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During our second interview, over fried catfish po-boys and other local fare at The Reef restaurant on U.S. 90 in Waveland. Doug Brinkley says that he and Tammy are in the Bay, ?for the long haul,? indicating that the burgeoning ?fishing village? on the Bay offers a near-perfect balance of inspiration, relaxation, culture, and proximity to the rest of the world that is conducive to Brinkley?s work, hectic travel schedule, and family life. Brinkley also likes the fact that he is largely anonymous in the Bay and can go about his business in town, or at the Fire Dog, unbothered. As for what continues to drive someone who has already achieved so much, Brinkley says that improving his writing and producing a work that achieves classic status are his goals.
?I want to write better and more interesting history books ... get better at my craft and write books that will be in print long after I?m gone, books that really resonate and capture a certain essence of America. I learn more about how to write from reading F. Scott Fitzgerald and William Faulkner than 1 do from most historians, because of the way they will turn a phrase or describe something. Ideally, if I can take a fiction writer?s literary language gifts and meld it with history, then I have a perfect match, but I?m at the beginning stages of what
I?m doing. Fitzgerald spoke of the ?high white" noise? to prose?prose that is so perfect in its elegance. Sometimes, I don?t feel that when I read my sentences. Other times I can say that?s really special.?
His forthcoming publications include a profile of Vice President Al Gore for the new magazine Talk, out this month, a biography of Civil Rights pioneer Rosa Parks titled Rosa Parks: A Life, to be published next year, and Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company and a Century of Progress, due in bookstores circa 2003. The Ford book likely will reflect Brinkley?s view that the great historical figures of tomorrow will not be found among today?s politicians but among leaders of industry and commerce. He observes, ?I don?t think it?s a time of great politicians right now. I think you find (the great people) today in the big business world. They are the people like Ted Turner at CNN, Bill Gates at Microsoft, and the people who are really pioneering and innovating at a time of entrepreneurs. People like Clinton will look small in comparison.? On Clinton, Brinkley adds, ?(President Clinton) is extraordinarily bright and has done a good job in many ways, but he is a flawed human being. In many ways he led to a diminished presidency by . . . his inability to speak squarely and tell the truth.?
Douglas Brinkley and Stephen Ambrose are currently at work on a history of the Mississippi River, which will include filming a documentary program for National Geographic Explorer. Their next collaboration will be a Book of the Month Club selection, Witness to America, published by Harper Collins. Ambrose and Brinkley will be on NBC?s Today show to discuss the book on October 28. Brinkley will be on Today on October 4 to discuss his piece on Al Gore for Talk and again on November 11, Veteran?s Day, with Ambrose. Douglas Brinkley is the American studies and poetry commentator for National Public Radio, and he is working on his first novel, titled Mississippi Lightning Done Burned My Apple Pie.
As for Brinkley?s future in the Bay, Stephen Ambrose hopes that Doug and Tammy are ?in it for the long haul.? He says, ?What I would most wish for is that Doug continues at UNO and as the head of the Eisenhower Center, living in Bay St. Louis and writing books. You will never get him away from writing books. I know that he gets a lot of offers. Yale wants him, Princeton wants him, and he has so far said no. So, he wants to stay with the center and the D-Day Museum. It gives him the opportunity to be himself.?	&
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