A week ago, faithful readers will recall, I mentioned that I’d soon be shooting episodes of Uncommon Knowledge with Robert Bork and Paul Johnson. And when I rolled out of bed the next morning, my inbox contained dozens and dozens of questions for the great men. I couldn’t ask Bork and Johnson all your questions, alas, but your correspondent certainly made sure to ask each man a few of the juiciest. I’ll type up my notes on Judge Bork after the kids and I get back from the beach, but here’s what Paul Johnson had to say. (Note to Terry Teachout: Lord, but I envy you Johnson’s interjection.)
YOURS TRULY: Mr. Johnson, National Review’s John Miller would like to know how you manage to prove quite so astonishingly productive.
JOHNSON: Get up early, say your prayers, work hard, play hard, go to bed early. So far as the books are concerned, it is vital to plan the structure of the book. This is what a lot of writers, very good writers, don’t always spend enough trouble doing. And that’s how they come adrift and suffer from writer’s block. You must get the structure absolutely right–down to each atom of 300 words.
YT: Terry Teachout asks–
JOHNSON: I know Terry Teachout. He’s a wonderful writer, especially on music.
YT: Terry would like to know if Paul Johnson has a favorite painting by Norman Rockwell.
JOHNSON: (After a long silence while he thinks.) The one of the barbershop. All of his paintings are interesting and good and a lot of them are funny. But that is one which clearly has the right to be called a considerable work of work. The actual structure of the painting is marvelous.
YT: John Derbyshire asks–well, let me simply read his question: “Back in the 1960s when Paul Johnson was editor of the London New Statesman, I was a devoted reader of that journal. I recall that in one of his weekly diaries, he passed an observation to the effect that there were only two things he was sure of: One, that money is the root of all evil, and, two, that the only cure for unhappiness is hard work. I should like to ask Mr. Johnson whether in the subsequent years he has revised his opinion on either of these points.”
JOHNSON: Ah, that’s the kind of question one loves to hear. Something from a reader who still remembers what one wrote 40 years ago. It can certainly lead to evil, but, no, I no longer believe money is the root of all evil. And on hard work, I haven’t really changed my mind. It is a cure. And it’s a part of every cure.
YT: From a reader of The Corner: “What’s wrong with the way history is taught? History books (like those of Paul Johnson) have been known to hit the bestseller lists, so there’s certainly interest–but my (New Jersey public school) kids hate history.”
JOHNSON: I just don’t understand how history can be badly taught. I’ve always loved history. I don’t just think it’s important. I think it’s exciting and wonderful. In the Middle Ages it was called the School of Princes. Princes had to learn history so they would know what to avoid and what to imitate. In an age of democracy, history should be considered the School of Peoples. Why isn’t it? There’s no answer to that. It ought to be. It must be.