Margaret Heilbrun

Speaking in an Age of Silence
May 3, 2007

This Friday evening, May 4, Sara Paretsky will be speaking at Cooper Union's Great Hall, the one NYC venue that can boast that Abraham Lincoln spoke there (February 27, 1860). It was known as the Cooper Institute then. Lincoln was still clean shaven, not yet a presidential candidate, and he was originally to speak in Brooklyn, which would have deprived NYC of boasting of a Lincoln speech -- unless they fudged the facts -- for Brooklyn was not yet a part of NYC. Lincoln's sponsoring organization was the Young Men's Republican Union--a name that today would surely conjure men of a different political stripe. Things have changed over the last 147 years. If only change were a process that functioned solely toward the better.

Paretsky's new book, Writing in an Age of Silence (Verso, May 1st), consists of essays that demonstrate how intrinsically connected are the personal and the political.The book has received strong advance reviews from LJ and PW, to name only this company's magazines.

The last of the book's essays, "Truth, Lies and Duct Tape," had its origins in speeches that Paretsky started to give in 2002, after the Patriot Act was in place, in expression of her concern for privacy of library records in the face of the government's new licence to obtain what had previously been considered information beyond its reach. She gave her talk to a couple of library associations in 2002. In 2003, as the prolific and bestselling mystery author that she is, she was invited to speak at the Toledo-Lucas County (Ohio) Public Library's Authors! Authors! series, which boasts of presenting authors "straight off the bestseller list" and currently charges $10 per ticket per talk.

Paretsky's talk turned out to be on "the night before we shocked and awed Iraq," as she puts it in a coda added to her essay version of this speech in the new book. There, Paretsky remembers the night in Toledo, and states that the library asked her not to deliver her "Truth, Lies..." talk because many of the series' subscribers were turning their tickets in. "The library asked me to emulate other writers in giving humorous anecdotes about my writing life," she recalled. As Paretsky repeated in a Q&A that I did with her for the April 15 LJ, she gave her duct tape speech anyway and was warmly received by the audience.

There is some argument over who did in fact ask Paretsky to tone down her remarks. There is even denial that anyone did so. Neither in her book, nor in her Q&A, does Paretsky use the word "censor" in describing her experience with the Toldedo library. In a letter to LJ to be published in a forthcoming issue, along with a response from Paretsky, its director states that although the library does typically ask authors to address literary issues, it made no attempt to change Paretsky's planned speech.  The letter includes an assertion from an agent of Paretsky's speakers bureau that handled the event, repeating that the library made no attempt to "censor" her -- yet, interestingly, nowhere stating explicitly that the bureau itself made no such attempt. The Toledo Blade has now covered the matter. 

Evidently, in the time since 2003, the facts have gotten themselves fudged by one or another of the interested parties. Misunderstanding, miscommunication, sneaky dealings? Whatever happened, Paretsky is clear in her memory of pressure intensely felt by her, from one interested source or another, to stay literary on that evening when the country was waiting to hear that it had gone to war.

When Lincoln arrived at Cooper Union to give his speech, which anyone could attend free and was presented in a time of great pre-war anxiety, did any of his sponsoring group's board -- Horace Greeley or William Cullen Bryant for example -- say to him on the q.t. "New York industry depends on smooth relations between North and South. Best to tone down your remarks." Not likely.

In February this year, Cooper Union's Great Hall hosted Mario Cuomo and Newt Gingrich together (their promo for the event likewise took note of Lincoln's speech -- who can resist it as a device?). I admit: if I ran a library -- and I once did -- I'd be hard pressed to invite Newt Gingrich to speak. Cuomo came -- to speak about Lincoln.

So I say here: more power to Cooper Union, more power to libraries who aren't chicken about hosting free-range voices, more power to Cuomo and Gingrich for coming together, and more power to Sara Paretsky!

[Disclosure: Sara Paretsky was acquainted with my mother, a mystery author of an older generation. They admired each other. I never met Paretsky, but heard her give a talk at the 2004 MLA on her own growth as a writer and my deceased mother's influence upon that growth. In the crowded reception afterward, I introduced myself to her briefly. I truly met Paretsky for the first time this spring prior to undertakng the Q&A with her and I now count her an acquaintance whom I admire. MH]

Posted by Margaret Heilbrun on May 3, 2007 | Comments (0)