In ‘Liberty’s Torch,’ Brooklyn writer revives statue’s history

Brooklyn BookBeat: Elizabeth Mitchell Reveals How Brooklyn Benefits her Nonfiction Writing

September 24, 2014 By Megan Cerullo Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Williamsburg-based writer Elizabeth Mitchell told the Eagle, “You get to feel the past of New York a little bit more clearly in Brooklyn.”
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The Statue of Liberty was not a gift from France to the United States.

In her third nonfiction book, “Liberty’s Torch”, longtime Brooklyn resident and Williamsburg-based author Elizabeth Mitchell dispels this fallacy. Mitchell also divulges that the statue’s form was originally conceived of for Egypt in conjunction with the design of the Suez Canal.

Through her portrait of the statue’s creator, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, and her careful examination of his journey to build the colossus now known as the Statue of Liberty, Mitchell brings to life a gripping adventure story with the French sculptor —  the story’s tempestuous hero — at its center.

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Mitchell’s book-length publications run the gamut from a George W. Bush biography to works on New York’s first female detective and the elusive world of professional horse racing.  While her body of work is diverse, each of Mitchell’s stories is character driven. “Liberty’s Torch” was inspired by the diaries Bartholdi kept when he first visited America in 1871, which the author inadvertently discovered while researching another topic in the New York Public Library’s manuscript division.

“Understanding that [Bartholdi] was this lone wolf going out there trying to get his project made appealed to me,” Mitchell told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.  “Any thoughtful, interesting character working their way through life is bound to have a real, good story to it.”

Primary research for “Liberty’s Torch” comprised visits to Colmar, Bartholdi’s birthplace in France, where Mitchell gained access to his diaries and letters he’d written to friends and family. Deciphering the material proved challenging, as Mitchell was relying on her high school French to interpret Bartholdi’s musings, and his handwriting was archaic and unfamiliar.  

Mitchell acknowledges that outside influences have affected her reporting style, citing a piece by Brooklyn-born essayist Phillip Lopate. Lopate reflects on how irritated he becomes when writers claim something they couldn’t possibly know, such as an undocumented, inner thought of a character who is no longer living.  The pair is acquainted, and before Lopate read Mitchell’s latest work, she warned: “When I write that [Bartholdi] comes into New York Harbor and the sky turns pink, that’s because he said in his letter, ‘the sky turned pink’— I’m not just making an assumption based on the fact that sunrise — when it happens — tends to be pink.”

Mitchell feels obliged to be as accurate as possible, yet manages to give her readers access to troves of detail. Her depictions of scenes can be sensual; in writing about a pivotal excursion Bartholdi makes to Egypt as a young man, she describes Cairo’s streets as “so narrow a rider on mule brushed the walls on either side with his feet.” She dedicates a chapter to Bartholdi’s birth and tumultuous upbringing (he survives the loss of immediate family members and warfare in his home country), offering readers insight into his motivations to build a colossus that would outlast him.  

Mitchell also reveals to her readers Bartholdi’s dedication and skill as an artist. He was so prolific in his sketches of his travels that he ran out of supplies while in Egypt. In a letter to a friend back in Paris, he requests “150 half sheets of paper, citric acid, silver nitrate, twelve tubes of white paint, six of burnt sienna, pins, erasers tobacco and other sundries.” Mitchell deftly humanizes Bartholdi in showing her readers exactly the kind of effort he put into making art.

Mitchell reflects on the process of writing non-fiction and calls herself a sort of curator of the great material she encounters. She also considers how living in Brooklyn benefits her writing: “You get to feel the past of New York a little bit more clearly in Brooklyn. I get a better feel for what it might have been like living in New York back in the times that I am writing about.” She also opines that the peacefulness of the borough allows for better concentration. Aptly enough, Mitchell’s next project, a historical saga, has roots in Brooklyn; in fact, one of the story’s main characters is a former Brooklyn Daily Eagle reporter.

In “Liberty’s Torch,” Mitchell corrects the misguided belief that the iconic statue was a gift from one government to another. The reality is that the statue is the realization of a brazen sculptor seeking recognition, and that its construction was the result of intrepid fundraising efforts by the stalwart artist himself. In a story comprising tragedy and humor, Mitchell revives a slice of history. She teaches the importance of faithfulness to accuracy in reporting, and demonstrates that adherence to the facts will likely yield a story that is at once true and entertaining.  

 


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