The Hearth of Storytelling
My friend Malcolm Margolin called hanging out with friends and family “warming oneself at the hearth of their stories.” All we have to do is kindle those flames.
Malcolm on Kim’s deck, 2012
Malcolm is a master storyteller and collector of stories. The founder of the phenomenal publishing house Heyday Books, Malcolm began publishing stories in the 1970s of California Native people, and then poets, novelists, historians, outdoor adventurers and more, of all kinds.
Malcolm on a hike, 2016
Serendipitously, around 1995 Malcolm asked me to edit the memoir of Darryl Babe Wilson (Achumawe and Atsugewi), The Morning the Sun Went Down, a poignant tale of Babe’s childhood, rife with both the loss of family and the sustenance of stories.
Darryl Babe Wilson
Around 2010, I asked Malcolm to let me record his oral history, and from those interviews grew the book I wrote, The Heyday of Malcolm Margolin: The Damn Good Times of a Fiercely Independent Publisher. By then, Malcolm had stories about taking care of wild landscapes as a misfit park ranger, about learning the ancient lifeways of Ohlone Indians, and guiding the birth of multitudinous books through Heyday over forty years. Lucky me to sit at his hearth!
Malcolm and Kim at a party hosted by Heyday Books
Over the years, I’ve recorded many interviews. Some end up simply stapled or wire-bound together. Others morph into narratives. All allow future generations to know what a parent or grandparent or citizen of that place once experienced.
How To
I like to start by asking an interviewee to tell stories about parents or grandparents, and stories passed down about prior generations, even if the interviewee didn’t know them. What might you have been told about one of your ancestors, perhaps just anecdotes? What does that story mean to you or your family in some way?
I provide many questions below, not meant to be asked in this order or even this way. They are jumping off places for a conversation, for sparking memories and stories. You can also ask them of a friend or about your own life. Extend questions by asking a little more: How? Why? In what way? Details are precious. So is stimulating heartfelt sorrows and belly laughs.
What was your family configuration growing up—siblings, extended family?
What work did you do? How hard or enjoyable was it and why?
What kind of education did you get? Terrible or remarkable in what way?
What were your cultural or religious practices, if any? Did you experience religious persecution or was religion oppressive or prohibited? How? Why?
How did you serve in your community—such as being a volunteer in certain organizations, fraternal or cultural, a club member of some kind?
What has been your political affiliation, if any, and engagement in politics?
Were you in the military, in a war? In a gang, in jail, in any kind of “lock up”?
With whom did they fall in love? The circumstances? The outcome? Was marriage possible or not and why?
What was raising children like, if you did that in some way? What was enjoyable or excruciating or both?
What experiences were the hardest to bear in your life and why? Have you not been able to talk about it before? How did those experiences affect you?
What were some of the most pleasurable and/or surprising experiences you’ve had? How did they come about? What came of those experiences for you and your family or friends?
What would you like those coming after you to know about you regarding your values, ambitions, contributions?
What have been important lessons you’ve learned to help you through life—people or ideas you rely on—and may even wish others could incorporate as well?
Some interviewees will tell you flat out, “I’m not going to talk about that.” Others will gently enter into a discussion as if slowly entering a chilly mountain lake and, finally accustomed to the cold, will talk about something rarely broached before, because now is the time, finally that time when they need to unburden themselves.
Who knows what you’ll hear? You just have to ask.
A couple of excellent resources for thinking about doing oral histories and asking questions are at the websites below. Most importantly, have fun and go deep!
The Bancroft Library’s Oral History Center
