What was the process of turning the article into a book?
When I first found her, I was just planning on returning the diary to her. But she was so excited when I first called her. One of the first things she said was, “You know, I was a writer, too.” We both kind of came up with the idea that it would be a great article. After it ran, I had so much material: this three-ring-binder of information. And I had Florence herself, and she had shoeboxes of photos and is so eloquent – it wasn’t hard to think that this would be a great book. The diary itself won’t last forever; it’s a bit like an hourglass, and the sand is disappearing. Every time you open the diary, a little piece crumbles off. The bulk of the book is the diary itself—entries that are then followed by your reportage. Why did you choose that method, rather than stringing them together in some kind of cohesive narrative? I was very intrigued by the whole notion of what a diary is. It’s very much in the spirit of SMITH Magazine: everybody has a story to tell. I wanted that spirit to be
