Mark Helprin Interview

MF: At least in their physical attributes and their relationship to the media, you based Freddy and Fredericka around Charles and Diana.

Mark Helprin: Sure, yes. They are. But that's the jumping off point. I hope they go deeper than that.

MF: And Freddy obviously has some autobiographical traits.

Mark Helprin: Well, you always get that. Just like with my first novel, Refiner's Fire, I was shocked when people would say it's autobiographical, I was shocked! All first novelists who write autobiographical first novels are offended by this suggestion, because they don't see it. But looking back on it, of course it's autobiographical. Now I'm mature enough to admit that.

But to some extent, sure Freddy shares some of my traits and beliefs. And the real Prince Charles does to. He's a classicist conservative traditionalist who is also an athlete. Lord Psnake, a character in the novel, says Freddy's a child of the 19th century because he was born before the first half of the twentieth century, that he just came in under the wire, and that made him someone from the past. I'm that way too.

The difference between my generation and my wife's generation - she's four years younger than me - is greater than the difference between my generation and my father's generation. My father is 43 years older than me. There was this change in America, this dividing line that just made a huge difference. I've always felt closer to my father's generation.

MF: Let's talk about Dewey Knott, the Republican Presidential candidate in your novel. You've worked in politics quite a bit. You were an advisor to Bob Dole?

Mark Helprin: I was an advisor in defense and foreign relations for Bob Dole. I also wrote the acceptance speech, which was delivered in August, in January before I was even on the Dole team. I had met him and knew him vaguely, the way anybody knows a politician like that. So I wrote that in January, and they tinkered with it - they changed it so it's not all mine, breaking the agreement that I had. But yes, I also wrote his resignation speech which might have actually changed the election, turned him around, but then they put me on ice after that.

MF: Did you write speeches for other politicians before that?

Mark Helprin: I have been before and since, but unlike Dole, they kept the confidentiality agreements. My conditions are: First, nothing is changed. I work directly with the candidate and no one else; Second, I don't get paid. I've never taken one penny, though during the Dole campaign the Democrats spread a rumor - or maybe it was the people on Dole's campaign who spread the rumor - that I got $11,000 for this resignation speech. I was really livid about that because I have never been paid a penny for any of this stuff, and I've been doing it for decades. The third condition is that it's totally anonymous, and no one's broken it except Dole. I do it only as a duty of citizenship, and I don't do it all the time. I may have done it twelve times.

I'll tell you one thing. When I do write for politicians, if they hold to the agreement and they don't mess up the speech by having every Tom, Dick, and Harry comment on it and tinker with it, it's had tremendous effect and really made a big splash. Every single time. But there haven't been that many times, because most of the time they ruin it by gutting it.

MF: How did your work in politics influence your satirization of Dewey Knott's campaign?

Mark Helprin: Dewey Knott is a composite. He's not Bob Dole. He's a composite of many politicians I've worked for plus politicians that I and everyone else know, plus he's a fictional character.

MF: What about President August Self?

Mark Helprin: Dewey Knott is not based on Dole, but August Self is largely based on Clinton, though I touched very lightly on his character. I don't believe in bitterness in books. There's enough bitterness in life as there is, and it's just unattractive to me. People write bitter books without any redemptive value. What's the point? It's nihilism. And anyway, who cares about your anger or your indignation?