An Interview with Gayle Brandeis, author of "My Life with the Lincolns"

In Gayle Brandeis’ book My Life with the Lincolns, Mina Edelman is twelve and has just finished the sixth grade at Avery Coonley School in Downers Grove.  Mina is convinced her father, whose name is Albert Baruch Edelman (“ABE”) is the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln and that she herself used to be his son William Lincoln. Mina’s dad owns Honest Abe’s, a furniture store, and donated furniture to Martin Luther King, Jr. for his apartment in Chicago. King is in Chicago to draw attention to the need for fair housing, and Mina and Al become involved in the Chicago Freedom Movement of 1966.

Children’s Services Librarian Sharon Hrycewicz recently interviewed Gayle Brandeis via email.

Sharon Hrycewicz: You really painted a picture about the discrepancies in housing practices in Chicago in the middle of the 1960’s. It was a very angry time in the city.  By reading this book, I understood for the first time what it must have been like.  Why did you decide to write about the Chicago Freedom Movement of 1966?

Gayle Brandeis:  I actually didn’t know about the Chicago Freedom Movement until I started writing the book. I knew I wanted to set the book in the Chicago area; all of my other novels so far have been set in California, and I wanted to give my hometown some love. I also knew I wanted to deal with civil rights issues, since my character thought her dad was Lincoln reincarnated, and I thought civil rights issues would have a resonance with Lincoln’s time (plus I’m committed to addressing social justice themes in my work.) When I did a search on “Chicago” and “civil rights”, information about the Chicago Freedom Movement popped up and I knew I had found the right time period for my book.

SH: When I brought the audiobook version of My Life with the Lincolns home to listen to and I heard Mina open up the Downers Grove Sun I was very surprised me.  I couldn’t believe this story was in our fair village.  I even called the library right away to tell everyone.  You grew up in Evanston, why did you select Downers Grove as the location of Mina’s story?

GB:  It was a very intuitive choice. I had originally thought to set the story in Evanston (or possibly Winnetka, where we moved when I was a teenager), but neither of those places ended up feeling right. Downers Grove just popped into my head one day, and something clicked inside of me. It felt like the right place for the Edelmans to live.

SH:  Downers Grove is known for the Tivoli and the Sears Houses, but the little details like the Last Word chicken place, Mochel’s hardware and Busy Bee cookies (which are still delicious) made it feel like we were in Downers Grove.  You did your homework! How did you do your Downers Grove research?

GB:  I had never been to Downers Grove before I started on this story; it had always just been a place on the map to me. I started to research the place online (using mostly the local Downers Grove websites), and was immediately charmed. Then I was in Chicago for a book tour in 2007, and decided to do some research of the area in person. I had been working on My Life with the Lincolns for a while, but actually being in Downers Grove helped bring the place—and the story—to real life for me. It was great fun to find the house that I pictured as the Edelmans’ house, and to imagine Mina and Tabby riding their bikes around town. The Downers Grove Library proved to be an invaluable resource, as well. I looked though microfilm of newspapers from 1966 and found letters to the editor from a couple of people, Tinker Harvey and Ralph Stein, who were involved in the open housing movement at the time. I was able to track them down and interview them by phone, which was incredibly helpful. Tinker’s son, Miles, was also very helpful by providing a child’s perspective from 1966 Downers Grove (this was an especially cool connection because I had read and enjoyed his book, The Island of Lost Maps, and never imagined I would one day talk to him as I researched my own book.)

SH: This is clearly Mina’s story.  But there are so many complex adults with storylines, this is an excellent crossover novel – a middle school novel that adults will read and love.

GB: Thank you so much! I originally wrote the novel for adults; my editor loved it but turned it down, saying it was a book for young readers. The rejection smarted at first—a lot, in fact–but soon I became excited at the idea of reaching a young audience. I do hope that adults will give it a go, too!