From the monthly archives:

September 2008

James Lee Burke: An Interview and Appreciation

by Deen Kogan on September 25, 2008

Few contemporary writers, or even those long gone, come with the bona fides that James Lee Burke possesses.   This amazingly prolific writer, with a great laugh, engaging smile and affection for and appreciation of the human race, with all its foibles, has produced 27 novels and two short story collections in a career  that spans more than 42 years.  His vibrant and unforgettable characters, cadence of speech and the rhythms of the writing have seduced readers and critics alike.

Jim, as he’s called, was absolutely destined to be a writer.   His family first came to New Iberia, Louisiana from Waterford, Ireland in 1836 and the Irish oral tradition is part of his heritage.  He was born in Houston, Texas, in 1936 and grew up on the Texas- Louisiana gulf coast.

He and his wife, Pearl, met in graduate school at the University of Missouri; he has B.A. and M.A. degrees from there.  The Burkes have been married almost 50 years.  They have four children: Jim, Jr (attorney), Andrea (psychologist), Pamala (who maintains the Burke web site) and Alafair (law professor) who has three crime novels to her credit.  It’s been said that talent runs in the family.

Burke’s life experiences enrich and color his writing.  He’s worked on an offshore oil exploration rig, as a land surveyor, creative writing professor, newspaper reporter, social worker on L.A.’s Skid Row and instructor in the U.S. Job Corps.

He has received his share of literary honors including Guggenheim and Breadloaf Fellowships, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, two Edgars for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America and American Guest of Honor accolades at the 2003 Bouchercon, the international crime fiction convocation.
Ask Jim what writers he read as a boy and he’ll tell you about Frank Dixon and the Hardy Boys and the bi-weekly visits by the library bookmobile, which guaranteed “a great day!”.  Ask him which book of his he favors and he’ll tell you the one he’s writing.
Burke’s literary career really dates to 1965, when his first novel, Half of Paradise was published.  To the Bright and Shining Sea followed in 1970 and Lay Down My Sword and Shield  in 1971.
Then he hit a publishing stone wall. Jim says he holds the single submission record of rejections as The Lost Get-Back Boogie was rejected 111 times over a nine-year period.  When the Louisiana State University Press did publish it in 1986, it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

While Burke’s novels transcend genre classification, he is revered by the detective fiction reading community for the two series he has created.  Cajun detective, Dave Robicheaux made his debut in The Neon Rain  in 1987 and Texas Ranger / attorney, Billy Bob Holland in 1997 in Cimarron Rose.
The Robicheaux series is the favorite of many readers.   A complex, honest man, who constantly fights his demons, Robicheaux might be a mirror image of Burke… his life in the Bayou, past alcoholism, a daughter named Alafair and as with Burke’s just published novel, The Tin Roof Blowdown  (Simon & Schuster, July 2007) his passionate love for New Orleans and what it stood for.

The Tin Roof Blowdown is the 16th  in the Dave Robicheaux canon.  There is much sadness and a somber tone of resignation in the writing.  With Katrina’s advent, the Louisiana and New Orleans he knew is gone and will never be the same and the hurricane does not bear all of the responsibility.

But that was before Katrina.  That was before a storm with greater impact
than the bomb blast that struck Hiroshima peeled the face off southern
Louisiana.  That was before one of the most beautiful cities in the   Western Hemisphere was killed three times, and not just by the forces of nature.

Burke has an unforgettable image in this book, one of many, but one he repeats from his latest short story collection, Jesus Out To Sea, a collection of ten tales centering on the devastation in Louisiana and Mississippi before and after Katrina (Simon & Schuster, June 2007).

In the title story, Jesus Out to Sea:

At dawn, I saw a black woman on the next street, one that’s lower than mine, standing on top of a car roof.  She was huge, with rolls of fat on her like a stack of inner tubes.  She was wearing a purple dress that had floated up over her waist and she was waving at the sky for help.  Miles rowed a boat from the bar he owns on the corner, and the two of us went over to where the car roof was maybe six feet underwater by the time we got there.  The black lady was gone.

And in The Tin Roof Blowdown:

A big, fat black woman in a purple dress was standing on top of a car, waving at the sky.  Her dress was floating out in the water. She was on the car a half an hour, waving, while the water kept rising.  I saw her fall off the car.  It was over her head.

The Tin Roof Blowdown may be Burke’s best work yet and there’s much more to come.  He writes every day, seven days a week.  Like Dylan Thomas, this is a man who will not go gentle into that good night.
These days Jim and Pearl split their time between New Iberia, Louisiana and Missoula, Montana.  They built their ranch home on 120 acres of rough land in the Montana mountains so after the writing is done for the day, there are horses to feed and pastures to tend.

For years, Jim did book tours, driving cross country with Pearl, in a well traveled Volvo, one year East, one year West.  On one of his many visits to Philadelphia, we had the pleasure of eating together at a Chinese restaurant on Walnut Street whose people came from the same China village as did Pearl’s family.  (Editor Jane Duffin was part of the party).
On another occasion, we took a drive to Eastern State Penitentiary along with stops at most Philadelphia area book stores.

Jim doesn’t tour anymore and he has certainly paid his literary dues.  In fact, the Volvo is in car heaven, and today there’s a Toyota truck and Avalon for transportation.
James Lee Burke is a stellar example of a moral, socially committed writer who is deeply concerned about the welfare of this country.  His work is a fusion of the examination of evil and appreciation of the beauty of the land he loves and as he’s written: “It’s a great country.  Don’t let the hucksters and charlatans take it away!”

For additional information on James Lee Burke, visit his website: www.jamesleeburke.com. The site also lists the complete Burke Bibliography.

Deen Kogan, director Society Hill Playhouse, also produces literary conferences including: Noircon, which was held April 3 - 6, 2208 http://www.noircon.com

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Greg Gillespie Has 100,000 Books to Sell

by Frank Dougherty on September 25, 2008

A former movie house that began screening Hollywood silent films 93 years ago for Port Richmond residents is now headquarters for one of the largest and, from an Irish viewpoint, most interesting used bookstores in Philadelphia.

“I think we have about 100,000 books here along with  stacks of old magazines, newspapers, theater programs, movie posters,” explained Greg Gillespie, the operator Port Richmond Books.

“You name it, we probably have it.  And we also can throw in a little hardware on the side,” quipped the 58-year-old Gillespie.  The shop is located at 3037 Richmond Street.

For Philadelphians of a certain age, walking into Port Richmond Books is guaranteed to trigger an immediate response from one’s olfactory nerves.  The place smells like Leary’s, the classic used bookstore on a dead-end alley in Center City that closed in 1968.
There are books on history, geography, biographies, religion, weather, Mafia bosses, privates and generals, mystery sleuths, saints and sinners, doctors, lawyers, and, yep, you guessed it, Indian chiefs!
The business is eclectic in structure, varied in selection, with books drawn from sources around the city, around the country, around the world.
There are books by C.S. Lewis, James Bond, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, Philip Roth, Zane Grey, Jack McPhaul, and even a book written by the late cartoonist Walt Kelly, demanding, “Equal Time for Pogo.”
But the centerpiece of the business is an aisle Gillespie has nicknamed Irish Row.
It has no relationship with the original Irish Row, a string of Irish-American saloons along Arkansas Avenue in Atlantic City, popular with seashore visitors in the years just after World War II.
Irish Row here is an aisle 20 feet long and eight feet high with more than 1,500 books with native Irish and Irish-American themes.  States of Ireland  by Conor Cruise O’Brien is in the stacks.
So is Thomas N. Coffey’s history on the 1916 Easter Uprising.   Pete Hamill, Frank Harris and J. P. Donleavy are represented, and James Joyce’s Ulysses has a prominent place in the stacks.
“One of the most intriguing books (here) is this slim volume in old Irish, dating back to the 1840s, hand lettered in pen and ink, with a small spattering of English,” explained Gillespie as he gently deposited it into the extended hands of a visitor.
“It was brought to Philadelphia by an immigrant, now only known to history,” he added.
This printed inventory, however, has unusual neighbors.  It shares spaces with thousands of pieces of assorted hardware.  “When my mentor, Deen Kogan, bought the building, it had been Fisher’s hardware warehouse,” explained Gillespie.
“Deen bought the place lock, stock and barrel.  So we now have row after row of books, thousands and thousands of  volumes, vying for space with row after row of plumbing fixtures, tools and fasteners.”
An ardent lover of books, Kogan is the owner and operator of Society Hill Playhouse, a Philadelphia showcase for the past 46 years of plays and productions with Irish themes.
“My late husband, Jay, had a great love of books and literature, mysteries and detective novels in particular.  There are 30,000 books in Jay’s collection now in storage at Port Richmond Books,” explained Kogan.
Port Richmond Books unofficially opened in December 2005, but few people were on hand for such an auspicious beginning.  “We had no heat, so we waited until April to make it official with a crowd of family and friends,” said Gillespie.
An Overbrook resident, Greg Gillespie and his wife, Meg, are the parents of 24-year-old Anne, and 19-year-old Michael.  Meg operates her own catering firm, Staffing Associates.
“If it wasn’t for Meg, we would all be eating sticks.  She’s absolutely superb,’ said Gillespie.
The Port Richmond Books building opened in 1913 as a silent movie house. Designed by architect Allen Wilson, it was the place to comfortably enjoy the flickers in a river ward movie palace with 1,026 seats.
The Richmond movie house was an American creation at a point in time when the country’s emerging entertainment industry was developing as rapidly as its industrial base and economic power.
The building has retained its painted concrete facade with its two upper balustrades, placed stage right and left.  At the roof line, a granite block identifies the building as the “Richmond.”
When the theater opened 93 years ago, “Wall scones with shades provided illumination along (the) walls lined with framed sections of fabric,” according to the late Philadelphia theater historian Irvin R. Glazer.
“A Moeller organ provided the music and five aisles created easy access in the spacious auditorium which was 60 feet wide, and 116 feet long,” added Glazer.  The cleats that held the seats in place are still visible on the auditorium floor.
And what has become of that Moeller organ?
Well, it’s still in the old auditorium, crushed under a load of debris, its bellows and pipes secured in a nearby storeroom.  The projection room is intact, too.
A former environmental health inspector for the City Of Philadelphia, Gillespie’s love of books was developed through a fondness for reading while still a child.
“I grew up collecting books.  Then I met Jay Kogan.  He got me interested in attending book fairs, which, by extension, led to a life of buying, selling and trading books,” said Gillespie.
As late as 1940, the Richmond Theater retained its advertising drop curtain which carried paid promotion and marketing notices.
Following the introduction of the talkies, the Richmond offered second and third run double-feature films.  Its silver screen began to lose  its luster to competition from television, with the end coming in the early 1950s.
Information for this story was drawn from: Philadelphia Theaters A-Z: A Comprehensive Record of 813 Theaters Constructed Since 1742.  Complied by the late Irvin R. Glazer, it was published by Greenwood Press.

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Irish Roots

by Eileen Dougherty Troxell on September 12, 2008

We Irish Americans are always searching for our roots.  In searching for my Irish paternal grandmother’s roots, I discovered some relatives I never knew existed. They led me on a journey of discovery that I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams.
My grandmother Mary Towey Dougherty died when I was very young.  I only knew of her through family stories. She was born in Ireland and spent some time in England before coming to America around 1892.

As many Irish girls at that time, Mary crossed the great ocean on her own. She landed in Philadelphia and found work as a domestic. She met Peter Dougherty from Donegal and they were married in 1894.

Peter worked as a farm laborer.  He later purchased a farm of his own in Jarrettown, PA and they raised eight children there. The oldest was my father Tom Dougherty.  Peter died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. Mary died in 1942. From their marriage records, I knew that Mary’s parents were Thomas and Winfred Towey. I knew nothing more of her family or her place of birth in Ireland..

When in doubt ask your relatives. I e-mailed my cousin Carol in Florida and asked if she had any information on our grandmother. She sent me copies of letters her mother had kept. They proved to be a goldmine.

The letters were written in the 1930s by Mary’s brother John in England.  I never knew she had a brother in England. There were four letters filled with family news and mentioning the names of their children.

The address at the top of each letter was Leeds, Lancashire, England. I wondered if any relatives were living there today.

I went on the Internet and found a current phone directory for Leeds. Six Toweys were listed. I wrote to all of them explaining who I was. I mentioned all of the names in the letters and the address in Leeds. I also gave them my e-mail address.

In less than two weeks I had an e-mail from Keith Towey.  He said that John Towey was his grandfather and all of the names I mentioned were his aunts and uncles and one was his father. We were second cousins!

Keith passed my letter around to other family members and I discovered that my grandmother had another brother named Patrick. I received e-mails and letters from his descendants in England. I even heard from one in Australia. None of them were aware that they had cousins in America.

I corresponded with several cousins in England and Val and Eddie Towey in Australia for a few years. I told them my grandmother’s story and they gave me the details of their ancestors. I learned that Mary and her brothers John and Patrick were born in Ballaghaderreen, County Roscommon. As children, they were sent to live with an aunt in England when their mother died.

Knowing the name of the town was a key element. I found the Roscommon Genealogy Society on the Internet and sent for information. For a fee they sent me copies of the Towey family church and civil records. I received copies of the parents’ marriage record and the children’s baptismal records. Thomas’s parents were Anthony Towey and Mary Ruthledge.  They were my great-great grand parents.

I was thrilled with all of the information and my new found relatives, but the best was yet to come. We heard of a gathering of the Towey Clan to be held in Ballaghaderreen in August of 2007. We had to go.

My husband Gene and I went over and met six of our cousins from England and were amazed when even Val and Eddie traveled from Australia. What a time we had.

From the start, they seemed like family.  Well, they were family.

We met many other Toweys from far and wide and discovered some information about our great grandfather. Thomas Towey was a leading Land League activists on the estate of Lord Dillon..He was arrested and sent to Galway Prison in 1881. With their mother dead and their father in prison, the children were sent to live with their father’s sister Peg in England.

The Toweys were tragically separated from their homeland and Mary was separate from her brothers forever when she sailed to America.
I found great joy in knowing that the Toweys were once again united in beautiful Ballaghaderreen. I could almost feel Mary, John and Patrick looking down on their grandchildren when we came together in the land of their birth.

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