Four years ago today – on August 24, 2019 – I began writing my series of five novels. These novels of ideas follow five generations of the Evans-and-Calderon family from the 1890s to the 2010s. This family and their colleagues and their friends grapple with life, encounter the most troubling events of their times, and strive to integrate the best of both culture and psychology into their lived experience.
I am somewhere between three-fifths and two-thirds of the way through the total work in this endeavor — some 9,000 to 10,000 hours of effort — and I anticipate bringing out the fifth novel in January 2026.
The first novel, Renaissance Radio, which I brought out last September, is about the Jazz Generation born from 1883 to 1901. On this Substack, since December I’ve shared a number of stories adapted from this novel.
Before bringing out my second novel, about the Big Band Generation born from 1902 to 1924, the first week of October, I want to focus us in four posts – in four nonfiction pieces – on what I think we can best learn from the Jazz Generation. I’ll do so this weekend and next.
This will not be complete but will involve the Jazz Generation’s experience through the late 1920s and early 1930s — as they neared the end of their rising-adult years. I’ll return to this generation again in the third novel next Summer, and will look then at the work of two Jazz Generation geniuses in their elder years, novelist J.R.R. Tolkien and psychologist Roberto Assagioli.
In the first post, tomorrow night, I’ll zero in on what I think we can learn from the Jazz Generation’s leading cultural genius, Louis Armstrong.
In the second post, on Sunday morning, I’ll turn to the Jazz Generation’s experience in the First World War and both the meaningless and the meaning of that war.
In the third post, the following Friday night, September 1st, I’ll draw attention to what we can learn from the man whom I regard as the Jazz Generation’s leading thinker, Otto Rank.
And in the fourth post, on Sunday morning, September 3rd, I’ll do my best to sum it all up — to get to the essence of the Jazz Generation’s life experience and their primary lessons for us as we lead our lives in the 21st Century.
Thanks for walking along with me and with our community on this journey toward the New Florence.
Onward,
Mike
Looking forward to it, Mike! That's an incredible commitment and dedication.
Looking forward to this!