WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 65Review_NONFICTION
won’t want to miss this gripping search
for the truth. (Mar.)
Elephant Speak: A Devoted
Keeper’s Life Among the Herd
Melissa Crandall. Ooligan, $17 trade paper
(300p) ISBN 978-1-947845-10-7
Novelist and short story writer
Crandall (Darling Wendy and Other Stories)
makes her nonfiction debut with an affec-
tionate profile of Roger Henneous, the
longtime senior elephant keeper at
Portland’s Oregon Zoo. Drawing on inter-
views conducted over four years, Crandall
describes how Henneous learned animal
care skills during his childhood in rural
Iowa, and how, in 1968, he landed his
dream job as an animal keeper at the
Oregon Zoo, where, after “less than an
hour on duty... he already felt like he
belonged.” His “unflinching work ethic”
and compassionate approach led to his
promotion to chief elephant keeper and
widespread recognition among his profes-
sional peers. While readers meet a number
of Henneous’s charges, it’s clear that he is
especially fond of herd matriarch Belle,
who at one point saves Crandall’s life
when a younger female elephant attacks
him, outraged at him removing her baby
from the enclosure for medical care. In
one of the book’s most tender scenes, he
visits Belle in the zoo’s convalescent ward
shortly before her death in 1997, and not
long before his own retirement in 1998.
This moving tribute to a devoted and
compassionate man will elicit a few tears
before its conclusion. (Mar.)
Every Drop of Blood:
Hatred and Healing at
Lincoln’s Second Inauguration
Edward Achorn. Atlantic Monthly, $28 (416p)
ISBN 978-0-8021-4874-2
Journalist Achorn (The Summer of Beer
and Whiskey) meticulously chronicles
President Lincoln’s March 1865 inaugura-
tion in this kaleidoscopic history. Drawing
from diaries, letters, memoirs, and news-
paper reports, Achorn frames a poignant
yet familiar portrait of Lincoln with the
accounts of several historical figures who
converged in Washington, D.C., for the
inaugural address. Among them are Leaves
of Grass author Walt Whitman, covering
the event for the New York Times; Union
Army brigadier general Selden Connor,
You write about the players at the
lesser-known NCAA Division 1 pro-
grams. What is different about them
from the better-known teams?
They play because they love to play. If
somehow they end up making money,
that’s fine, that’s good. But they play
because they love to play. I don’t think
the competition is any less intense than
it is at the highest level, but there’s a
different purpose. The
kids at the level I wrote
about aren’t concerned
about the NBA—they
want to get better as
players, and want to win.
They keep playing, and
keep competing, because
they love to do it, because
they love the sport, they
love being part of a
team—all the right
things about sports.What inspired you to
write this book?
Because I still love going to college
basketball games at the mid-major
level or below. I’ve always been a great
believer that there are great stories to
be told by those who aren’t rich and
famous. I learned that from Bob
Woodward when I was a night police
reporter at the Post, as a kid. I’ve
written books on the PGA qualifying
school, and on the Army-Navy foot-
ball rivalry. None of the people I
wrote about were rich or famous. All
the books sold well, got good reviews,
and I enjoyed the process. I’m at the
point of my life where I want to write
books where I enjoy the process. If Ispent the next 10 years of my life
doing a book like this one, I would
never run out of stories.What’s one story from your travels
that sticks out for you?
I love the Griff Aldrich story—the
guy who was making close to a mil-
lion dollars a year as a lawyer and as a
CEO but still had never gotten over
basketball, and kept
his hand in just
coaching kids who
needed to be coached.
He moved his family
from Houston to
Baltimore, and ended
up as the coach at
Longwood [the uni-
versity in Farmville,
Va., part of the Big
South Conference]. I
like stories like that
because when you tell
them to someone, they
say, “That really happened?”What is the biggest misconception that
people have about college basketball?
That the guys who are on ESPN all
the time, or who go to the Final Four,
or the coaches at that level, the mil-
lionaire coaches, are the only ones who
can play and coach. The coaching and
playing at the Patriot League, Ivy
League level is really good. If you like
basketball, and you go to a game at
that level, you’ll be entertained.
That’s why there are players in the
NBA each year who are signed as
undrafted free agents.
—Lenny Picker[Q&A]
PW Talks with John Feinstein
Unsung Hoops Heroes
In The Back Roads to March (Doubleday, Mar.; reviewed on p. 63)
journalist Feinstein recounts a year covering the underdog
teams of the NCAA basketball finals.© christine bauch feinstein