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In this series of posts, my fellow TeachingAuthors and I are writing letters to our earlier selves a la Dear Teen Me.  As I’ve thought about what to write, it is clear to me that the contents of such a letter would vary greatly depending on the phase of life I considered.   A letter to my teen self would be very different from a letter to my newlywed self, or to my busy young mother self, or my empty nester self, or my newly-divorced-after-being-married-my-whole-adult-life self. 

Book cover of my first nonfiction book for young readers. THE HEAD BONE'S CONNECTED TO THE NECK BONE: THE WEIRD, WACKY AND WONDERFUL X-RAY. Published by FSG.

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When I was in elementary school, we were assigned the classic back to school essay:

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morguefile.com

“We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.” ~ William James


I have so enjoyed this unit on summer experiences presented by the Teaching Authors. At the core of these discussions is the importance of making connections. JoAnn connects to nature, offering interesting experiments with monarch butterflies.

Esther , Carla and April  explore the important connections to be made at writing conferences that go above and beyond the business of writing.

Mary Ann connects to the next generation of writers in her discussion of summer camp,



“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” ~ Herman Melville



We know stories are old. Humans have been telling stories for over 100,000 years. Not every culture had developed codified laws, or even a written language, but every culture in the history of the world has had stories. Some research suggests stories predate language, that language came about in order to express story concepts.



And those first stories are found in paintings buried in prehistoric caves. An ancient man reaches out and across 40,000 years to his descendents, connecting past to present. It is the essence of humankind to connect.   As Eric Booth states, in The Everyday Work of Art, “Art is not apart. It is a continuum within which all participate; we all function in art, use the skills of art, and engage in the action of artists every day.”  

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As I write nonfiction books, I carefully consider sentence length and punctuation.  Every sentence is crafted in a way that will support the pacing of my (true) story.  Does sentence structure and punctuation affect the pacing of the story?  Absolutely!  How you write the text makes all the difference. 

As an example, let’s consider the opening scene from my book,

Fourth Down and Inches: 

Concussions and Football’s Make-or-Break Moment

I could have begun this book in countless ways.  I chose to begin the book with a young man named Von Gammon because I believe it sets the scene for the whole book.  I wanted to pull the reader in by giving them a glimpse into Von’s life.  Once I decided to open the book with this young man, there were countless ways I could have written the scene. 

Consider the following examples and choose which is more compelling: 



The second example is what appears in the published book.  The first example communicates the same information, but doesn’t pull the reader into the story.  The difference is in the sentence structure and punctuation. 

Just a few sentences later, I write about the moment things changed for Von.   Which of the following is more interesting? 



The second example appears in the published book.  Again it isn’t the information that is different; it is how the information is presented that is different. 
Because Von sustained a concussion and died a few hours later.  His death caused many to wonder if football was too dangerous.   
The year was 1897.  

Carla Killough McClafferty



BOOK GIVEAWAY!

Win an autographed copy Baby Says “Moo!” by JoAnn Early Macken.   For more details on the book and enter the book giveaway, see her blog entry on June 12, 2015.  The giveaway runs through June 22.  The winner will be announced on June 26.

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As a researcher, one of the places that inspire me is the Library of Congress (LOC).   The building itself is a national treasure, but the collections it holds are even more precious.   No matter what you are interested in, chances are that the Library of Congress has some material that relates to it.  It is a gold mine of primary source material for teachers, students, and writers. 

The LOC has a vast amount of material online, but let me give you an example of just one small slice of it.  Let’s take photographs from the Civil War.  When I look at this collection I see powerful, amazing images of people on both sides of the war.  While I’m interested in photos of the famous people like Lincoln, Lee and Grant, I’m even more fascinated by images of average soldiers who are often unidentified.  When I look at their faces, I wonder what they experienced and if they survived the war. 

Photos of soldiers are not the only type of images in their collection; many are of women and children.  This touching image of a young girl in a dark mourning dress holding a photo of her father, says a lot-silently.

  

This morning I found an unexpected collection at the LOC:  eyewitness drawings of Civil War scenes.  There are lots of battle scenes and landscapes, but the one that drew my eye was this sketch of a soldier.  It makes me wonder who this man was and why the artist sketched his image.  Was he a friend or brother?   Was he a hero or a deserter?



Images like these can teach students a lot about history.  And they can inspire both fiction and nonfiction writers. 

Carla Killough McClafferty


http://www.loc.gov/

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General George Washington at Trenton by John Trumbull

Mount Vernon created three wax figures of George Washington.  This one depicts General Washington at Valley Forge riding Blueskin. Find out more about George Washington's historic home

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The last few posts from my fellow TeachingAuthors have been on poetry.  Each of them has written eloquently on the topic.  But trust me when I tell you that I have nothing worthwhile to contribute to the topic of poetry.   So, I’ll share a topic with you that I do know about:  research. 

I enjoy sharing how to do research with students and teachers.  I offer a variety of program options including several different types of sessions on brainstorming, research, and writing.   I love to be invited into a school for a live author visit.  But that isn’t always possible.  In the last couple of years, I’ve done lots of Interactive Video Conferences as part of the Authors on Call group of inkthinktank.com. 

During these video conferences, I’ve come up with ways to teach students from third grade through high school how to approach a research project.  One method I use is to give them an easy way to remember the steps to plan their research using A, B, C, and D:

A
ALWAYS CHOOSE A TOPIC THAT INTERESTS YOU.

B
BRAINSTORM FOR IDEAS THAT WILL MAKE YOUR PAPER DIFFERENT FROM EVERY OTHER PAPER.

C
CHOOSE AN ANGLE FOR YOUR PAPER AND WRITE A ONE SENTENCE PLAN THAT BEGINS:
MY PAPER IS ABOUT . . .

D
DECIDE WHERE TO FIND THE RESEARCH INFORMATION THAT FITS THE ANGLE OF YOUR PAPER.

The earlier students learn good research skills, the better.  Learning some tips and tricks like my ABCD plan will help.  I hope it makes the whole process less daunting.



Carla Killough McClafferty

To find out more about booking an Interactive Video Conference with students or teachers:

Contact Carla Killough McClafferty

iNK THINK TANK

Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (search for mcclafferty or inkthinktank)

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One of the great parts of being an author is speaking to audiences about my books.   While I enjoy every group, some are extra special.  Recently I had the opportunity to travel to Miami, Florida, to share my book In Defiance of Hitler: The Secret Mission of Varian Fry.  This book is about Varian Fry, an American journalist who volunteered to go to Nazi controlled France in 1940 to order to rescue (mostly) Jewish refugees whose lives were in danger.   This true story of one man who believed he could make a difference is filled with intrigue and danger.  Ultimately, Varian Fry rescued more than 2000 people.  Yet few Americans have ever heard his name.


   
I was invited by the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach to share the work of Varian Fry as part of Holocaust Education Week.  They asked me to speak to three different audiences.   The first night, I presented my program for the public at the Holocaust Memorial.   It was an honor to speak about rescue during the Holocaust at a place dedicated to the memory of so many who were not rescued.  Every Holocaust Memorial is different, and here the centerpiece is the massive statue of a hand reaching toward the sky with human figures huddled around the bottom.  The sculpture is powerful and moving.  It says so much-silently.   In the audience that night, listening to my program were Holocaust survivors and the descendants of some who had been killed at Auschwitz.


       
The next morning I spoke to university students at Miami Dade College.  Many in the audience – including one of the administrators – had come to American as refugees.  As I shared about the refugees of 1940 leaving their homes, these young adults understood the concept in a much more personal way than my usual audience does.


 
In the afternoon, I presented my program to students at a private Jewish high school.   These modern American students carrying their backpacks entered the room and chatted as they took their seats.  While relating the work of Varian Fry, I told them about several people who helped him.  One of them was a seventeen-year-old boy named Justus Rosenberg.   He was their age and his life was in danger because he was Jewish.   Rosenberg survived but countless other teens didn’t.
 
I shared the work of Varian Fry with three different audiences in Miami.  Each one was very special.
  
Carla Killough McClafferty


http://www.teachingauthors.com/2015/03/a-two-for-price-of-one-interview-with.html

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People understand that it takes creativity to write fiction.  But many don’t understand that it also takes creativity to write nonfiction.   As a nonfiction author I write true stories-but they are still stories.  When teaching students or teachers how to write nonfiction, I explain it like this: 

Nonfiction is based on facts found in primary source documents.  How an author uses those facts is what makes the difference between text that reads like a novel or a textbook.  The creative part of writing nonfiction is finding a way to keep the reader turning pages to see what happens next-and at the same time telling the story accurately.  To accomplish this goal, I use fiction techniques such as dialogue, sensory details, foreshadowing, pacing and all the rest. 

Let’s look at just one fiction technique I use in nonfiction books:  dialogue.  In my books, the dialogue comes from direct quotes from documented primary sources.  Teachers, students and readers can go to source notes in the back matter to see exactly where the quote was found. 

I use a direct quote to accomplish one of three things:

1. To show characterization
2. To increase tension
3. To have greater impact

Below are a few examples from my books that demonstration how I used quotes as dialogue.  

 

To show characterization:

“Kevin Turner, a former NFL player, still remembers the excitement of his high school football days. He recalls, “When I woke up on game day. I couldn’t wait until it was time for the kickoff. Wearing my jersey to school on game day was a big part of the experience. At game time, when I ran out on the field and heard the announcer call my name in the starting lineup, it was a rush, like nothing else. It was like having Christmas sixteen times a year. My parents were proud of me. Nearly everyone in our small town was cheering in the stands and spontaneously reacting to what happened on the fields. It was magical.”

To increase tension:

In this scene from Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium (FSG), I am showing this famous scientist at a difficult moment in her life.  At the same time Curie was planning to build the Radium Institute, the shed where she and her late husband, Pierre, discovered radium was going to be torn down.   I quoted Marie Curie’s own words about how she felt about visiting the shed for the last time.   

“I made my last pilgrimage there, alas, alone.  On the blackboard there was still the writing of him who had been the soul of the place; the humble refuge for his research was all impregnated with his memory.  The cruel reality seemed some bad dream; I almost expected to see the tall figure appear, and to hear the sound of the familiar voice.”

To have greater impact:

Varian Fry, an American journalist, volunteered to go to Marseilles, France, in 1940 to rescue refugees from the Nazis.  This scene from In Defiance of Hitler: The Secret Mission of Varian Fry (FSG), is about the moment he arrives in the city.  Fry wrote about this moment, so I chose to quote the entire segment exactly as he wrote it because his own words had greater impact than if I had paraphrased what happened.   

“’Aha, an American,’ he said in a gravel-rough voice.
“Yes,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm.
“Marseilles is like your New York City at rush hour, eh?”  he said, smiling. 
I smiled back.  “Quite a mob,” I said. 
“Refugees.  Pouring down from the north,” he said.  “We would like to pour them back.  But the Boches [Germans] have occupied Paris.  So the refugees all run to Marseille to hide, or maybe sneak across the border.  But they won’t escape.  Sooner of later we arrest all the illegal ones.”  He smiled again. 
“Too bad for them,” I said.
“Too bad for them; too bad for us!”  He gave me my passport.  Enjoy your stay in our country,” he said.  “But why you visit us at this unsettled time, I don’t know.”
His eyes narrowed, and I thought he looked at me suspiciously.  But as I went out through the gate, I decided it was my imagination.  He knew nothing of the lists in my pockets, nor did he know I had come to smuggle out of France the people whose names were on those lists.”

All three at once:

Many times, one quote like the example below accomplishes all three goals of characterization, tension and greater impact at the same time.  The following section from The Many Faces of George Washington: Remaking a Presidential Icon (Carolrhoda) shows Washington in the days leading up to the historic crossing of the Delaware.  
  
“The Continental Army was in real trouble. At the beginning of the war, most soldiers had enlisted for short periods of time. Now that things were going badly, they left as soon as their enlistment commitment expired. At the beginning of December 1776, about half of Washington’s men went home.  He knew that the enlistment for many more would expire at the end of the month. General Washington had to do something fast to raise the moral of his men, or he would soon have no army to lead. David Ackerson, one of his commanders, recalled seeing General Washington at this time saying, “he was standing near a small camp-fire, evidently lost in thought and making no effort to keep warm . . . His mouth was his strong feature, the lips being always tightly compressed. That day they were compressed so tightly as to be painful to look at.”


Carla Killough McClafferty

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My path to becoming an author is . . . unusual.  Like most writers, I’ve loved books all my life.  Some of my earliest memories are of being bribed by the promise of a Golden Book if I would go to sleep in my own bed rather than my parent’s bed (I took the bribe).  However, as I grew up, a wide variety of books were not readily available to me.  Our small town didn’t have a library and neither did my elementary school.  What passed as our “library” was a small collection of books sitting on the bookshelf below the wide windows that ran the whole length of the classroom. 



Peter Rabbit was my favorite book, and was also one my Mama bought to bribe me.

Somewhere around the third grade I got a pink diary.  I’d like to say my diary entries were long narratives about my hopes and dreams that show a budding writer’s flair for the dramatic.  That is not the case.  In reality my diary entries are so sparse that the entire text of my five year diary could fit on a napkin, a cocktail napkin.   But when I look at that diary now, I do see the beginnings of an author—a nonfiction author.  Each diary entry contains the facts and does not include any extraneous information or fluff.  For example on one especially important day in history, July 20, 1969, I simply stated: “Dear Diary, the astronauts landed & are walking on the moon.”  It is simple, to the point, and has the sense of immediacy—not a bad start for a future nonfiction author.

My childhood diary shows an early glimpse into my future as a nonfiction author.  My straightforward recording of the moon landing came just one day after my confession that I dreaded facing my piano teacher (I hadn't been practicing.)

As an adult, my first career is as a Registered Radiologic Technologist.  Next I became a wife and busy mother of three children.  I read voraciously, but still had no thoughts of becoming a writer.  In fact, I would never have become an author if tragedy had not entered my life.  My youngest son, fourteen-month-old Corey, fell off of the backyard swing and died from a head injury.  Life as I knew it ceased to exist.  I was devastated, to say the least.  Ultimately I wrote an inspirational book about the Spiritual battle I faced after Corey’s death and how God brought me through it and back to Him titled Forgiving God.  It was the first book I’d ever written.



My first book, an adult inspirational book that deals with the death of my son, Corey.

After my first book was published, I began writing nonfiction books for young readers.  No classes.  No journalism degree.  No mentor.  I just started researching and writing.  Along the way I joined SCBWI, went to writer’s conferences, and learned all I could about children’s publishing.   I listened to the old writer’s adage that says “write what you know” when I chose X-rays as the topic for my first book in this genre.  That book, titled The Head Bone’s Connected to the Neck Bone: The Weird, Wacky and Wonderful X-ray, was awarded the SCBWI work-in-progress grant and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG).  When that book was finished, I wondered if I could do it again.  I could.  The next two books, Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium and In Defiance of Hitler: The Secret Mission of Varian Fry were also published by FSG.   Then came The Many Faces of George Washington: Remaking a Presidential Icon published by Carolrhoda, Tech Titans by Scholastic, and my newest book Fourth Down and Inches: Concussion and Football’s Make-or-Break Moment also with Carolrhoda.  

My nonfiction books for young readers.

Since libraries fill me with awe and appreciation, I’m thrilled to know that my books are in library collections all over the world.  In some ways I’ve come full circle.  I began as a child with no library access and I became a nonfiction author who has done research in some of the finest libraries in America including Columbia University, Harvard University, and the Boston Athenaeum.   

Doing research at the library at Harvard.

I didn’t plan to become a writer or a public speaker.  But the twists and turns of life have turned me into both, and they are a good fit for me.  I love the challenge of researching a topic I know nothing about.  I love to write about ordinary people who have done extraordinary things.   I love to capture the imagination of a live audience and take them on a journey as I share with them the amazing things I’ve learned about the subjects of my books.   And as an added bonus, researching my books has given me incredible life experiences that I will always treasure.  I’ve visited Marie Curie’s office at the Radium Institute in Paris and sat in her chair, behind her desk.  I’ve stayed on the grounds of George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon and watched the sunrise over the Potomac River while standing on the piazza.   I’ve looked into the faces of men and women who were saved from the Nazis by Varian Fry and listened to their personal experiences.  I’ve wept with the parents of teens who lost their lives as a result of concussions.  I’ve presented programs in a wide variety of venues including C Span 2 Book TV, Colonial Williamsburg, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the U.S. Consulate in Marseilles, France, teacher conferences, workshops, and at many schools.
 
Now I’m honored to join this amazing group of women known as TeachingAuthors.  It will be a whole new adventure and I’m looking forward to it.

Carla Killough McClafferty
www.carlamcclafferty.com

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It’s a new year, and that means we have more glorious books to rave about!  This month’s picks will spark creativity, help kids understand the experiences of others and take them on journeys to secret underground caves.

For Pre-K to 1st Grade (Ages 1 – 6)

Not a Box written and illustrated by Antoinette Portis

How can you write a whole book about a box? Because it’s not a box – it’s so much more! The rabbit in this cleverly simple board book is asked repeatedly why it is sitting in, standing on, spraying, and wearing a box. Each page reveals what the rabbit’s imagination has turned the box into, from a mountain to a race car to a hot air balloon. This entertaining story is perfect for an interactive read aloud to help inspire kids to use their own imagination. Just make sure you have an empty box ready after you finish!

For Grades 1st – 3rd (Ages 5-8)

The Black Book of Colors written by Menena Cottin and illustrated by Rosana Faría

What would it be like to be blind? This inventive book helps children think about how they might experience the world and its colors if they used only their senses of touch, taste, smell, and hearing. Readers can run their hands over the raised black drawings printed on black paper, and feel the braille letters stamped into the page. They hear about the taste of red, the smell of brown, the feel of blue, and so on. A unique and richly rewarding reading experience!

For Grades 3 – 5 (Ages 7-10)

The Lion Who Stole My Arm written by Nicola Davies

This is the wonderfully suspenseful story of a boy in rural Africa who loses his arm in a lion attack. His goal is to find and kill the lion who took his arm. Then he meets a team of researchers who teach him how they use science to track lions and change his understanding of the lions’ relationship with his village. Short and satisfying, this is an engaging story (great for reluctant readers) about adapting to life with a disability and understanding the value of species and habitat conservation.

For Grades 6+ (Ages 11 and up)

Fourth Down and Inches: Concussions and Football’s Make or Break Moment written by Carla Killough McClafferty

The knowledge that playing football can cause serious brain injury is not new. In 1905, no less than nineteen football players died from playing the sport and anti-football sentiment almost wiped it out of play. So, how and why did it continue on, becoming America’s most popular sport? This eye-opening work of nonfiction helps readers understand how football gained the popularity it has today and why it’s still the subject of heated debates about safety. A fascinating mix of science and history!

For Grades 6+ (Ages 11 and up):

The Secret of Priest’s Grotto: A Holocaust Survival Story written by Peter Lane Taylor and Christos Nicola

Underneath the fields of Western Ukraine, a dark labyrinth of caves crisscross back and forth for 340 miles. The passages contain an astonishing story of despair, loyalty, and ultimately, survival. This captivating piece of nonfiction follows a team of modern cave divers as they unearth the previously unknown story of several Jewish families who lived within the cave system for over a year during Nazi occupation and the holocaust. Along with harrowing narration from the actual survivors, readers can follow the explorers underground and into the past, to witness one family’s extraordinary fight to survive.

The post Our Favorite Books for January appeared first on First Book Blog.

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The Many Faces of George Washington: Remaking a Presidential Icon Carla Killough McClafferty

George Washington is forever etched into our minds as an old man with a clenched mouth and a powdered wig-- the same way he appears on the $1 bill. Or maybe a slightly more majestic side view from the quarter.

But George Washington was not always old and everyone who knew him said that no painter ever got his likeness quite right.

So... what did George Washington really look like?

The staff at Mt. Vernon wanted to find out and they wanted to make three statues of Washington-- one at 19, when he was a surveyor, one at 45 when he was a General in the Revolution, and one at 53, when he was being sworn in as the President.

The book is two-fold-- one part is history and explores who Washington was at the time-- how his actions and events shaped the man. The other part is science, technology and art-- how they determined what Washington looked like and then used that knowledge to make the statues. They couldn’t disturb Washington’s remains and just x-ray them to get a good sense of skull shape, so instead they looked at one bust that had been made from a mask taken of Washington’s face. They aged it up and down. They looked at his tailoring orders to learn about his body shape and how his clothes fit.

It’s a fascinating read. I already knew a bit about this due to a local news story (Mt. Vernon’s just a few miles away from my house) but I enjoyed learning more about the process (and now want to make the jaunt over to see the statues in person.) I think kids will be really interested to learn in more concrete terms that history’s figures aren’t perpetually frozen in time in their most iconic portraits or photographs-- they used to be kids, too and when they were, they just didn’t look like short versions of themselves. The process they went through to reconstruct Washington at different time periods is also a bit like a CSI or Bones episode, so that’s always cool.

A very neat book.

Today's Nonfiction Monday roundup is over at Charlotte's Library!

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

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The Many Faces of George Washington: Remaking a Presidential Icon
By Carla Killough McClafferty
Carolrhoda Books (a division of Lerner)
$20.95
ISBN: 978-0-7613-5608-0
Ages 10 and up
On shelves April 1st

Forensic anthropology meets the guy on the one dollar bill. That’s one way of putting it anyway. Walk into many a classroom and tell the kids “Look! I’ve a book here on George Washington! Who wants it?” and prepare to be buried in groans. An alternative take: Walk into many a classroom and show the kids pages 8 and 9 of Carla Killough McClafferty’s The Many Faces of George Washington. There they will see an array of Washington portraits so diverse that you might as well be looking at five different men. Now ask the kids, “How do you figure out what a dead person really looked like?” The cannier amongst them might reply that you need only locate the person’s skull and a forensic artist. Nod sagely. Then ask, “And what if you don’t have a skull to work from?” That right there is the premise behind McClafferty’s newest, and it’s a fascinating point of discussion. The question is, can you reproduce a man as he was at three different points in his life without photographs or bones? The result is one of the more enjoyable points of nonfiction out this season. One of the more creative too.

Recently The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association had a problem. Thirty years ago your average American knew more about President George Washington than folks today. What to do? In an interesting twist, the Association placed much of the blame on the image of George found on the dollar bill. I mean seriously, who can relate to that guy? It would be great if you could find a way to discover what the man actually looked like. So Jeffrey H. Schwartz, a forensic anthropologist from the University of Pittsburgh, and a whole team of experts were brought in to try to create life-sized reproductions of Washington at ages nineteen (young surveyor), forty-five (General), and fifty-seven (President). As we watch the reconstruction of a man long dead, the text is interspersed with information about Washington at each of these ages, telling the story of the man as well as the body. A Timeline, Source Notes, Index, Bibliography, and section for Further Reading (including websites) are all included at the end.

The book packs a two-fisted whammy of a punch. For the history buffs you’ve the history of Washington himself. But for the forensic scientists (a.k.a. C.S.I. fans) you’ve the fascinating story of how a person goes about reconstructing someone’s body without having something as essential as a skeleton to work with. The solutions found here (getting measurements from death masks, clothing, eye-witness accounts, locks of hair, etc.) are as inventive as they are fascinating. One cannot help but marvel at the meticulousness of the professionals at work. Their attention to detail is so precise that you find yourself poring over details that explain the red lines in Washington’s eyeballs or how they recreated his horse. Best of all, McClafferty avoids a problem I&rsqu

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I’m excited to welcome multi-award winning author Carla Killough McClafferty. Carla is the author of several book including, Forgiving God (Discovery House Publishers, 1995), an inspirational book for adults that deals with the Spiritual battle she faced after the death of her son. Many readers have found encouragement from her story when facing their own personal tragedy. Her children’s books include The Head Bone’s Connected to the Neck Bone:The Weird, Wacky and Wonderful X-ray (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001) and Something Out of Nothing:Marie Curie and Radium (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2006). Carla’s books have received numerous awards and stellar reviews.

Her latest book, In Defiance of Hitler: The Secret Mission of Varian Fry will be released on September 2, 2008. The book is about an American Holocaust rescuer, Varian Fry, who was a Harvard educated American journalist who went to Marseilles, France in 1940 and arranged the escape of more than 2000 predominately Jewish refugees. Varian Fry was the first American to be honored at the Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Israel, as Righteous Among the Nations. This book has received a starred review in Booklist.

Carla lives in North Little Rock with her husband Pat. Their son Ryan, lives in Benton and works as a salesman for Mutual of Omaha. Their daughter Brittney is pursuing a Master’s degree in Psychology from the University of Central Arkansas.

Tell me a little bit about your book, In Defiance of Hitler: The Secret Mission of Varian Fry.

It is a true story of an average American who became a Holocaust rescuer. After Paris fell to the Germans in 1940, countless refugees fled to the south of France and were trapped there. In New York City, Varian Fry and others created an organization called the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC) whose sole purpose was to get many of Europe’s intellectuals to safety.

Varian Fry, who was a Harvard educated journalist, volunteered to travel to France on behalf of the ERC to arrange the escape of as many people as possible. He planned to stay for two weeks, but ended up staying for 13 months—and only left then because France forced him to leave. More than 2000 predominantly Jewish refugees were rescued from the Nazis because of Fry’s work. The list of those he rescued includes Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, André Breton, Jacques Lipchitz, André Masson Franz Werfel, Lion Feuchtwanger, Victor Serge, Hannah Arendt, and Nobel Prize winning physicist Otto Meyerhof.

What inspired you to write about Varian Fry?

The fact that this average American volunteered to go to war-torn Europe to rescue people he did not know from the clutches of the Nazis. He had no background or training that prepared him for the job ahead—but he went anyway. It is an incredible adventure story of courage and determination.

When I realized he was the ONLY American to be honored at the Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations, I was amazed. Could it be that only one American had helped Jews during the Holocaust? I knew this was a story I must tell. By the way, since I began the book, two more Americans have been honored as Righteous Among the Nations—a married couple, Martha and Waitstill Sharp.

How much research was involved in this project?

I did a massive amount of research. I’ve read many books including those written by Varian Fry and by many of the refugees he rescued. I concentrated on primary sources. I traveled to Columbia University where the Varian Fry Papers are housed and did research. When I returned home, I arranged for interlibrary loans to look at each reel of microfilm that I didn’t get a chance to see while at Columbia—there were 14 more. I spent days and days plugging quarters into the microfilm copier. I read thousands of pages in those files to find exactly what I needed to tell this story. I also traveled to Los Angeles to meet with Pierre Sauvage, who runs the Varian Fry Institute, and looked at the many photographs in his collection. I also walked around the campus at Harvard when I traveled to Cambridge.

In addition, I studied various sources to better understand what was happening in Europe in the years leading up to 1940—including reading Hitler’s infamous book, Mein Kampf. I’ve spent many, many hours looking at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum web site, which is amazing in its scope of material.

What was the most interesting thing you learned in the process of writing the book?

The more I study history, the better I understand the saying “Freedom is Never Free.” To free others, it takes people who are willing to pay the price in their own personal lives. It costs something to be a hero. For Varian Fry, I think that in some ways he paid a high personal price to rescue 2000 strangers.

Carla, thank you for sharing your fascinating journey.
For more information about Carla, please visit her web site at www.carlamcclafferty.com

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