Dale Maharidge's Blog
March 17, 2014
BRINGING MULLIGAN HOME--GETTING CLOSER TO SOLVING THE MYSTERY
Check out these links about my Dad's missing WWII buddy if you are interested in my book that came out last year, Bringing Mulligan Home. We may be on course to bringing him home.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014...
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014...
October 5, 2013
Bringing Mulligan Home in the New York Times
A few days ago I got a phone call and an email from Lawrence Downes, an editorial page writer at the New York Times. He'd read Bringing Mulligan Home and he wanted to meet. We had coffee. And then he wrote this column that is in Sunday's New York Times. Lawrence not only got the book--he gets how important it is that we be aware of veterans and their issues. Thank you Lawrence for caring.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/opi...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/opi...
April 29, 2013
THE NEW YORKER--Review of "Someplace Like America"
SOMEPLACE LIKE AMERICA REVIEWED IN THE CURRENT NEW YORKER (April 29, 2013)--
George Packer writes in a “Critic At Large” column called “Don’t Look Down: The New Depression Journalism.” This is some of what Packer says about the book by me and Michael S. Williamson:
“The authors of “Someplace Like America” have been reporting on the American working class for thirty years.. . .[they] work self consciously in the vein of the thirties documentarians. Reading “Someplace Like America,” you realize that any story of the new depression needs a thirty-year prologue. There’s something doggedly heroic in this commitment to one of journalism’s least glamorous, least remunerative subjects.” -- George Packer.
Packer starts his essay citing the work of Edmund Wilson, Sherwood Anderson, John Dos Passos and others in the 1930s--all writers I have deeply read and drawn inspiration from. He notes that the most widely read books of our current depression have focused on the plutocrats. He writes that “Books of documentary reportage on the new depression have come and gone without much notice.” The point of his essay is to give attention to some of these books that look at the working class, including ours.
I have to say it’s gratifying to have a major magazine finally recognize “Someplace Like America.” (And at a good time, on the eve of the paperback release!) It was not reviewed by any of the big mainstream outlets at the time. It was ignored by the New York Times, The Washington Post, and so on. I’m grateful to two people: Bruce Springsteen, who wrote the forward to the book without us even asking for it. And to Amy Goodman and her show “Democracy Now!” (And her producer, Deena Guzder!) Amy had me on to talk about the book and that gave it a lot of attention.
Without Bruce and Amy, it would have really been published with a whisper.
Now also a HUGE thank you to George Packer.
George Packer writes in a “Critic At Large” column called “Don’t Look Down: The New Depression Journalism.” This is some of what Packer says about the book by me and Michael S. Williamson:
“The authors of “Someplace Like America” have been reporting on the American working class for thirty years.. . .[they] work self consciously in the vein of the thirties documentarians. Reading “Someplace Like America,” you realize that any story of the new depression needs a thirty-year prologue. There’s something doggedly heroic in this commitment to one of journalism’s least glamorous, least remunerative subjects.” -- George Packer.
Packer starts his essay citing the work of Edmund Wilson, Sherwood Anderson, John Dos Passos and others in the 1930s--all writers I have deeply read and drawn inspiration from. He notes that the most widely read books of our current depression have focused on the plutocrats. He writes that “Books of documentary reportage on the new depression have come and gone without much notice.” The point of his essay is to give attention to some of these books that look at the working class, including ours.
I have to say it’s gratifying to have a major magazine finally recognize “Someplace Like America.” (And at a good time, on the eve of the paperback release!) It was not reviewed by any of the big mainstream outlets at the time. It was ignored by the New York Times, The Washington Post, and so on. I’m grateful to two people: Bruce Springsteen, who wrote the forward to the book without us even asking for it. And to Amy Goodman and her show “Democracy Now!” (And her producer, Deena Guzder!) Amy had me on to talk about the book and that gave it a lot of attention.
Without Bruce and Amy, it would have really been published with a whisper.
Now also a HUGE thank you to George Packer.
January 30, 2013
Early Goodreads & Library Thing Reviews
I have been heartened by the early reviews by readers who won the book giveaway, both here and on LibraryThing. Not sure if any of you read this blog but I've posted small pieces of some of them on the the Facebook Page for Bringing Mulligan Home:
https://www.facebook.com/BringingMull...
I hope you can check it out!
Dale Maharidge
https://www.facebook.com/BringingMull...
I hope you can check it out!
Dale Maharidge
January 19, 2011
You can read a sample chapter now of Someplace Like America
Click here to read that chapter:
http://www.ucpress.edu/excerpt.php?is...
If the URL does not come up, type in "Dale Dimitro Maharidge" into Facebook and follow the link.
I hope you like it!
Dale Maharidge
January 19, 2011
http://www.ucpress.edu/excerpt.php?is...
If the URL does not come up, type in "Dale Dimitro Maharidge" into Facebook and follow the link.
I hope you like it!
Dale Maharidge
January 19, 2011
December 14, 2010
Bruce Springsteen has done a foreword to Someplace Like America
Check out the cover to Someplace Like America. We're really happy with it!
To learn more about the latest, check out my posts on Facebook by typing in "Someplace Like America: the book"
Dale Maharidge
To learn more about the latest, check out my posts on Facebook by typing in "Someplace Like America: the book"
Dale Maharidge
October 8, 2009
Someplace Like America--new book coming in 2010
This is the new book that is scheduled to be published by the University of California Press in September 2010. Once again, writer Dale Maharidge and photographer Michael Williamson have teamed to document workers in America. For more information, including pictures, go to
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pa...
(News: Check out the link posted on the main page for Someplace Like America: The Film...there is a video of us by documentary filmmaker Ron Wyman there.)
This book will be a documentary of America as it faces the hardest times since the Great Depression.
I began reporting on the "down and out" in 1980 with Michael. By 1982, we were deeply immersed in telling the story of workers caught up in the recession that was then the worst hard times since the Great Depression. Over three years, we traveled by thumb, on foot, in an old car, and rode on freight trains with job seekers. We slept in rescue missions and hobo jungles. That work became “Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass,” the first contemporary book published on the homeless. That book later inspired Bruce Springsteen to write two songs on his “Ghost of Tom Joad,” including the song, "Youngstown." (In some 70 words, Bruce captured what it took me 7,000 words to say.)
Michael and I have been traveling around the country again in 2009. We've been finding people we documented back in the 1980s. And we are documenting people hitting the street because of today's crash, and the stories of those still in houses but struggling to hang on.
In some ways, Someplace Like America wil be similar to Michael Apted’s “7-Up” concept--we will carry forward the story of the family that lived in a tent in Texas, others. But it will be a lot more. This book is a document of the past 30 years. It will rely on the ultimate experts--the people who are most affected by the bad economy. For those who read “Journey to Nowhere,” you are going to get the story behind the story. "Someplace Like America" will start in 1980 and travel forward. Even if you read Journey to Nowhere, you will recognize little of the first third of the new book that draws from that material. Previously untold stories will be included, including how the authors went undercover and worked in a de-facto slave camp in Texas. You will also read about the tent cities cropping up all over America in 2008 and 2009.
Most important, there will be lessons from the people who lived through their own personal Great Depressions from 30 years ago. These lessons are vital for us today. These hobos and jobless Americans from the 1980s are survivors. We can learn from them what needs to be done now.
It also will be a film of the same name. Director Aaron Wiederspahn and executive producer Buzz McLaughlin intend to shoot “Someplace Like America” in the fall of 2009. That team created the film, "Sensation of Sight," starring David Strathairn, that was released in 2008. Dale and Michael are working as producers on the film. There will also be a documentary by Ron Wyman.
All three projects--the book the film, the documentary--will show you a side of America that has been ignored by most in the mainstream media.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pa...
(News: Check out the link posted on the main page for Someplace Like America: The Film...there is a video of us by documentary filmmaker Ron Wyman there.)
This book will be a documentary of America as it faces the hardest times since the Great Depression.
I began reporting on the "down and out" in 1980 with Michael. By 1982, we were deeply immersed in telling the story of workers caught up in the recession that was then the worst hard times since the Great Depression. Over three years, we traveled by thumb, on foot, in an old car, and rode on freight trains with job seekers. We slept in rescue missions and hobo jungles. That work became “Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass,” the first contemporary book published on the homeless. That book later inspired Bruce Springsteen to write two songs on his “Ghost of Tom Joad,” including the song, "Youngstown." (In some 70 words, Bruce captured what it took me 7,000 words to say.)
Michael and I have been traveling around the country again in 2009. We've been finding people we documented back in the 1980s. And we are documenting people hitting the street because of today's crash, and the stories of those still in houses but struggling to hang on.
In some ways, Someplace Like America wil be similar to Michael Apted’s “7-Up” concept--we will carry forward the story of the family that lived in a tent in Texas, others. But it will be a lot more. This book is a document of the past 30 years. It will rely on the ultimate experts--the people who are most affected by the bad economy. For those who read “Journey to Nowhere,” you are going to get the story behind the story. "Someplace Like America" will start in 1980 and travel forward. Even if you read Journey to Nowhere, you will recognize little of the first third of the new book that draws from that material. Previously untold stories will be included, including how the authors went undercover and worked in a de-facto slave camp in Texas. You will also read about the tent cities cropping up all over America in 2008 and 2009.
Most important, there will be lessons from the people who lived through their own personal Great Depressions from 30 years ago. These lessons are vital for us today. These hobos and jobless Americans from the 1980s are survivors. We can learn from them what needs to be done now.
It also will be a film of the same name. Director Aaron Wiederspahn and executive producer Buzz McLaughlin intend to shoot “Someplace Like America” in the fall of 2009. That team created the film, "Sensation of Sight," starring David Strathairn, that was released in 2008. Dale and Michael are working as producers on the film. There will also be a documentary by Ron Wyman.
All three projects--the book the film, the documentary--will show you a side of America that has been ignored by most in the mainstream media.
