The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-03-17
HOW BIOGRAPHIES ARE WRITTEN.


Hon. William Dudley Foulke is at work
Journal reporter found him yesterday aft
ernoon in a rear room of the city library
looking through newspapers of the war
period. He was asked how a biographer
should 60 to work to collect material. II
will tell You how am working said Mr..
Foulke ''but whether the system is one to
commend itself to other biographers am
not prepared to say. With the help of my
stenographer am now going through the
old Journals and Sentinels day by day. l
have already gone through the Cincinnati
dailies, extracting from them every
thing that bears upon the admin
istration of Morton in this State.
Each of these extracts / place upon
a separate sheet of paper, dating each one.
Of thesefficial history, take the first vol.
ume of Adjutant- general Terrells report of
Indiana in the War" and the Brewer Re-
ports and journals of the legislatures. Here,
also, I take each subject and paste it upon
q, separate slip of paper, with the date. l
then take these subjects and sort them out.
The results of personal interviews l ar
range in chronological order in like man.
ner, and also set them TOUT according to
subject, rewriting the whole matter"
"YOu must have vast amount of such
materially" ~
"Atmy home have ten large drawers,
each one set apart TO different period, and
the papers relating to each period are
given their appropriate drawer This, |
take it, is the only way toavOid confusion"
How much of the work have you COM
pletedsT IL
There is very little that 1 can consider
completed. The early life of Morton and
part of the war period have been written,
m will hav tn 90 n
again, and / expect to keep on adding and
subtracting until the final conclusion of the
entire work is reached. have not begun
upon the senatorial period of MortOn's
script of that time, and much of it is in the
Senator's own and-writing."
'1s yours to be the first biography of the
great war Governor of Indianap
There have been two written already.
one by VIM. M. French and the other,
which covers the whole period of his life,
by Charles NJ. Walker. Mr.. Walkers life
is excellent. There are also two or three
campaign biographies and quite cOllec-
ton of his speeches. None of these, nor
completeness of the biography l am at
work upon. The time chat has elapsed
since the death of the great Senator gives
me some advantages over the gentlemen
who wrote the earlier biographies, and
have the benefit of their labor. In addition
to the works mentioned l shall have the
benefit of a number of personal reminis-
censes of Morton, by Miss Laura Ream, and
Berry X. Sulgrove, who enjoyed intimate
and confidential relations with him at the
most stirring period in his career, has sent
me a large number of personal anecdotes,
many of them exceedingly interesting and
entirely new. A number of the war Gov
ernor's friends, at Centerville, are still liv-
ing in Wayne county, and much concern
ing him is accessible through them regard
ing his early life. The records of the court
there show the cases in which he was en-
gagged as lawyer, and can use these as
the framework for many of the personal
"reminiscences"
How many volumes will there be of the
wOrki" ~ toa
There will be two, with the matter as
compact as possible. / will be extremely
glad to receive personal "reminiscences of
my subject from any original sources. Quite
a number of MortOn's friends and cO-wOrk-
erS have sent me accounts of different
transactions, for which / am very grateful
gave up the idea of trying to write the
life consecutively from the beginning.
While writing biography, an author comes
upon something in one place that belongs
several years back ia the past, and next
pops up an incident that belongs as far
away in the future of the life you are
writing. MortOn's life is full of interest to
his biographer, for it covers the most in
teresting, and, you may say, heroic and ro-
mantle period in the history of the State
/ and of the NatiOn.o. ah