I saw last week that “Route 66: The Mother Road” author Michael Wallis had announced the publication of a new book, plus a book-signing in Tulsa.
Checking its specifications on Amazon, I noted that the book, “Oklahoma: A Sense of Place,” contains just 76 pages. It’s being printed in paperback, but also was available as an e-book on Kindle at a considerably cheaper price.
Given that virtually all Wallis’ previous books ran several hundred pages, it seemed a bit odd he would suddenly produce such a slim volume.
Today’s Tulsa World newspaper explains what happened:
Michael Wallis thought the speech he made in January as the guest of Tulsa Town Hall “went over pretty well.”
Then the emails started arriving.
“It really took me by surprise,” the Tulsa author of “Route 66: The Mother Road” and “David Crockett: The Lion of the West” said. “We were besieged with requests from people wanting a copy of the speech.” […]
“It got to the point that I mentioned it to my literary agent, Jim Fitzgerald,” Wallis said. “And he said, ‘Why don’t we publish it?’ “
Wallis gave his “Tulsa Town Hall” speech about Oklahoma’s rich history in January. The Tulsa World was there at the time, and told of when Wallis delved into his early experience on Route 66 in Tulsa:
His first real experience of Tulsa came in 1980, when he came here “hunting a good story” as a correspondent for Time-Life. He took an evening stroll along the Arkansas River and happened to meet with a man with whom he shared a few hours, talking of the man’s career as a rodeo cowboy, the injury that ended that part of his life, the despair that led to his living under the abandoned 11th Street Bridge.
It was an evening that, for Wallis, brought together everything from Washington Irving, who had paused at the spring near the McBirney Mansion during his tour of the prairies, to Cyrus Avery, who had used the existence of the 11th Street Bridge to make his case for Route 66 passing through Tulsa.
And this “silent man with empty eyes” brought to his mind memories of his mother finding work and providing food for the drifters who might come to their door, the stories they would spin about these men’s lives and his mother’s admonition to be aware of “angels in disguise.”
So the speech has been published in text form through a company called Digitature. In addition to Kindle, it also will be available as an e-book on iPads.
Wallis acknowledged a strong preference for regular print books. But he and his agent noted that e-book sales for his most recent work, “David Crockett: The Lion of the West,” were stronger than for print.
That, along with the number of requests for the text of Wallis’ “Tulsa Town Hall” speech, led him to make it available in a digital format. The speech was 8,000 words, hence the short length of the book.
If you still prefer a bound copy of “Oklahoma: A Sense of Place,” Wallis will be signing copies at Dwelling Spaces (map here) in downtown Tulsa from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.