“It has to be something I’m obsessed with.”
When it comes to picking the subject of one of his acclaimed biographies, fascination is always a factor for author and journalist David Maraniss. Speaking to fellow author Jeff Pearlman, Mr. Maraniss said that each new book “insinuates itself into my life and in a sense takes over.”
“Formats change but two things remain eternal, or so I hope,” he noted during the interview. “The human need to understand ourselves through story and the essential need to search for truth and separate fact from misinformation.”
The author and Washington Post associate editor will lead off the 2015 Writers’ Workshop Series at the Williston Northampton School with a public lecture on September 24 in the Dodge Room, Reed Campus Center.
Mr. Maraniss is a three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and award-winning political journalist. His six critically acclaimed biographies include Barack Obama: The Story, When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi, and First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton, among other notable works. He is also the author of Into the Story: A Writer’s Journey Through Life, Politics, Sports and Loss and The Clinton Enigma.
His most recent work, Once in A Great City: A Detroit Story, recalls his hometown during the early 1960s, at a pinnacle of influence for American auto makers. In his New York Times review, Michiko Kakutani described the book as “a mosaic-like picture of the city that has the sort of intimacy and tactile emotion that Larry McMurtry brought to his depictions of the Old West.”
The Writers’ Workshop Series was created by celebrated authors and Williston parents Madeleine Blais P’00, ’04 and Elinor Lipman P’00 in 1998. During the series, which takes place each fall, four well-established writers visit campus to give public lectures and offer hands-on instruction with students.
This year, the Writers’ Workshop Series will featured by documentarian Ian Cheney on September 29; memoirist Debra Monroe on November 3; and novelist John Katzenbach on November. Lectures are always free, open to the public, and take place in Williston’s Dodge Room at 7:00 p.m.