"History is made by what is made in Ilion"

Last month, I came across that phrase while searching google books. Naturally, besides knowing that at one time the phrase was true, I wanted to find out more about the author and the novel that contained the phrase.

How is it that the author selected Ilion, NY as the hometown of the main character, Hector Brennan in his novel, The Surrendered?

Change-rae Lee is a novelist and creative writing professor at Princeton University. He immigrated to the United States, from Korea, when he was three years old. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, Yale, and the University of Oregon.

He is the author of five novels: Native Speaker (1995); A Gesture Life (1999); Aloft (2004); The Surrendered (2010) and On Such a Full Sea (2014).

The Surrendered, which contains the references to Ilion, NY, was a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2011! The novel is described, on the Pulitzer.org web site, as "...a haunting and often heartbreaking epic whose characters explore the deep reverberations of love, devotion and war."

I asked Professor Lee how he chose Ilion, as the Brennan's hometown, in the novel, The Surrendered. I thought, surely, he had visited Ilion and/or was related to Ilionites because in the novel he wrote... "History is made by what is made in Ilion", Hector's father used to croon darkly, most of all Hector's uncles and cousins in the employ of the company or bearing its arms into battle, or both".

Change-rae Lee quickly and kindly answered my email and I would like to share it with you below.

National Public Radio (NPR) published a review of the novel on March 30, 2010, Witnesses Of War Can't Wash Their Hands Of Tragedy where you can read an excerpt from the book.

"The Ilion Irish"

Kathleen Hill, the author of Who Occupies This House is the granddaughter of William and Kathleen (Balet) Giblin.

In 1891, Clarence W. Seamans purchased the land for the Ilion Public library from Michael A. Giblin, Kathleen's great-grandfather. In October 27, 1893, the new library was opened and Mr. Seamans formally deeded the land and building to the Ilion Alumni Association, who in turn transferred the entire property to the Village of Ilion. The Giblin home is now the site of the current Knights of Columbus building that was built in 1969.

William Giblin was featured on the Alumni Site, in March 2004, as one lucky Irishman. William Giblin was rescued during the New York City 1912 fire, which destroyed the Equitable Building. William Giblin was the president of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company. His brother, John Giblin, was President of the Ilion Coal Company and known throughout the valley as an esteemed businessman.

The Ilion Giblin family is the basis for the memoirs in Who Occupies This House. Kathleen Balet Hill's novel was selected as an Editors' Choice at The New York Times. Kathleen Hill teaches in the M.F.A. Program at Sarah Lawrence College.

Who Occupies This House also used the name Brennan in an italized passage about Ilionites. Kathleen Hill wrote me "That italicized passage was lifted whole from one of Wm. Giblin's papers, "The Ilion Irish." William Giblin documented the names of the original Irish in Ilion that he remembers from his boyhood.

www.kathleenhillwriter.com

www.amazon.com - Who Occupies This House

Barnes & Noble - Who Occupies This House