H.W. Brands

[November 5th, 2008]

You really should read: The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin; Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt; T.R.: The Last Romantic.

This Portland native and history professor at the University of Texas is an expert on American presidential history and, in the wake of an election of unprecedented weirdness, he’s bound to have some interesting things to say about the challenges facing our new executive. BEN WATERHOUSE. Noon Saturday, Nov. 8. University of Oregon Nonfiction Stage.

What’s your personal writing ritual?
No ritual. It’s a job.

What are your favorite themes to write about?
Human folly and forgetfulness.

The most beautiful word in the English language is:
The most fitting word, whatever that happens to be at the moment it’s needed.

What authors made you want to pick up a pen in the first place?
Hubert Howe Bancroft. His topics (histories of the West) were fascinating, and I knew I could write better than he could.

Fight Club time: if you could fight one author (or critic), who would it be and why?
See No. 1. I don’t get emotionally involved.

Name a book that you think is highly overrated. Be honest.
Comparisons are pernicious. But most German philosophies.

Dream project:
The current one, whichever it happens to be.

Most recent nightmare:
That the current election will end like 2000, monopolizing media at just the time when my book is out.

Your cure for writer’s block:
A long walk. Answers come.

Pessimistic question: Will you keep writing even after people stop reading?
They will keep listening after they’ve stopped reading. I’ll write the scripts.

Optimistic question: kittens? Discuss.
Kittens?!