Wednesday, April 16, 2008

David Hajdu at Powell's


My instincts tell me that besides his optometrist, (who fetched him glasses like a roadie in a impromptu and funny moment) I believe I was one of the very few who came to Powell's on Hawthorne to see David Hadju and not so much because the content of his new book but because he is a pop historian driven by his interests. A darned nice gig to have along with music criticism for the New Republic and teaching Journalism at Columbia.

His first two books are rich well-chosen topics. Lushlife is a biography of Billy Strayhorn, and Positively Fourth Street about the folk music movement in the late fifties and sixties overall and the nexus of Bob Dylan, Richard Farina and sisters Baez. His most recent book is a history of the rise and fall of the Comics industry through its crazy industry, public and governmental backlash of the late forties and early fities, The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America.

The excerpts read and the level of detail given in his remarks clearly indicate that Hajdu knows and has done exhaustive research on his topic. The basic story line: freedom from all restrictions and huge popularity of the medium lead to hysteric societal crack-down and backlash. It was a plague for the art form and for the artists who worked in it. To help illustrate the latter, he has included an appendix of the names of more htan 800 "artists, writers and other who never worked again in comics after the purge of the 1950s." Many of the comics of the late forties, especially those from E.C. and their imitators were lurid in the extreme. Hajdu is clear that this was a war story. And in stories of war, it is not driven by simply by black and white issues.

It was fortunate to have cool encounter with Hajdu at the book signature component of the evening. He asked me if I was a fan of comics. I said I was, but I told him I was there this evening because I liked his writing. I asked him about his past books and of course was quite intrigued to find out that his next was going to be a biography of Billy Eckstine. I told him that I thought this was going to be a great topic for one of his cultural studies because Eckstine had such an impact on style and fashion and really helped pave the way for folks like Nat King Cole. (I don't know how to make this next part sound like boasting but..) He said": "Hey, you know your stuff." And said I should be sure to come out for the reading when he comes out with that book. We started to talk about Strayhorn and ballads, but then I noticed that there was quite a line behind me. I should have found out what brewpub he and his optometrist were going to after the signing. But Pam and I had a lovely time picking out flavors at Ben and Jerry's instead.

Here is a nice piece by Hajdu where he has the privilege of an encounter with Joni Mitchell.
posted by well-executed buffet at 12:05 PM
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