Interview With Author Jeremy S. Adams
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have been a high school teacher since I was 22. Many teachers find that about 15 years into their careers, they want to change it up a bit—go to a new school, try to be a principal or move to a new area. I decided to take the hardest path of all—a second career as a professional writer.
I had the most important revelation of my career: the public wants to know what is happening in our schools, but journalists and professional news outlets are almost always behind the curve, sometimes years behind. An in-the-trenches, warts-and-all chronicling of our education system was unique because there aren’t a lot of professional writers still in the classroom. And yet, a classroom sits at the intersection of so much that’s interesting and in flux—technology, politics and policy, family life, the urban and rural divide. I have tried to write and warn about many problems I saw years before the New York Times or Wall Street Journal were bemoaning cell phones in the classroom or dwindling attention spans. I have been lucky to have published five books about politics and education, the latest two by prominent publishers who believed in the message I was trying to spread.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My book that HarperCollins just released is entitled Lessons in Liberty: Thirty Rules for Living from Ten Extraordinary Americans. Imagine a book in which American history meets self-help.
I was inspired and also depressed by the reality that so many modern Americans are unhappy in their lives—30% are broadly dissatisfied, and a quarter of 18–24-year-old Americans have contemplated suicide. The country is seething with civic and personal misery. We live in an era of great conundrums—we are free people, yet we do not know how to use our freedom in meaningful and productive ways. As a teacher, my central and animating belief is that we learn by example, and the best examples are stories. I have written a book that takes ten extraordinary Americans from all walks of life and time periods—everyone from George Washington & Thomas Jefferson to Daniel Inouye and Ruth Bader Ginsburg—and I extrapolate three practical and actionable rules that helped them to live successful and happy lives. Their wisdom, their habits, and their successes can become our own. We can lean into the future by looking into the past. The book is fun and informative, but most of all, it is written to be practical and helpful to modern Americans who need a little help. I wish every American would read it. It would repair much of what is broken in our individual lives and in the body politic itself.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I love this question because I am fascinated by people like Lauren Groff, who writes out her first draft in a spiral notebook and then never reads it again, Hemingway, who only wrote in the mornings, or Steven King, who says professional writers should produce about 2,000 words a day.
If I am being honest, I don’t have time for any of that. Yeah, I am a guy who, for almost two decades, had two jobs (high school teacher and college lecturer), three children, and a very successful wife who works a lot. I write when I have peace and quiet. It’s that simple. Sometimes, that’s early in the morning. Sometimes late at night. When I am writing articles and op-eds, I squeeze in a paragraph here and there; for all of my books, besides the current one, I could only really be a summertime writer. My writing process is not romantic, quirky, or sui generis. It’s a necessity born of having a lot of different responsibilities while possessing a deep and profound love for the power of the written word.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I am always reading two books at a time—one non-fiction that is usually about history or politics and one novel. Because I teach politics, I loved reading the columns of George Will, Peggy Noonan, and David Broder when I was younger and the histories of David McCullough and Gordon Wood. In fiction, I am a sucker for the classics—Tolstoy is my favorite writer of all time. There is a pulse of spiritual power in his prose that is only rivaled by another Russian master, Dostoevsky. All these people have attained the ultimate station to which all writers should aspire—a unique and distinctive writing voice. I hope that people can read my opinion pieces and books and say right away, “Oh, that is Jeremy Adams, I know without looking at the writing credit.” I am unsure if I have attained this, but it is the crown jewel in the aspirational soul of any writer of merit and substance.
What are you working on now?
Right now, I am just promoting, promoting, promoting Lessons in Liberty. This is the book I have wanted to write my whole life. In some ways, everything I have ever written or published was a step towards getting me to the publication of this book. It has been my great goal, my most aspirational aim, my magnum opus. I have so much hope that it will find a broad audience. I think it is the most important thing I have ever done in my professional life by far.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Website: https://jeremysadamsauthor.com
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Learn how to balance ambition with humility. Everyone says to get ready for the rejection. That’s certainly true, and it is a reality on a scale that is more than a bit demoralizing and soul-crushing at times. But so what . . . rejection is just a step everyone has to take. What writers need to know is you never know how your words can change the world. Many famous people write non-fiction books that make bestseller lists for two weeks and vanish into the ether of insignificance. I have a friend who has written many books, but I don’t think he has sold very many, and yet he will get emails from people explaining that his book gave them courage, inspiration, or insight that ultimately changed their lives. Being a writer requires a form of literary faith that the words we put into the world will have a transformative power even if we, as authors, never know about it. I spent two years writing Lessons in Liberty. I would love to sell hundreds of thousands of copies and make a ton of money so I can send my children to college, but the truth is if one person out in the world reads one chapter that transforms their lives for the better, well, frankly, that is good enough for me. It has to be. Otherwise, writing becomes a naked ploy for feeding one’s vanity.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Start every writing session by reading what you wrote the session before. This is so valuable from a process perspective. It helps the editing process, yes, but it also situates and orients you in the life of the writing project in which you are immersed. And don’t let people tell you there is a “best” style. If you like terse, simple language like Hemingway, fine. Suppose you like flowing, almost mystical prose like the Irish writer Sebastian Barry, fine. Don’t get caught up in a “best” style. Just keep refining “your” style.
What are you reading now?
I am embarrassed to say that even though I am an ardent believer in liberal arts and classical education, I have never had much affection for Shakespeare. I have just chalked this up to cerebral immaturity on my part. So this summer, I am reading the big ones—King Lear, Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Julius Caesar. I am using the Harold Bloom text on Shakespeare to help guide me in my journey through the great Bard’s works.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I am not sure. I have had a lot of publications lately in places like National Review, The New York Post, RealClearBooks, and Law & Liberty, where I write about my new book or have had excerpts published. Writing Lessons in Liberty was exhausting because it was the first book written during the school year, but when a giant publisher like HarperCollins offers a contract, you alter your life a bit to write the book of your dreams. My dream is for the book to sell so well that I can write a follow-up book since picking just ten extraordinary Americans was so difficult and painful. I would love to write about thirty new and additional life lessons from ten different Americans.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Not counting religious texts . . .
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy because it speaks to me differently every single time I read it. It changed my life forever when I was 21 years old and set me on the path I am on today.
The Truth and Beauty by Andrew Klavan because I never get tired of reading about the lives and ideas of romantic poets.
Montaigne’s Essays because there is an essential humanity, an admitted humility about our foibles and follies, that always nourishes my soul. I read him and always think, “He knows, he knows.”
Atonement by Ian McEwan is my favorite modern novel. It was the first time I literally gasped while reading a book.
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