George Clayton Johnson: Fictioneer by Vivien Kooper

George Clayton Johnson: Fictioneer by Vivien Kooper is the engrossing memoir of a writer of short stories, novels, and screenplays. Johnson, however, is best known for his screenplays or screen adaptations of his short stories. Most people don't pay much attention to the credits flashing across their screens after a show has ended, but the chances are pretty good that you've seen one of Johnson's stories. Why? The answer is simple: George Clayton Johnson wrote for some of the most popular shows that have appeared on television, episodes of which have become iconic. Johnson developed plots or wrote screenplays for such shows as Twilight Zone, Star Trek, Kung Fu, Route 66, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Additionally, he co-wrote, with William F. Nolan, a novel that was later translated into the film Logan's Run. Johnson, together with Jack Russell, also developed the story that would evolve into Ocean's Eleven (both the original 1960 movie and the later series of films starring George Clooney).

The first chapters of the book detail Johnson's early life, the most pivotal event of which was when he fell into a twenty foot pit that had been dug for a septic tank. With a splintered thigh bone, he spent lonely months recovering in a hospital, much of the time being chloroformed when it was time for the doctor to make an adjustment to the weights applied to his mending leg. The chloroform filled his head with "fuzzy cotton ghosts," and it was at this time that Johnson first began to develop a keen imagination, one that would always be most concerned with the future.

As Kooper describes the childhood of Johnson, who would suffer from a broken home and later run away, we learn that this fascination with the future will remain with him for a lifetime, a belief that what "might be" is more real than present events. By skillfully using the present tense, the author places the reader directly inside Johnson's life so that we may walk with him through seminal events that will help him use this developing imagination to become a "fictioneer." The present tense also merges seamlessly with Johnson's own recollections of how he became an avid reader and paid his dues while observing some of the greatest writers in the twentieth century, men such as Ray Bradbury, William F. Nolan, Rod Serling, and Charles Beaumont.

At the beginning of chapters, Kooper frequently uses historical and scientific "place markers" (e.g., the rise of Fascism or the invention of the modern television set) to delineate the world that Johnson explores in early life. It is a world that he will study and later write about, thematically examining ideas such as freedom, death, aging, and technology.

Of special note is the author's ability to know when to use Johnson's own voice and observations to highlight his artistic and personal maturation, as well as the work that he is best known for. This wise use of source material in Kooper's narrative, and its logical, thematic organization, is the mark of a professional biographer who knows exactly how to best portray the many facets of the book's subject.

The memoir's truly engaging quality is in how it chronicles Johnson's ability to create magic from the ordinary, to infuse his stories with the willing suspension of disbelief. His greatest talent, we learn, is to have readers become willing participants in the alternate realities he has invented. If you have wondered how writers get their ideas or what compels them to practice the craft of writing--or if you are an aspiring artist of any type yourself--you will, in these pages, metaphorically sit at the feet of a master storyteller, a man whose stock in trade is to take almost any situation, turn it on its side, and then say "what if ..."

This is a fascinating book and highly recommended for anyone who wishes to learn about the creative process of one of the most remarkable writers of the twentieth century.

~ William Hammett

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Daily Public Transit Ridership by Peter Felton

Daily Public Transit Ridership: The Inside Scoop  (Daily Public Transit Ridership: The Inside Scoop at Amazon) is a book that appealed to me on several levels.  First, it is the story of Peter Felton, who became fascinated with the transit system, called Muni, in the San Francisco Bay area.  We learn in the opening pages that Felton, when old enough, was able to make his first trip on Muni and felt exhilaration at finding that he could, to paraphrase an old saying, “get there from here.”  His enthusiasm is palpable when he describes the sights and sounds he encountered when riding the Muni routes, a world teeming with energy and life, all available to anyone who had a few coins or a pass and was willing to ride the extensive public transit routes in San Francisco.  With knowledge gained as he got older, he further learned that, with a simple transfer, he could explore the metropolitan bay area and go almost anywhere.  I was fascinated by the author’s enthusiasm since so many people take the ability to travel for granted and don’t take time to really observe their surroundings.  That is who we see in the opening pages of this book: an explorer.

The next chapters of the book explain in great detail the various routes in San Francisco and surrounding areas, as well as list the specs for the numerous kinds of electric cars that have been in the Muni system.  They also explain how they operated and evolved over the decades.  As someone who grew up riding the streetcars of New Orleans and later became interested in trains (to the point of collecting magazines on locomotive and diesel specs and taking endless pictures of railway cars), I applaud the author’s efforts to explain and preserve the proud history of rail transportation, including the technical side of the Muni cars and how they affected ridership ease (or occasionally the lack thereof).  The chapters even talk of stations, platforms, signs, and seating capacity.  Do you wish to know about the legendary BART system or learn of the fabled Embarcadero route?  You’ll find the information in these pages.  As the subtitle indicates, the book provides the inside scoop.

I also enjoyed the book because it reminded me of how eco-friendly public transit can be.  This is not to say that public transit is without its flaws or has no negative impact on the environment, but public ridership does indeed cut down on the number of cars crowding streets and freeways, plus many municipalities are working hard to cut harmful emissions from their transit vehicles.  The book reminds us that comfortable and efficient public transportation is overlooked in too many communities. 

The passages in which the author describes his great wonder at being able to share the driver’s compartment, both as a youth and as an adult, with a Muni operator, even to the point of actually operating a car, brought back memories of when I yearned to drive a streetcar or diesel engine, an opportunity I never received.  Through Felton’s eyes, however, I vicariously got the chance.

Ultimately, this book is about odyssey and opportunity.  We don’t need to climb mountains to find adventure and exploration.  As a kid, Felton saw a world that others lived in but were blind to.  Muni was (and is) not just utilitarian transportation, but rather an exciting way to travel and make discoveries.  The book is a coming of age story in which the author learns to navigate a small part of the world that, through his eyes, isn’t really small at all.  Rather, it is filled with the pulse of life and a million sights that are waiting to be noticed.  As a child, I sat in streetcars and looked at mansions and rural vistas one minute, only to pass through gritty streets lined by brick buildings the next.  I learned a lot about the larger world by investigating the microcosm of New Orleans.

This book reminded me that the simple way of doing things is sometimes the best.  For the price of a simple token or pass, one can board a trolley, bus, or subway, and, like popping in and out of a black hole, discover new places and people—or maybe even the backyard that is the city where you live.

~ William Hammett