The Approaching Fury

Nashville, and Short Cuts, which employ multiple viewpoints and segue ingeniously from one character to another. My narrative likewise segues back and forth from one historical figure to another, showing how their lives intersected, how they perceived and argued with one another, influenced each other's actions, and shaped the events that led to the Civil War. I also drew inspiration from Hal Holbrook's one-man portrayal of Mark Twain, Mark Twain Tonight, and Julie Harris' staged impersonation of Emily Dickinson, The Belle of Amherst, both of which showed me the power and the possibilities of the dramatic monologue. The Approaching Fury, Voices of the Storm, is my impersonation of thirteen central figures in the coming of the Civil War. The metaphor in the title comes from them. One after another, they described the approach of war in terms of a gathering storm, a coming tornado. By necessity, my cast is dominated by white men, for they controlled the country in the antebellum era and were mainly responsible for the coming fury. To write the monologues, I steeped myself in the words of my speakers. There were letters, speeches, interviews, reminiscences, and other recorded utterances, and then simulated how, if they were reminiscing aloud, they would describe historical events in which they were the principal players or eyewitnesses. In each case, I found that I had to get into character, much as an actor gets into a role. As much as possible, I used the actual words of my characters, their phrases, even whole sentences. When that was not possible, I simulated their language and rhythms of speech in order to recount developments in which they participated. As my references indicate, the events and themes in the monologues adhere to the actual historical record. There are many dramatic scenes in my story. Most of these are a matter of the record and are fully documented in my notes. In several instances, however, I amplified the historical record when my speakers seemed to demand it. These occasions are pointed out in my references. An example is the 1857 meeting between John Brown and William Lloyd Garrison in Theodore Parker's house in Boston. The source for this meeting, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879, The Story of His Life, written by his sons, tells us only that the two abolitionist adversaries discussed peace and non-resistance together, Brown quoting the Old Testament against Garrison's citations from the New, and Parker from time to time injecting a bit of Lexington into the controversy, which attracted a small group of interested listeners. As the speaker for this segment of the story, Brown insisted on describing his exchange of views with Garrison. Not to do so, I realized, would be totally out of character for a man of Brown's righteous zeal. Since his and Garrison's beliefs are fully documented in the historical literature and are presented at length elsewhere in my text, I let Brown narrate what they surely said to one another during this momentous confrontation. In short, in this and several similar instances, I simulated what took place by using facts imaginatively. The technique is not new with me. Alan Nevins, one of the greatest American historians of all time, wove historical data into graphic scenes and simulated dialogue in his widely acclaimed work of non-fiction, The Emergence of Lincoln. Like Nevins, I believe that a little fact-based creativity of this sort enhances our appreciation and understanding of the people of history. A word about my portrayal of Stephen A. Douglas. The little giant was a profane man. The newspapers of the time reported that his speeches were punctuated with vulgar expressions and plenty of God-dams, hells, and by-gods that could be clearly heard in the galleries. One can imagine what he was like in private conversation. In recreating his voice, I honored his character and let him curse with gusto. I do not think this technique violates the truth of history. On the contrary, it gets closer to what the historical Douglas was like than does a rigid adherence to his recorded utterances, which were highly sanitized. My portrayal of Nat Turner also requires an explanation.