As part of the Honors freshman seminar course Life of the Mind, we were told to read the book Boardwalk Empire by Nelson Johnson. Now most people aren’t always thrilled with required reading in school, but I’ve been never one to shy away from reading of any kind. However, uncharacteristically I was one of those people who inwardly groaned when it came to it. Growing up in Galloway, New Jersey for the last sixteen out of eighteen years, I’ve been to Atlantic City more times than I could count and the prospect of having to read about a place that isn’t exotic seemed really tedious to me. But the more I read the book, the more I came to realize that Atlantic City isn’t at all anything I thought it was. Sure, there are casinos and gambling, bars, and even prostitutes today, but I never would have imagined the manipulation and corruption that was consistent with the formation of this city so close to home.

On Wednesday, October 24, the honors freshman had the amazing opportunity to meet Nelson Johnson, who is not only the author of another Atlantic City based book, but also a judge. In the Lakeside Lounge, Judge Johnson talked to us about the reasons and inspiration for writing Boardwalk Empire. He first came to Atlantic City knowing it was corrupt, and once he was here he was intrigued by it. He wanted to find out why it was like that. After doing some research, he found out that no one had ever written an entire book about AC’s whole store. Once he decided he would be the first to do it, it took him a year and a half to write the book. He successfully booked an agent and got it published after many tries. Later, he was able to pitch the idea to HBO after a lot of hard work and the influence of a book called The Perfect Pitch.

Nelson Johnson has had a very successful life and being able to sit in the same room and listen to his story kind of had me a little star struck. After reading the book and meeting the author, one thing is for sure, Atlantic City will probably never look the same to me again.