Websightings: Howard Blue’s Memoir Reviews

Julie deGraffenried

Howard Blue is a collector.  In his book, Words at War (2002), he amassed little-known details and reminiscences about World War II-era radio broadcasts.  Now he has turned his attention to collecting memoirs.  His new website, Howard Blue’s Memoir Reviews (http://www.memoirreviews.com/), claims to provide memoirs with “a home of their own.” 

The home page of Memoir Reviews supplies a brief overview of the site’s purpose as a “comprehensive listing” of memoirs and a helpful, informal introduction to the genre.  In addition, the homepage includes clearly-marked tabs used to direct the user to the site’s various pages: New Titles, The Memoirs, Memoir Writing, Reviews, Writers Conferences, About Howard, and Contact.  Though the site’s title suggests that this is a home for reviews of memoirs (and there are a handful under the aforementioned tab), the wealth in this site lies under the tab marked “The Memoirs.” 

Clicking The Memoirs tab takes the user to a two-column list of categories.  Blue’s twenty-seven alphabetized categories range from geographic region (i.e., “Africa,” “Middle East,” or “Central America”) to event-centered (i.e., “Afghan, Iraqi Wars, etc.” or “Holocaust”) to thematic (i.e., “Crime,” “Sex,” or “Food”).  Two large categories – “U.S.” and “Health” – are divided in half, and Blue has helpfully listed their subcategories for navigation.  All parts of the world are covered, with the exception of South America (under construction, according to the website).  Clicking on a category link, say “Asia,” takes the user to the Asia page.  Following a brief, chatty introduction by Blue (mostly anecdotes from his life related to the page’s topic) is a list of memoirs, divided into sub-categories chosen by Blue, and accessible by link from various points on the page.  For the Asia page, the sixteen sub-categories are countries ranging from China to Laos to Nepal to South Korea.  For a thematic list such as that on the Crime page, the eight subcategories include bank robberies, murder, and prison. Memoirs on every page include author, title, publisher, and year of publication, and most entries have a short synopsis sentence.  Clicking on the title of the book takes the user to amazon.com where purchasing information is available.

Even a quick inspection of Memoir Reviews will reveal the extensiveness of Blue’s catalog.  Though Blue notes that memoirs are cross-listed when appropriate, that is rarely the case.  His site provides the user with a listing of well over 1000 titles of memoirs, the vast majority of which have been published in the last decade.  The memoirs themselves range from popular bestsellers to the obscure to the classic.  Specialists will find themselves murmuring, “Why doesn’t he have (insert title here) on this list?” while perusing the site, but keep in mind, a.) this is primarily a list of recently-published memoirs, and b.) this is the work of one man (not Superman). 

The reason I chose to introduce this website to SHCY members is the enormous number of memoirs that deal with the childhood and/or youth of the authors, authors representing dozens of different cultures, locations, classes, family types, educational backgrounds, and so on.  This is a treasure trove of bibliographical information – and it’s all in one place.

Of special interest to SHCY members will be Blue’s “Coming of Age” list, under the U.S. I heading.  It’s not particularly long right now at thirty-some titles, but it includes some quality entries.  And, best of all, it’s a dynamic list that the creator is committed to growing.  Blue recently requested the help of H-Childhood members in building this specific listing, and I think this is a good enterprise for us.  Knowledge-sharing is one of the great benefits of the academic community, and this is a chance to exercise it. Since he has offered to make this a collaborative effort, let’s take him up on it.  I’ll get off my virtual soapbox now …

The site is not without its “issues,” as my students say.  The most important of these is the limited nature of the search feature.  The site’s search engine is a bit quirky, to put it mildly.  For example, when I entered the word “childhood” in the search box, it gave me twenty-five results.  The problem is that there are clearly hundreds of titles or book descriptors that mention childhood.  The same is true of “child” (28 results), “youth” (10 results), “growing up” (19 results), “boyhood” (7 results), and “girlhood” (4 results).  The good news is that there are more than nineteen memoirs about growing up on Blue’s site; the bad news is that there are more than nineteen memoirs about growing up on Blue’s site.  Forewarned is forearmed, as they say.  Best results come, in my experience, when the user already has a region or event in mind and can go quickly to the appropriate category and skim titles for usefulness.

The second caveat: Unlike most of the web resources chronicled in the SHCY Bulletin, Memoir Reviews is a private enterprise.  Blue’s site is not affiliated with any institution or funded by a foundation.  The maintenance of this site appears to be a hobby for him, a hobby that I personally find laudable.  As a one-man-show, however, there are a few points to consider.  Blue created the site, he created the list, he created the categories and subcategories.  For the most part, they are clear and effective.  From time to time, however, the categories are problematic.  For example, does the category titled Politics include memoirs about politicians’ lives, about life in politics, about the children of politicians, or about episodes of politics in non-political lives?  The answer is yes, all of the above.  As a result, a few categories are a bit of a mishmash of titles.  As another example, why not put memoirs of African-Americans in the U.S. category as opposed to segregating them in the Ethnic and Racial Groups category?  Overall, considering the difficulties inherent in organizing so many titles, I think Blue has done a good job.   A less important point, right now, is that Blue’s site will someday face the dilemma of list and link maintenance without the assistance of funding or a cadre of enthusiastic graduate students.

This website will be of use to SHCY scholars building reading lists for a variety of courses, from literature to education to sociology to history.  Here’s how I plan to use it: I teach world history surveys (World History, 1500-present) on a regular basis and, rather than using a textbook, employ a lot of primary texts, literature, and memoirs to supplement the lecture material.  While searching this site, I found no less than twenty-five “leads” on new memoirs that, if appropriate, could be incorporated into my course.  All twenty-five promise discussion of the author’s childhood or youth.  They represent different geographical parts of the world as well as different eras/historical events of modern history.  Asking my students to read a memoir on childhood in a world history course not only enhances understanding of a particular event or era in history, but also allows me to introduce them to children’s history and the memoir as a historical document, with all its attendant problems. 

When I’m looking for new books for my courses, I employ variety of methods.  I read book reviews and the “new publications” lists in journals.  I troll the internet for other people’s syllabi – I want to see what other educators are having their students read.  I flip through the multitude of catalogs I receive in my mailbox.  I watch my library lists.  Sometimes I just get on a site like amazon.com and start putting in search terms, looking for items that are well-received by readers.  I do enjoy the thrill of the hunt, but the problem is, I can while away hours at my computer and come away with maybe two or three titles to pursue.  The great value of a site like Memoir Reviews is its very existence.  The sheer volume of titles and their categorization – even if imperfect – provides a great finding aid for academics, educators, and students.  Bookmark it!