Ask the Author: Steve Procko
Answered Questions (3)
Steve Procko
I am very organized in my approach. I build a full outline on what I am working on and often write the beginning and ending at the same time.
My work is non-fiction and requires a lot of research. It's a scavenger hunt and I love doing the detective-work. Finding the unexpected while researching the facts is great inspiration for me.
My work is non-fiction and requires a lot of research. It's a scavenger hunt and I love doing the detective-work. Finding the unexpected while researching the facts is great inspiration for me.
Steve Procko
My latest book, "Captured Freedom," came from the sharing of the photograph of twelve ragged men taken on 1/2/1865 by one of their descendants. It sent me on a journey that required a lot of detective work. I wanted to know each of their stories.
Though the photograph can be found in many institutions across the United States, including the National Archives and Library of Congress, the story of the men had been lost to history and in some cases mixed up with the history of others.
Now their little-known true story can finally be told.
I got the idea for my first book, "Rebel Correspondent," while researching a Civil War story for a documentary I am working on.
I came across the 120 year old writings of a cavalry private named Arba F. Shaw that was published in his local paper over three years in 55 articles. Then it was all but forgotten.
Twenty years before Shaw wrote his account of life as a cavalry soldier, another soldier, the 1st Tennessee's Infantry Regiment's Samuel Rush Watkins (1839-1901) wrote his account of his experiences in the Civil War. The Columbian Herald newspaper in Columbia, Tennessee, serialized Watkins' writings from 1881 to 1882, then published the account as a critically acclaimed book, Co. Aytch: Maury Grays First Tennessee Regiment or A Side Show of the Big Show, in late 1882. They predominately featured Watkins' eyewitness accounts in Ken Burns PBS documentary on the Civil War.
When I found Shaw's articles, and finding them all required a bit of a scavenger hunt because a few that missing, I knew this was something historically significant.
Though the photograph can be found in many institutions across the United States, including the National Archives and Library of Congress, the story of the men had been lost to history and in some cases mixed up with the history of others.
Now their little-known true story can finally be told.
I got the idea for my first book, "Rebel Correspondent," while researching a Civil War story for a documentary I am working on.
I came across the 120 year old writings of a cavalry private named Arba F. Shaw that was published in his local paper over three years in 55 articles. Then it was all but forgotten.
Twenty years before Shaw wrote his account of life as a cavalry soldier, another soldier, the 1st Tennessee's Infantry Regiment's Samuel Rush Watkins (1839-1901) wrote his account of his experiences in the Civil War. The Columbian Herald newspaper in Columbia, Tennessee, serialized Watkins' writings from 1881 to 1882, then published the account as a critically acclaimed book, Co. Aytch: Maury Grays First Tennessee Regiment or A Side Show of the Big Show, in late 1882. They predominately featured Watkins' eyewitness accounts in Ken Burns PBS documentary on the Civil War.
When I found Shaw's articles, and finding them all required a bit of a scavenger hunt because a few that missing, I knew this was something historically significant.
Steve Procko
My historical nonfiction work is driven by stories that have largely disappeared from the historical record.
*Gilded Breeze* grew from more than three years of research into James Lawrence "Jimmie" Breese and his remarkable family. Their story opened a window into America's Gilded Age and led me through New York society, Stanford White and the world of the Four Hundred, early photography, automobiles, aviation, architecture, scandal, and the extraordinary changes taking place in America between 1880 and 1920.
I continue to research and produce short historical films through *There's History Around Every Bend*, exploring the people, places, photographs, documents, and forgotten stories that make history personal.
I'm also researching *Slow Movie*, a historical nonfiction project about photographer and journalist Alexander Black and the creation of his remarkable 1894 "picture play," *Miss Jerry*. Black told a feature-length dramatic story using hundreds of projected photographs years before motion pictures became a commercial reality.
There is always another story waiting to be found.
More at HistoryBend.org.
*Gilded Breeze* grew from more than three years of research into James Lawrence "Jimmie" Breese and his remarkable family. Their story opened a window into America's Gilded Age and led me through New York society, Stanford White and the world of the Four Hundred, early photography, automobiles, aviation, architecture, scandal, and the extraordinary changes taking place in America between 1880 and 1920.
I continue to research and produce short historical films through *There's History Around Every Bend*, exploring the people, places, photographs, documents, and forgotten stories that make history personal.
I'm also researching *Slow Movie*, a historical nonfiction project about photographer and journalist Alexander Black and the creation of his remarkable 1894 "picture play," *Miss Jerry*. Black told a feature-length dramatic story using hundreds of projected photographs years before motion pictures became a commercial reality.
There is always another story waiting to be found.
More at HistoryBend.org.
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