State

Tar Heel P ROFILE By Arthur J. Pais Writer On The Rise Rocky Mount native Allan Gurganus’ struggle to become a successful author is paying big dividends these days. Until a few years ago. -16-year-old Allan Gurganus used to live in New York City on $12,000 to $15,000 a year, selling a few short stories, waiting novellas and taking up odd jobs. But since the publication of his volumi¬ nous l>est-seller. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, the Rocky Mount native has become a highly \isiblc writer, with publishers asking when his next book is expected. “I have been able to afford a dentist for the first time in more than 10 years," says the writer, who moved to Chapel Mill three years ago. "Perhaps I am the only person who likes to go to a dentist. Only somebody who could not afford a dentist enjoys going to one finally." He also has a portable phone. "And what’s more important." he saw. "I can pay the phone bills on time." But the most crucial tiling is that he has more time to write. “I think if you ask any artist or writer — any serious artist — what he or she most wants, die short answer is time." Gurganus says. “And time for an artist means freedom. I think I am very lucky to be one of the handful of waiters in this country who is now able to write full¬ time." Trade insiders believe that Oldest living Confederate Widow Tells All has fetched Gur¬ ganus more than SI million from books and television rights. The book, a saga nar¬ rated endrely by a feisty 99-vear-old Nordi Carolina nursing home resident, spans die events of more than a century, from the 1850s to the mid-1980s. The story was rccendy adapted for a madc-for-TV movie and won an Emmy for Cicely Tyson as best supporung actress. Despite die book's commercial success. Gurganus says he docs not believe in hoarding money. “I have always told myself that if I ever made any money. 1 would give a lot of it away." he says. "And 1 have given about 45 percent of everything I have made in Allan Gurgamu scholarships. I’ve set up scholarships at Sarah Lawrence (College), which was my undergrad school, in honor of Grace Paley. my first fiction-writing teacher. I also set up a scholarship in honor of a won¬ derful woman named Connie Brothers, who is the assistant to the director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. So I've tried to practice what I preach." He is not unduly worried about whether his next book will lx- a best-seller. "The whole point is to unst dial the next book and the books after that will find their audiences." he says. He will find out within a year if die audi¬ ences who cared passionately for Oldest liv¬ ing Confederate Widow Tells All will enthusi¬ astically embrace his new novel. The Erotic History of a Southern Baptist Church. "It's curious that as the number of church-goers dwindle in this country, it becomes easier to sec how important an institution the church has been in Ameri¬ can life." lie says, discussing die theme of the novel. Gurganus is also writing his auto¬ biography, which he hopes to complete early next year. The son of Ethel Gur¬ ganus. a schoolteacher, and M.F. Gur¬ ganus, the- manager of a supermarket, he was raised in Rocky Mount with a Bible Belt upbringing. Despite his father's lx-st efforts to discourage him from having interest in worldly pleasures, Gurganus grew up wanting to be an artist. Despite philosophical disagreements with his father, young Gurganus learned a valuable lesson when his father encouraged him to get a tuxedo and go to parties. "Nothing will convince you faster of how profoundly limited the rich are." his father told him, “than to spend some time with them when you are 17." It look the son a few weeks to discover that his father was right. I burned out a lot of fantasies early on with people who had enormous resources." he told a New York magazine, "but who knew little more than to get a blender and put some fruit and some vodka in it?” I le says he always wanted to be a painter and was working towards that as a student at the University of Pennsylvania. Howev¬ er, his studies were interrupted by the esca- lation of the Vietnam War. He was opposed to America's involvement in the war and sought to declare himself as a con¬ scientious objector. "I was unsuccessful, and I faced either six years in a federal prison or join the mil¬ itary." Gurganus remembers. “I chose the Navy because had I chosen the Army I would have Ix-en shipped directly to Viet¬ nam. And even though I was eventually sent on the aircraft Carrier USS Ymhtown to the coast of Vietnam, I avoided hand-to- hand combat, which is repulsive to me and which I also felt would lx- unlucky to me." The war period, ironically, shaped him as a writer. “I began to read voraciously during those four years in the Navy.” he says. "I must have read at least 1,200 books. "These included Henryjames's Por¬ trait of a Isidy and the works of Proust and Jane Austen. Not only did he read them, he also wrote imitations of the better authors. When he got out of the Navy in 1970. he worked briefly as a desk clerk in Cam¬ bridge. Massachusetts, and look «-veiling classes at I larvard University. After saving some money, he applied to Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxvillc. New York, and was admitted. "They took into account my writing sain- The Statc/Novcmbcr 1994 33