THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 3, 1994 TAG: 9407020133
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Susie Stoughton
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
Mark Richard, critically acclaimed author and New York resident, stopped off recently in Franklin for a ``busman's holiday.''
Richard, 38, with two books to his credit and another on the way, vacationed for a week with his mother, Claire Richard, in between a family friend's wedding and his 20th high school reunion.
The wordsmith spent much of the week conducting interviews.
Richard, now also a stringer for the British Broadcasting Co., is working on a series of oral history programs on American life. The radio shows are taped conversations between Richard and his subjects, an easy-going dialogue that reveals the essence of the local history.
He has already done several BBC shows - a program in May on the Tennessee Valley Authority and a profile last fall of the watermen in Gloucester.
``That was very popular in England with their cockney accents,'' he said.
Some linguists listened to the tapes and were able to determine where in England the Virginians' ancestors had come from.
This month, he is doing a show on the German community in Huntsville, Ala., where a group of rocket scientists settled after World War II and developed the NASA Apollo spacecraft.
Another series - on small-town life in Virginia - will probably take two years to assemble, Richard said.
When the British producers asked him to do the Virginia project, he thought, ``What better place to start than my home town?''
Besides, he got his early training in radio broadcasting at the former WYSR radio station in the Be-Lo Shopping Center. His first coach was Augie Biedenbender.
While in high school, Richard worked as a part-time disc jockey, his first job among many that later included dredging for scallops and working on a trawler off the North Carolina coast.
While he was in Franklin, Richard ran into Biedenbender, who before he retired was known on the radio as Augie Bender.
``Twenty years later, with my work with the BBC, I can trace my roots right back to the Be-Lo Shopping Center,'' Richard said.
Roots are important to Richard. He always enjoys returning home and renewing old friendships. He uses his heritage to advantage.
During his ``vacation,'' he tape recorded conversations with some of the local residents who talked about life in the small town.
But a week is hardly long enough for the project, so he will be back.
He was excited about his reunion with his classmates at Franklin High School, the first official gathering he had attended. Some of the event may be fodder for an essay for Esquire, he said.
His class was historic because the former black Hayden High School was closed in 1969 and afterward, all students attended Franklin High School.
``My class was the first one to go through after 1969 when they put the two schools together,'' he said.
Richard, a graduate of Washington and Lee University, will head to Oxford, Miss., in August to be a writer-in-residence at the University of Mississippi, or Ole Miss. He had been the first Tennessee Williams Fellow at the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn., in a similar program.
Recently, John Grisham had endowed Ole Miss with funds for a residency program and Richard will live in a house Grisham bought from the estate of the late Sam Lawrence, a New York editor.
The house is across the street from the late William Faulkner's home.
``With Sam Lawrence's ghost and Faulkner's ghost right across the street, I'll have plenty of pressure to get to work,'' he said.
Besides teaching a writing class, Richard will be working on his second novel. Already published is ``Fishboy,'' a novel, and a collection of short stories, ``The Ice at the Bottom of the World.''
He's also working on two screen plays and the BBC shows.
``Between those, there's plenty of work to do,'' he said.
He hopes eventually to send copies of the BBC tapes to the Franklin library so students and adults can listen to the actual voices recalling local history.
Talking with the local people is intriguing, he said.
``Everyone has a story,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Mark Richard
He's a critically acclaimed author
by CNB