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MEET HARRY HENDERSON
by Bonnie O'Brian

What did you most like to do when you were a child?

Harry Henderson

Read! My family often didn't have much money for toys or entertainment, but there was one place that was absolutely free and had just about every kind of story and topic you could imagine. It was the public library, of course! I particularly enjoyed science fiction and science books. My favorite subject was astronomy, but I also liked to read about dinosaurs and other creatures that lived an incredibly long time ago. To this day I read for several hours every week, partly for work and partly for the pleasure of finding out about things.

In what other ways were books important to you?

When I was in college I was an English major, which actually meant I could study just about anything I wanted, such as psychology, anthropology, and history. I had many ideas about what I wanted to do, but I had trouble settling down. After graduation I had some jobs involving books--I was an assistant in a friend's bookstore and later I worked for quite a few years in a library and helped catalog books. One thing I didn't do was write for a living--I really didn't know how one did that.

When did you first start writing books?

When I met and married my wonderful wife, Lisa Yount. Lisa had been writing material for textbooks for some time--that is sort of an "unsung profession" because the people who do most of the writing don't get their names on the books. But she was also starting to write whole books with her name on them. Meanwhile, I had become very interested in personal computers, which were just coming out--this was back in the early 1980s. I discovered there were jobs in technical writing--explaining how these complicated new machines worked and how to program them.

What else have you written about?

I couldn't always make enough income in technical writing, so Lisa helped me learn how to write for educational publishers. Writing for young people is very good practice for a writer, because you have to be clear and simple but also interesting. Lisa and I then began to get more opportunities to write for publishers of reference materials and biographies. Since then I have written many books about computers and the Internet, including a whole one volume encyclopedia of computer science (whew!). I have written many collections of biographies about scientists and inventors. I have also written books that help people think about and do research on important issues such as terrorism, the media, and political reform.

Why do you like to write biographies?

 Because first of all, they're exciting stories about real people who did extraordinary things. It's also fascinating to describe the different connections between people and ideas. (For example, the modern computer was developed mainly because of the need to "crack" secret codes during World War II.) Finally, some biographies can show ways in which people such as the physicist Stephen Hawking can overcome obstacles (such as severe disabilities) and live rich and rewarding lives.

What are some other things you like to write about?

One of my favorite topics is artificial intelligence (AI), the quest to make computers think and solve problems. There are many ideas about how to do this, but after more than fifty years there are some things we can do but many more we still can't do.

What goes into writing a book?

When the publisher and I have agreed on what to write about, I usually do an outline. I then start looking for sources of facts or, for a biography, details and stories about the person's life. These days most of my research is done online--the Internet is an amazing resource, though you do have to make sure your sources are accurate and reliable. Depending on the subject, I may also interview people or make inquiries by email. When the manuscript is done, having a good editor who can review it and provide feedback is also important.

What do you like to do besides write?

I've become quite interested in the philosophy of science--exploring some of the "big questions" such as why the universe is able to have life at all, and how a thinking, conscious "I" can emerge from a physical brain. Reading and discussing ideas like these is exciting, and I believe, quite necessary. Since we human beings are now pretty much in charge of all the Earth, we need to learn more about what makes us tick and how we can learn more constructive ways to work with nature and one another.