ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9603010003
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BALTIMORE
SOURCE: MICHAEL SCHNEIDER ASSOCIATED PRESS
Madison Smartt Bell tried to remain calm at the National Book Awards ceremony last November as he and his wife dined at New York's Plaza Hotel with the publishing industry's elite.
When Philip Roth received the award, one of American literature's most important prizes, for ``Sabbath's Theater,'' Bell let out a sigh.
But he didn't mind too much.
In his case, just being nominated really was an honor, and more.
``It saved my career basically,'' he said.
Bell was nominated for ``All Souls' Rising,'' a fictional account of the Haitian slave uprising of the late 18th century.
Until last year, Bell had labored for more than a decade with little notice outside literary circles. He had been prolific, producing 10 novels and books of short stories, and his work was highly praised but little read outside a core audience.
``He is one of the most important writers in America but he never really broke out,'' said Neil Baldwin, executive director of the National Book Foundation, which runs the National Book Awards. ``He is modest and not someone interested in publicity. He has paid his dues.''
``All Souls' Rising'' has raised the Baltimore author's profile significantly since it hit book stores last September. In addition to the National Book Awards nomination, it earned him a cherished profile in The New Yorker's fiction issue, which called his book ``one of the year's most substantial literary accomplishments.''
Most importantly for the author, it is his first book to ``earn out,'' or make as much money as the advance he was paid, an important tool publishers use to determine future advances and the economic viability of their writers.
``The key element is that the reviews were stupendous across the board and he was getting interviews in all the book sections,'' said Marian Brown, a publicist at Pantheon Books, New York.
``All Souls' Rising'' is historical fiction and graphically describes atrocities committed among Haiti's whites, blacks and mulattoes at the end of the 18th century.
The work is a departure for Bell, a graduate of the Hollins College creative writing program who gained a reputation for writing about dark, contemporary characters. It has expanded Bell's audience beyond the loyal cadre of readers of his previous books such as ``Save Me, Joe Louis,'' ``Dr. Sleep,'' and ``Barking Man and Other Stories,'' according to Baldwin.
``I picked the book off the shelf in Barnes and Noble and I literally stood there for an hour reading it in a store,'' Baldwin said. ``It's his most ambitious work. It's his broadest canvas.''
The novel's opening pages set the tone for a violent tale of racial, class and political conflict. It describes the crucifixion of a slave woman who has killed her newborn in order to save the infant from a life of shackles and whippings.
``Very little of that is fabricated,'' said Bell while sitting in his attic office in Baltimore in black jeans and no shoes, so as not to scuff up the hardwood floors. ``It's genocide. They're out there to wipe each other off the face of the Earth...It's the greatest story of all time in a way. It's the unknown revolution.''
Using academic texts and primary sources, many of them in French, Bell attempted to be as historically accurate as possible, especially when dealing with the novel's central figure, Toussaint-Louverture, the slave leader who spearheaded the decade-long uprising.
The idea for a story on the slave revolt was planted in 1983 when Bell was doing research for his first book, ``The Washington Square Ensemble.'' Bell began writing ``All Souls' Rising'' in 1988 and worked on it in between other books.
But he didn't visit Haiti until last May - after the book was completed. He had intended to spend time there in 1991, but political upheaval there thwarted his plans.
``I had time on my hands, so I wrote the book anyway,'' he said.
Raised outside Nashville, Tenn., Bell came to Baltimore in 1985, after living in New York for several years. While New York is a writers' mecca, he says he likes living in Baltimore because it is ``liveable'' and a nice blend of North and South.
He works and lives in his spacious two-story house with his wife, poet Elizabeth Spires, and their 4-year-old daughter. He tries to write at least four hours a day, six days a week.
His next book, ``Ten Indians,'' is about a martial-arts instructor in Baltimore who finds himself caught in the middle of a drug trade. It is scheduled to be published in November.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Bellby CNB