Ask A Librarian

Don Knotts biographer to speak about Knotts and research process

Posted by Monte Maxwell.
October 27th, 2015

Don Knotts would be proud. Not only has a Pulitzer Prize-winning author penned a book about him and Andy Griffith, but the author is stopping in Knotts’ hometown and at his alma mater to talk about the book and how he performed research in the West Virginia University LibrariesWest Virginia and Regional History Center.

AndyDonCover

Daniel de Visé, author of Andy & Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show, will speak at 2 p.m. Nov. 11 in the Robinson Reading Room of the Charles C. Wise, Jr. Library. Following his remarks, he will sign books.

“Mr. de Visé’s presentation will be tailored to fit the interests of not just Don Knotts fans but also those interested in the process of writing a book from the ground up,” WVRHC Curator John Cuthbert said. “He will discuss his research methods, sources, and emphasize the role of the WVRHC in his research regarding Don’s Morgantown roots.”

An author and journalist, de Visé spent his 23-year career at the Washington Post, the Miami Herald and three other newspapers. De Visé has won more than two dozen national, regional and local journalism awards, including a shared 2001 Pulitzer Prize for deadline reporting. His investigative reporting twice led to the release of wrongly convicted men from life terms in Florida prisons. His first book, I Forgot to Remember (with Su Meck), began as a front-page article de Visé wrote for the Washington Post.

Andy & Don, his second book, began as a journalistic exploration into the storied career of his late brother-in-law, Don Knotts. Reviews have called the book the “definitive literary work on the legacy of The Andy Griffith Show” and “a provocative and an entertaining read.”

De Visé lives with his wife and children in Garrett Park, Md., where he can sometimes be found managing his son’s youth baseball team or playing with the Stepping Stones, a Monkees cover band.

De Visé will also speak at the Morgantown Public Library at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 11.

For more information, contact Lori Hostuttler, digital projects and outreach archivist in the WVRHC, at lori.hostutler@mail.wvu.edu or 304-293-1116.

Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>