Pubspeaks

An Odyssey: From the Courtroom to the Best Sellers List

By James McGrath Morris, Board Member

Speaking to an enthusiastic Bethesda audience on April 23, David O. Stewart described how he came to write and publish his best-selling account of the Constitutional Convention. Stewart, who is president of WIW’s Freedom to Write Fund, described how a number of years ago when, as an attorney, he was arguing a case that wandered into uncharted constitutional waters. His opponents cited James Madison’s notes to the Constitutional Convention.

Believing the reference was incorrectly being used against his case, Stewart spent the weekend reading the entire 500-plus-page account that Madison had written during the Convention. Although Stewart did not disclose whether his reading of the tome helped him win his case in court, it led to his writing The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented The Constitution, which is being hailed as the best book on the topic in 40 years and showed up as number six on The Washington Post best-sellers list in April.

“Since Catherine Drinker Bowen’s Miracle at Philadelphia appeared in 1966, no work has challenged its classic status. Now, Stewart’s work does,” said Publishers Weekly. “Briskly written, full of deft characterizations and drama, grounded firmly in the records of the Convention and its members’ letters, this is a splendid rendering of the document’s creation.”

During the Bethesda evening, Stewart talked at length about how he distilled the complex, and potentially dull story, into a tightly woven narrative. Stewart, who is also a novelist, said he marshaled many of the techniques commonly used in fiction. He made sure to limit the number of actors who took to the stage in his narrative. For example, Stewart often purposely left some of the delegates unnamed so as not to overwhelm the reader with endless identifications.

Following a plan Stewart said that David McCullough used in his book, 1776, Stewart also endeavored to let the delegates’ own words appear as much as possible rather than paraphrasing. While this means that readers are confronted with antiquated English, it provides authentic and rewarding insights into the men who gathered during that fateful summer and makes readers almost feel as if they too were present at the moment.

In addition to talking about writing the book, Stewart regaled the audience with a humorous account of his path through the New York publishing world. It was a path, he said, that began at a WIW annual writers conference where he obtained an agent and that ended with a two-book contract with Simon & Schuster editor Alice Mayhew, one of the publishing world’s most venerated editors.

Stewart’s talk was one in a series of “Pubspeaks” sponsored by WIW. The next one will feature Washington, D.C.,-author Kenneth D. Ackerman who will be discussing his new book, Young J. Edgar Hoover, the Red Scare, and the Assault on Civil Liberties. It will be held at The Front Page, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va., Tuesday, May 22, from 7–9 p.m. The location is wheelchair accessible and close to Ballston Metro.

For more on David Stewart, read a recent WIW Q&A with Stewart by Joseph Barbato.

Sign up for the next Pubspeak online.