The James Jones Literary Society

Newsletter         Vol. 13, No. 3 — Summer, 2004

 

In this issue:

 

 

Grass Roots ‘Block Party’:

Fourteenth Annual James Jones Literary Society Symposium

in Robinson, Illinois, October 23, 2004.

      

--by Dave Nightingale

  JJLS President

 

   The James Jones Literary Society is going to try something completely different on Saturday, October 23, when it holds its 14th annual national symposium in Robinson, Illinois, the home town of the author for whom the organization is named.

  

Instead of presenting a broad-based, different-things-for-different-people kind of program, the Society is planning to hold a giant, theme-based block party—on a local field of grass roots—that will feature debates, revelations, movies and certainly some (verbal) fireworks.

  

That’s why the symposium is named “James Jones: ‘Running’ Back to the Roots” and it will deal entirely with Some Came Running, the author’s second major literary effort, published 46 years ago—a spicy look at small-town hypocrisies in the post-World War II era.

  

Jones fans from all over the country will, of course, be welcome and encouraged to visit the American heartland for this event. But those visitors will soon realize this party is tailored to a hometown crowd, which, surprisingly, still has quite a bit to learn about its native son.

 

 Why is the JJLS taking this sort of approach to its 2004 symposium?

  

First, because this one is all about Robinson, population 6,700, a community that served as the actual physical location for the Some Came Running novel (and also was where the Society was formed).

  

And second, as noted, because it is more for Robinson. The extensive promotional pitches are being served up mainly to locals, via newspapers, radio, television and merchant flyers. The proclamation by Mayor Wally Dean that October 18-24 will be “James Jones Week” in Robinson is decidedly local, as are the two huge symposium banners that will be draped over Main Street at each end of town during that week.

  

The aim of the 2004 symposium is simple. It is to inexorably tie the Some Came Running novel to the town, both in terms of human and physical similarities.

  

 James Jones, 1955

 

And most of that tying will be done, tightly, by knowledgeable Robinson citizens, not by visiting Jones scholars. The outside academics have valid opinions to offer. But that doesn’t mean the purveyors of those opinions will produce local crowds fighting for ringside seats at the event.

  

Ryan Lewis, the program director for the Illinois Humanities Council, thinks this is absolutely the correct approach for the Society to take in 2004—and that’s why he worked so hard to promote the $2,000 grant that the IHC recently awarded to the JJLS by a unanimous vote, the 10th such grant for the organization in 10 bids.

 

“This year’s Jones Society cast of characters may not be as important, academically, as in the past—or as well-known as the IHC might usually expect when it comes to issuing a humanities grant to a symposium program,” Lewis said.

  

“But this case is different. If you are going to look ‘inside’ a community, you can’t do it with ‘outside’ speakers because they don’t know the territory. And if you are making a concerted effort to attract a larger local audience than usual, you would have a better chance if the people in the program are well-known locally.”

  

The feature attraction of the 2004 JJLS symposium program will be a panel of super-sharp local octogenarians (251 years of combined knowledge) discussing a rather volatile topic: “Robinson, 1946-51—The Mold and the Cauldron for Some Came Running.”

  

Wilbur (Wib) Powden, a local portrait photographer who will soon retire after 58 years in the same studio on the downtown square; Dr. Otto (Bud) Prier, a local optometrist from 1948-1988; and Mary Frances Lewis Whittinghill, the wife of the town’s late newspaper publisher and mother of the current publisher, all were established citizens of Robinson in the post-World War II era.

  

They know what went on back then; whether or not Robinson was indeed “a little Peyton Place”….or, in other words: where the bodies are buried.

  

And author Ray Elliott (Wild Hands Toward the Sky), a University of Illinois instructor and native of the Robinson area, will be in charge of digging out such facts, in his role as panel moderator.

  

The Society hopes that this symposium will be especially appealing to the town’s teen-agers, who are not allowed to study Jones’s works in the local high school classroom because the language in his novels is deemed too coarse. Those teen-agers will be asked: “Don’t you want to learn something about your parents’ and grandparents’ Robinson, some of the things they never told you?”

  

There are some other tasty carrots to dangle in front of a would-be audience:

 

  • Former JJLS director Helen Howe, a longtime friend of late Robinson gambler Arkie Ashby (the prototype for the “Bama Dillert” character in Some Came Running) will participate in a discussion of the man who was an interactive focal point in the novel. She will be joined, via speaker phone from California, by Gail Martin Downey, daughter of late actor-singer Dean Martin, who played “Bama” in the movie version of the novel. Dave Nightingale of Robinson, the JJLS president, will moderate.

 

·         The program will open with a 1958 video clip from the Edward R. Murrow “Person to Person” program, with Murrow conducting a live interview in New York City with Jones and his wife Gloria on the same day Some Came Running was published. This will be followed by comments by JJLS director Kaylie Jones, Jim and Gloria’s daughter and a novelist in her own right.

·         Jones Society director Kim Cox, another Robinson native, will present a “concordance” showing the countless similarities between Robinson and the novel’s mythical community of Parkman, while later in the program, Nightingale will put local faces on the book’s characters.

·         The frosting on the day’s cake will be a showing of the motion picture “Some Came Running,” starring Frank Sinatra, Martin and Shirley MacLaine.

Also, in fulfilling its stated obligation to promote the talents of young writers, the Society will give the James Jones First Novel Fellowship to John Smelcer of Chugiak, Alaska, and the James Jones Creative Writing Award to Evan Inboden of Robinson. A Special Service plaque will go to Nancy Romero, who has spent much of her career in the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s library, both as an employee and a volunteer, cataloguing the works of Jones for the Rare Books and Special Collections section.

 A complete program of the symposium weekend’s activities may be found below. 

 

Winner of Jones Creative Writing Award Announced:

 

Behind Every Great Man,

There’s a Great….

 

 Thirty-four-year-old Evan Inboden of Robinson, IL, a laboratory technician at Marathon-Ashland Petroleum, has plenty of interests: his wife Julie and young sons Keegan and Brendan; his role as an adult Sunday School teacher; his love of tennis and astronomy; and his role with the Illinois Eastern Community College network as a part-time biology, chemistry, anatomy and on-line astronomy instructor.

  

But not too long ago, his wife convinced him to add this to his already-lengthy list: the wonderful world of fiction.

  

Writing it, that is; not just reading it!

  

“I’ve always been interested in writing but didn’t know if I had any talent,” he said.

 

        Evan Inboden

Now he knows. His short story “Imprints” has been declared the winner of the first prize in the 2004 James Jones Creative Writing competition, which is open to past, future and current students at Robinson’s Lincoln Trail College.

The annual competition is conducted under the auspices of the James Jones Literary Society and managed by JJLS Director Diane Reed, an English instructor at LTC. “And I’m pleased to report that this year’s contest had more entries than any in the last decade,” said Mrs. Reed.

Mrs. Reed will present Inboden with his award check at the society’s annual symposium, to be held at the LTC Zwermann Arts Center on October 23. 

Inboden was graduated from Robinson High School in 1988; attended Lincoln Trail for two years, graduating with an Associates degree in Science; earned BS degrees in zoology and botany from Eastern Illinois University at Charleston, in 1993; and a Master of Science degree in Physical Science in Education from EIU in 1997. He was the Oblong High School science instructor from 1994-2000.

 He said his award-winning effort is a short story about “an emotionally crippled NASA scientist, still reeling from the loss of his wife, (who) faces a moral dilemma when he accidentally stumbles upon an illegal operation being conducted within the agency. He (has) the choice of helping the world or following his own desires.”

Inboden added: “I plan to do more writing and I am currently working on another short story…or novel. We’ll see how long it turns out to be.”

 

Nancy Romero Earns

JJLS Special Award

 

Nancy Romero, a fixture for years in the Rare Book and Special Collections Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will receive a “Special Service Award” from the James Jones Literary Society at the organization’s 14th annual symposium in Robinson, Illinois, on Saturday, October 23.

Mrs. Romero, who holds the title of Professor Emeritus of Library Administration, formerly worked as a cataloguer for JJLS director Barbara Jones (who moved east last year from the UIUC to become the head librarian at Connecticut Wesleyan University), dealing principally with the James Jones collection

Officially, Mrs. Romero was forced to retire, following a massive stroke. But that setback hasn’t kept her away from the office. She still comes to work on the Jones collection when able these days, if only as a volunteer. “I don’t know of a more dedicated person,” said Mrs. Jones.

The citation on Mrs. Romero’s award plaque reads: “She volunteered her expertise and consummate professionalism as a cataloguer to create electronic access for everyone to the James Jones Collection in the Rare Book and Special Collections Library at the University of Illinois.”

The plaque will be presented on October 23 by JJLS Director Juanita Martin, now retired, who for years was in charge of the Eagleton Learning Resource Center at Robinson’s Lincoln Trail College, which is co-sponsor of and host to the 2004 symposium in its Zwermann Arts Center.

Mrs. Romero will be accompanied to the ceremony by Rare Book and Special Collections Library co-worker Gene Rinkel and his wife.

 

 

Native American

Wins JJLS First Novel Fellowship

 

--by Dave Nightingale

 

   John Smelcer of Chugiak, Alaska, a federally-registered Native American (of the Ahtna Tribe), says he always tries to maintain a simple, modest demeanor because “the Indian way is not to brag….I fail often but I try.”

  

You can understand why he might “fail often” because he is the author 26 non-fiction books and of articles in more than 300 periodicals. He has edited or written five major poetry books—two of them award winners. The late Allen Ginsberg called him “one of the most brilliant young poets in recent American literature.”

  

And then there’s one particularly unique item about him: as a graduate English literature student at Cambridge University, he wrote, compiled and edited a dictionary—in a different language: Ahtna.

   

Now, he’s going to try to play it cool about his latest literary achievement, and that will be difficult.

    

          John Smelcer

Smelcer, you see, has been named the 2004 winner of the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, besting a field of 593 competitors in the 12th annual event, which is co-sponsored by the Humanities Division at Wilkes (PA) University and the James Jones Literary Society.

  

The winning novel is entitled “The Trap.” And one contest judge, Kaylie Jones, the daughter of the author for whom the Fellowship competition is named (and a novelist in her own right), summed up Smelcer’s winning entry in one word:

 

“Stupendous!”

  

 The 41-year-old Alaskan will be officially honored, and will receive a check for $6,000, at the JJLS Symposium at Lincoln Trail College in Robinson, Illinois, on October 23.

      

The Ahtnas, sometimes called the Copper River Indians, were the last tribe to be discovered on the North American continent, in 1899. And Smelcer, one-fourth “blood”, is trying hard to keep their heritage alive. He spent three years as the tribally-appointed executive director of the Ahtna Heritage and Cultural Foundation. And then there was his one-of-a-kind literary accomplishment: In 1998, when he compiled, wrote and edited “The Ahtna Noun Dictionary.”

  

“I’m the very last person in the world who can read, write and speak our language; some 40-50 tribal elders can speak it but they can’t read it or write it,” he said.

  

Some might thing that’s bragging a little bit. But as boxing heavyweight champ Muhammed Ali once observed: “It ain’t braggin’ if you can do it.”

  

Not surprisingly, Smelcer’s award-winning novel “The Trap” has a Native American foundation. It’s the story of an elderly Indian hunter who was riding his trap line in the dead of an Alaskan winter when he accidentally became ensnared in one of his own traps. Night sets in; the temperature begins to fall; his grandson sets out to find his missing grandfather; and….

  

“This novel is filled with clear, crisp evocations of the Alaskan landscape and the spiritual culture of the Indians who have lived there for time out of mind,” said Dr. J. Michael Lennon of Wilkes University, another of the Jones Fellowship contest judges. “And it certainly met the ground rules for our competition.”

  

The contest was established to “honor the spirit of unblinking honesty, determination and insight into modern culture as exemplified by (the writings of) James Jones.”

  

Despite his diverse background, you’d almost have to rank Smelcer as an academician. He has four degrees from Alaska Pacific University; did graduate study at Texas A&M and has served 10 years on the Humanities faculty at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University satellite campus at Anchorage.

  

“I hate all of the degree stuff; a good writer doesn’t need a degree at all,” he said. “But, alas, I collect degrees.”

  

And he has helped dispense them, too. In the past decade, he has chaired 75 theses committees for the Embry-Riddle MAS degree in Aerospace Science.

  

Still, he’d rather think of himself as a poet. “My wife’s name is Pam,” he said. “She’s a mathematician, PhD, the whole thing. Funny how a poet and a science person got together, wasn’t it?”

  

The runnerup in the 2004 contest was John Reimringer of St. Paul, Minnesota for his entry “Vestments,” a sensitive examination of a young priest from a macho family who has hidden his cross-dressing since childhood and who wrestles with his spiritual and sexual identities while on a sabbatical.

 

In addition to Jones and Lennon, the judges for the 2004 First Novel Fellowship were Kevin Heisler (Kaylie’s husband) and Dr. Patricia Heaman, Professor Emeritus of English at Wilkes.

  

The Fellowship welcomes inquires on the contest. Requests for guidelines should be sent, along with a stamped, self-addressed envelope, to James Jones First Novel Fellowship, c/o Humanities Department, Kirby Hall, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766, or via e-mail to english@wilkes.edu.  Submission deadline is March 1 of each year. 

 

 

Jones Society Receives Illinois Humanities Council Grant

 

ROBINSON, IL—The James Jones Literary Society has received a $2,000 grant from the Illinois Humanities Council to help underwrite the costs of the organization’s annual symposium, to be held here on October 23 at Lincoln Trail College, the event’s co-sponsor.

  

The symposium, entitled “James Jones: ‘Running’ Back to the Roots”, will show the correlation between the community and the local native author’s 1958 novel Some Came Running, which used post-World War II Robinson as its basis.

  

 “Naturally, we are pleased to receive this assistance from the IHC,” said Dave Nightingale, the JJLS president. “And we are honored by the fact our society has been considered worthy of IHC financial aid each of the 10 times we have sought it.”

  

The James Jones Literary Society, with headquarters in Robinson, has members in 33 states and five countries.

  

“The IHC is proud to support nonprofit organizations that promote the importance of the humanities in private and public life because, through its efforts, Illinoisans have greater access to lifelong learning opportunities,” said IHC Executive Director Kristina Valaitis. “It is these champions of the humanities like the James Jones Literary Society that make their communities and our whole state more vibrant.”

  

The IHC grants program is now in its 31st year. To learn more about the program and the Council itself, contact the IHC offices at 312-422-5580 or visit its website at www.prairie.org.

 

James Jones: ‘Running’ Back to the Roots

Jones’s Home Town: the Unquestioned Nucleus

Of His Novel Some Came Running

 

14th Annual James Jones Literary Society Symposium

Lincoln Trail College, Robinson,

Saturday, October 23, 2004

9:30 a.m-5 p.m.

 

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2004

 

1 p.m.—Readings by Kaylie Jones

from her novels Speak Now and A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries; reading by JJLS director Kim Cox from The Ice Cream Headache, James Jones’s short story collection. At The Next Chapter Book Store, 210 S. Cross, Robinson. Autographs available after readings.

 

(FOR BOARD MEMBERS:)

 

3 p.m—JJLS Board of Directors Meeting, Mrs. Carl Zwermann residence, 806 W. Main St., Robinson (light refreshments)

 

5:30 p.m.—James Jones Exhibit tour, Crawford County Historical Society, 13673 E. 1150th Ave. (Outer East Highland), Robinson.

 

7:30 p.m.—Board of Directors dinner, Elizabeth’s Café, 401 E. Main St., Robinson

 

 

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2004

 

JAMES JONES SYMPOSIUM

Auditorium, Zwermann Arts Center

Lincoln Trail College

11220 N. State Highway 1, Robinson, IL

 

8:30 a.m.--Registration, coffee and doughnuts in LTC cafeteria.

 

9 a.m.—JJLS Annual Business Meeting

  9:30 a.m.—Welcome and opening remarks by JJLS President Dave Nightingale

9:45 a.m.—Edward R. Murrow “Person to Person” video

A 1958 interview with James and Gloria Jones on the day “Some Came Running” was published. 

  10 a.m.—Kaylie Jones, the author’s daughter, comments on the Murrow video.

10:15 a.m.—Robinson and “Parkman,” One and the Same

A “concordance” by JJLS Director Kim Cox showing the many geographical similarities and shared nuances between Jones’s home town and the mythical city of his novel Some Came Running.

 

10:30 a.m.—“Arkie” and  Bama,” One and the Same

A panel discussion involving JJLS Director Helen Howe, a friend of late Robinsonite Grover Cleveland (Arkie) Ashby, and by speaker phone from California, Gail Martin Downey, daughter of late actor Dean Martin, who, as Bama Dillert, portrayed Ashby in the Some Came Running movie. Dave Nightingale moderates this look at SCR’s most volatile and interactive character.

 

 

11:15 a.m.—Meet the JJLS 2004 Award Winners:

 

Special Service Award—Nancy Romero, Professor Emeritus, Library Administration, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, presented by JJLS Director Juanita Martin.

 

Lincoln Trail James Jones Creative Writing Award—Evan Inboden of Robinson, presented by JJLS Director Diane Reed. Inboden will read from his award-winning short story “Implants.”

 

James Jones First Novel Fellowship—John Smelcer, Chugiak, AK, presented by JJLS Director Kaylie Jones. Smelcer sill read from his award-winning entry “The Trap.”

 

Noon—Luncheon in LTC Cafeteria

 

1:15 p.m.—Frank and Ted (et al)—One and the Same.

Dave Nightingale attaches former Robinson names and faces to the Some Came Running characters, notes many of the differences between the motion picture and the novel, and then introduces the participants on a panel that will inexorably tie the novel to the community, and vice versa.

 

1:30 p.m.—Robinson 1946-51: The Mold and Cauldron for Some Came Running.

Author Ray Elliott, a Crawford County native and JJLS director and past president, moderates this red-hot topic for three panelists from Robinson with a combined 251 years’ experience at having an opinion:

 

  Wilbur (Wib) Powden, Robinson portrait photographer since1945.

Mary Fran Lewis Whittinghill, wife of late Robinson publisher Kent Lewis.

 

Dr. Otto (Bud) Prier, Robinson optometrist, 1948-1988, now retired.

 

2:30 p.m.—Some Came Running: The Movie.

Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine finally get a chance to take over center stage.

 

4:55 p.m.—See You in Tennessee!

Closing remarks and an invitation to the 2005 JJLS Symposium in Memphis, Tennessee, where Whistle, the final novel in James Jones’s famed World War II trilogy, will be the feature attraction.

 

(FOR BOARD MEMBERS AND INVITED GUESTS)

 

6:30 p.m.—Closing cocktail party and dinner

Main ballroom, Quail Creek Country Club, 1010 Outer East Highland, Robinson.

 

 

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2004

 

            (FOR BOARD MEMBERS)

 

9 a.m.—Directors’ farewell breakfast, Mrs. Carl Zwermann residence, 806 W. Main St., Robinson.

 

 

 

 


THE JAMES JONES LITERARY SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

Vol. 13, No. 3

Summer, 2004

Editor: Thomas J. Wood


Editorial Advisory Board:

Dwight Connelly

Kevin Heisler

Richard King

Michael Mullen

Hugh Mulligan

The James Jones Society Newsletter is published quarterly to keep members and interested parties apprised of activities, projects and upcoming events of the Society; to promote public interest and academic research in the works of James Jones; and to celebrate his memory and legacy.

Submissions of essays, features, anecdotes, photographs, etc., pertaining to the author James Jones may be sent to the editor for consideration. Every attempt will be made to return material, if requested upon submission. Material may be edited for length, clarity and accuracy. Send submissions to:

Thomas J. Wood

Archives/Special Collections LIB 144

University of Illinois at Springfield

One University Plaza, MS BRK 140

Springfield, IL 62703-5407

wood@uis.edu.

Writers' guidelines available upon request and online.

The James Jones Literary Society web page:

http://jamesjoneslitsociety.vinu.edu/

Online information about the James Jones First Novel Fellowship:

http://www.wilkes.edu/humanities/jones.asp