and so, yes. i think it takes some time to get some perspective on how short life really is. was not that far away. >> wheeler of the top. thank you for listening. thank you. [applause] >> and that wraps up our coverage of the 2014 gators burbot festival in maryland. you can watch all to this coverage tonight on book tv. television for serious readers. >> welcome to mobile, alabama on book tv, located at the head of mobile bay in southern alabama, known for its rich french and spanish history as well as its

harbor. today mobile they're ranks first in the nation for wood pulp exports and is on to the retired u.s.s. alabama. with help from our comcast cable partners for the next hour we will explore the history and literary life of this port city with local authors. >> the wonderful thing about the gulf coast is it is, i think, so underappreciated which is good because there's a lot to write about. >> new york, sentences go, chicago, the cities and places are also well known. extraordinarily rich subject. of course launched the invasion and confiscation of all this land which immediately after the war was over the reid there would not have been settled if it had not been for this war. >> we will begin our special look of mobile with a conversation with novelist and

nonfiction author best known for his work forest gump. >> i enjoy writing about things. i mean, i think the problem sometimes with some books is that the writer has been teaching the subject. he does not come at it with a fresh eye. i grew up in mobile, alabama. i was born in washington d.c. second world war. my father was a lawyer with jagged pentagon. but i grew up here. i went to the university of alabama. and i went into the army in 19. an officer. that was -- of course we all

went over there and did that. came back. went to work as a reporter for the washington star for ten years and then i thought, well, if i don't get out of here and do this now i never well. i announce that i was going to resign to write a book. i thought that was rather brilliant. too embarrassed to go back to the newspaper. i went and wrote the book. it was a success i was pleased. to have been writing books ever since. i was barely fresh out of vietnam. it may have just about ended, but had never done anything

worth a hoot in my life except for that, i mean, except for the impression on me. and, you know, this was a war, of course, very unpopular. i use the technique of actually a number of those. jim, of course, red line. i am not talking about plagiarism. and they said, you know, and the new york times, he said something to the effect that i did not think a conventional war novel was going to work for vietnam. have your drolen and. i try to make it as interesting as i could. you know, newspapers.

well, the interesting thing. and so anyway, that was -- i was fumbling around with the technique. much easier. i did not know if i could write this thing. i don't know if i would have the same attention. after forest gump i'm still thinking that we are novelists. if you're lucky you have one good novel. if your are extremely lucky may have to. if you are most fortunate you may have three. i am looking at people who i know of. they sort of burnout. wound up continuing to write novels. there really did not want to

write them. the subject was not right. the publisher was pushing them. and so they get burned by the critics. they dropped themselves to death and i thought, well, that's not a row want to go down. you know, i'm pretty good at nonfiction. let's try that. i tried a book about the civil war. and that worked. again, it was like dow was paying him off. i liked it and i enjoy writing it. i wrote one book, a conversation with the enemy in that did not

enjoy it at all. the subject of it, the character is not a very respectable person to deal with. and it was difficult. when you have -- you don't like the subject but you know you're trying to get the truth here. you still have to go to all of that conversation. well, is this really -- can i really read this? anyway, it came out to be a good book. i knew i had arrived. years ago after the academy awards when forced come one of those prizes. i was invited up. the governor's ball, not the

state's governor, but the governor of the academy. gregory peck. and he shot to kill a mockingbird ride up the road here. and he knew alabama quite well. he said something to the effect that, you know, you created one of the few heroes we have around here lately. and i said, what do you mean? he said, well, we don't have any of those anymore. what i can think of, a national hero in this country, forest gump, and he's an idiot. and he said that to the newspapers after words. and i got of the local level

from the los angeles times. i keep it when i make a speech. sometimes i will take it out and read it to him. we don't. we looked at the heroes in the movies. something that drives us to have flawed heroes. you know, they are rereleasing that movie. we will be interesting. but from actually leaving the york, going to come down. he had just retired from his law practice. i came down and spent three or four weeks. one time i was having lunch with my father and he started to reminisce about when he was growing up. a young boy.

the kids would tease him and chased him and so on. and one day the young boy's mother fought a piano. they start moving into a home. and within two or three days this piano music wafted out over to the dusty streets. the early 1900's. and the other kids thought, you know, that is pretty neat. and so they took him under their wing. teasing a man throwing sticks at him. the protected in buried and i thought, drag him back over here . i may use it as a scene somehow. i recognize. sixty minutes had just done something about an idiot savant which was basically that. mathematical things from

musicals things that cannot tie their own shoes. i started making those notes. at some point i had written just about all of the first chapter. that was a remarkable thing. it was writing itself. i never believed. i would sit there and use my lizard brain. that is where it was coming from i did not have any notes, no research. what is he going to do? well, it was fun. it was the most fun i have ever had.

i like his voice. as it turned out, it was a big deal. you know, i don't do this for a hobby. it was just like work. and right now another history. soldiers. macarthur, pattern commercial. and you know, what you do, i don't know how many times. jammed packed with all sorts of material. and in the morning, author's work, get somebody to come call whenever you have to do. and in the afternoon, refresh myself.

primary source, secondary source . the frame of mind for what i am going to write about today. what do i know, what have i learned? what materials to i need? this was a west pointer. so i study these things and work myself into a frenzy. and that usually produces so many words per day. they don't operate quite like a regular publisher. okay.

this looks good. a deadline. that's pretty good for me. keeps him busy. you know, practice so that they can set it all up in the catalog . dangling out there for a long time. get it done. all publishers have different ways of doing things. i mean, i think that the problem sometimes with some books that come out of the history books, the writer has been teaching the subject for 40 years. he does not come at it with a fresh eye. history people, historians, they

-- not to say anything against them. i see it differently. i don't have to find the revision. further their professional self. i am not down with those rules. i don't have to revise it. i have not written about for four years. and so it's fascinating. i get excited about it. obviously you have to make factual. it is all in the telling. it is all in the telling. >> what advice would you give me ? >> get at kayseven tel lose it. and that's true.

everybody wants to be a writer. people publishing these books themselves all over the place. the publishers don't know. if you insist on doing it is obviously need to read. words, the technique and other devices that they use. the best. go do it. and then early on, epstein, known as the smiling cobra. you did not tell them. we had five editions a day. you did not tell them. i'm having a writer's block. i cannot think of anything right you would never do that.

whenever you do, put it down. we can fix it later. probably change it 100 times. that is that technique. >> this weekend book tv is in mobile, alabama with the help of our local cable partner comcast. next we sit down to discuss the fort mims massacre and the red stick war of 1813 to 1814. >> a 5--acre park and the southern end of alabama, the location of a major battle between americans and creek indians. the for itself, all kinds of folks taking shelter from the

pending in the attack. local settlers, alicia from the mississippi territory. about 500 people inside this court. august 3rd used 1815 a faction of the creeks that were quite upset with the american policy attacks the ford. along battle. 260300 people inside the four were killed. most older history books, i read about the massacre. there was much more to this story. like most american indians they had to find a way to deal with the expanding american settlements throughout the late 1819 century. in this area the creeks were quite successful, the cherokee, at least some portion

assimilating to american life style. quite a few wealthy people own slaves, big plantations, raise domestic livestock and largely were kind of accommodating their way of life to american norms of agriculture and other kinds of things. a large part of the creek nation did not see the advantage to that. it wanted to maintain. there was a real risk in the creeks in 1813, civil war broke out and what happened here kind of was a continuation of the civil war brought american sense of the war against the reds take creek faction that was anti-american. religious component to it. the shawnee were proselytizing for a new kind of religious way of life. they converted to that profit religion.