Melanie Kirkpatrick
Author Interview - Melanie Kirkpatrick
Author of LADY EDITOR: Sarah Josepha Hale and the Making of the Modern American Woman
"Lady Editor" is the biography of Sarah Josepha Hale, editor, author, women's advocate and godmother of our Thanksgiving Day holiday. She was the most influential woman of the 19th century.
Author Interview - Melanie Kirkpatrick
Author I draw inspiration from: The editorial board of The Wall Street Journal, of which I was a longtime member. I admire the editorial writers' sparkling prose and their commitment to fact-based journalism.
Favorite place to read a book: Overlooking the little lake on which our house sits.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: The enigmatic Mr. Darcy from Austen's Pride and Prejudice
Author Interview - Melanie Kirkpatrick | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: There wasn't an "aha" moment. I've wanted to write since I edited a newspaper at the age of five at a summer day camp at the University of Buffalo.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: E-book for fiction, hardback for nonfiction. My brain seems to work differently depending on the genre.
The last book I read: Free. By Lea Ypi, a memoir of growing up in Communist Albania.
Author Interview - Melanie Kirkpatrick | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer: Computer! For ease of editing!
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Dorothea Brooke from George Eliot's Middlemarch.
Author Interview - Melanie Kirkpatrick | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: Journalist. I actually WAS a journalist for 30-plus years, mostly at The Wall Street Journal in New York City and Hong Kong. Writing books is my 'retirement' job, and I still contribute occasional op-eds and book reviews to the Journal. At the Journal, the editorials and op-eds I wrote were rarely longer than 900 words. Learning to write at length was hard for me when I wrote my first book. I had to break my habit of thinking in 900 word segments.
Favorite decade in fashion history: 2020s. I love dresses.
Place I’d most like to travel: Bhutan
My signature drink: Champagne by Veuve Cliquot, the Widow Cliquot in English. Like Sarah Josepha Hale, Mrs. Cliquot rose to fame in the 19th century, when she built her famous wine label. Also like Mrs. Hale, Madame Cliquot was widowed for many decades. When I sip Veuve Cliquot, I silently raise a toast to two women whose achievements were notable in an era when women didn't usually have the option of entering the professional world.
Favorite artist: Renoir
Number one on my bucket list: Hear the (Mormon) Tabernacle Choir sing in Salt Lake City.
Anything else you'd like to add: As a former lady editor myself, it was a great delight to research and write the biography of one of the most influential women in U .S. history. Little known fact about Hale: She -- not Mother Goose -- was the author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
Find more from the author:
Hudson.org (Hudson Institute), EncounterBooks.com
Author Bio: Melanie is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., and a former deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal's opinion section. She is the author of Thanksgiving: The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience and Escape from North Korea: The Untold Story of Asia's Underground Railroad. She grew up in Buffalo, N.Y. and has lived in Tokyo, Toronto, Hong Kong and Manhattan. She now resided in rural Connecticut.
