Laura Hillenbrand interview with NYTimes

[Nielk]

The Unbreakable Laura Hillenbrand - By WIL S. HYLTONDEC. 18, 2014

Late one afternoon in the summer of 2004, an aviation enthusiast named Bill Darron drove down the alley behind Laura Hillenbrand’s house in Washington. He parked his car at the rear entrance and popped open the trunk. Inside were three large boxes filled with destructive implements: bomb fuses, a flare gun, a black metal device called an intervalometer and a hulking 50-pound contraption known as a Norden bombsight.

The Norden was among the most sophisticated pieces of combat equipment in World War II. Mounted inside the nose of a bomber, it could take control in midflight, steering toward an enemy target to release a payload with unprecedented accuracy. It was said that on a clear day the Norden could “drop a bomb into a pickle barrel from 20,000 feet.” To operate it, bombardiers trained in secret for months, learning to lock its delicate cross hairs onto a target several miles away; once their training was complete, they swore an oath to protect the Norden with their lives. “It was the first secret weapon of the war,” Darron told me. “It’s the combination of a telescope, a gyroscope, an adding machine — it’s just an amazing piece of gears and optics.”

Darron hauled the boxes across Hillenbrand’s yard and up the back stairs of her home. She met him at the door and guided him into the dining room. Then Hillenbrand disappeared into another room, and Darron began to assemble the bombsight in silence. He rested the base unit on a high surface, attached the upper unit known as the football and placed a large map of Arizona on the floor a few feet away. The map was coiled around two window shades like an ancient scroll, and one shade was attached to a small motor, so that when the power came on, the map would slowly unfurl — allowing Darron to peer through the bombsight as if gazing down from an airplane in flight.

Darron had never met Hillenbrand or read any of her work. He knew that she had published a book on the racehorse Seabiscuit and that she was working on a second about the World War II bombardier Louis Zamperini, who was captured by the Japanese and held as a prisoner of war for more than two years. Other than that, he knew almost nothing about Hillenbrand herself. When she first wrote to him with aviation questions a few weeks earlier, he suggested that she visit the annual gathering of World War II buffs in Reading, Pa. “I said, ‘If you’re trying to do research on World War II, you’ve got to go there,' ” Darron recalled. “And she wrote me back, and she said, ‘I can’t.’ And I said, ‘What do you mean, you can’t?' ”

Since 1987, Hillenbrand has been sick with chronic fatigue syndrome, which has mostly confined her indoors for the last quarter century. When she explained this to Darron, he agreed to bring the Norden from New Jersey on his next visit to Washington. Now, as he made the final calibrations, Hillenbrand returned to the room, and he offered her a brief tutorial. He showed her how to position herself above the monocular eyepiece, guide the cross hairs toward a target on the map, then lock the sight into position and wait for the twin indicators to align — until, with a satisfying click, the salvo mechanism released. Hillenbrand spent more than an hour crouched over the bombsight. Each time she came to the end of the map, Darron would reset the system to begin again.

Contimue reading HERE.

 

[JAH]

Did anyone watch the NBC special last week about Unbroken? Tom Brokaw interviewed Laura Hillenbrand, and did mention her health, but did not use the word CFS. Described her as having disabling vertigo and "profound fatigue." (I think I'm remembering that phrase right). Overall very sympathetic to her, but interesting how her illness was characterized. And let's face it, Angelina Jolie star of that show...J

 

[Gingergrrl]

Tom Brokaw interviewed Laura Hillenbrand, and did mention her health, but did not use the word CFS.

Without knowing details or making any assumptions, it is possible that this was her choice. When I tell people that I have a viral reactivation of EBV which causes me severe autonomic problems (with heart rate, BP, breathing, etc), they say, "Oh my God, I am so sorry, how can I help?" versus saying "CFS" no one really knows or understands what it means and just thinks you are tired or sleepy. So I am hoping the media is portraying her as she wants to be portrayed. I was saddened to read in the article that she and her husband, Borden, separated after 28 years together .

 

[Bob]

That's a very long article! It's an interesting read. I didn't know anything about Laura previously, including how incredibly successful her books are. I knew they were well-known, but I didn't know that she had sold such a huge number. Like many of us, she's been bed-bound at times, home-bound at times, and slightly improved at times.

 

[Sing]

I love Laura Hillenbrand, her courage and heroism, and her great books which have such power and depth. She is an anomaly in today's world, valuable and telling in all her contrast to it. I feel as though her achievement is every bit as great as Seabiscuit's and Zamperini's. This is the same care I feel for everyone with a tremendous struggle, who remains honest on the course.

 

[eafw]

Contimue reading HERE.

Thanks for this Nielk. It's a really good piece, well researched and understanding. It describes how the illness has such a profound effect on the way she lives and works, and avoids the a lot of the lazy traps journos can fall into with these things. Long read, but worth it.

 

[allyann]

Great article! I have read it now a couple of times.

 

[undcvr]

The Unbreakable Laura Hillenbrand

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/m...illenbrand.html?ribbon-ad-idx=4&rref=magazine

 

[minkeygirl]

Great article. Thanks.

 

[Sushi]

Did anyone post this before?