In 2011, aspiring author Chad Harbach finished and published his first novel, The Art of Fielding. The novel centers on Henry Skrimshander, an excellent high school baseball player whose position is shortstop.
Originally from South Dakota, Henry is recruited to go to a small liberal arts college in Wisconsin near Lake Michigan called Westish College—not Lakeland College, if there was any confusion. Henry’s career looks bright as scouts come to look at his performance. Later on, Henry accidently injures one of his friends in a game. This ultimately makes Henry’s confidence fall and his shortstop skills begin to deteriorate. The book also explores themes of friendship and romance. It won several major awards in 2011, including the Wisconsin Literary Award, and was featured on The New York Times Best Seller list in 2011. Through a grant from the Kohler Foundation, Harbach was able to visit Lakeland College.
On April 15, Harbach had lunch with students and faculty in Bossard Hall. Later on that same night, Harbach moved to the Bradley Theatre where he and Professor of American Literature Peter Sattler talked onstage about the book and Harbach’s career. The interview setup was similar to The Tonight Show or The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The audience was also able to interact with Sattler and Harbach by either filling out note cards or walking up to one of the two microphones that were placed at the side edges of the stage.
“How do you [Harbach] know when you have written something great?” asked Sattler.
Harbach responded, “I’m writing something that I think is good enough. I pretend that I am the reader and the writer at the same time.”
Sattler encouraged Harbach to read one of the first chapters in his book to better understand how the author interprets his own characters’ voices and personalities. For the audience, it was like watching a musician performing music that he has composed.
Harbach later commented that this novel was inspired by the Herman Melville classic Moby Dick. Harbach explained that the main goals and the characters of The Art of Fielding were similar in many ways to Moby Dick.
“Moby Dick definitely sits in the background of this book,” said Harbach. “The main characters are mostly men, and they all have one main goal in mind—just like Moby Dick’s almost all-male cast that must kill the whale.”
The young author put pieces of himself into each of the characters. Henry Skrimshander was the character that most closely resembled Harbach as a teenager. Harbach, a Racine native, went to St. Mary’s High School and received a college education at Harvard University.
“It was like two different planets!” said Harbach onstage.
Henry’s experience of moving from South Dakota to rural Wisconsin was very similar to Harbach’s transition from high school to college.
After college, Harbach did not really know what he wanted to do with himself. He eventually decided to be a writer when he started working in lower position jobs in the New York area. He began to write a lot of fiction in his spare time.
“I thought of myself as a writer before I could write,” explains Harbach. “I found that there were stories inside me waiting to be told.”
“Art is a process of discovery,” quotes Fessler Professor of Creative Writing Karl Elder in reaction to Harbach’s interview.
When writing fiction, Harbach prefers to write in long-hand style with a pen and paper rather than typing on a computer. He loves to watch the stack of paper grow over time. He explains that art can be admired from a distance to coincide with how the paper stack grows as the book is written.
It took Harbach a total of 10 years to write The Art of Fielding. He joked with Sattler and the audience that he watched his other friends’ lives fly by in front of him while he still worked on the same book.
Despite the struggles, Harbach never gave up. His parents, who were present at the event, also encouraged him to not stop writing. Harbach’s patience paid off in the end. He published the book under the Back Bay Books/Little, Brown and Company banner in 2011. It was an immediate hit around the country.
“Even though The Art of Fielding is about baseball, it’s more about the people who play baseball,” says Brandon Rooker, senior history and education major.
“I love the idea of this book. There is also great irony in this book,” says Donna Heus, a high school English teacher from New Holstein, Wisconsin.
Although the book was open-ended, Harbach does not have any immediate plans to write a sequel.
He is currently working on another novel that shall remain nameless. The Art of Fielding was considered to be a TV series on the cable network HBO. Unfortunately, the plans fell through and the series never progressed any further. There are talks however with a new television network for a series that expands on the characters of The Art of Fielding.
With the conclusion of the convocation, Harbach was led to the Bradley lobby to sign copies of books from students, faculty and community members.
Harbach’s visit will not be forgotten here at Lakeland, a school that fits the profile of the fictitious Westish College to a tee. With all that happens in the world of art and literature, Harbach is the perfect example for writing majors looking for a bright future.