David Maraniss is a storyteller who draws his inspiration from the oddest places, such as a TV commercial.
Maraniss, winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting and an associate editor at The Washington Post, has written a shelf full of books on sports and political figures, including, “Barack Obama.” He’ll discuss Motown, cars, bankruptcy and his latest book, “Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story” at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, March 12.
Maraniss says the idea for “Once a Great City” was sparked at a bar in New York City on Feb. 6, 2011, as he watched the Super Bowl on television, nervously rooting for the Green Bay Packers. (The team won, by the way, beating the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25.)
A halftime a commercial caught his attention.
“A freeway sign that said Detroit. Iconic images of the city: the Joe Louis fist, the marvelous Diego Rivera murals of Detroit Industry, the spirit of Detroit sculpture, a black sedan cruising down Woodward Avenue and stopping outside the grand old Fox Theatre, and the rapper Eminem getting out, walking down the aisle of the darkened theater, a black gospel choir on stage rising in song, and Eminem turning to the camera and saying, ‘This is the Motor City, and this is what we do,’” he says, describing the commercial.
“I choked up watching that ad,” Maraniss says. “I was born in Detroit. It hit me in a deep way, even though it was only selling Chryslers. I started thinking about what I could do to honor the city of my birth, and eventually settled on this book, which depicts Detroit at a time when it seemed to be booming in cars, Motown, labor and civil rights — yet the signs of its collapse were already there.”
However interesting a topic may be, Maraniss says, “I have to be obsessed with a subject to write a book. My usual time spent on each book is 3 to 3½ years, so it has to be something that I’m basically willing to give my life over to.”
What to expect at the festival: “I am a storyteller. I will tell the story of Detroit and put it in the context of what this city gave America, which is an enormous amount in terms of the automobile culture, the Motown soundtrack of our generation, the heart of the American labor movement, and a key player in the transformative civil rights movement of the sixties.”
—David Maraniss will speak at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday
