Dahlgren Update

I have been working on the Dahlgren manuscript for more than 18 months now. For most of the last seven months, it’s been more off than on, but I have periodically worked on it. I was fortunate enough to get some good feedback and editorial suggestions from friends like Scott Patchan, and much of the last few months entailed edits based on suggestions from folks like Scott.

In part, I’ve been a little afraid to pull the trigger on this thing, largely because it’s not placed with a publisher. While I find the story terribly compelling (I had better find it compelling to have invested so much time, money and effort in it, right?), I recognize that the market for biography of a young man who died 34 days before his 22nd birthday will be limited. A limited market means that the commercial publishing houses are not interested in it. Therefore, I have two options: McFarland or a university press. At this point, I’m inclined to go with a university press, and a couple of them have expressed some interest in the project. If I can place it with the University of North Carolina Press or LSU, I think that would be an ideal placement for it.

Today, I finally decided that the time has come to pull the trigger on this thing and put it to bed. I asked old friend Ted Savas to read the manuscript and give me some feedback on it today, and Ted agreed. I will send it along tonight, and when I make any final revisions that Ted might suggest, the thing will then be finished.

At this point, I believe that I have given it my best shot. I’ve looked at several hundred sources and literally hundreds of pages of letters and diary entries written in Ully Dahlgren’s own hand. I’m confident that I have exhausted what’s available to find–with one notable exception, a newspaper article written by Dahlgren and published under the pseudonym “Truth”. I’ve looked at every issue of about a dozen different newspapers but have, to my eternal frustration, been unable to locate it anywhere. I genuinely don’t know where else to look for that article and have given up on finding it. Beyond that, though, I believe that I have exhausted what’s available to me.

It’s time to put it to bed. We shall see how things play out, but I feel good about the final result. I will keep everyone posted as to the progress of the the thing.