Kevin Hesson
10/27/12
On October 24th,
Nelson Johnson came to Stockton to talk about his book, Boardwalk Empire. The
event took place in the Lakeside building next to the apartments at 4:30. Students
and professors were very excited to meet with him and ask questions. The event
was also being catered which, for freshman, is a godsend due to the lack of
quality in the food at N-Wing. Johnsoncame prepared with a slide show of pictures from the late 19th century and early 20th century. These pictures consisted of images
of the railroad in its early days of construction, and the famous “Million
Dollar Pier.” After wards, many students asked questions about the book and the
process that he had to go through to write it.
Aside from the book itself, Johnson discussed how the idea to write it came to him. He had
noticed that there was a lack of scholarly texts about the full history of
Atlantic City. He wanted to change that and began to conduct his research. He
told the audience that he had not expected to write another book branching off
of the first one. The book “The Northside” is a book about the north side of
the city where the African American community lived. Johnson made it clear that
during his research, he discovered that without the African American population
in Atlantic City, the railroad would have never been built, and the boarding
houses would have never developed. He went through a slide show depicting the
staff of a particular boarding house. There was a sole white person in the
picture who happened to be the manager. The rest of the employees were African
American. This helped to define the importance of the African Americans in the
development of the city because they made up the backbone of the workforce.
Later, Nelson Johnson spoke about his publishing process. He, like many other writers,
struggled to get his book published. Someone asked how many tries it took for
him to find a publisher who was willing to publish the book and he said, “less
than a hundred, but more than 50.” He showed great dedication toward his book
and saw the project through to the end. It took a lot of effort over a long
period of time just to complete the writing process. Johnson wrote on and off
for years and years but eventually completed his goal.
I got to personally talk with Judge and author, Nelson Johnson after he gave his
presentation. We discussed history and I informed him that I was a history
major. For one thing, I was extremely excited just to talk with an author since
one of my life goals is to write a book, and it was very interesting to have a
conversation about history and historical interpretation. Our conversation led
to discussion about Atlantic history. He recommended a book to me called
“Europe Between the Oceans” by Barry Cunliffe. I have yet to read the book but
I looked up the information and call number in the library and I plan on
spending a few hours absorbing it. My experience at this event was a very
positive one. Although I thought the turnout was low considering the
circumstances, it was still very interesting to talk to the author of a book
which I found very intriguing and informative. I greatly respect Nelson Johnson
and I think that he provided a glimpse of what it is like to be an author in
the real world, as well as an aspiring historian. However, the most interesting
thing by far is that the book was turned into a television series. This
amplifies his commercial success but I think the most important thing that he
did was contribute to the historical pool of knowledge on Atlantic City.