Lou Ureneck, a Boston University journalism professor and former Portland Press Herald executive editor, will discuss his latest book, “The Great Fire: One American’s Mission to Rescue Victims of the 20th Century’s First Genocide,” at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 9, at the Freeport Community Library.
In “The Great Fire: One American’s Mission to Rescue Victims of the 20th Century’s First Genocide,” Ureneck tells the harrowing story of how a YMCA worker from upstate New York named Asa Jennings, and Halsey Powell, a principled American naval officer and Kentucky gentleman, managed to rescue more than 250,000 refugees from Smyrna, Turkey, during the 1922 genocide of Armenian and Greek Christians. Publishers Weekly calls “The Great Fire” “surprisingly fresh, haunting and potent.”
Born in New Brunswick, N.J., Ureneck spent many years in the Portland area. After his time at the Press Herald, where he rose in the ranks from reporter to the top job in the newsroom, he joined the Philadelphia Inquirer as deputy managing editor. His work includes the development of two websites that were named among the best in the nation and a study of newspaper economics for the Nieman Foundation titled “The Business of News.” He recently returned from Kiev, where he taught at the National University’s prestigious Mohyla Academy under a Fulbright grant.
He’s also written two previous books, “Backcast,” which won the National Outdoor Book Award in 2007; and “Cabin: Two Brothers, a Dream, and Five Acres in Maine”
Ureneck answered questions about his new book and his career for the Tri-Town Weekly
Q: Your previous books, “Backcast” and “Cabin,” were personal stories. What inspired you to write “The Great Fire”?
A: I wanted to learn the story of Asa Jennings and the American role at Smyrna. I had read enough to know that Jennings’ accomplishment was astonishing – one of the great rescue stories in history, yet hardly anyone knew about it. I wanted to know more, and why it was unknown. I also was drawn to the big stories in the background of the Jennings story – the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the failure of post-World War I diplomacy and the ways in which America was changing from a rural and religious nation to a commercial power.
Q: What comparison could you draw to the genocide of American and Greek Christians in 1922 with the atrocities now being committed by ISIS?
A: In both cases, Christians are being killed by Muslims, and in both cases, Muslims consider Christians to be lesser humans. Also, in both cases, the idea of producing a fully Islamic nation stands behind the killing. The earlier genocide removed Christianity from Anatolia, where it first took root. The current killing seems intent on picking up where the first genocide left off. It’s tragic.
Q: What are you learning from your readers as you travel to bookstores and libraries talking about your book?
A: I am learning that the memory of Smyrna is very much alive among the descendants of those who passed through the catastrophe. People show me photos of grandparents and tell me stories of escape – or sometimes the killing of a family member. I am moved when I meet people connected to Smyrna, moved and honored.
Q: You’ve transitioned from a newspaper editor to a professor at Boston University. Do you prefer being a teacher of young people?
A: I had a great newspaper career, and loved nearly every moment of it. (Well, there were a few exceptions.) Teaching is rewarding in a different way. My career as a teacher would not have been possible without my journalism career. I am thankful for those years.
Q: What book or books are you reading now?
A: I am reading the memoir, “My Struggle,” by the Norwegian writer Karl Knausgaard. Also, and this is one of the great luxuries of my life, my wife Irene reads aloud to me at night. She’s a Russian speaker, very knowledgeable in Russian literature, and right now she’s reading “The White Guard” to me. It’s by Mikhail Bulgakov, and it’s about the civil war in Russia after the Bolshevik revolution.
Lou Ureneck will talk about his book “The Great Fire: One American’s Mission to Rescue Victims of the 20th Century’s First Genocide,” on Sept. 9 at the Freeport Community Library. Courtesy photoSend questions/comments to the editors.
