“What interests me is trying to
catch the reflection of the human being on the page. I'm interested in how
ordinary people live their lives.” – Tracy Kidder
John “Tracy” Kidder, who just turned
70, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of nonfiction focusing on – as he says –
the lives of “everyday people.” He has
explored a wide range of topics through his books, ranging from his award
winner, The Soul of a New Machine (about a breakthrough development of a computer)
to House, a "biography" of a couple having their first house
built, to Among Schoolchildren, reflecting on U.S. education through the
lives of 20 children and their
teacher. His Old Friends was a
poignant study of a pair of elderly men in a nursing home.
Considered a literary
journalist because of the strong story line and
personal voice in his writing,
he wrote in a 1994 essay
for The Atlantic
that "In fiction, believability may have nothing to do with reality or
even plausibility. It has everything to do with those things in nonfiction. I
think that the nonfiction writer's fundamental job is to make what is true
believable."
A
native of New York City, Kidder served two years in Vietnam, but said that unlike
other veterans who became writers he didn’t think that had much influence on
him. “I know that to write you have to
have stories you want to tell,” he said.
“You just have to keep your mind alive, and you have to work hard. Things were here before you and will be here
after you're gone. The geographic features, especially, give you a sense of
your own place in the world and in time.”
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