Donald Lamm Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

Photo by L. Carper

Page 10 of 10

Conclusion

Looking back at your life and your career in publishing, what advice would you give to an aspiring author, somebody who really loves words, wants to write a book, and is committed to doing that?

Now that's a tough prescription to lay out because authors come in so many shapes and sizes. The easiest response, and I think the truest response, is write about what you care about. You cannot fake it. If what you really care about is sex and violence in Beverly Hills, then write about it. Don't decide that you are going to be so high-minded that instead you are going to produce some kind of abstruse treatise about the decline of morality in American life. You have to be true to your own interests. I think that is the only generalization I can make.

One final question. Let's say that out there in our audience there's someone who knows who Maxwell Perkins was and wants to go into publishing, or has listened to this interview and is taken with your account of your career. What advice would you give them if they think they want to enter the world of publishing?

In my very cynical days I used to ask somebody who came in bright eyed and eager and intoxicated with the thought of publishing, "Have you considered coal mining?" That's the cynical side. I think really what it boils down to is how important in your own life have books been. Because if books are merely a commodity, it is much better to go down to Wall Street, go to Hollywood, do almost anything but force yourself into a field where, when all is said and done, the output is words, words on a printed page.

Mr. Lamm, thank you very much for taking the time to be with us today, for coming to Berkeley to be a Regents' Lecturer. And thank you very much for joining us for this Conversation with History.

Well thank you indeed Harry. It's been great fun.

© Copyright 1998, Regents of the University of California

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