Greg, you authored an impressive biography of Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer. It is informative, entertaining, and well organized. It is an important book. With Schweitzer in the middle of a reelection campaign and in the national spotlight as a possible VP candidate for the Democratic ticket, “Blue Man in a Red State” will be an important tool to judge the man by come November.Did you realize the possible importance of this biography when you started researching it?
I did. This book proposal came to me from the publisher. They had an idea and went looking for an author. We all knew the timing of this book would be important.
Was there something that you were surprised to learn about Brian Schweitzer while you were researching the book?
I think there were a lot of things that surprised me along the way. Mostly little stuff, like that he always carried hand sanitizer with him. Bigger stuff … I was surprised by his description of being a middle child and a negotiator. I guess I never thought of him in that sort of way but it makes sense. I was also surprised by the way he spoke about his children, Ben in particular. I think the whole conversation about his kids was really humanizing and poignant. We so seldom think of Schweitzer as a father.
The book is broken into 34 short chapters. Each segment could stand alone, but together there is a comfortable flow to the story. How did you decide to organize the book the way you did?
The organization of the book came about because I’m essentially a newspaper/magazine journalist. I write relatively short pieces. On this project I was really learning about narrative flow to the book – a way to lace all the chapters together. So my editor, Allen Jones, and I decided to go to the shorter chapters and I think it worked well.
In your book, former gubernatorial candidate Bob Brown gave an interesting description of Montana environmentalists. He said, “…environmentalists are people who still hunt and fish. They may chain themselves to a tree to keep loggers from cutting it down, but check their freezer and you’ll find steaks from last year’s deer.” Having lived in Montana and been around Montana politics for some time now, did this description of environmentalists surprise you?
I don’t want to be misleading here. Bob and I talked at length about the Montana persona. But I also felt like that was something I could speak to. So that description of environmentalists is more mine than Bob’s. However, I think it’s accurate. I’m not too comfortable with the term environmentalist. I don’t really know to whom that is referring. But I know several people who are labeled environmentalists and they hunt, fish, drink beer, tell jokes and even cut down a few trees each year to keep them warm over the winter.
One of my favorite passages from the book (referring to Schweitzer) was “Given that he had zero name recognition around Montana, he just decided to campaign like he was killing snakes.” Where did the phrase “like killing snakes” come from? I like it. I might have to use it.
I’m glad you liked that. I got it from my late grandfather, John Lemon. He was a great teller of stories and used these old sayings all the time. I’ve held on to as many as I could. He would smile if he knew I’d put it in a book. Interesting you never heard it. We’ve used it in my family as long as I could remember. Maybe it’s a colloquial thing.
I had to read Jim Shockley’s quote ten times before I got the gist. Shockley was praising Schweitzer’s involvement on Mitchell Slough when he said, “He helped us on the Mitchell Slough. He’s going to be dead and gone and his kids are going to be gone, and that’s still going to be a good deal with the state.” I understand what he meant, but it sounds like it’ll be a good deal with the state when Schweitzer is gone. Any reservations about including this quote the way it was stated?
No. I really like and respect Jim. He’s a guy that will basically tell you what he thinks and shoots as straight as a preacher. He believes fervently that the Mitchell Slough is open to the public and Schweitzer did sportsmen a favor by pushing for the Supreme Court appeal. I think that’s reflected in the quote.
As a reporter, you try to write without lending personal bias to the story. I think you did a masterful job of this through most of the biography. I was a little surprised when at the end of the book you included a chapter on your relationship and personal view of the governor. Why did you find it necessary to include Chapter 33?
On this project, I felt that it was important my voice and views come through. My editor felt the same way. I had this unique opportunity to spend a lot of time with the governor and in the end my relationship with him and how we interacted and how he treated me would feed into the book. It would have been dishonest, I think, to leave out my feelings or impressions of Schweitzer because it would have left the reader without the essential information on which to judge the honesty and quality of my book.
Your friend, a pastor from Helena, got the final word on Brian Schweitzer. Explain why you decided to end the book with the observation, “He just doesn’t seem to be at peace.”
I had some heartburn over the way the book ended, but Steve captured what I felt about Schweitzer and what I wanted to say. So why not let him say it. I think as a journalist, you have to be open to the truth whenever it comes and in whatever form it takes.
The Governor is a talker, a storyteller. Do you ever catch him telling you the same story twice?
You bet. Schweitzer told that football story from the beginning of the book three times that I heard and then I talked to someone else who told me he’d heard him tell it as well. I have to admit to the same tendency myself. I love talking and have been known to tell the same story over and over, even to my wife.
What is more difficult, being a beat reporter writing for a daily or writing a biography on the Governor of Montana?
Writing a book, but not by much. The difficulty in the book was getting my head and heart around the size and the scope of the project. But being a daily reporter and being a good one, means you have to have an eye on the bigger picture as well. You can’t just cover the news everyday without some sense of context and where the issues are heading. As a journalist, my job is, in part, to give people information to make decisions on. If I can’t put that information into the bigger context of their lives, then I’m not doing my job well.
I have an upcoming post on what is to be a sportsman. What is Greg Lemon’s definition of what it is to be a sportsman?
The definition for me has changed over the years. I used to think it was anyone who was outside hunting, fishing, hiking, etc. But now, after living in Montana for 10 years, my thoughts about what it means to be a sportsmen is much more complicated than that. You hear people talk about how the outdoors is their church, their religion. Some even say they find God there. I do. But so many people treat the woods, the rivers, the mountains as if it were only a playground – something created simply for their pleasure. Yet it’s so much more than that. A sportsmen recognizes this value of creation and knows his or her interaction with nature is important not only to their soul, but to the natural world as well.
Final question: Did you ever find out if the Governor can throw some line (can he fly fish)?
I fished with Schweitzer up at Georgetown Lake. Yes, he can fly fish. I won’t analyze his technique or ability too much though. I need some more time on the water with him.
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Greg Lemon is a freelance journalist and writer for the Bitterroot Star. He is also the Politics Editor for NewWest.net, an online news journal covering the Rocky Mountain West. You can check out Lemon's blog at www.greglemonmt.blogspot.com.
Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Greg Lemon will hold two readings of "Blue Man in a Red State" and be available for book signings this Wednesday, July 9th. They will be at Fact & Fiction on the UM campus at 2 pm and at Chapter One in Hamilton at 7 pm.
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