The reader's almanac; 7

It's time for the readers all men to act with one by our originally broadcast over station WNYC in New York and distributed by national educational radio. The readers Allman act is America's oldest consecutive book program. Here now is Mr. Bauer. A year or two ago a great fuss was made in the literary or publishing world about the nonfiction novel. Now this is an anomalous phrase self-contradictory on the face of it but it was applied by its ingenious phrase making publicity eager authored to a book which would clearly nonfiction if only because its chief and indeed all of its events had been reported in the newspapers and so could scarcely be called in any sense fictional. I'm talking of the Cold Blood of course. No I have before me a novel and genuinely a novel it is which has a very large admixture of fact in it which is one to which the term nonfiction novel might possibly be applied and with some justification of its fact content of Vimy use that awkward phrase is obviously high. It is based upon both unintended and conscious research. That

is it is made up of what its author came to know through experience and what he lacked was supplied by research. I'm talking of a book called Airport gripping the readable novel by Arthur Haley a book that I'd have to call a certain bestseller The April selection of the literary guild and just published by Doubleday and Company. It tells a story of a brief period in the functioning of an airport when a crisis occurs that is of such magnitude that every fact of it facet of its functioning has to give way before responding to the imminent possibility of a disaster. This suspense of the novel nears its end is terrific and I'd use that word with a full feeling and it's the right one. I mean it as a tribute to Mr. Haley's skill as a writer and of his knowledge of his scene. Now a word about Mr. Haley was born in Britain was a Canadian national but he lived in the United States. He had World War 2 service as a pilot which must have been a great help in writing this book.

In 1956 he became a full time writer starting with work for television plays not and then turned to the writing of novels in 1959 the Halley's came to the US in 1966 and they live in California's Naples Valley. Mr. Haley's previous novels ought to be mentioned here. Hotel was published in 1965 was a great success. Killed by a number of book clubs and in Motion Picture birth and resulted as well in a sense hotel use the general approach that airport does that is the location of the story as important defines the nature of the action and gives it a dramatic impact. Then there were two others the final diagnosis 1959 and high places in 1961. Mr. Healey I've talked about the nature of your novel because I feel it is significant because it accounts for its effect upon the reader. The Jew me will react against the term nonfiction novel. I myself would prefer to call it a documentary novel

because you have so thoroughly documented the scene in which the action of your book takes place. Or do you just want to call it a story and let it stand there. I see the point of what you're saying and I think the point is well made. My promises do have a name which they give to my kind of story and I know in advance that as a teacher of English you're not going to prove I approve of this what they call it faction. I know and I don't have one. But anyway I suppose as a description that's as good as any other. I wanted to direct one other little thing about what you're saying. You might say that I had been a pilot and this was relevant and I help in doing that particular story. Well I thought it might be but actually it wasn't. I had a lot of aviation but I found that all of my pilot's knowledge was completely out of date. It really wasn't a minor difference what I tol I suspect that's altogether true. I just thought to predetermine you toward this kind of story data in the sense of it gave

me a great love of aviation here. I do think that what we've been talking about and deciding what kind of a novel this is possibly using that phrase undocumented novel has some usefulness. I think for example that it indicates that the names that you've chosen for the books airport and hotel These are two institutions which are characteristic of our time all around the world. And they they you know the place in which the story takes place. You're quite right. And what does interest me and want to have over the years is the hair and now I find that I can never open the morning paper without saying half a dozen subjects which are media and compelling. I think we live in an exciting time of the day to day life is exciting and I like to pick a subject as I have with an airport and with hotel and open the Dawes and go behind the scenes very often we think we know all about these places and

yet when you take a close a second look often you don't and I find that people are interested in I suppose what you could call the mechanics of identity life. Yes I'm sure that's true. That's why I like to call it the documented novel. You have documented the operation of some of these institutions which affect our lives a great deal. But I people are enormously interested in. I think I'm going to use that documented novel I like it better than factually right now would you say would you say that your first impulse was considering the writing of the new book is to select its menu of the limited area in which the action occurs. You say for example in thinking of the novel that you're going to write I'd like to write a novel about an airport. Is that the way you get started yes it is. Some people of course think in terms of an individual character first as a method of working I think into

the area. And usually when I'm near the end of one subject I have at least half a dozen others in mind to follow. And what I do it usually is put these in order of interest it's important that they should interest and enthused me because I spent three years on the books and if I can't stand it over that time I can't make the reader feel the same way. I then discussed this with my publishers with an editor. And there was an exchange of ideas and eventually I decide on the area because although I am consigned to the area naturally I'm very concerned with the people in it and the area is only a means to gain access to the characters who become principal in the story it will be no good doing at AFP or just about a thing. It must of course doing a novel just about a thing. It must of course be about people and your people are fine. Well I certainly wasn't avoiding the discussion of characters would get round to that in time but

I thought that the putting the story into a place that you thought had the maximum possibility of interest was a very important thing for us. Yes your perception is absolutely right. Now the next new course is due to research itself as the next step. For airport that must have been extensive and time and effort was. I spent almost the most by going from airport to airport. I went to two principal airports in North America and our various Los Angeles Chicago have kenned there and New York and several others I went to Europe London Paris Brussels two of the two Washington including the federal Aeronautics Administration to list but with a control center where a scene takes place in the story the big control center which governs the airways. Then two towers and radar rooms. I rode flight decks at night so that I could get the feeling of one of the scenes in the story

and all these places I spend as I always do with my books now. Hours and hours with people getting a little information have a little information that. And where it is I was reading if at the end of those three years or whatever that you devoted to the book from the beginning to its writing I wonder if you don't feel now and again that you know more about airports in this case then you need to. I say that because I assume that in doing research you are not limiting it to the demands of the story at all. You're just finding out about. I think perhaps you might have a point that I am essentially a nosy person. This helps tremendously even has a little little things attract me. I was sight sometimes I talk to students and describe the race. As I said the research is fun and I could go on for ever. And I do the planning which isn't all that bad but there comes a point when you can put off the writing and I know that's why I do

so I do call a halt to the research and what I will say about it. And in doing research I wind up with lots of material that I don't get to use. I think my earlier books. I'm thinking of the final diagnosis was like a woman slipped the research was showing. I try now to let the recently a part of the story so that it doesn't become a tricep. Well it certainly is not obtrusive here it's just part of the whole structure of the story it is inheres in it and belongs unquestionably I think you learn how to hide the hide the research if you regard the effort rather if you all use a lot a little as you go along. I think that each book ought to be a little better than the rest. One hopes anyway. Now wasn't true of hotels as well and as you were getting ready ready to write that did you go into the same degree of research. Yes I did I. I spent a lot of time with people and sometimes this pays off and sometimes it does doesn't it requires of course patience to

begin with I when I'm doing research. I never deceive anyone I feel very strongly about that I always say what I am and what I'm doing what I do say that I'm not a newspaper reporter not even a magazine writer. I'm interested in your job your philosophy and your experiences. What you tell me though will not appear for three years and when it does if I use it it will be wrapped up so that it will affect and I can do this or not be embarrassing to you it's a promise I always keep such sometimes as I say with individuals. I don't get into things sometimes. Suddenly I find I have it's really like angling you keep a line in the water and quite unexpectedly and on my hand I carried a good size vest. No important point do you begin to decide upon the nature of your story. Usually toward the end of my research I have a fairly general idea of what the theme is going to be. I try to go into a new project

without any preconceived ideas and usually I do manage that. But by the time I've seen all these people talked with them been in their homes I try to do that very much by a process of osmosis I have begun to see in life perhaps through their eyes. I still hope with objectivity but to some extent through their eyes and the theme usually occurs to me the basic theme in airport for example the theme is that progress in the air has consistently outdistance progress on the ground. I knew that before I got to the end. But then when I come back I go very carefully of all my notes. They're quite extensive I don't take notes when I'm with people only subsequently but I do have to tell the notes and I pick out incidents which interest me. Little stories and I could defy it wanted to wind up with a dozen short stories. And what point do the characters then emerge for you. You decide who is going to be the character.

Usually at the same time. That the idea comes from a theme. I usually think of who the the main character the protagonist the man who is really going to reflect the impulse of the story it will be. About that time I usually decide who we will be what his background is when he was born when he went to school if he was involved in military service what he does now as hard as for lost his marriage his children and I make a detailed summary of this kind of writing that never of course sees the light of day but it brings this person into perspective. And then as I begin writing more and more he or she becomes alive I do this with the principal characters The other than my own characters come along as I develop my facets of the story. I will say that none of this comes quickly or easily. The interwoven plot the multi

plot which I rather enjoy doing because it's a mental challenge is something that takes weeks and weeks of figuring out and sometimes I'm well into the story. I try to do all the planning. But. Sometimes I'm well into the story before I see how one part of the story can be interwoven with another without without being forced. I hadn't intended to ask you about plot in your in your planning and you may have suggested an answer already of course. I had assumed that possibly you worked out in detail because everything else that you've been doing has been done in detail. I might assume however that the story just worked itself out in a logical and reasonable way hanging together and producing the suspense that is so characteristic of your work. That takes some planning I know. Actually you're paying me a compliment Mr Bob by saying that because I want to appear that way to a pet store because thought I thought I might but I will show you that it does take many hours in what you think those pieces.

Those places will never relate. And of course the thing one has to remember is that in real life real life is full of coincidence. Except it but in fiction the writer must not resort to coincidence. He'll be charged with with too much machination Dorio. I'll tell you a little more for fully what I had in mind I was thinking of suspense. I was thinking too of that Myra the airliner just off the runway in your novel a perfect situation to produce suspense. I thought they never get that plane out of there and they didn't until you needed it out of the way for your story. You were behind the scenes pulling the strings weren't you on that occasion. Yes I was and yet you know this brings operate around a strange thing. People have asked me about this business of suspense before and it would be foolish of me to deny that my stories are suspenseful I'm I'm happy that I live that way but I also know real readers I'm sure. Thank you. I honestly couldn't tell you how this

happens and I don't consciously strive for suspense because I think if you do it wouldn't come off. What I do is to tell the story in sequence a simply as I can then perhaps I have a kind of mind that produces this result. But I truthfully do not consciously try for success but suspense because I wouldn't know how. Well we could point to that mired airliner as a really good example. What is your purpose the deep underlying purpose I mean in choosing this type of story. Is it to produce the greatest amount of effect upon the reader so that the story will have the upmost effect upon him. You know I sometimes wonder if any of us really know our deeper motivations. I'm not sure the mind terribly complicated. I only know that from my earliest childhood I have always enjoyed telling a story I was sent my

friends the AAT of the storyteller all done on arrival one going back to the court jester. I enjoy telling a story. I enjoy nothing more than the letters I get from readers telling whether they have got enjoyment from this and the F in the course of the day or week or we can I can bring a measure of enjoyment I find myself quite moved emotionally to know that this is so. I simply am a storyteller. If something more comes through and cause of that then that's fine but I've always enjoyed doing this. I've told my children stories and still vilification away. That's really the gist of it as far as I'm concerned. Well this certainly didn't doesn't have to be apologized for in any degree or to a wholly professional a storyteller and a long one and a honorable one. And just to tell a story extremely well so that the reader is held by it is enough.

It seems to me at least is for one type of novel that's sure. Now I want to ask you something about the function in the novel of a man Mike Del Bakersfield easy in any sense your mouthpiece or you probably react against that or is he speaking for those people that you got to know well through your research. The second rather than the fust I only very occasionally do I let my own strongly held views and Trude and then only when there is definite relevance to the story. Now Mel Bay has filed the APA general manager and the story is really the Somme and his thoughts and expressions of free man. Whom I met in the course of my resume research some of the background the fact that he was a fighter pilot in Korea came from one man. Some of the other things the relationship of President Kennedy came from another and some of the environment

in which he works kind of a thought. And these were three man who had philosophers and thoughts and feelings who cared about their jobs. And by the time I had spent a lot of time with them I began to share both their failings and the intense professionalism which I admired so in a way because Feld is them mouthpiece not mine. And you only hear other theories of the novel that we've not dealt with those for anything you'd like to say about the form. It obviously excites you interest you challenge you all the way through I think. The thing one thing and this is something else that I tell students is that it's a cliche to say that all of us has a novel but I think it's true in the earliest stages of writing if we're thinking in terms of background. We can we can draw on our own which is familiar

to us. After that I think we we have to go out and work to get the material and the other thing I feel very strongly about and I tell this to people who want to be writers is this that whatever you're doing in terms of writing whether it's a long novel or whether it's a short paragraph or a memory sheet to give to it the absolute best that you can and never at any point be horrid or settle for less than less because those are the kind of work habits which once acquired will stay with you and that's I feel. But it has to be put in there as of what is behind them in the book. I still have to leave for those who are more analytical. Most of them have novels. Are you concerned at all by what the airlines feel would be the effect upon the public by your making use of the explosion in a novel of this sort.

I don't think that's the only specific saying but I was concerned when I was concise and aware of the reaction of airports and airlines before the book came out I wondered what their finance of the bay and I'm happy to say that a so Father reaction which I've had that have been X and I think I might mention that before I left my home I had a most warm letter from the vice president public relations of Trans World Airlines which I appreciated deeply. I had a letter which I received in my hotel yesterday from the general manager of Los Angeles International Airport. Former president incidentally of the airport operators counsel who referred to this as a magnificent story and said that he had been buying copies in quantity for distribution. The Assistant Commissioner who runs the airport at Chicago and there's no great secret that a great deal of this story is based on how I can say this now was exceedingly compliments and actually

said if they ever make the movie heroine I want to be out on the runway directing my size and I. Well it certainly is true that aerial sabotage has occurred. It's not an invention of yours is not what you're suggesting to anybody who is suggestible so that they can't really complain about it. I think the two things as well as that underlie the story one is the emphasis on the continual continued watchfulness about ass safety. I know of no one in the business so who isn't deeply concern about this that that track record record is excellent and I think the other thing too that the people fail is that vests overall as it was is an MRA picture I intended it to be I never go into an area that I don't generally have my every area has its little weaknesses and foibles and and amazing anecdotes and so on but overall this isn't a modern picture of both airports and aviation. Even though the shortcomings are there true.

Little more to the point that I was trying to make is that it never occurred to me for example that it was possible to become a stowaway on an airplane. Well I never thought I hope I don't know about a stowaway but my character in the book was his aide a quonset the old lady is actually based upon a real person and this does happen and let's take a Chicago airport. Rarely a week goes by where the airlines that have at least one stow away home they find them I guess to others when they don't. In the story my old lady slips aboard an airplane in Los Angeles to see her married daughter in the yokes he uses a number of tricks which I described that I didn't intended to be a handbook. And. Bought by this way and she gets away at the the Allies knows that they have one more passenger than they have tickets but they they have a time schedule. They have the problem of delays down the line

so they go away with the headcount not matching the ticket Calley just close the door and go. And in the story it when the old lady has visited her daughter I see she goes to the avocat and they bring her back in this as I say it was based upon something that I thought the airlines treated her remarkably well I must say and she was a charming lady. I could have already found her as the star of progress on the airlines generally do treat people via Well of all kinds. Well thank you Arthur Henty for this quick flight over the subject matter covered in your novel airport. I want to assure our listeners that this book is a continuously interesting story at times even agonizingly suspenseful as a good tale ought to be I think this is a tribute to Mr. Haley's craftsmanship as a novelist who knows how to get the effects that he wants and I'm sure all readers that they will learn a great deal about airports. Next week another author of a good and rewarding book. Until then good reading to you the readers all men act is produced by Warren Bauer

and is originally broadcast by station WNYC in New York. The programs are made available to this station by national educational radio. This is the national educational radio network.