LoginApril 2023 Notable Author: Taylor Branch
Taylor Branch is an American author and public speaker best known for his landmark narrative history of the civil rights era, America in the King Years. The first book, Parting the Waters, won the Pulitzer Prize and numerous other awards in 1989. The next two volumes (Pillar of Fire, At Canaan’s Edge) gained critical and popular success as well. Writing the trilogy involved twenty-four years of intensive research. “By the time you have finished [Pillar of Fire], you feel almost as if you have relived the era, not just read about it.” said Richard Bernstein of the New York Times.
Branch was born in Atlanta, Georgia, received an BA from the University of North Carolina, and then an M.P.A. from Princeton University in 1970. He began his writing career with three years at The Washington Monthly, three years for Harper's, and then one year for Esquire Magazine. In the meantime, he met and became good friends with Bill Clinton and began his work on his first King book, Parting the Waters; In addition to the Pulitzer for history, Branch, his King trilogy, and his other works have all received critical acclaim such as the National Humanities Medal in 1999 and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.
Branch has long enjoyed music, which began with singing in the Atlanta Boy Choir in the 1950s, a high- school folk trio, a contemporary octet for spirituals, and today providing music for Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church in Baltimore.
Branch and his wife, Christina Macy, live in Baltimore, Maryland. They raised two children. To learn more about Taylor Branch or read excerpts from his King Trilogy, go to: www.taylorbranch.com.
Genre: Narrative History
The practice of writing history in a story-based form, employing a narrator and reconstructing a series of short-term events.The narration helps place the reader in the events instead of just objectively reading an analytical or interpretative exposition of historical knowledge.
Sample Reading List: Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63; Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65; At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-1968; The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President; The Cartel: Inside the Rise and Imminent Fall of the NCAA.
Writer's Prompt - Fun With Words
Fun With Words - Maryland Writers’ Association (MWA) invites you to have fun writing narrative history like Taylor Branch. Using only 100 words, pick a historical figure and, acting as narrator, write a short-term event in the life of your historical figure. Title your work and submit to: https://marylandwriters.org/Notable_Maryland_Authors by the 22nd of the month to receive an MWA Fun With Words submission certificate. Selected responses to be published with next month’s article and on the MWA website.
Submit Your FUN WITH WORDS Prompt
Beth Smith
May. 1, 2023EMOTIONS - I was very excited. I was at Ford’s Theatre and so was the president of the United States. He was having a wonderful time, laughing as much as I. Suddenly, a pistol shot above the laughter. Then a frantic scream. A man jumped from the presidential box to the stage. He stumbled and called out “Sic Semper Tyrannis.” Then, “the South is avenged.” Pandemonium and panic. I began sobbing. I saw the actress Laura Keene trying to help President Lincoln. Quickly, I made my way outside to my carriage. The play had ended. The night was dark. I was terrified.
John Rutherford
May. 1, 2023THIS DAMN WAR – George and I grew up together. We lived on neighboring farms. We fought the same bullies, fell in love with the same girls. Then this damn war came along. We both heard the call to serve and off we went. We’ve seen plenty of action – Antietam, Bull Run, and lots of other battles. Tonight, we made camp in this nice valley. George got the first watch. I’m just sitting here watching the campfire. Around midnight we heard a shot. Before I knew it, we were all running for cover. George was my best friend. I had to bury him today.
Viola Robinson-Boone
May. 1, 2023THE SPY IN ME - I knocked on Pinkerton Detective Agency's door. A bearded man answered. “May I help you?” “I’m John Scobel. I wrote to you about becoming a detective. I explained in the letter about my graduating from Cheyney University, the first black college in the United States.” “What can you do for Pinkerton?” Allan Pinkerton asked me. “I read that you hired the first female detective as a Union spy in 1856. I saw your advertisement for detectives. I want to become your first Negro detective.” “You would work well as a servant, cook, or laborer.” “That suits me, sir. I am pleased.”
Lawrence McGuire
May. 1, 2023WHERE THE RIVER STYX DIVIDES - Home from fat roads, John Wilkes Booth loved target shooting. Nothing focused the eye like inaugurating a shiny Deringer upon a yew tree disfiguring his family's property. Brooding older brother Edwin benched nearby, lost in Shakespeare. John said, "Trade poetry for pistol?" "Mother says you performed for Rebels." Edwin glared. "Audiences south are eager to hand over cotton money." "Blood money." "Edwin, I ever tell you the Tale of the Ethical Rich Man?" "No." "Because there isn't a one." John fired at the ball-battered trunk, a blind moment of flame, thunder, smoke. And summer smelled like a distant barn burning.
Jon Ketzner
May. 1, 2023SADLY - As I rode sadly from Appomattox Courthouse, the boys cheered, whooped and whistled my slow return. Withered, having eaten only hardtack for weeks, they carried few munitions for their rusting muskets. Had I ordered those brave wretches to fix bayonets and attack, they would have charged unquestioning into the Federal fusillade. I loved my tattered boys and wanted them to just go home and plant their spring crops. History might question the righteousness of our lost cause. The valor, steadfastness and, yes, nobility of my broken farmer-warriors, though, will forever stand high in the annals of battlefield glory.
Leslie Dickey
May. 1, 2023ASSCHEWIN’ DONE RIGHT - After leading a night ambush patrol, the Lieutenant forsook the rack and stayed up for a scheduled visit from the IV Corps commander. Retired LTC John Paul Vann was the civilian directing the war in Vietnam’s Delta. Vann, a key figure in the State Department, was largely responsible for the Vietnamization of the war. The briefing went well. The Lieutenant was elated, having spent time with a legend. Escorting Vann to the helicopter the Lieutenant was pulled aside for a private word. “Night duty aside, beer in uniform during daytime not acceptable, Lieutenant.” With that, he turned and was gone.
Jim Coleman
May. 1, 2023SOWING SEEDS - March 23, 1775 dawned gray and chilly in Richmond, but the rhetoric at the Second Virginia Convention that day was anything but cool. That rabble rousing Hanover County lawyer was at it again, addressing the delegates, suggesting outright treason against the Crown. The loyalists in the audience took it all in, giving false praise to the speaker when he finished. "Wonderful speech, Patrick, fine words", then after he was out of earshot, showing their disdain, "Give you liberty or give you death, you say? I'm sure King George will be happy to accommodate you with the latter, Mr. Henry."
Ellen Coffey
May. 1, 2023FIRST STEPS - The petite, 14-year-old girl, dressed in her navy-blue Catholic school jumper, squeezed the straps of her bookbag, trying to steady her shaking hands. German soldiers had the nasty habit of appearing out of nowhere if a citizen looked the slightest bit suspicious. Cautiously watching the late afternoon crowds, she reached deep into her satchel and pulled out several fliers. Information about upcoming covert resistance activities was boldly blazoned across the page. Her courage grew as she began to meet the willing eyes of her fellow Parisians. Thus began the auspicious career of a little remembered resistance fighter named Michele Moet-Agniel.
Doris Brady
May. 1, 2023TINKER TAILOR - It was 1961. The Bolshoi was in town and “Inga” had a ticket. She dressed in her nicest outfit, wore a long coat and carried an evening bag. In the elegant bag was a lipstick, tissues, a house key and a small tube. She took her seat next to a vacant one on her right, intentionally unoccupied. Her tradecraft was superb; no one noticed when she placed the small tube under the empty seat. At intermission, she headed for the exit where a Russian Soldier stopped her. He searched her bag; the tube was gone. Still, suspicion settled on Inga. - SOLDIER SPY
Rob Billingsley
May. 1, 2023MARKET TOWN - It was twenty years since British troops stopped at the brick Red House Tavern, an Ordinary for refreshment on the old Iroquois trail road where William stood. Deeply disappointed, in front of the lot where he bought feed for his livestock, he looked at what was called, since childhood, the Crossroads. William had failed his Colonial family Skinker. He was baffled after laying out lots and deeding the land. What’s wrong with calling the town Skinkerville? Despite his petition signed by forty-five local residents, the General Assembly thought otherwise. They named the town after a broken-down feed store, Haymarket, Virginia.
Steve Baker
May. 1, 2023CITIZEN FLAME - While trying to re-invent the wheel, caveman Zoog made some accidental discoveries. As Zoog states: "Spoke and axle good for poke mammoth, for play drum, and for bonk food that slither." Attempting to invent the precursor to record-scratching, Zoog was rubbing the spoke and axle together when {POOF!} an ethereal orange tongue leapt out, scorching Zoog's leopard-skin shorts. After grunting; "BURN! HOT! OW!" Zoog pulled from his pocket the charred remains of a small woodland creature. Zoog thought to himself: "Mmmm! Crispy critter smell yummy!" So Zoog took a bite. May 5th, 10,023 B.C: Fire discovered; barbeque invented.