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Neda Ulaby: So, let's go over your book, "The Gales of November." Some of our audience members will not have read it. What's it about?
John U. Bacon: It is about the untold story of the Edmund Fitzgerald. And of course, that was the iron ore carrier that went down on November 10th, 1975, and immortalized by Gordon Lightfoot in his famous song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." It's been out for a year, and the paperback just came out last week. And we just found out, if I may plug this, that we are the Barnes and Noble Book of the Month for November nationwide at 600 stores. So, that's a very lucky break!
Neda Ulaby: Congratulations! Now, I remember when "The Gales of November" came out about a year ago. It immediately showed up on the New York Times bestseller list. What other metrics of success did you see for this book about the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and the history behind it?
John U. Bacon: It hit the list right away. It ran 16 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. And we knew we had to get Great Lakes dads, if you will, like yours truly. But what was gratifying, the reason why it's done so well beyond expectations, is we got to younger people. We got to women. If you get on Goodreads and Amazon, you'll see that women out review it three to one to the men. And that took a little while. Oftentimes, they'd buy it for their dad or their husband. And then, they end up reading it themselves. We got into the women's book clubs, and you know what an incredible mafia that is! They talk. They communicate. They've got the sleeper cells nationwide. And that's how it went coast to coast. And the paperback just came out, and I know they prefer the paperbacks. So, God bless you, women's book clubs!
Neda Ulaby: Do you explain the popularity among women's book clubs? I mean this is to be clear, this is a story about a boat. It's a story about a shipwreck. I myself am not a boat person. Why do you think all of these women's book clubs love the book?
John U. Bacon: Well, I'm sure that your experience is probably similar to theirs. It's a few things. It's 29 men on the ship. It's a very testosterone kind of story in some ways and men fighting human nature...sorry, men fighting mother nature, that is. But the 29 men, the untold part, is I got to 14 of the 29 families. And they talked to a reporter for the very first time in all cases. And it just so happened that most of my sources were women. That's kind of dumb luck. These are the cousins the girlfriends who...Bruce Hudson's, she got pregnant right before the ship went down. She had the baby six months later. And that's a story of course---cousins, daughters in many cases. So, they told me stories that you could not get any other way. What's it like if your dad is on a ship for nine months out of the year? That's an incredible stress, obviously. And then, what is it like to find out from the neighbor next door at 10 o'clock at night on Monday night from the knock on the door on TV, your dad's ship has gone down? And that made these people very unified, but they trusted me with their story. And I'm convinced that what made the book a broader audience was that. As the song says, "The wives, the sons, and the daughters, we got to them."
Neda Ulaby: The song, of course, the famous song by Gordon Lightfoot that immortalized the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. You write about the book, which I loved, and I, John, am not a boat person. I am not a shipwreck junkie. But I am a Michigander, and your story was such a deep dive into an enduring Great Lakes legend. I don't necessarily love boats, but I loved the Great Lakes history, what I learned from your book about the commerce, the industry, the ecology. You take us into weather patterns. I found myself completely fascinated about so much more than one boat, one wreck, one moment in history. "The Gales of November" is about so much more.
John U. Bacon: It's exactly what an author wants to hear, as you might imagine. I would say a few things about that. Yes, the engineering's in there, how the ship was built, the weather patterns, how it truly was a perfect storm, that title has been taken, naturally. But I got to tell you, one of the advantages, crazily enough, my other books on hockey and baseball and so on, and football, those take me all about a year to finish. This one took me three and a half years. I was asking my wife, Christy, "Why is this taking me so long?" And she said, "That's easy. You didn't know anything." So, you and I are both from Ann Arbor, Michigan. We're supposed to know more about this than we do. I've sailed these lakes, I've swam on these lakes. I've canoed these lakes. And I still had no idea how powerful they are, how important they are, what a big deal shipping is to the entire U.S. economy. And so, really, the learning curve is mine and shared with the reader.
Neda Ulaby: There were so many details that I hadn't anticipated either: things like the way the cabins were decorated on the Edmund Fitzgerald. It truly was the Titanic of the Great Lakes when it first sailed and when it sank.
John U. Bacon: That's true. A few for Michiganders, of course. J.L. Hudson's itself, the famous department store, was given a blank check to make these the most luxurious living quarters on any ship, including a cruise ship on the Great Lakes. So, they had carpeted floors, they had wood-paneled walls, they have tiled bathrooms, TV, and air conditioning hotels. They did not have these things in 1958. So, this truly was, as you said, the Titanic of its time.
Neda Ulaby: You were the first reporter, certainly in decades, to have talked to many of the members of the families. Have you kept up with them? What has their response been to the success of the book?
John U. Bacon: Very much so! We're very close at this point. I got lucky on that one also, Bruce Lynn, the director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, already had their trust, and he basically lent me his trust. So, that was a huge gift! They did trust me to tell their stories for the first time. And they're very gratified that their fathers, their cousins, their boyfriends are remembered, and remembered moreso now because of it. I also got to six guys who'd been on the ship at some point served on it. Before it went down, including Patrick Devine, a deckhand who just got off the ship about a month-and-a-half before it when down. And he struggled with that for 10 years or so, and even some afterwards. He said this book has brought him healing. He now gives volunteer tours of the Soo Locks. And people who've read the book say, "Hey, you're that guy! You're Patrick Devine!" And it finally healed him in a way, he said, that nothing else really did. And as you can imagine, it's not why I wrote the book, I can't claim that. But it's, naturally, very gratifying for me that he trusted me. It took me a year to find him, took me year to get him to talk, and he does not regret it.
Neda Ulaby: So many rich characters! Such a compelling story! Have there been TV or movie rights sold yet for "The Gales of November?"
John U. Bacon: We actually declined some already. We didn't quite have a good fit. But I'm now working with David Hudgens, one of the creators of "Friday Night Lights," and he's first rate! So, we are optimistic.
Neda Ulaby: Fantastic! Oh, that does sound like a wonderful thing, both for you and for the book! That's so wonderful! Well, fingers crossed that that ends up happening. So, tell me why the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald matters right now.
John U. Bacon: Sure. I think it's probably a few things. One, incredibly, there has not been a single commercial shipwreck on the Great Lakes since this ship went down. This was the 9-11 of Great Lakes shipping. So, as one of my sources said, "When do you fix anything, when it's broken." It was such a big deal when it went down that it finally woke up the industry. So, the survivors, of course, the families, are very grateful for that and are proud of that fact. Also, the mystery. You can't quite solve it as Bruce Hudson's mom said, "Ultimately, only 30 know: 29 men and God. And no one's talking." So, the mystery surrounds it as well. And you can't ignore the song. He did a wonderful job on that! The families still love that song. It's 97% accurate. And let's be honest, Neda. No song, no book. That clearly came first. They play it at the family reunions to this day. And as Bruce Hudson's girlfriend, the mother of his child, as she said, whenever she hears it, she still has to pull off the road and cry to herself. That is probably the greatest review any musician can get. So, all these things keep it current. And frankly, there's a bit of nostalgia involved here: the music, the cars, and as complicated as life was in '75, it was still simpler than today
Neda Ulaby: Well, John U. Bacon, thank you for coming on WEMU and talking about "The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald," now coming out in paperback. John, anything else you'd like to add?
John U. Bacon: Well, I'm going on a tour with Barnes and Noble. It's on my website, John U. Bacon, and I'm in Ann Arbor Wednesday night at 6.30 PM at the Barnes and Noble on Washtenaw. Love to see you there! Sign your books!
Neda Ulaby: Thank you, John U. Bacon! Sounds like a terrific present for early holiday shoppers! This is Neda Ulaby for WEMU.
RESOURCES:
"The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald"
John U. Bacon Event at Ann Arbor Barnes & Noble
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