“Writing
is revision. All prose responds to work.”
–Tracy Kidder
Kidder turns 74 today and I thought
about him and his writing during yesterday’s Veterans Day activities and recently while working
on a writing project for Research Computing at CU Boulder. A Vietnam War veteran, Kidder is well known
in both the writing and computing worlds for the work that won him the Pulitzer
Prize, The Soul of a New Machine.
While that is Kidder’s prize winner,
I think his book House might be even
more deserving. Kidder, who lives in
Williamsburg, MA, said he hit on the idea of writing a book about the trials
and tribulations of building lawyer Jonathan Souweine's Amherst home while
following some local carpenters around.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtgQitCQ_MGrwxysW3UqK5fsvnx-7b0JrRoPnO4r7U-M0VA4Eky8O7S7Dqj86_njLHH_BfwOmDN9bIUbwD9rKW-VhhyrSJlF7JMon7YItASzbBTGYpL24cg322AJ8Oct_c0o5zIzjpVEFs/s400/th_009.jpg)
"In fiction,” Kidder said, “believability may have nothing
to do with reality or even plausibility. (But) 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."
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