STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Paul Firstenberg had no idea that the novel he had started decades earlier would mirror the day’s news by the time it came out a few weeks ago.
But the ink was still drying on the pages of “Murder in the Land of Cotton” as headlines appeared in daily newspapers about efforts to tear down Confederate statues in the wake of anti-racist/white supremacist clashes in cities like Durham, N.C., and Charlottesville, Va.
One of the chapters in the novel revolves around efforts to tear down a Confederate statue.
“When I wrote that chapter, I had no idea it would become front-page news,” he said. “But it’s every writer’s dream to have their book become so topical.”
Paul Firstenberg will talk about his novel in a conversation with Norm Leopold, a lawyer, former talk show host and judge, at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 5, at Ketchum’s Community Library.
“He’s written four books—this being fiction is completely out of character for him,” said Leopold. “This one addresses issues that, unfortunately, are very contemporary. I'm about a third of the way through so far and it's really an interesting story.”
Firstenberg, who divides his time between Hailey and Greenwich, N.Y., has published several non-fiction books, including “The 21st Century Nonprofit” and “Managing for Profit in the Nonprofit World.”
But this is his first foray into fiction.
It started when his wife came downstairs holding a manuscript she’d found that contained a couple chapters about a black man who was attempting to be the first black mayor of a major southern city.
“Who wrote this? You don’t write like this,” Joanne Firstenberg told her husband.
Firstenberg didn’t even remember writing those two chapters. But he was intrigued that he spent the next 3.5 years completing what he’d started.
“I got up every day and put everything else aside to work on it. And, in the course of doing it, I decided I liked it—it was great fun,” said the 83-year-old. “I decided I’ve done enough teaching in my life. This is my new career. I’ve done this and I have another in the making.”
As Firstenberg wrote, the man who was running for mayor in his novel was assassinated. And the city’s black residents began rioting.
“At its heart, the novel is an examination of the challenges to the deeply held culture of a southern city and the courage of the citizens who bring about change,” Firstenberg summed up the book for Amazon.
The book is loosely based on anecdotes Firstenberg collected and people he met while serving as chancellor at Tulane University in New Orleans during the 1990s.
He set the book in the 1990s because, he said, it was an interesting time when the civil rights laws had been on the books for awhile but the city was still struggling to overcome its racist legacy. Its economy was tanking and city leaders had not yet cultivated tourism as the major industry it is today.
“I wanted to see how the civil rights laws had shaped and impacted the city, how the city had dealt with racism,” he said.
The city’s approach is pragmatic, he added. Leaders, for instance, are torn between tearing down Confederate statues and recognizing that they’re tourist attractions.
Firstenberg found New Orleans a warm, inviting city.
“In New York people tend to be interested only in my resume. But the people of New Orleans are very sociable, very warm,” said Firstenburg, who has a law degree from Harvard University and has served as adjunct professor at the Yale School of Management and the Baruch College of Public Affairs.
But, he said, social status defines a lot of what New Orleans is. Social status was more important than political views, and without the right pedigree you couldn’t socialize in certain circles.
“You couldn’t get a loan if you didn’t have the right social pedigree,” he said. “And I know of two people who had to meet at a different restaurant than the one they might have gone to because one was not accepted there. This society has extremes that people have embraced, although it’s beginning to change.”
That change is reflected in Firstenberg’s book as he illustrates the importance of standing up to racism, even though doing so can be dangerous.
“Good people have to be willing to stick their necks out to make a difference,” he said.
Firstenberg has patterned a couple of the characters in his book after strong Southern belles he met while in New Orleans.
One of them is Lindy Boggs, a Congresswoman from Louisiana who helped Firstenberg save “Sesame Street” when its funding was threatened. She was, he said, the only white member of Congress who represented a district whose citizens were primarily African-American
“Southern women are spectacular. I never met anyone with the social skills of the women of New Orleans,” he said. “They’d take over at a dinner party and you couldn’t get in another word. And they didn’t allow business or politics to get in the way, no matter how different guests’ views might be.”
Firstenberg’s next book was inspired by the Peregrine Ranch near his home in Hailey.
“It’s an adventure—pure adventure,” he said. “And it’s inspired by the peregrine falcon. I looked them up to see what they are and they’re amazing birds, able to dive more than 200 miles an hour when they’re hunting.”
“Murder in the Land of Cotton” is available on www.amazon.com and Kindle.