a foggy memory at this point. When I finished Capital Beer, I knew I wanted to do the Walt Whitman one next; I wanted to tie it in with the 150^th anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination. Peter Doyle [Whitman’s partner] was at Ford’s Theatre that night.

Q: You write, “In many ways, the war made Whitman…The war would be the central event of his life.” In what ways did it change him?

A: He had really tried at publishing three versions of Leaves of Grass, none of which had traction. Americans are not big poetry readers. He was able to experience the war in a new way, and [his experiences] helped with Drum-Taps…It propelled him to national and international fame.

Q: Did his wartime experiences change his writing style too?

A: It ultimately did. With the publication of Drum-Taps and the Lincoln poems—those were probably his last great poems. [The later ones] were still good, but not as great. Especially after his stroke, [he spent much of his time reworking] things he had written. There was nothing as good as "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry."

Q: You write that Whitman “is considered one of the fathers of the district’s gay community.” What impact did he have?

A: There are a lot of things you look at today in D.C. The biggest landmark is at the Dupont Circle North Metro staton—there’s a big granite ring around the top of the station, with a quote from "The Wound-Dresser." It’s from 1865 [but it shows] the universality of youth dying. It evokes the AIDS crisis—that’s why it was put there.

There’s also the Whitman-Walker Clinic, which serves people with HIV and AIDS. And he was together with Peter Doyle for so long—they were one of the District’s first documented gay couples.

Q: Some of Whitman’s best known poems deal with Abraham Lincoln. How would you describe his attitude toward the president, both before and after Lincoln’s death?

A: Lincoln came to New York [where Whitman was living] before he was sworn in. Walt had a different attitude—he did not particularly like Republicans. When Walt came to D.C., he was a strong Unionist, and he went from indifference [toward Lincoln] to loving and adoring him.

He saw him many times, but they never [actually met or spoke]. The closest he got was that he was in the same room with him, but the president was having a conversation [with someone else].

Q: So after Lincoln’s death, did his love get even greater?

A: It’s hard to say if he loved him even more after the fact. There’s a tendency to overly romanticize someone. Lincoln went from being heavily criticized [when he was alive], and once he was assassinated he became a martyr to the cause. Now, many people consider Lincoln to be the best president.

Certainly Whitman really adored the president before, and after, revered him. You can tell through his poems, especially Lilacs.

Q: After the war ended, Whitman stayed on in Washington for almost another decade, working as a federal clerk. Why did he decide to stay here?

A: He had a pretty good thing going—he had a boyfriend, he had a literary circle of other federal clerks. He liked Washington. It was different from Brooklyn, which was pretty crowded. It was an exciting city. And also, he was being paid. He had a decent middle-class salary.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’m not certain yet—I have a long list of [possibilities]. I’m thinking of doing a national book about America during World War I, the home front. It would focus on Woodrow Wilson’s second term—there was the war, prohibition, women get the vote, the Red Scare, the race riots of 1919. It was a really remarkable period.

Q: Anything else we should know about Walt Whitman in Washington, D.C.?

A: It’s got lots of pictures! The Library of Congress has much of Whitman’s archives [and much of it is digital] which makes it much more accessible. You don’t have to live in Washington to access the information.

And the modern photos, I took with my iPhone! It’s amazing how far phones have come along.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. For a previous interview with Garrett Peck, please click here.