Ignore History at Your Own Peril [An Evening with Jeff Shaara]

Submitted by Leslie Marinelli

Forsyth Reads Together: An Evening with Jeff Shaara at the Forsyth Conference Center last night was a smashing success! Thankfully the rain did not scare away the 243 attendees who turned out to hear author Jeff Shaara speak about his serendipitous writing career, his numerous bestselling books, or his passion for researching primary sources.

Here are some of the highlights from last night’s event... 

Library Director Anna Lyle welcomed everyone, thanked our sponsors (Forsyth County Arts Alliance and FCPL Friends and Advocates), and introduced Mr. Shaara. The audience chuckled when Anna dramatically recounted the FOUR times this program was canceled and rescheduled over the past two years. 

Mr. Shaara revealed some very interesting and personal information about his writing process and motivation. He sees himself primarily as a storyteller rather than as a historian or pundit, and the hunt for a good story has become his guiding principle over the past three decades as a full-time writer. It’s the “stories nobody knows” rather than the facts and dates we all had to memorize in school that get him really excited. That being said, he draws the line at “airing dirty laundry” and has no plans to write about his relationship with his father, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara. 

Jeff Shaara’s passion for uncovering hidden stories from primary sources was clearly evident when he spoke about Mira Hancock’s memoir which was the inspiration behind one of his favorite scenes in Gods and Generals. As Mr. Shaara was talking about it, I could almost hear Mira playing the piano while longtime friends Hancock and Armistead tearfully vowed to never raise arms against each other. Both men eventually became generals, fought on opposing sides of the Civil War, and were wounded during Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. General Armistead died of his wounds several days later.

The story of how and where Armistead fell in Pickett’s Charge is what Mr. Shaara said changed his father’s life, and ultimately his own. Mr. Shaara was only 12-years-old visiting Gettysburg with his father when he experienced the emotional effect of his father’s powerful storytelling. Mr. Shaara said it took his dad the next 7 years to research and write The Killer Angels. He passed away before it was made into the highly successful 1993 film, Gettysburg, which subsequently inspired Jeff Shaara to follow in his dad’s (“enormous”) footsteps and write Gods and Generals, the prequel to The Killer Angels. 

One of the lighter moments of the evening was when Mr. Shaara discussed the importance of visiting battlefields and walking the grounds where his stories took place. When researching The Frozen Hours he expressed an interest in visiting the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. His contact at the State Department told him, “Well, we can get you in…” Needless to say, the battlefields in North Korea are one of the few settings in his books that he hasn’t actually visited. 

I was fascinated to learn that Jeff and Stephanie Shaara’s home is a historic landmark in Gettysburg (which I also learned is pronounced GETT-is-burg by the locals). Known as Red Patch, it was built as a summer home in 1900 by Union Brevet Major General Charles H. T. Collis and is adjacent to a Gettysburg battlefield where actual cannons still stand. Jeff and Stephanie Shaara are committed to restoring the house to its original Victorian style and have a really interesting Facebook page dedicated to their progress. 

Our audience posed many excellent questions to Mr. Shaara during the Q & A. One such question was if Shaara has any reluctance to write about uncomfortable moments in history. Mr. Shaara’s answer, “I don’t care if there’s controversy, the history exists… ignore it at your own peril,” received a round of applause from the audience.

I think my favorite part of the night though was chatting with patrons as they waited in line to get their books signed by Mr. Shaara. I was especially enthralled by some of our younger audience members and their enthusiasm about Mr. Shaara’s writing. One such attendee, an 11th grade homeschooler named Iris, told me, “Jeff Shaara’s books made me fall in love with history.” Pretty powerful endorsement! 

I don’t typically read Civil War books, and I had never attended a Forsyth Reads Together event before last night, but I really did enjoy participating in this community-wide reading experience. Forsyth Reads Together is designed to bring neighbors together, and it definitely did just that, which is surprising for a book about the American Civil War! If you didn’t attend last night, I hope this blog post will shed some light on this event and maybe spark some interest in future community reading programs at FCPL.