Motivated by the birth of his first child, a girl named Violet, Matt Burriesci, a former executive director of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and author of Nonprofit, a prize-winning novel, revisited the established canon of classical literature and wrote a book-length letter to his daughter, titling it, provocatively, Dead White Men (Cleis Press/Viva Editions, Father's Day release in June). Addressed to Violet as he imagines she'll be at the age of 18, Burriesci uses the Great Books of the Western World to probe society's big questions: When it is right to do the wrong thing? Is there any justice in the world? What is happiness? Who should be in charge? Do the ends justify the means? Is America exceptional?
The works he read—by Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Machiavelli, St. Augustine, Locke, Rousseau, etc.—have a lot to teach, he says, even if they were written by dead white men. "I worked for 15 years in the arts and humanities, mainly literature," he explains. "This Western tradition felt as if it was vanishing, and I wanted my daughter to understand it, to learn how to think, rather than what to think." He refers to thinking as "an endangered act."
His favorite chapter is the first, about Plato's Apology, which he describes as a cultivation of skepticism and the realization that we don't have all the answers. "It provided the spark. I wouldn't have continued if the Apology hadn't been the first book I read. It was such a revelation, and it really pushed me forward."
Burriesci (pronounced Burr-EE-see) says the experience of writing the book was liberating. "When you think of these great books, you think that they're difficult and inaccessible, but making them accessible and relevant, as I tried to do, opens up the joy in them. They have a lot of humor once you get used to the language."
Though addressed to his daughter, Burriesci would like his book to be read by the general public, educators, other parents, and other kids, in the hopes that it will prompt a conversation about how we approach education in this country. "Our system should not be to produce hands for industry but to produce responsible citizens," he says.
A second-time BEA-goer, Burriesci says that talking to booksellers is a dream come true for him. "Who wouldn't want that?"
Burriesci will have an in-booth signing today, 10:30–11 a.m., at the PGW Pavilion (Cleis booth 947B). Also today, he will be in the autographing area signing, 2–2:30 p.m., at Table 10.
This article appeared in the May 28, 2015 edition of PW BEA Show Daily.
