E-mail a friendEdward P. Jones
airdate October 8, 2004
Edward P. Jones was 13 years old when he discovered that books without pictures could be fun to read. This year, he won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for his first novel, The Known World. After college, the Washington DC native couldn't find a full-time job and was on his way to live with his sister in Brooklyn when he got word that Essence was publishing his first story. A former magazine proofreader, Jones composed and revised chapters for his novel entirely in his head.
Edward P. Jones
Tavis: I'm not exactly sure where you go with your career after your first novel--your first novel--wins the Pulitzer Prize, but for author Edward P. Jones, that's a pretty good problem to have. His novel 'The Known World' won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The book is now out in paperback. Edward P. Jones, nice to have you on the program.
Edward P. Jones: Thank you for inviting me.
Tavis: Glad to have you here. First of all, congratulations.
Edward: Thank you.
Tavis: Not just on the Pulitzer Prize, but on the MacArthur fellowship you recently received.
Edward: Yes.
Tavis: Um, so it's just raining good stuff in your life.
Edward: It's been a wonderful year.
Tavis: It has been a wonderful year. What did you make of-- Let me just back up. Where were you when you heard that you had in fact won this esteemed prize, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction?
Edward: I was at home, and I was trying to take a nap because I had a cold, and the phone rang twice, and there was messages from someone from the AP and then a friend. I was in the bedroom, and I didn't really--couldn't make out what they were saying. And I got up and went into the living room and took the phone off the hook and went back to bed. But I still couldn't sleep, so I got up and listened to the messages. And, uh, that's what they were about--saying that I'd won.
Tavis: And you seem like a pretty calm, levelheaded, low-key sort of guy. Did you exude any enthusiasm? What did you do? Did you run around your house?
Edward: Well, I went next door to my neighbor for 21 years, and I gave her a hug 'cause, uh, she's been with me for a long time. She's done a lot of good things for me.
Tavis: Mm-hmm. Um, what is-- what is winning something like the Pulitzer Prize on your first novel do for you? I can see it working a couple different ways. On the one hand, it puts your career on a wonderful journey, uh, sends you into the stratosphere. On the other hand, I suspect one could interpret that it puts a lot of pressure on a novelist. Which one are you experiencing?
Edward: Uh, well, I don't want any pressure on me 'cause I see the book as sort of a life. And you finish one book--project--and you go on to the next project--the next book. And I've often said that all the wonderful things that happened with 'The Known World,' I can't take those and write any other pages. Um, so, it's nice, it's wonderful, but then I have to go on to something else.
Tavis: You dedicate this book to your mother and your brother.
Edward: Yes.
Tavis: Your mother, who was unable to read.
Edward: She couldn't read or write.
Tavis: Couldn't read or write.
Edward: Right.
Tavis: What does it mean for you, then, to have a book that wins this prestigious award, and you are the son of a woman who couldn't even read or write?
Edward: Well, I think almost everything I do, I try to do it in her name. And so, it's gratifying to me to know that however long the book is in print, that people pick it up and see her name and know that she was the greatest influence in my life.
Tavis: You said in this book... You write to your mother or of your mother that she could have done much more in a better world. I think I know what you meant by that, but why don't you explain for me?
Edward: Well, I--she couldn't read or write, and I think there were a lot of things she could have done had she been educated, had she not had to work so hard. She was a dishwasher. She worked in a restaurant. I think there were a lot of things in my mother that were there and she could have brought out if she had been educated, if the world had been a different place.
Tavis: I want to get to the story here in just a second. I want to let you share the story of what the book is about, but I'm just laughing inside at how this book came to be. I'm told that you actually went on vacation for a couple few weeks, and that turned into 3 weeks and 4 weeks and 5 weeks, and before you knew it, you had been fired, so you just stayed where you were and kept writing.
Edward: Yeah, well, I had no choice. I had been on this job for 19 years, and, uh--
Tavis: Yeah. What job was it? What kind of job was it?
Edward: It was a nonprofit organization called Tax Analysts, and I was summarizing newspaper and magazine articles for them. And I had 5 weeks of vacation. And a little after Christmas 2001, I took those 5 weeks and started writing the book. And 2 weeks into that, the guy calls me up and says I don't have a job anymore. They let me go. I had been there the longest of the 25 people they canned. But, you know, I had no choice. I had to keep going. And so, luckily, the book was laid out in my mind. I had it all laid out. I had it all plotted and planned, and I had about 75 pages that I had already done. So, I was pretty far along, you know?
Tavis: When you say you had the book laid out in your mind, these days, there's no one particular method as you well know that any particular--or that all authors use, but I'm fascinated when you said you had the book laid out in your mind. Not on your computer, not on your disc, not on a bunch of notepads, not on a bunch of journals. You had this whole thing--your first novel that wins the Pulitzer--all in your head.
Edward: Yes. I worked on it in my head for about 10 years. I did have 12 pages, 12 pages of hard copy that you could hold in your hand. The book is about 388 pages. And so, about 370 pages was in my head. People now are rather amazed at it. I didn't think anything of it. That was my life, that was the way I was working on the book, and so it wasn't anything weird or strange to me. I just knew the book was there. 'Cause when you live with it for 10 years, you sort of know them like you know the people in an old village.
Tavis: Mm-hmm. Let's talk about the folk in this book. Tell me about 'The Known World.'
Edward: At the center of it is Henry Townsend, a black man who was born a slave. His father and mother bought him out of slavery. He accumulates a good deal of wealth by making shoes and boots. He is the protégé of a white man who once owned him, William Robbins. The book opens with Henry on his deathbed, and after that, it's about what happens to his plantation and to his wife and to his 33 slaves after his death.
Tavis: Tell me how that era came to be of such interest to you where you wanted to write this many pages about that era.
Edward: Well, I had written my first book, and the creative mind, I suppose, abhors a vacuum.
Tavis: The first book was a collection of short stories.
Edward: About people in Washington, D.C. Yes. So, I remembered this fact that I had learned in college--that there had been black people who owned slaves. And remembering that, somewhere along the line, this image of Henry Townsend on his deathbed came to me. And with that, I could see these three women in the room with him, and I just began to fashion a world, a novel out of that image.
Tavis: I'm always impressed... As I've said before on this program, I read a number of books, all nonfiction, but I'm always impressed at people who have written books made of fiction--fiction books--because you have to create this. Having said that, I wonder whether or not there is something you think or perhaps you intended something in this novel 'The Known World' to be instructive to the reader in any sort of way?
Edward: I didn't have that in-- I didn't have any sort of agenda, I didn't have any issues, but I believe in certain things, you know? The majesty, for example, of black people. And I suppose I couldn't write anything that didn't put that idea forward. Even though I'm not consciously writing that. But no, I didn't have any sort of issues. I just, I started out thinking that I was gonna write exclusively about the slaves, and then the novel took on a larger and larger role, and other people came forward. But, no, I didn't have any sort of-- I don't-- I just wanted to tell a good story, you know? I'm a storyteller.
Tavis: When you say the novel took on--and I appreciate the fact that you are a good storyteller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning storyteller now--but when you say the novel took on a life of its own, how does that happen? If you're creating this stuff in your head and you're writing this stuff, how does the novel, the story, take on a life of its own?
Edward: Well, I always--I tell students that, you know, your plan is to go from Washington to Baltimore, you know? Baltimore is your ultimate destination. But along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, you might see a sign of a city that you've never known before, and you decide to take a detour, but ultimately, you will end up in Baltimore. So, that little thing about taking a life of its own is that detour to the city that you had never been to before.
Tavis: I've read in profiles of you that you're a pretty simple man, that you don't drive, that you don't have a cell phone, so now that you've won the Pulitzer, might you get a car and a cell phone?
Edward: No, because that would make me someone who didn't write the book. I want to stay the same person. I'm gonna have to stay the same person.
Tavis: Yeah. Well, you can be the same person, I guess, and be in touch with--
Edward: I have no desire to own anything I can't fold up and bring into my apartment every night.
Tavis: Yeah, well, you gotta get from book signing to book signing some sort of way.
Edward: They have cabs. They have cabs. They have busses. They have subways.
Tavis: And where do you make your home?
Edward: In Washington, D.C.
Tavis: In Washington. I see. So you... D.C. has got a good transportation system. Yeah.
Edward: It does. Yeah. I depend on it.
Tavis: Good, friendly, cab drivers. I guess you do if you don't have a car or a cell phone.
Edward: I have to. I have to.
Tavis: He is Edward P. Jones. Remember the name. He will be around for a while. His first novel 'The Known World' won him the Pulitzer Prize. We should all be so lucky to write our first book and have it win the most prestigious book award in the world. We are awfully proud of Edward P. Jones. Nice to have you on the program. Congratulations.
Edward: Thank you very much.
Tavis: I'm glad to have you here. Now that we've talked to Edward P. Jones, we will talk next to a legend in her own time, actress and comedienne Lily Tomlin. Should be a great conversation with Ms. Tomlin. Stay with us. We're back in just a moment.
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