Progress and interesting views in the discovery process on Emmett Wilson’s life.
I’d love to be able to tell you that writing Emmett’s story is something that feels natural, easy, and fun 100 percent of the time. I wish that were the case. But the reality is that writing is a lot of work. Creating something that hasn’t existed before out of […]
Here’s the latest conumdrum from this week’s research: I find myself immediately reacting to what I read rather than remembering that life in 1914 did not include things I take for granted in 2014, such as: polio and flu vaccines, the EEOC, the 19th Amendment, compulsory public education for minor […]
This is a great story, folks. Last night, I had a message from “Tell My Story” reader Mark, who said: “Some years ago, I found (in a box of stuff at a Mt Vernon auction) a small B&W photo of a woman working in her flower garden. On the back […]
Last week, a colleague and I were discussing general research practices and how information is interpreted. She said: “If you (people in general) are only concerned with proving your theories and are not open to a different version, you may be published but you will still be wrong.” This comment […]
I’m curious how other writers of historic bios handle their biographical subjects, particularly when the lives were short and relatively obscure, as was Emmett’s. I was intrigued with the story of Alonzo Hereford Cushing. Cushing was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on November 6, 2014 — more than 150 […]
If you think writing a book is about sitting down before a keyboard and ‘just doing it’, I say, maybe. It depends on how long you’ve been living with the subject. Personally, I feel like I know Emmett and several key ‘characters’ in his story well. I would never presume […]
In an earlier post — hell, in several earlier posts — I politely beg and plead for assistance in finding Emmett’s Elusive Scrapbooks. The deal is, Emmett kept scrapbooks, and he willed them to his namesake, Emmett Wilson Kehoe, when he died. I have been in contact with the Kehoe […]
In case you are wondering why the odd entries lately (i.e., not a lot of direct research reporting), it is because I’m grading final papers and on Thanksgiving break at my in-laws’. There are 29 people (17 children from 16 on down) in my in-laws’ house this week. Eight dogs. […]
Yesterday, I mentioned that Emmett’s grandfather had a law partner, S.R. Mallory, and they worked in the Mallory Building in Pensacola during Reconstruction. My friend and colleague, the excellent Jacki Wilson at the Pensacola HIstorical Society sent me this: Jacki told me that what was on the original site of […]
In between writing and digging around in a new-to-me database this week, I’ve been reading microfilm copies of The West Florida Commercial and The Pensacola Observer, 1867-69. These newspapers were published during Reconstruction, and there are only scattered issues in existence. By 1871, both papers had ceased publication. With so […]
Tell my story. 