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Back to Featured Interviews >> MEET DOLORES JOHNSON
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| Dolores Johnson |
When I was twelve years old my parents bought me a portable typewriter for Christmas. If it were today, they probably would have bought me a computer. But back then I asked for a typewriter. The schools taught typewriting then, and I became a fairly fast typist (which came in handy later). I decided that I could probably make a million dollars if I could use my new typing skills writing the Great American Novel as a twelve year old. So I gathered my typewriter, my pencils and erasers, and my can of soda and I sat down to begin my masterpiece.But I sat for some time and chewed my pencils and thought and thought and thought, and eventually wrote nothing. It's all because I did not know what to write. Now that I am a thousand years older, I wish I had written about my life as a twelve year old. I would love to be able to read today about what I was thinking about then.
Did you write stories when you were growing up?
Later, for fun, I tried to write a single paged newspaper that I only let one good friend read. I valued his opinion, and I thought he was a good writer, himself. I have only one memory of his response to my newspaper stories. He called them "trite." They probably were trite. I wish I had saved them. I could probably sell my trite stories now.
When you went to college, were you already pursuing a writing career?(or a career in illustrating? or just art in general?)
When I went to college I went to art school and majored in sculpture. I was not really thinking about making a living after college. I was just thinking about how much joy I got out of making figures from clay.
What was your first job when you graduated from college?
There weren't a lot of jobs available for sculptors, as you can imagine. I used my fast typing skills to get jobs as secretaries.
How soon after that was your first book published?
For years, I worked 9 to 5 everyday in offices and then would come home in the evening endlessly trying to find a way to use my creativity. I made prints, ceramics, and I eventually took classes in illustration and children's book writing. It took 6 years of sending my written and illustrated stories to publishers before I got my first illustration contract. It was for a book called JENNY, which was written by Beth P. Wilson.
When was it published?
1990.
Do you focus on fiction or nonfiction? Which do you prefer? Do you find one easier than the other?
I love writing both fiction and non-fiction. I probably prefer fiction because I love using my imagination, but I really enjoy doing the reading necessary for the research.
What gave you the idea for ONWARD?
I was offered a contract to write ONWARD: A Photo-biography of African-American Polar Explorer Matthew Henson by the National Geographic Society. I really leapt at the challenge because the National Geographic Society produces such amazingly beautiful and well written books. Also, Matthew Henson was such a fascinating man. Of course, he was one of the first men to step foot on the North Pole. But after reading about him, I also found he was a man of great courage, integrity and determination. That Henson should risk his life for so many years in so many ways to achieve a goal that was so tenuous, that acclaim and credit were denied him for decades. Yet he never complained, and he continued to persevere. He remains as one of America's greatest heroes.