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Western Book Roundup

Ted Conover Investigates the Origins of ‘Evil Companions’

By Jenny Shank, 4-20-11

Sometimes we journalists have to go into some pretty harrowing situations to investigate our stories. Take Ted Conover, who has become a train-hopping hobo, served a stint as a prison guard at Sing Sing, trekked with Mexican migrants, hung out with icky shallow Aspen people, and traversed some of the world’s most dangerous roads.

My assignment last Thursday took me to the Evil Companions Literary Award celebration at the Oxford Hotel in Denver, honoring Denver-raised Conover, and benefiting the Denver Public Library Friends Foundation. Like Conover, I wanted to embed myself in this unfamiliar world, try to fit in, and find out what I could learn. The ballroom was packed with a sold-out crowd of stylish, bookish people, and the open bar was serving a martini called the Sing Sing Sling. For research, I sampled several of them. I met a nice woman who told me that Ted Conover used to baby-sit for her children. I also met a pair of lovely geneticists from the University of Colorado who drank with me and geeked out over our mutual past participation in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science’s paleontology certification program. We all wished we had been able to drop everything and go on that mastodon dig in Snowmass. Sigh.

After the drinks, the crowd moved to the reading area, where Ted Conover received several introductions, beginning with one by Helen Thorpe, author of Just Like Us (her book, which I’ve been ordering you to read for ages, will be out in paperback with an updated chapter in early May). Thorpe said she wanted to share a story about Ted Conover’s generosity. “Once when I was completely adrift about a book manuscript, I called Ted Conover for advice. I said, ‘My manuscript’s a mess, and I’d like to show it to my editor.’” Conover told her, “Your relationship with an editor is a little like dating. You want to make a good first impression.” Upon his advice, Thorpe waited to show her editor the manuscript, and she was grateful for the “elegant way he handled this phone call from a less-experienced writer.”

Several speakers gave background information on the origins of the Evil Companions Literary Award, which has been bestowed on one writer with ties to the American West for nineteen years running. The founders of the award include Joyce Meskis, the owner of the Tattered Cover Book Store, David Milofsky, novelist, teacher, and Denver Post columnist, and Dana Crawford, a Denver preservationist and developer. Milofsky said, “Ted Conover has made a career out of purposely being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Conover, whose family was in attendance, gave a charming speech in which he investigated the origins of the phrase “evil companions.” “It’s not a phrase much used in the current popular culture,” he said, “but if you go back to nineteenth century, the phrase still had currency.” He cited Jane Addams, who wrote in 1892’s A New Conscience and An Ancient Evil, “…a girl always prefers to think that economic pressure is the reason for her downfall, even when the immediate causes have been her love of pleasure, her desire for finery, or the influence of evil companions.” He quoted from a rousing 1850 sermon by John Carter, in which the preacher blamed the careless accidental death of a young man on the fact that this man liked to skip church and hang around with evil companions.

Conover advised the audience about how to be a good companion to a writer. “Pry the writer from her keyboard,” he said, “introduce her to the wrong people but make sure she doesn’t leave with them…be the writer’s wing man, and literature will be the grateful beneficiary.” He then read from the chapter in Rolling Nowhere where he first gets off a train in Denver, and experiences a new side of the city he’d grown up in.

During the question and answer session, Conover explained that he picks his topics “gingerly.” “I’m seldom sure if an idea is a great idea at first. I try to get a magazine assignment to see if I like thinking about it.” He also responded to a question about the changes in the publishing industry. “The decline of print media and printed books is a matter of huge concern to all writers. Models for consumers paying for the things they read have yet to be promulgated across all channels…and I’m filled with despair when I see all the bookstores where I gave readings when Newjack came out that are no longer there.”

Conover said he likes to read fiction more than nonfiction. “I’m interested in how people tell stories.” He enjoys the books of Anne Tyler, Lorrie Moore, and Jonathan Franzen, and noted, “One of the great things about living in New York is that things happen that make it so you get to play in a poker game with Jonathan Franzen. That makes leaving Denver almost worthwhile, but only briefly.”

Conover has written fiction, “but I’ve not yet finished a novel,” he said, “because I get to a tough place in the novel and someone offers me a lot of money to do something that I know I can do. I aspire to finish a novel.” David Milofsky noted that fending off offers of lots of money is not something that most novelists have to worry about.

So the Evil Companions Literary Award party was great fun. I only wish I’d bumped into some of the evil people.

• The Pulitzer Prize winners were announced Tuesday, and there are a couple of regional connections to highlight: Colorado-based writer Nicholas Carr was a finalist in the General Nonfiction category for The Shallows, and Patty Limerick of the University of Colorado’s Center of the American West chaired the jury that named Eric Foner’s The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery the winner in the History category.

• 60 Minutes and Jon Krakauer have accused Bozeman-based writer and philanthropist Greg Mortenson of falsifying information in his popular book Three Cups of Tea. Mortenson told the Bozeman Chronicle: “I stand by the information conveyed in my book.” Krakauer has offered his take on the events in the book as a free .pdf download called “Three Cups of Deceit.”

• Thanks to all you lovely, generous people who came to my book launch at the Tattered Cover earlier this month, The Ringer hit #2 on the Denver Post best seller list and #1 on the Tattered Cover best seller list for hard cover fiction this week. I am enjoying hanging out with Jean Auel and her cave people and Teá Obreht and her tiger folk for one week before I pack up my baseball gear and shuffle back down to the injured reserve list. If you’re in Boulder, please come to my reading at the Boulder Book Store on Wednesday, April 27 at 7:30 p.m. It will be the last free reading at the Boulder Book Store before they begin ticketing for all events in May.

Please follow me on Twitter and with any regional books news or events.

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