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Interview with Joseph Wallace
Interview with Joseph Wallace
A Conversation with Joe Wallace, Author of Diamond Ruby
This is your first novel, though you have written several nonfiction books. How did you decide to write Ruby’s story? Did any of your previous books influence you?
My previous nonfiction books were a big influence on Diamond Ruby. Whether I was writing about baseball or science and natural history, I’ve always been fascinated about how women, against great odds, have fought their way into fields traditionally considered to be “men only.” These are real-life stories filled with drama, heartbreak, and (occasionally) triumph, and well worth telling.
Having learned about Jackie Mitchell (the actual girl who struck out Babe Ruth and was then banned from baseball) while researching one of my books, I decided I wanted to write a similar story the way it should have happened. That’s the good thing about fiction—if you want to change the ending, you can.
Describe the journey you took while writing this book. Is writing fiction a different experience from writing nonfiction? Do you prefer one to the other?
Writing fiction is the most exciting, fulfilling, frustrating, and terrifying process I’ve ever been through. I can usually tell when my nonfiction books are going well, but during the first draft of Ruby I was always wondering if I was simply deluding myself. I was so relieved when my first readers liked it!
I enjoy telling fascinating true stories in my nonfiction books. But I fell in love with writing fiction while working on Diamond Ruby—which is why I’m writing a new novel right now. I think I’m hooked.
Describe the research you had to do in order to correctly represent historical characters such as Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey. Were there any interesting stories you came across about your characters that did not make it into the novel?
It’s impossible to read about New York in the 1920s without hearing a whole lot about Babe Ruth. He was larger than life even when he was alive—loud and charming and friendly and difficult all at once. He was up for anything: boxing, playing football, riding in rodeos, posing with kids, as long as it seemed like fun and would keep him in the public eye.
He also collected friends, even though he rarely remembered their names. And children adored him. I really do believe that if Ruby, Allie, and Amanda had existed back then, the Babe would have “adopted” them as he did so many others.
Jack Dempsey was an interesting person, much quieter than Ruth and with a much more complicated relationship with the public. His public persona appears to have been more like I made Ruby’s: not flashy, but determined to win at all costs. Many sportswriters at the time wondered if boxing fans would ever warm up to him. They did eventually embrace him, but not until he lost the championship a few years later.
What made you decide to set this novel in Brooklyn, New York? What effect do you believe the setting has on the book overall? Did you consider any other cities for the setting of Diamond Ruby?
I never doubted that Diamond Ruby would be set in Brooklyn. It’s where I grew up, so I know it well: its sights, smells, even the color of the light there. More importantly, Brooklyn and New York City as a whole were among the most fascinating places on earth to live in the early 1920s.
They were perilous and intoxicating at the same time, places filled with danger and opportunity. Between the opening of the Coney Island Boardwalk and Yankee Stadium, the rise of women’s rights, the flowering of the Ku Klux Klan, Prohibition rumrunning, and the kind of active tabloid press that would have loved her—well, where else would Ruby live?
We know Ruby’s character is inspired by Jackie Mitchell from Chattanooga, Tennessee, the girl who struck out Babe Ruth and was consequently banned from baseball along with her entire gender. Why did you decide to write a story based on Jackie’s experiences?
I was so frustrated at the way history cheated Jackie Mitchell when Judge Landis banned her! A photo I found haunted me: This slightly built teenage girl smiling as she posed with Ruth and Lou Gehrig, two of the most famous celebrities of all time, never knowing that her career was about to end. The more I thought about it, the more I decided I wanted to write a novel on a similar theme.
Diamond Ruby isn’t about Jackie Mitchell, though. I purposely made Ruby a fictional character whose life shares little with Jackie’s. My goal was to write a story about a girl who used her talent, smarts, and determination to overcome the people who want to control or destroy her.
Describe the process you went through while creating Ruby’s character. What was it like to write from a female perspective? Was there any additional research involved in capturing Ruby’s voice?
Before starting Diamond Ruby, I had written several short stories from the perspective of young women. I’m not sure why, but I’m very comfortable with that point of view. I haven’t received any complaints (from women or men) that the stories don’t ring true or that I shouldn’t have tried, so I guess I’ll keep at it!
As far as Ruby is concerned, her voice reflects that of many of the women I admired most from that era. In doing my research, I read dozens of journals, autobiographies, magazine articles, and other contemporary writings by women, finding that almost universally the writers were smart, self-aware, and determined to make a difference. I wanted Ruby to share their determination in pursuing her single goal: survival for her nieces and herself.
The novel is set during a turbulent time in American history and touches on many significant historical and cultural events. How did you decide which events to include in the novel? As a historian, do you consider this time period a turning point in American history?
Both in the early sections of the novel (set in the 1910s) and in 1923, when most of it takes place, I had to leave out many fascinating historical events or else the book would have been 800 pages long! (For example, while working at Coney Island, Ruby would likely have met Cary Grant, who was working there, too. Grant was a character in early drafts, but didn’t make the final cut, alas.)
I retained some historical details (such as the great influenza epidemic) because they had such an enormous impact on anyone who lived through those times. Others, such as the Dempsey-Firpo fight and a World Series game at the new Yankee Stadium, were simply terrific fun to write and, I hope, to read.
I wish I considered the 1920s a turning point in American history! Instead, I think it was a brief golden age for women’s rights; I found article after article celebrating the idea that women and men were finally equal and proclaiming that this would never change. No one guessed how much things would backslide just a few years later or that women’s rights wouldn’t get back to where they’d been until the 1960s.
Besides Jackie Mitchell, who else inspired Ruby’s character? Would you consider Ruby more fiction than not? How much or how little is Ruby like her real-life counterpart?
Ruby is definitely fictional. I took only a powerful left arm and a confrontation with Babe Ruth from Jackie Mitchell and invented the rest of the story.
On the other hand, I’m surrounded by people who inspired Ruby, Amanda, and Allie. Much of my own teenage daughter’s personality is reflected in my characters, and I’ve also learned a lot from my niece, from the high-school students I work with as a writing mentor, and from many other young women I’ve met along the way. I’m glad I got to thank many of them in the acknowledgments.
Who is your favorite character in the story and why?
Well, I’m crazy about Ruby, of course. I love how she never stops working toward her goals. She has no pretensions, no inflated sense of self-worth, no outsize ego. She simply loves her nieces and will do whatever it takes to keep them safe. The people who threaten her don’t understand how far love and determination can take you. I’m also very fond of Ruby’s closest friend, Helen. I based Helen on Helen Carr, a real-life diver who went blind following a tragic accident, but who didn’t let her terrible misfortune stop her from living a full life. I found only a couple of stories about the real Helen, but she inspired me.
And I have to confess to a sneaking affection for Chase, the main villain in the story. I like his style and I know that the highlights of his days were the times he got to cross swords with Ruby. (Well, at least until the very end!)
Who are your influences as a writer and historian? What are you reading now? What is next for you?
I love reading histories that bring long-lost times and places to life. Among many, many other authors, Doris Kearns Goodwin, of course, is superb at this, and before her I especially admired Barbara Tuchman. I also find Studs Terkel’s oral histories (Working, The Good War, etc.) invaluable, because they capture the true voices of regular people. On the baseball front, Lawrence Ritter’s masterpiece The Glory of Their Times (also an oral history) and Bill James’s Historical Baseball Abstract top the list.
In fiction, I read very widely, and I’m especially drawn to mysteries and thrillers. (For example, although Dick Francis’s heroes are always male, in their quiet, underestimated way, they share a lot with Ruby.) I just finished Lee Child’s latest Jack Reacher novel, Gone Tomorrow. It’s a portrait of a very different New York City than the one I wrote about, though equally perilous!
Right now I’m working on a follow-up to Diamond Ruby. It takes place in 1926, about three years after the first, because I want to explore the way the years have changed Ruby, Amanda, and Allie. This novel is set in Hollywood, a perfect place for Ruby to bear witness to—and confront—the excitement and dangers of the Roaring Twenties.
This is your first novel, though you have written several nonfiction books. How did you decide to write Ruby’s story? Did any of your previous books influence you?
My previous nonfiction books were a big influence on Diamond Ruby. Whether I was writing about baseball or science and natural history, I’ve always been fascinated about how women, against great odds, have fought their way into fields traditionally considered to be “men only.” These are real-life stories filled with drama, heartbreak, and (occasionally) triumph, and well worth telling.
Having learned about Jackie Mitchell (the actual girl who struck out Babe Ruth and was then banned from baseball) while researching one of my books, I decided I wanted to write a similar story the way it should have happened. That’s the good thing about fiction—if you want to change the ending, you can.
Describe the journey you took while writing this book. Is writing fiction a different experience from writing nonfiction? Do you prefer one to the other?
Writing fiction is the most exciting, fulfilling, frustrating, and terrifying process I’ve ever been through. I can usually tell when my nonfiction books are going well, but during the first draft of Ruby I was always wondering if I was simply deluding myself. I was so relieved when my first readers liked it!
I enjoy telling fascinating true stories in my nonfiction books. But I fell in love with writing fiction while working on Diamond Ruby—which is why I’m writing a new novel right now. I think I’m hooked.
Describe the research you had to do in order to correctly represent historical characters such as Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey. Were there any interesting stories you came across about your characters that did not make it into the novel?
It’s impossible to read about New York in the 1920s without hearing a whole lot about Babe Ruth. He was larger than life even when he was alive—loud and charming and friendly and difficult all at once. He was up for anything: boxing, playing football, riding in rodeos, posing with kids, as long as it seemed like fun and would keep him in the public eye.
He also collected friends, even though he rarely remembered their names. And children adored him. I really do believe that if Ruby, Allie, and Amanda had existed back then, the Babe would have “adopted” them as he did so many others.
Jack Dempsey was an interesting person, much quieter than Ruth and with a much more complicated relationship with the public. His public persona appears to have been more like I made Ruby’s: not flashy, but determined to win at all costs. Many sportswriters at the time wondered if boxing fans would ever warm up to him. They did eventually embrace him, but not until he lost the championship a few years later.
What made you decide to set this novel in Brooklyn, New York? What effect do you believe the setting has on the book overall? Did you consider any other cities for the setting of Diamond Ruby?
I never doubted that Diamond Ruby would be set in Brooklyn. It’s where I grew up, so I know it well: its sights, smells, even the color of the light there. More importantly, Brooklyn and New York City as a whole were among the most fascinating places on earth to live in the early 1920s.
They were perilous and intoxicating at the same time, places filled with danger and opportunity. Between the opening of the Coney Island Boardwalk and Yankee Stadium, the rise of women’s rights, the flowering of the Ku Klux Klan, Prohibition rumrunning, and the kind of active tabloid press that would have loved her—well, where else would Ruby live?
We know Ruby’s character is inspired by Jackie Mitchell from Chattanooga, Tennessee, the girl who struck out Babe Ruth and was consequently banned from baseball along with her entire gender. Why did you decide to write a story based on Jackie’s experiences?
I was so frustrated at the way history cheated Jackie Mitchell when Judge Landis banned her! A photo I found haunted me: This slightly built teenage girl smiling as she posed with Ruth and Lou Gehrig, two of the most famous celebrities of all time, never knowing that her career was about to end. The more I thought about it, the more I decided I wanted to write a novel on a similar theme.
Diamond Ruby isn’t about Jackie Mitchell, though. I purposely made Ruby a fictional character whose life shares little with Jackie’s. My goal was to write a story about a girl who used her talent, smarts, and determination to overcome the people who want to control or destroy her.
Describe the process you went through while creating Ruby’s character. What was it like to write from a female perspective? Was there any additional research involved in capturing Ruby’s voice?
Before starting Diamond Ruby, I had written several short stories from the perspective of young women. I’m not sure why, but I’m very comfortable with that point of view. I haven’t received any complaints (from women or men) that the stories don’t ring true or that I shouldn’t have tried, so I guess I’ll keep at it!
As far as Ruby is concerned, her voice reflects that of many of the women I admired most from that era. In doing my research, I read dozens of journals, autobiographies, magazine articles, and other contemporary writings by women, finding that almost universally the writers were smart, self-aware, and determined to make a difference. I wanted Ruby to share their determination in pursuing her single goal: survival for her nieces and herself.
The novel is set during a turbulent time in American history and touches on many significant historical and cultural events. How did you decide which events to include in the novel? As a historian, do you consider this time period a turning point in American history?
Both in the early sections of the novel (set in the 1910s) and in 1923, when most of it takes place, I had to leave out many fascinating historical events or else the book would have been 800 pages long! (For example, while working at Coney Island, Ruby would likely have met Cary Grant, who was working there, too. Grant was a character in early drafts, but didn’t make the final cut, alas.)
I retained some historical details (such as the great influenza epidemic) because they had such an enormous impact on anyone who lived through those times. Others, such as the Dempsey-Firpo fight and a World Series game at the new Yankee Stadium, were simply terrific fun to write and, I hope, to read.
I wish I considered the 1920s a turning point in American history! Instead, I think it was a brief golden age for women’s rights; I found article after article celebrating the idea that women and men were finally equal and proclaiming that this would never change. No one guessed how much things would backslide just a few years later or that women’s rights wouldn’t get back to where they’d been until the 1960s.
Besides Jackie Mitchell, who else inspired Ruby’s character? Would you consider Ruby more fiction than not? How much or how little is Ruby like her real-life counterpart?
Ruby is definitely fictional. I took only a powerful left arm and a confrontation with Babe Ruth from Jackie Mitchell and invented the rest of the story.
On the other hand, I’m surrounded by people who inspired Ruby, Amanda, and Allie. Much of my own teenage daughter’s personality is reflected in my characters, and I’ve also learned a lot from my niece, from the high-school students I work with as a writing mentor, and from many other young women I’ve met along the way. I’m glad I got to thank many of them in the acknowledgments.
Who is your favorite character in the story and why?
Well, I’m crazy about Ruby, of course. I love how she never stops working toward her goals. She has no pretensions, no inflated sense of self-worth, no outsize ego. She simply loves her nieces and will do whatever it takes to keep them safe. The people who threaten her don’t understand how far love and determination can take you. I’m also very fond of Ruby’s closest friend, Helen. I based Helen on Helen Carr, a real-life diver who went blind following a tragic accident, but who didn’t let her terrible misfortune stop her from living a full life. I found only a couple of stories about the real Helen, but she inspired me.
And I have to confess to a sneaking affection for Chase, the main villain in the story. I like his style and I know that the highlights of his days were the times he got to cross swords with Ruby. (Well, at least until the very end!)
Who are your influences as a writer and historian? What are you reading now? What is next for you?
I love reading histories that bring long-lost times and places to life. Among many, many other authors, Doris Kearns Goodwin, of course, is superb at this, and before her I especially admired Barbara Tuchman. I also find Studs Terkel’s oral histories (Working, The Good War, etc.) invaluable, because they capture the true voices of regular people. On the baseball front, Lawrence Ritter’s masterpiece The Glory of Their Times (also an oral history) and Bill James’s Historical Baseball Abstract top the list.
In fiction, I read very widely, and I’m especially drawn to mysteries and thrillers. (For example, although Dick Francis’s heroes are always male, in their quiet, underestimated way, they share a lot with Ruby.) I just finished Lee Child’s latest Jack Reacher novel, Gone Tomorrow. It’s a portrait of a very different New York City than the one I wrote about, though equally perilous!
Right now I’m working on a follow-up to Diamond Ruby. It takes place in 1926, about three years after the first, because I want to explore the way the years have changed Ruby, Amanda, and Allie. This novel is set in Hollywood, a perfect place for Ruby to bear witness to—and confront—the excitement and dangers of the Roaring Twenties.
