7.17.06
Volume 2, Issue 21
In a way, we're all Jawea.
The Reject
American 19th Century History Journal
By Jonathan Shipley
In this ongoing series, punishment-glutton Jonathan Shipley chronicles his attempts to be rejected by the world's finest publications.
From: Jonathan Shipley
To: susan.[REDACTED]@ncl.ac.uk
Hello,
I have been an American History professor at the local community college for sixteen years. There's nothing I like more than instilling wonder in my charges in regards to who we've been, the decisions we as a people have made, and the consequences (both positive and negative) of those decisions.
That said, I turn to American 19th Century History Journal for informative well-written thought provoking stories. It is truly in the pantheon of great periodicals. For instance, Christa Dierksheide's recent article "Missionaries, Evangelical Identity, and the Religious Ecology of Early Nineteenth-Century South Carolina and the British Caribbean" was outstanding in every way.
Attached you'll find a story I've written in hopes that it'll be published in a coming issue of your publication. Let me know either way.
Thank you again and be sure to have a great day.
Jonathan Shipley
Vashon WA
AMERICAN NINETEENTH CENTURY JOURNAL SUBMISSION
by Jonathan Shipley
When Jawea Manoosh emigrated to the United States from India all he wanted to do was work in a museum. He loved museums, their musty order of facts and events. He relished in American history. There was probably no one in India, when he lived before moving to Astoria, Oregon (where he lived in a triplex near a state park), who knew more about history.
It mattered not what period of history, he knew it like the back of his hand, like his mother’s cooking, like the kiss of his American girlfriend, Rachel. Revolutionary War, Civil War, Dust Bowl, Civil Rights Movement, Space Race, Cuban Missile Crisis, Watergate, he knew it all but what he loved most, the topic that fascinated him to no end, was the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
That’s why he lived in Astoria. That’s where Lewis and Clark wintered, at Fort Clatsop, before heading back to Saint Louis, glory, and legend. He went to the visitor center the day he arrived in Astoria, his belongings still in boxes back at the triplex.
”Can I get a job application?” He asked a ranger.
”Here you go, son…You know a lot about Lewis and Clark?”
”Everything.”
He got the job. He got a uniform. He got to talk to visitors about the wonders of the place and the marvelous men who wintered at the fort. “They were going into uncharted wilderness,” he’d say enthusiastically. “No white men had ever done something like this…There was no telling what they’d see! Where’d they go!”
Soon he was dressing in period costume and reenacting what it was like back then. He’d shoot a musket. He’d play a fiddle. He’d show people how to tan hides, fish, forage for berries and roots. Candles, too.
One day he was making candles when he tripped, a candle fell on the floor, igniting wood chips, the chips igniting a nearby table, the table the wall, the wall the fort. The whole thing blazed. The whole fort was ruined.
The next day. “I’m sorry, Jawea, we’re going to have to let you go.”
”No,” he cried. “I love this place. I love everything about Lewis and Clark!”
”Sorry,” the administrator said again. “We’re going to have to sack you, Jawea.”
Susan-Mary [REDACTED] [Susan.[REDACTED]@newcastle.ac.uk] wrote:
Dear Professor Shipley,
I am sorry, but American Nineteenth Cenytury History does not publish short fictional pieces, only full-length academic aricles. Thank you for your interest, however, and your kind words.
Sincerely,
S-M [REDACTED]
Jonathan Shipley to Susan-Mary
Dear S-M [REDACTED],
Thanks for your quick response to my submission. Sadly, Jawea Manoosh is not fiction at all, but the opposite of that. Non-fiction. Jawea Manoosh is a real person and, I'm afraid to say, is not doing at all well since being fired from Fort Clatsop. He tried getting a job cleaning the Astoria Column, and then tried working for a time at the Columbia River Maritime Museum, but he's been blacklisted, to not put too fine of a point on it, from working within Astoria's historical monuments, museums, and the like. Poor poor Jawea. He's been shattered, honestly, and last I heard has resorted to gas huffing.
He needs serious help. Oh well.
Have a great weekend!!
Jonathan Shipley
Vashon, WA
From: Jonathan Shipley To: susan.[REDACTED]@ncl.ac.uk
Hello,
I have been an American History professor at the local community college for sixteen years. There's nothing I like more than instilling wonder in my charges in regards to who we've been, the decisions we as a people have made, and the consequences (both positive and negative) of those decisions.
That said, I turn to American 19th Century History Journal for informative well-written thought provoking stories. It is truly in the pantheon of great periodicals. For instance, Christa Dierksheide's recent article "Missionaries, Evangelical Identity, and the Religious Ecology of Early Nineteenth-Century South Carolina and the British Caribbean" was outstanding in every way.
Attached you'll find a story I've written in hopes that it'll be published in a coming issue of your publication. Let me know either way.
Thank you again and be sure to have a great day.
Jonathan Shipley
Vashon WA
AMERICAN NINETEENTH CENTURY JOURNAL SUBMISSION
by Jonathan Shipley
When Jawea Manoosh emigrated to the United States from India all he wanted to do was work in a museum. He loved museums, their musty order of facts and events. He relished in American history. There was probably no one in India, when he lived before moving to Astoria, Oregon (where he lived in a triplex near a state park), who knew more about history.
It mattered not what period of history, he knew it like the back of his hand, like his mother’s cooking, like the kiss of his American girlfriend, Rachel. Revolutionary War, Civil War, Dust Bowl, Civil Rights Movement, Space Race, Cuban Missile Crisis, Watergate, he knew it all but what he loved most, the topic that fascinated him to no end, was the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
That’s why he lived in Astoria. That’s where Lewis and Clark wintered, at Fort Clatsop, before heading back to Saint Louis, glory, and legend. He went to the visitor center the day he arrived in Astoria, his belongings still in boxes back at the triplex.
”Can I get a job application?” He asked a ranger.
”Here you go, son…You know a lot about Lewis and Clark?”
”Everything.”
He got the job. He got a uniform. He got to talk to visitors about the wonders of the place and the marvelous men who wintered at the fort. “They were going into uncharted wilderness,” he’d say enthusiastically. “No white men had ever done something like this…There was no telling what they’d see! Where’d they go!”
Soon he was dressing in period costume and reenacting what it was like back then. He’d shoot a musket. He’d play a fiddle. He’d show people how to tan hides, fish, forage for berries and roots. Candles, too.
One day he was making candles when he tripped, a candle fell on the floor, igniting wood chips, the chips igniting a nearby table, the table the wall, the wall the fort. The whole thing blazed. The whole fort was ruined.
The next day. “I’m sorry, Jawea, we’re going to have to let you go.”
”No,” he cried. “I love this place. I love everything about Lewis and Clark!”
”Sorry,” the administrator said again. “We’re going to have to sack you, Jawea.”
Susan-Mary [REDACTED] [Susan.[REDACTED]@newcastle.ac.uk] wrote:
Dear Professor Shipley,
I am sorry, but American Nineteenth Cenytury History does not publish short fictional pieces, only full-length academic aricles. Thank you for your interest, however, and your kind words.
Sincerely,
S-M [REDACTED]
Jonathan Shipley to Susan-Mary
Dear S-M [REDACTED],
Thanks for your quick response to my submission. Sadly, Jawea Manoosh is not fiction at all, but the opposite of that. Non-fiction. Jawea Manoosh is a real person and, I'm afraid to say, is not doing at all well since being fired from Fort Clatsop. He tried getting a job cleaning the Astoria Column, and then tried working for a time at the Columbia River Maritime Museum, but he's been blacklisted, to not put too fine of a point on it, from working within Astoria's historical monuments, museums, and the like. Poor poor Jawea. He's been shattered, honestly, and last I heard has resorted to gas huffing.
He needs serious help. Oh well.
Have a great weekend!!
Jonathan Shipley
Vashon, WA