Islander Connor Gifford showcases book at LA Expo
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER

PHOTO ROB BENCHLEY/THE INDEPENDENT Connor Gifford recently returned from BookExpo America in Los Angeles where he promoted his first book, "America According to Connor Gifford." The book highlights 53 people and events spanning 400 years of history by capturing the essence of each profile.

It is not often that a young, island resident promotes his first book at the highly attended, prestigious BookExpo America in Los Angeles, but that is what Connor Gifford did.

Gifford, 26, returned from the Expo on Friday, where he showcased his first publication, "America According to Connor Gifford," for the 30,000 editors, booksellers, publicists and agents who attend this annual trade conference. While there, Gifford was interviewed by Publishers Weekly and by "Closer Look," a radio company from Portland, Ore., affiliated with National Public Radio. The radio interview will not air until the national release date of Gifford's book, which is scheduled for the end of July. Publishers Weekly heralds Gifford as an "extraordinary young man" in its May 30 edition and credits him with capturing 400 years of history from America's beginning through the Iraq War.

Gifford, who does not let Down syndrome get in the way of anything he wants to accomplish, has been an interpreter at the Nantucket Lifesaving Museum for a couple of years and will join the team again at the beginning of July. He also is a host at the Atlantic Cafe, a volunteer at the Hospital Thrift Shop and a board member of STAR, which stands for Sports and Therapeutic Accessible Recreation, and is an island organization.

In his book, Gifford has eliminated the dry details and copious dates associated with historical recapitulations and cuts to the essence of important events, especially honoring those who have been mistreated by society, stressing Civil Rights and women's rights, the responsibilities of American citizens and includes his personal concerns and views on hope for the nation's future.

The book, which is illustrated by Gifford, is compactly accurate, sometimes critical and at other times encouraging and peppered with his humor. Gifford, who loves history, said he knew when he was a teenager that he wanted to write a book on the subject, but that dream did not become a reality until he met Victoria Harris in January 2007. When they began discussing history, a subject also dear to Harris, who is a publicist, author and documentary film-maker, a collaboration was born. The two spent hours deciding what events and people should be profiled in Gifford's book.

"We ran with it," said Gifford. "She found my voice. I say 'thank you' to Victoria."

Last Friday night, the evening of the day he returned from the Expo, Gifford read from his book in the Great Hall of the Atheneum to an audience numbering about 100, who gave him a standing ovation when the reading ended. Between the Expo and the library event, Gifford has already sold 1,000 copies of his book, published by Hargrave Press, and he is thrilled with its initial success.

"It was a hit," he said about Friday's library talk, where he read three of his favorite chapters on Anne Hutchinson, Frederick Douglass and his take on war and hope. "I picked Frederick Douglass because he was in the Great Hall when he gave his speech on slavery," said Gifford. "For me to read his story was really haunting. Everyone felt it."

He said he chose Hutchinson for her desire to free people to practice their religions without restriction, something not afforded to her in her community. After she was banished from Boston to Rhode Island followiing a trial in 1637, her family was attacked by Indians who only saved her daughter, Susannah, because they were captivated by her red hair. They renamed her Autumn Leaf and raised her as one of their own.

In his chapter on war, Gifford stresses that all wars from the Revolutionary period to Iraq began with arguments. Instead of having discussions and trying to work through disagreements, men and women have been sent to fight with many innocent victims paying the price.

"Nobody likes war to begin with," he said, sitting on his porch with his father, Chuck Gifford, the director of Community Relations and Development at Nantucket Cottage Hospital, and his mother Julie, an artist. "In the past we argued so bitterly. The most important moral is that we need to listen to each other.'

In his book, he wrote, "History teaches that the stress within us gets released into killing. Our country needs one good massage. This will relieve the stress, and there will be peace. Actually, the whole world needs one huge massage."

In his chapter on hope, where he writes that Americans hide behind their freedom and do not take responsibility, he said, "When we hide we are not aware of what is going on in the real world. Diseases. Global warming. Our economy is a mess. Our foreign policy is crumbling. Look at where we are."

Perhaps Gifford's most outright stance is at the end of his book in a chapter called "Higher Power," where he wrote simply, yet profoundly, "I believe.

My hope is that kids and adults realize our world is out of whack because of all the issues- global warming, the economy, war and many more. We can't undo the past, but we can change and become one better world."

Though writing his first book was hard work, Gifford said he enjoyed every minute. In fact, he is already thinking about more books he would like to pen.

"Hollywood According to Connor Gifford," he said. "After the fame of this first book is done I'll go back to Victoria and say, "Let's do a sequel. I really like the 'According to. ...' We have a lot of great ideas."

Gifford's book, with its 53 historical profiles, received accolades from a number of authors, including Nantucket's Nathaniel Philbrick, who wrote, "Connor Gifford writes my kind of history. He reads everything he can get his hands on; he thinks long and hard about not only what happened in the past but about what is happening today, then he tells it like he sees it. This is a fun, wonderfully quirky and inspirational book." Tim Russert of "Meet the Press" fame, wrote, "A distinctive American perspective from a unique young man." Vern Laux, an NPR commentator, wrote, "History as it has never been written before. Lively, uplifting."

"America According to Connor Gifford" is available at island book stores. For more information on Gifford and his collaboration with Harris, go to her Web site, hargravepress.com, or to his, connorgifford.com, which also has a blog.