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June 27, 2006

Woodstock is history: Stories I wrote in '89 will be part of a college textbook

I learned last night that the first three of my Woodstock stories -- written in '89 about '69 -- are to be republished in a college textbook about the '60s. Prentice Hall is producing "Time It Was" in the fall, probably for release early in 2007.

The book's editors, Tim Koster and Karen Smith, had seen the series on the Web and emailed me several years ago asking if we could talk about including them. We had several nice phone conversations about history and memories, but I told them the Providence Journal owned the stories, and they'd have to negotiate with them. Over the years, I forgot about it.

After an email out of the blue from Tim Koster last week saying the book was finally heading to production, I asked if these stories would be in it. Yesterday Karen Smith emailed to say they would be published exactly as they ran in the paper, and added,

I shared your story with some of my history students last year and they loved it. Most felt they had only had a few vague ideas about Woodstock before reading it, and they really appreciated the detail.

I have enormous respect for the interface of history and journalism, for firsthand accounts and primary sources. The 50 people I interviewed for that series each experienced a different festival, every one of them describing events the others hadn't witnessed. They were all curious about what others had told me, and when I told them a little, they'd remember more. I'm glad their overlapping stories will represent that watershed event in this history textbook. No one person's account would be enough.

Woodstock ended the '60s, but the idea of Woodstock has been a long thread draping over the decades of our lives. I wrote that first trilogy in three weeks in the summer of '89, a raw reconstructed history that will now be studied, fer pete's sake, by our grandchildren. If I'd known it would be in the history books, I would probably have asked for a little more time.

Posted by Sheila Lennon at 2:14 AM | Permalink

Comments

Many people today regard Woodstock and the 60's in general as a dead movement that failed to achieve it's objectives and was abandoned by it's supporters. On the contrary, most of the ideas that were advanced in that time have since become part of mainstream civilisation. Although I no longer consider myself a "Hippie", the values I acquired at that time have now become firmly internalized and form the basis of the person I am today.
I remember Woodstock and the 60's as life-altering events that are still a part of everything I do today. It was and is the greatest event of my life. Thank you for helping to keep it alive for our grandchildren (Ohmigosh, did I just say grandchildren?)

Posted by: Greg Andreozzi on June 27, 2006 10:03 AM