...the huge Jackson Pollock canvas that is the U.S.A.: vast, murky, splotched and slapped together by a drunk.
...Clemenza's overriding responsibility is to his family. He takes a moment out of his routine madness to remember that he had promised his wife that he would bring dessert home. His instruction to his partner in crime is an entire moral manifesto in six little words: 'Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.'
On the Godfather and family
Being a nerd, which is to say going too far and caring too much about a subject, is the best way to make friends I know.
I was enjoying a chocolatey café mocha when it occurred to me that to drink a mocha is to gulp down the entire history of the New World. ...the modern mocha is a bittersweet concoction of imperialism, genocide, invention, and consumerism served with whipped cream on top. No wonder it costs so much.
:Simon & Schuster, 2005, ISBN 0-7432-6003-1
I understand why other people would want to stay in B&Bs. They're pretty. They're personal. They're “quaint,” a polite way of saying “no TV.” They are “romantic,” i.e., every object large enough for a flower to be printed on it is going to have a flower printed on it. They're “cozy,” meaning that a guest has to keep her belongings on the floor because every conceivable flat surface is covered in knickknacks, except for the one knickknack she longs for, a remote control.
p. 2
Going to Ford's Theatre|Ford's Theatre to watch the play is like going to Hooters|Hooters for the food.
p. 21
I haven't decided if Samuel Mudd|he deserved to eat bread made out of sticks or live in a rancid puddle, probably because I haven't made up my mind whether anyone deserves such treatment, though I suspect that the day a person gives up on the Geneva Conventions|Geneva Conventions is the day a person gives up on the human race.
p. 81
Sarah Jane Vowell is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
authorAn author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
,
journalistA journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
,
essayAn essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
ist and
social commentatorSocial commentary is the act of rebelling against an individual, or a group of people by rhetorical means, or commentary on social issues or society...
. Often referred to as a "social observer," Vowell has written five nonfiction books on American history and culture, and was a contributing editor for the radio program
This American LifeThis American Life is a weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ and hosted by Ira Glass. It is distributed by Public Radio International on PRI affiliate stations and is also available as a free weekly podcast. Primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, it has also featured essays,...
on
Public Radio InternationalPublic Radio International is a Minneapolis-based American public radio organization, with locations in Boston, New York, London and Beijing. PRI's tagline is "Hear a different voice." PRI is a major public media content creator and also distributes programs from many sources...
from 1996–2008, where she produced numerous commentaries and documentaries and toured the country in many of the program’s live shows. She was also the voice of Violet in the animated film
The IncrediblesThe Incredibles is a 2004 American computer-animated action-comedy superhero film about a family of superheroes who are forced to hide their powers. It was written and directed by Brad Bird, a former director and executive consultant of The Simpsons, and was produced by Pixar and distributed by...
.
Early life and education
Vowell was born in
Muskogee, OklahomaMuskogee is a city in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. It is the county seat of Muskogee County, and home to Bacone College. The population was 38,310 at the 2000 census, making it the eleventh-largest city in Oklahoma....
and moved to
Bozeman, MontanaBozeman is a city in and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. The 2010 census put Bozeman's population at 37,280 making it the fourth largest city in the state. It is the principal city of the Bozeman micropolitan area, which consists...
with her family when she was 11. She has a fraternal twin sister, Amy. She earned a B.A. from
Montana State UniversityMontana State University – Bozeman is a public university located in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's land-grant university and primary campus in the Montana State University System, which is part of the Montana University System...
in 1993 in Modern Languages and Literatures and an M.A. in Art History at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996. Vowell received the Music Journalism Award in 1996.
Published works
Vowell is a
New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
’ bestselling author of six nonfiction books on American history and culture. Her most recent book is
Unfamiliar FishesUnfamiliar Fishes is a nonfiction book by This American Life contributor Sarah Vowell, first published in 2011 in print and audiobook versions.-Synopsis:...
(2011), which reviews the growing influence of American missionaries in Hawaii in the 1800s and the subsequent takeover of Hawaii's property and politics by American plantation owners, eventually resulting in a
coup d'étatA coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
, restricted voting rights for nonwhites, and annexation by the United States. A particular focus is on 1898, when the U.S. "annexed
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
,
Puerto RicoPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, and
GuamGuam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
, and invaded
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, and then the
PhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, becoming a meddling, self-serving, militaristic international superpower practically overnight."
[from the dust jacket] The title of the book is an allusion to a quotation from the aged
David MaloDavid Malo or Davida Malo was a leading Native Hawaiian historian of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He became a Christian minister and founded a church.-Life:...
, who had been the first Native Hawaiian ordained to preach and Hawaii's first superintendent of schools:
- If a big wave comes in, large and unfamiliar fishes will come from the dark ocean, and when they see the small fishes of the shallows they will eat them up. The white man's ships have arrived with clever men from the big countries. They know our people are few in number and our country is small, they will devour us. [pp. 138-139]
Vowell's earlier book,
The Wordy ShipmatesThe Wordy Shipmates is a 2008 book by Sarah Vowell that chronicles the 17th and 18th century history of Puritan colonists in Massachusetts, United States. The book delineates a dichotomy between the puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and those who settled Plymouth, Massachusetts....
(2008), examines the New England Puritans and their journey to and impact on America. She studies
John WinthropJohn Winthrop was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer, and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of...
’s 1630 sermon “A Model of Christian Charity” – and the bloody story that resulted from American exceptionalism. And she also traces the relationship of Winthrop, Massachusetts’ first governor, and
Roger WilliamsRoger Williams was an English Protestant theologian who was an early proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. In 1636, he began the colony of Providence Plantation, which provided a refuge for religious minorities. Williams started the first Baptist church in America,...
, the Calvinist minister who founded Rhode Island – an unlikely friendship that was emblematic of the polar extremes of the American foundation. Throughout, she reveals how American history can show up in the most unexpected places in our modern culture, often in unexpected ways.
Her book
Assassination VacationAssassination Vacation is a book by Sarah Vowell, published in 2005, in which she travels around the United States researching the assassinations of U.S. Presidents Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley and James Garfield...
(2005) describes a road trip to tourist sites devoted to the murders of presidents Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. Vowell examines what these acts of political violence reveal about our national character and our contemporary society.
She is also the author of two essay collections,
The Partly Cloudy PatriotThe Partly Cloudy Patriot is a book published in 2002, and is a collection of essays about American history and the author's own reflections on such issues, by Sarah Vowell, a contributing editor for the WBEZ / Public Radio International program This American Life.The chapters include scenes from...
(2002) and
Take the Cannoli (2000). Her first book
Radio On: A Listener's DiaryRadio On: A Listener's Diary is the first book by Sarah Vowell. In the book, she writes about listening to the radio for an entire year....
(1997), is her year-long diary of listening to the radio in 1995.
Her writing has been published in
The Village VoiceThe Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
,
EsquireEsquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
,
GQ,
Spin,
The New York Times,
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, and the
SF WeeklySF Weekly is a free alternative weekly newspaper in San Francisco, California. The newspaper, distributed throughout the San Francisco Bay Area every Wednesday, is published by Village Voice Media, a 16-paper alt weekly newspaper chain that also includes the New York City Village Voice and the Los...
, and she has been a regular contributor to the online magazine
SalonSalon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
. She was one of the original contributors to
McSweeney’s, also participating in many of the quarterly’s readings and shows.
In 2005, Vowell served as a guest columnist for
The New York Times during several weeks in July, briefly filling in for
Maureen DowdMaureen Bridgid Dowd is a Washington D.C.-based columnist for The New York Times and best-selling author. During the 1970s and the early 1980s, she worked for Time magazine and the Washington Star, where she covered news as well as sports and wrote feature articles...
. Vowell also served as a guest columnist in February 2006, and again in April 2006.
In 2008, Vowell contributed an essay about
MontanaMontana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
to the book
State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America.
Public appearances and lectures
Vowell has appeared on television shows such as
Nightline,
The Daily Show with Jon StewartThe Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
,
The Colbert Report,
Jimmy Kimmel LiveJimmy Kimmel Live! is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and broadcast on ABC.The nightly hour-long show made its debut on January 26, 2003, following Super Bowl XXXVII. Jimmy Kimmel Live! is produced by Jackhole Productions in association with ABC Studios...
, and
The Late Show with David Letterman. She also appeared several times on
Late Night with Conan O'BrienLate Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
.
In April 2006, Vowell served as the keynote speaker at the 27th Annual Kentucky Women Writers Conference. In August and September 2006, she toured the United States as part of the
Revenge Of The Book Eaters national tour, which benefits the children's literacy centers
826NYC826NYC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write...
, 826CHI,
826 Valencia826 Valencia is a non-profit organisation dedicated to helping children and young adults develop writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.-Overview:...
,
826LA826LA is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills and helping teachers inspire their students to write. Programs are structured around the beliefs that great leaps in learning can happen with...
,
826 Michigan826michigan is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.-History:...
, and
826 Seattle826 Seattle is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. It is a regional chapter of the 826 National organization, founded by authors Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida...
.
Vowell also provided commentary in Robert Wuhl's 2005
Assume the Position HBO specials.
Voice and acting work
Vowell's first book, which had radio as its central subject, caught the attention of
This American LifeThis American Life is a weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ and hosted by Ira Glass. It is distributed by Public Radio International on PRI affiliate stations and is also available as a free weekly podcast. Primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, it has also featured essays,...
host
Ira GlassIra Glass is an American public radio personality, and host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life.- Early life :...
, and it led to Vowell's becoming a frequent contributor to the show. Many of Vowell's essays have had their genesis as segments on the show.
In 2004, Vowell provided the voice of Violet Parr, the shy teenager in the
Brad BirdPhillip Bradley "Brad" Bird is an Academy Award-winning American director, voice actor, animator and screenwriter. He is best known for writing and directing Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles and Ratatouille . He also adapted and directed the critically acclaimed 2D animated 1999 Warner Brothers...
-directed
PixarPixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
animated film
The IncrediblesThe Incredibles is a 2004 American computer-animated action-comedy superhero film about a family of superheroes who are forced to hide their powers. It was written and directed by Brad Bird, a former director and executive consultant of The Simpsons, and was produced by Pixar and distributed by...
and reprised her role for the various related video games and Disney on Ice presentations featuring
The Incredibles. The makers of
The Incredibles discovered Vowell from episode
81 – Guns of
This American Life, where she and her father fire a homemade cannon. Pixar made a test animation for Violet using audio from that sequence, which is included on the DVD version of
The Incredibles. She also wrote and was featured in
Vowellet: An Essay by Sarah Vowell included on the DVD version of
The Incredibles, where she reflects on the differences between being super hero Violet and being an author of history books on the subject of assassinated presidents, and what it means to her nephew Owen.
Vowell provided commentary in "Murder at the Fair: The Assassination of President McKinley", which is part of the History Channel miniseries,
10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America is a ten-hour, ten-part television miniseries that aired on the History Channel from April 9 through April 13, 2006. The material was later adapted and published as a book by the same title.-Overview:...
.
She is featured prominently in the
They Might Be GiantsThey Might Be Giants is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years Flansburgh and Linnell were frequently accompanied by a drum machine. In the early 1990s, TMBG became a full band. Currently, the members of TMBG are...
documentary
Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns)Gigantic is a documentary profiling the alternative rock band They Might Be Giants, featuring interviews with Frank Black, Sarah Vowell, Dave Eggers, Jon Stewart, and others. It was directed by AJ Schnack and premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2002. It was released in theaters...
. She also participated on the DVD commentary for the movie, along with the film's director and They Might Be Giants'
John LinnellJohn Sidney Linnell is an American musician, is known primarily as one half of Brooklyn, New York alternative rock duo They Might Be Giants...
and
John FlansburghJohn Conant Flansburgh is an American musician. He is half of the longstanding Brooklyn, New York-based alternative rock duo They Might Be Giants, for which he writes, sings and plays rhythm guitar...
.
In September 2006, Vowell appeared as a minor character in the ABC drama
Six DegreesSix Degrees is an American dramatic television series about six residents of New York City and their respective relationships and connections with one another, based on the idea of six degrees of separation....
. She appeared on an episode of HBO's
Bored to DeathBored to Death is an American comedy series, which premiered on HBO on September 20, 2009. , three seasons have aired, each consisting of eight episodes. The show was created by author Jonathan Ames, and stars Jason Schwartzman as a fictional Jonathan Ames – a writer based in Brooklyn, New York...
, as an interviewer in a bar. In 2010, Vowell appeared briefly in the film
Please GivePlease Give is a 2010 dark comedy film written and directed by Nicole Holofcener and starring Catherine Keener. It is the fourth film Keener and Holofcener have made together...
, as a shopper.
On November 17, 2011, Vowell joined
The Daily Show as the new Senior Historical Context Correspondent.
Personal life
Vowell is part
CherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
(about 1/8 on her mother’s side and 1/16 on her father’s side). According to Vowell, “Being at least a little Cherokee in northeastern Oklahoma is about as rare and remarkable as being a
Michael JordanMichael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
fan in Chicago.” She retraced the path of the forced removal of the Cherokee from the southeastern United States to Oklahoma known as the
Trail of TearsThe Trail of Tears is a name given to the forced relocation and movement of Native American nations from southeastern parts of the United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830...
with her twin sister Amy.
This American LifeThis American Life is a weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ and hosted by Ira Glass. It is distributed by Public Radio International on PRI affiliate stations and is also available as a free weekly podcast. Primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, it has also featured essays,...
chronicled her story on July 4, 1998, devoting the entire hour to Sarah's work.
Vowell is the president of the board of
826NYC826NYC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write...
, a nonprofit tutoring and writing center for students aged 6–18 in
BrooklynBrooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
.
Partial bibliography
- 1997 Radio On: A Listener's Diary
Radio On: A Listener's Diary is the first book by Sarah Vowell. In the book, she writes about listening to the radio for an entire year....
ISBN 0-312-18301-1
- 2000 Take the Cannoli: Stories From the New World
Take the Cannoli: Stories From the New World is a collection of essays by Sarah Vowell, that were originally published in 2000...
ISBN 0-7432-0540-5
- 2002 The Partly Cloudy Patriot
The Partly Cloudy Patriot is a book published in 2002, and is a collection of essays about American history and the author's own reflections on such issues, by Sarah Vowell, a contributing editor for the WBEZ / Public Radio International program This American Life.The chapters include scenes from...
ISBN 0-7432-4380-3
- 2005 Assassination Vacation
Assassination Vacation is a book by Sarah Vowell, published in 2005, in which she travels around the United States researching the assassinations of U.S. Presidents Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley and James Garfield...
ISBN 0-7432-6003-1
- 2008 The Wordy Shipmates
The Wordy Shipmates is a 2008 book by Sarah Vowell that chronicles the 17th and 18th century history of Puritan colonists in Massachusetts, United States. The book delineates a dichotomy between the puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and those who settled Plymouth, Massachusetts....
ISBN 1-59448-999-8
- 2011 Unfamiliar Fishes
Unfamiliar Fishes is a nonfiction book by This American Life contributor Sarah Vowell, first published in 2011 in print and audiobook versions.-Synopsis:...
ISBN 1-59448-787-1
External radio links
Sarah Vowell's writing has been featured on the following episodes of
This American Life:
External video links
- Appearance on The Daily Show, 7 October 2008, discussing The Wordy Shipmates and the financial crisis.
- Appearance on The Daily Show, 5 October 2009, discussing The Wordy Shipmates, again, and religious tolerance.
- Appearance on The Daily Show, 21 March 2011, discussing Unfamiliar Fishes and Hawaiian history.
- Appearance on The Daily Show, 17 November 2011, discussing Evacuation Day.
External links