Some of my family drove to Logan the other day to attend a special dinner in honor of the winners of the prestigious David Woolley and Beatrice Cannon Evans Biography Awards.
I went chiefly because my sister, Mary Lythgoe Bradford, won for her recent biography of Lowell L. Bennion, but I was also glad to be there to honor Robert Alan Goldberg, University of Utah historian, who won an award for his book on Barry Goldwater.I have read and loved both books and thought they were extremely deserving, even though one of the authors is my sister. (No bias there, as you can see.) The setting was the best I've ever seen for an intellectual gathering - the charming Utah State University Alumni House, which has more character than any other academic building I've seen.
The dinner was delicious, and the program looked short, but wasn't. There were four speeches of considerable length, all of which I would have drastically edited had I been given the opportunity.
President George Emert of USU delivered a warm welcome and then editorialized about what he considered the inordinate coverage of all the bad news in the world compared to the good news. I thought he was trying to say the winning biographies represented good news.
I had a minor bone to pick with him when he used as his principal example a comment by ABC's Ted Koppel, who left the National Republican Convention early because he considered its news value to be low.
Emert said Koppel left "because he could see there would be no killings or anyone hurt." I was in San Diego at the time, and Koppel actually told a reporter for the San Diego Union Tribune, "This is a wonderful event for the Republicans, but it's not news. For the rest of this week, we'll be doing whatever the big news is, as always. It could be about this convention. But we're betting it won't be, and that's why we're pulling out."
That doesn't sound as if he were disappointed about a lack of violence.
Other speakers went on at greath length about the history of the Evans family, the good work done by USU's Mountain West Center, and the complicated process of selecting the biography award winners.
Finally, we got to the two illustrious authors, neither of whom had been told they were going to speak. They had each scribbled a few notes during the other long talks and then delivered witty, short remarks about their genuine gratitude for the awards.
It was easy to see they were both gifted with words.
Realizing there is no more prestigious award given in Utah for excellence in biography, I couldn't help but wish there had been just a bit more emphasis on the winners and their subjects. Both Bradford and Goldberg spent several years in meticulous research and careful, engaging writing - and I think most people would have preferred to hear more about that.
Lowell Bennion and Barry Goldwater made completely opposite contributions to the world - one a great humanitarian, teacher and writer, and the other a giant political conservative - but each was fascinating and deserving of an excellent full-scale biography, yet neither was much interested in having it done.
Nobody asked me how I would change this awards ceremony, but here are some thoughts anyway. I would like to see a simple welcome from USU's president, a clear rationale by one of the judges as to why these two books were chosen and an anecdotal look at the authors and their work.
I think the longest talks should be given by the authors themselves. They should talk about the process of researching and writing and the problems they encountered. They should also read selections from their books.
It would enhance the occasion and the unusually fine setting - probably the most charming campus in the state. Whether any of this happens next year or not - everyone who loves biography should quickly read Bradford on Bennion and Goldberg on Goldwater.