AN INTERVIEW WITH DEAN ROBBINS

You’ve written many acclaimed children’s nonfiction books about your personal heroes. What inspired you to write Wisconsin Idols, a nonfiction essay collection for adults, and why now?

I’ve been collecting personal idols since childhood. And for just as long, I’ve been telling stories about these extraordinary people. Anytime I can get someone emotionally invested in Duke Ellington, Joni Mitchell, or Georgia O’Keeffe, it feels like an act of devotion to heroes who’ve been my guiding lights—a way of paying them back for their profound influence on my life. As a kid, I regaled my friends with tales of Harry Houdini, Jackie Robinson, and other larger-than-life characters. When I grew up, I refined my storytelling practice in articles, radio pieces, and children’s books. With Wisconsin Idols, I saw a chance to provide a book-length perspective on the dozens of heroes I’ve discovered in my home state. The essays celebrate Wisconsin as a notably influential place: a crossroads for people who changed the world.

How did you determine who would be included in the book? What qualities or characteristics makes someone a hero to you personally?

Heroes show humanity at its best, providing hope for the rest of us. I think that can happen in any number of ways, which means the cast of characters in Wisconsin Idols stretches the definition of “hero.” No one would question the heroism of Mildred Fish-Harnack, who died fighting the Nazis; Ada James, who overcame every obstacle to advance women’s suffrage; or Caroline Quarlls, who escaped from slavery on a brave journey through Wisconsin’s Underground Railroad. But exceptional performers can also be heroes, so here you’ll read about Orson Welles, Chris Farley, Harrison Ford, Justin Vernon, Joan Cusack, Oprah Winfrey, Carrie Coon, Willem Dafoe, Hattie McDaniel, Les Paul, and Spencer Tracy. Boundary-breaking athletes such as Bart Starr, Hank Aaron, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Gwen Jorgensen, and Eric and Beth Heiden display their own brand of courage. Then there are writers, artists, and comedians who help us see the world with new eyes, such as Ann Landers, Abigail Van Buren, Jane Hamilton, Kevin Henkes, Laura Dronzek, Charlie Hill, Joyce Carol Oates, and the satirists at The Onion.

Like all of us, these superstars have their flaws, but in Wisconsin Idols, I argue that all are heroic in their own fashion. They offer inspiration for an age desperately in need of role models.

Can you describe your research and writing process for Wisconsin Idols?

In a word: obsession. I’ve spent a lifetime reading about these legends, watching their movies, listening to their music, cheering their athletic achievements, gazing at their paintings, supporting their causes, reviewing their work as an arts critic, and visiting the Wisconsin sites associated with them. I’ve interviewed them in my role as a journalist and also befriended them. So all the essays have an intensely personal point of view, and some chronicle my own involvement with the subjects. Having dreamed of and doted on these people for decades, I tend to think of their lives as inseparable from my own.

As for the writing style, Wisconsin Idols avoids straightforward biographical accounts. Anyone can turn to Wikipedia for that. Instead, I’ve tried to craft page-turning narratives that offer poignancy, humor, and analysis, often focusing on a particularly dramatic incident. I hope to engage readers with revelatory anecdotes, little-known details, surprising turns of phrase, and the kind of passion you can’t get from an AI query.

Of all the idols highlighted in the book, is there a lesser-known individual(s) who stands out for you in terms of “I really want readers to learn more about this person?”

With the well-known figures—like my childhood heroes Jackie Robinson and Harry Houdini—I enjoyed illuminating lesser-known parts of their lives. But I found it especially gratifying to profile trailblazers whom many readers will learn about for the first time in Wisconsin Idols. Meinhardt Raabe of rural Farmington refused to accept limitations as a little person, achieving lasting fame as the Munchkin coroner in The Wizard of Oz. Viola Smith emerged from small-town Mount Calvary as the first female star of jazz drumming, nicknamed The Fastest Girl Drummer in the World. In his electric wheelchair, Madison’s Jeffrey Erlanger touched millions of viewers on perhaps the most famous episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and then became an advocate for disabled people. I hope that, like me, readers will fall deeply in love with these underrated heroes.

While your book is titled Wisconsin Idols, it features extraordinary people who have made their mark within and beyond the state’s borders. Can you speak more to this? What do you hope all readers will get out of Wisconsin Idols?

The subjects of Wisconsin Idols either lived in the state or had a significant experience while passing through. Among the latter group are many you don’t necessarily associate with Wisconsin, including the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain, Bob Dylan, Buddy Holly, Eudora Welty, and Lorraine Hansberry.

Whether residents or visitors, everyone in the book had a transformative effect on the wider world. My goal for Wisconsin Idols is the same one I had as a childhood storyteller:that my heroes will become your heroes.

Read an Excerpt