The Essential
Russell Martin

Front Cover, The Essential Russell Martin

SOME TIME AGO, during the run of years when several of my books were first published by Henry Holt & Company, I was blessed to be edited by the legendary Marian Wood. It was Marian, now deceased, who first raised the possibility of publishing a collection of my work someday, a Russell Martin reader, so to speak. She believed such a book would find readers, and I was flattered that she thought I could write enough good stuff over time to be worthy of the publishing equivalent of a greatest-hits album.

But then Marian made the move from Chelsea to Soho, from Holt to Putnam and the larger Penguin empire, and I moved to Salt Lake City, Denver, Burbank, Ojai, Ventura, Phoenix, and finally to Scottsdale, where I will remain. These days I’m getting old and wrinkled in the desert heat, and it’s from this place that I have greatly enjoyed curating this collection of book excerpts, novel excerpts, and articles. They aren’t “hits” so much as simple examples of the kind of work I’ve done since I first wrote professionally for weekly newspapers in Telluride, Colorado—half a century ago, back when Telluride and I were filled with both uncertainty and excitement about what the future would hold.

I was writing for regional and national magazines in the early 1980s when a then-unknown caterer named Martha Stewart read an article of mine in the New York Times Magazine one Sunday and suggested to her then-husband Andy Stewart that I might be a good choice to write a book about the mystique and mythology of the cowboy that he wanted to publish. Andy called me; I did my best to remain calm as I said, sure, I’d be happy to meet with him to talk, and I’ve mostly written books during the forty years since.

I’ve made a few documentary films—a collaborative venture that I’ve loved—and I have ghostwritten books for others, but books of mine own have been my stock in trade. Without question, the ghostwriting connected me to people and places I otherwise wouldn’t have encountered. But ghostwriting—like kissing your sister, as they say—kind of doesn’t count. I’ve written books for astronauts, politicians, businesspeople, surgeons, actors, and film directors, and I’m grateful to have had the opportunities and the work. But writing for me has always been hard, and writing for others has proven the hardest of all. I’ve always enjoyed pretending I was someone else for a bit, but in the end, the subjects I have chosen, and the words with which I wrote about them have always been the most rewarding.

Collected here are three excerpts from novels and a novella, five articles, and excerpts from seven narrative nonfiction books—all of them published between the years 1983 and 2022. As I try to determine if they contain common threads—similar themes, or styles, or subjects—I’m struck that I have typed a good bit about the work people choose to do and how they go about it. I’ve written about people with disabilities a number of times, and I’ve been lured by the stories and inspired work of artists—painters, musicians, writers—who have achieved great creative heights. Both Europe and the New World have captured my attention, and I’ve been as interested in history as the present moment, I know. I’ve written about death a few times, and once I wrote about the young men, most of them still boys, who forged a football team that had a transcendent season.

It was Marian Wood, I remember, who first cautioned me that in choosing an entirely new subject virtually every time I began a new book I ran the risk of never building a legion of readers. I thought about that, and I knew she was right, but for some reason—likely because the world in all its varieties and complexities seemed so enticing—I didn’t heed her warning.

So, this collection is all over the place. I’m proud of that, even though perhaps I shouldn’t be, grateful for the range and the depth of what’s here. But most of all, I feel lucky—fortunate to have been able to pay attention, listen, look, and then to tell these stories.

I’ve been awfully lucky, yes.

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