Anyway, more importantly to Haskell’s latest work — a recounting of Katharine Wright’s personal life — Haskell is also the grandson of the Star’s Pulitzer Prize-winning editor Henry J. Haskell.
As such, he grew up knowing about his grandfather’s second marriage to Katharine Wright, which came at the end of her life and caused a serious rift with her brother, Orville, who refused to speak to her after the marriage until she was on her death bed.
Harry’s book, “Maiden Flight,” is drawn from exhaustive research as well as Katharine’s numerous letters, including love letters to his grandfather.
Though the book is positioned by its publisher as historical fiction, Harry says it really is closer to creative nonfiction. He explains that he used fiction techniques to organize the book’s narrative structure, but all the details come from events documented in letters and other sources.
“I had this treasure trove of love letters from Katharine to my grandfather, and I’ve been thinking over a period of many years that I could present that material in a way that is different from the way the Wright family has been presented in other books,” Harry says. Though Harry admires “The Wright Brothers” by David McCullough, he explains that another book by the same title gave more attention to Katharine’s personal, later life. “This aspect of Katharine’s life has only been covered in the book published in 2003 in New Zealand, by Ian Mackersey. He devoted two full chapters to this part of Katharine’s life.”
Harry sought to delve deeper into the relationship between his grandfather Henry and Katharine. The two met while attending Oberlin College in Ohio. (She was in the class of 1898; he was in the class of 1896.) However, Henry became engaged to the woman he would marry, and Katharine, who had a strong loyalty to her brothers, perceived herself as uninteresting to men.
“My grandfather and grandmother had a good strong relationship,” Harry says, “and he never expressed that he hadn’t married the right woman. However, later, when they took up after my grandmother passed away, he admitted that he had been in love with her even back in college.”
“This is an iconic family,” Harry adds. “Katharine’s story is an entrée into how the family functioned. Her story is also so moving — she articulates beautifully what she’s going through,” as she slowly decides to defy her brother Orville’s wish that she should remain at home in Dayton with him, rather than marry Henry.
“I don’t really think of my book as a novel in the traditional sense,” Harry explains. “It’s more creative nonfiction. It is as thoroughly researched as anything I’ve ever written. But using elements of story telling made the book truer to the emotional core of what Katharine expresses and documents in her letters than if I’d written her story as purely narrative nonfiction.”
Both his own family and Wright family descendants are very supportive of his book, Harry says. He has two events coming up in Dayton to share more insights into his book and into the life of Katharine Wright:
• Monday, Oct. 24, 7 p.m., Books & Co. at The Greene — Harry Haskell will discuss “Maiden Flight.”
• Tuesday, Oct. 25, 7 p.m., Wright State University (3640 Colonel Glenn Highway) Student Union, Endeavor Room — Harry Haskell will lecture on Katharine Wright and "Maiden Flight." Note: Along with the Library of Congress, Wright State has the largest collection of archival material related to the Wrights.
Learn more about Harry's work at www.harryhaskell.com
Upcoming Literary Events:
• Thursday, October 27, 4 p.m., Books & Co. at The Greene — Nick Bruel introduces his new children’s alphabet picture book, “Bad Kitty Scaredy Cat.”
• Thursday, Oct. 27, 6:30-8 p.m., Dayton Metro Library-Northwest Branch (2410 Philadelphia Drive) — As part of the Dayton Metro Library Writing Series, “Programs for Writers Presented by Authors,” poet and writer Sierra Leone will present a session on “The Art of Word: A Practitioner’s Approach to Writing.”
• Thursday, Oct. 27, 7 p.m., Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education (525 Versailles Drive, Centerville) — As part of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Dayton's Cultural Arts & Bookfest, Oct. 27-Dec. 8, local comedian Karen Jaffe and New York Times Best Selling Author Jennifer Keishin Armstrong of "Seinfeldia: The Secret World of the Show about Nothing that Changed Everything" will discuss the popular show "Seinfeld" and its role in American pop culture. Learn more and register at www.jewishdayton.org/whats-deal-seinfeld
• Saturday, Oct. 29, 1 p.m., Barnes & Noble West Chester (The Streets of Westchester, 9455 Civic Centre Blvd, West Chester) — John Lemmon, area cookbook author, will discuss recipes from his debut book, “Beer Makes Everything Better: 101 Recipes to Make Your Favorite Happy Hour Grub.”
• Saturday, Oct. 29, 3-5 p.m., The Booksellers at Austin Landing (3649 Rigby Road, Miamisburg) — Area author Rob E. Boley will sign books from his series “The Scary Tales,” a mash-up between classic fairy tales and horror monsters.
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