On November 1st the author of Boardwalk Empire, Nelson Johnson, came to Stockton and talked to the honors freshman seminar class about his book Boardwalk Empire. He started with a brief introduction about himself and then went on to explain why he decided to write a book on the history of Atlantic City. His main reason behind writing Boardwalk Empire was that before it was published, there were not any complete books on the history of Atlantic City, only books of the history of components of Atlantic City.
After his introduction, he opened the floor for questions and the majority of the questions revolved around how Johnson feels about the HBO series based on Boardwalk Empire. He really likes the series, even though it doesn’t follow his book all that well. He said that he is a huge fan of the series and that he gets to read the script for every episode before it airs! I thought that was pretty cool. Before he explained why he gets to read the scripts, I thought that it was because he wrote Boardwalk Empire and they wanted to make sure he likes what they’re doing with the story. Turns out that’s not actually the case. He gets to read the script beforehand because he asks them for it I guess they aren’t really seeking his approval anymore.
Another interesting question that was asked was about Johnson’s childhood. I never really thought about asking him that so it was neat to hear about what he liked to do as a child and where he went to school. He said he had always known he wanted to go into law, and he had pretty much always wanted to be a judge. His love for law led him to learn more about Atlantic County and then Atlantic City. This is where he found out that there wasn’t really a complete history of the city and caused the book Boardwalk Empire to come about. After everyone’s questions were answered, he signed books and went on his way.
Listening to Nelson Johnson talk about his life and his journey that led him to write Boardwalk Empire was fascinating. It was a really unique experience, and I’m glad I got to be a part of it.