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- - - - Copyright 2001 The Chronicle Publishing Co.
- - - - SECTION: SUNDAY REVIEW; Pg. 74; Q & A LENGTH: 605 words HEADLINE: Q & A; Paul Collins SOURCE: Chronicle Staff Writer BYLINE: James Sullivan BODY:
Collins, a former San Francisco resident who now lives in Oregon, is working on a book about his family's ill-fated move to Hay-on-Wye, the tiny Welsh village known as "the town of books." He first published several of his "Follies" in McSweeney's, the quarterly started by San Francisco author Dave Eggers. Q: How long did you live in San Francisco? A: I first moved there the day before the earthquake. Fortunately, we were out in the Richmond [District[, which fared pretty well, but I had just been walking through the Marina an hour before it hit. We had a roommate who had, like, 100 empty tequila bottles lined up along the molding in the kitchen. I was up to my ankles in broken glass. Q: Where are you from originally? A: I'm from Pennsylvania, a really small town called Perkiomenville. There's nothing there, not even a stoplight. My parents collected antiques, and they'd always end up with old books. I would read anything, because there was not much else to do. I didn't even know what the books were half the time, but I liked the look of them and the fact that they'd ended up with me. Q: When did you start seeking out these stories? A: When I was doing work-study as a grad student, a professor wanted me to photocopy the table of contents of every issue of Harper's and the Atlantic Monthly -- ever. I never got remotely close to finishing. I would just read the articles. It struck me how many of them were either by or about people I'd never heard of. It got me to thinking -- to what extent is history buried? Q: Weren't you going to call the book "Loser"? A: If you look at old issues of McSweeney's, the little bio for me always says, "Paul has an upcoming book," and every issue gives a different title. Some of the European publishers actually seem to like "Loser." There was never much question of the book being called that in this country. I think the publisher was worried that people wouldn't want to walk around with a book that says, in big letters, "Loser." Q: Americans don't like to dwell on mistakes, but they also love a car wreck. A: It's one thing to be interested in the spectacle of failure. It's another to actually think about it, to what extent is anybody vulnerable to it? Americans tend to be more interested in people getting their comeuppance -- I actually respect all the people I profiled. With the benefit of hindsight, some of their ideas do seem pretty strange or impractical. But they were all dedicated to what they were doing, and they were all intelligent and idealistic. Maybe that perturbs people a little, that even then, people fail. Q: Do you feel more attuned now to newsmakers who are destined for obscurity? A: I certainly think of that more often, but I would hesitate to predict. Someone like Martin Tupper, for example [a 19th century poet once considered a peer to Wordsworth and Tennyson[. No one could've guessed he would become completely unknown. Decades and eras tend to become the historical province of a few figureheads. The odds are against most people being remembered. Myself included.E-mail James Sullivan at jamessullivan@sfchronicle.com GRAPHIC: PHOTO, Paul Collins charts history's losers in "Banvard's Folly." LOAD-DATE: May 13, 2001 - - - -
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