OK--did that hook your attention? I feel bad about the
headline already. Because although it's true that
Debby Applegate, whose biography
of Henry Ward Beecher just won the Pulitzer Prize,
did hit some speed bumps in grad school, she went on
to write an engaging and award-winning work of
history. Listen to the podcast
I recorded with her, and then just try to resist
ordering her book.
One thought to take into the podcast: What does it say
about graduate school that the author of such a
diligently researched and well-written book could be
ill-suited to doctoral studies?
Truth be told, I'm not sure. Was she just a poor
test-taker, as she mentions in the podcast? Or is
there something about graduate school that rewards a
certain kind of student but not some other very
valuable ones? As someone who studied under some of
the same professors Debby had, I have written
elsewhere
that grad school may be good at producing a certain
kind of professional, but not the well-rounded
intellectual. Debby writes a heck of a book review,
for example, which not all of my graduate school
classmates could do.
I have a particular interest in these questions
because I was a perfectly adequate graduate student,
even pretty decent on occasion, but I don't think I
have what it takes to be a fine scholar. I have a more
journalistic temperament, I realized. I'm thankful for
my graduate school training, but grateful that my
professors did not push me into an academic career
which might have been a poor match. For those graduate
students who might have a calling as writers but not
necessarily as academic writers, Debby's story will be
fascinating.
Those who sign up for my podcast at iTunes
will hear upcoming interviews with master
ventriloquist Sandra Luckow (and her little puppet, or
"figure"), musician Jonny Rodgers, and voiceover
actress Peggy Flood (you've heard her background
murmur in some of your favorite films).