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1. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2. MyFather,MyMother,andBunny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3. TwoElizabeths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

4. MyIrishGrandfather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

5. TimmyandJackie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

6. AScatteringofGraces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

7. SacredPlaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

8. J .F .PowersandBettyWahl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

9. TheGood,theBad,andtheSaintly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

10.SummingUp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

?1 ç o v e r v i e w

Sketches

A book on goodness? When the idea was first proposed

by the people at Loyola Press, I quickly rejected it.

Goodness was a subject far too abstract for a concrete

writer like me. But my subconscious apparently thought

otherwise, because one morning a short time later I

awoke with this sentence in my head: “I had the great

good fortune to be reared in a cocoon of goodness.” And

because this seemed an ideal opening for such a book, I

devised a way to deal with the topic. Instead of a philo-

sophical treatise on goodness, I would write sketches of

good people I’d known in my life, beginning with those

who formed that cocoon around me in my earliest years,

namely, my parents and my mother’s cousin Bunny.

Writing about my parents in this first chapter led me

to ponder an interesting distinction between goodness of

a natural sort—that is, kindness that grows out of a person’s

instinctive, generous character—and what I call “goodness

by the book”; that is, being good at the direction of a

higher authority, in this case the Catholic Church.

Until I was nearly fifty years old, I thought my par-

ents were alike in their kindness and generosity, at least

toward me, but I proved to be mistaken.

The next chapter is about my paternal grand-

mother and a maternal great-aunt, both of them named

Elizabeth, who left their marks on different levels of soci-

ety, my impoverished grandmother working among the

poor of her Midwestern village, while my great-aunt the

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Jon Hassler

educator supervised metropolitan teachers in her attempt

to civilize two generations of students.

My mother’s father deserves a chapter of his own, for

he was the one true “character” in my ancestry, a gruff-

acting yet jolly man liable at any moment to break into

song or break out in a storytelling jag—in contrast to his

wife, my grandmother, a fretful woman whose goodness

was clouded by worry.

Timmy and Jackie, two friends from my early boyhood,

provide an interesting contrast between the bad and the

good. One of them was a nine-year-old terrorist who,

with my cooperation, masterminded a train derailment,

while the other, in the process of dying at the age of

twelve, proved himself a saint.

Next the reader will find a chapter devoted to a

number of people who entered my life at precisely the

right moment to do me a great deal of good. A col-

lege professor, for example, who steered me into a life

devoted to literature. A colleague who bailed me out

of a difficult assignment directing a high-school play.

Six colleagues of mine who, together with me, formed

a tight bond of friendship in the process of helping one

another over the rough places in our early careers as

college instructors.

Among the many discoveries I’ve made in compos-

ing these chapters is the realization that there are three

geographical locations where I have spent a good bit

of time—a village (eight years), a campus (thirty-three

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Overview

semesters), and a lake cabin (twenty-five summers)—and

that have become, in retrospect, sacred places for me, due

primarily to the good people I have known there.

The eighth chapter is devoted to a rather detailed

study of two people, a husband and wife, who struck

their colleagues as testy and abrasive but who, upon

dying, left behind a legacy of goodness.

The reader may be surprised to find a chapter

devoted to certain good characters I have invented in

my fiction. Having lived with them in my head for an

average of two years each, they have become as real to

me as a good many living, breathing human beings of

my acquaintance.

Perpetrators of Goodness

And now, having finished these sketches, I see what a

narcissistic project it’s been. In the first place, to qualify

for this book, it isn’t enough that the perpetrators of

goodness be good; most of them must have been good to

me. But I see no alternative. Despite the purity of a per-

son’s motive in doing good, it’s only the recipient who

can determine whether a good act leads to a successful

consequence. Having spent forty-two years as a teacher,

for example, I like to think that I did my students a lot of

good, and yet, whereas perhaps two dozen of them have

actually told me so, I have no idea whether the other

seven thousand were affected in any lasting way by my

efforts.

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Jon Hassler

And second, this book is based on my perceptions

alone. I suspect that very few of these people are, or

were in their lifetimes, universally thought of as especially

virtuous. A storyteller named Michael Cotter once visited

my classroom and told a fascinating tale, among others,

about a hired man who had died after being employed

on the Cotter family farm for many years. The family

was mightily grieved, for this man had been not only a

faithful worker but a dependable friend to all of them. At

his funeral, therefore, they were amazed to meet the man’s

brothers and sisters, from whom he had been estranged

for many years, and to find that he was universally

despised by all of them.

This book is by no means an exhaustive study of

people I have perceived as virtuous. With each year of

my life I seem to become acquainted with more and

more good people, until now I am surrounded by liter-

ally hundreds of them. The reader will find, too, that

almost all my sketches are from the past, for I am able to

describe, to shape vignettes around, only those people I

have some distance from.

Here, then, is a selected sampling of the many good

people who have accompanied me on my journey

through life and warmed my heart.

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Overview

Good PeoPle. . . from an Author’s Life

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jon hassler

jon hassler

JonHassler

JonHassler

“Jon Hassler’s Good People is a literary stroll around the block on a summer’s eve, a going back home.”

—Philip Gulley, author, Front Porch Tales

What is goodness?

“It’s easier to portray bad individuals than good. There are so many

ways to be bad, whereas the good seem to be converging on a

single path to virtue. That’s why I was extremely flattered a few years

ago to read, in a review of my work, that my novels are unusual in

that they make good people interesting.”

In Good People, celebrated novelist Jon Hassler examines goodness

with warmth, humor, and poignancy by exploring the many mean-

ingful relationships that have enriched his life. He describes his par-

ents and grandparents, childhood playmates, fellow teachers and writ-

ers—including the renowned fiction writer J. F. Powers—and shows

how the goodness in these people has inspired the good people in

his fiction. Written in the same engaging style as his novels, Hassler’s

stories reveal much of his own background, including his strong

Catholic faith and the places that have shaped his writing.

“Good People is vintage Hassler. It’s wry, wise, and handsomely written.”

—dave Wood, syndicated book columnist

“Good People is lighthearted, funny, and delightful to read. It is profound in its healthy understanding

of the importance of relationships in our lives.”

—Fr. Joseph Girzone, author, The Joshua Series

General nonfiction

ISBN 0-8294-1636-6

Praise for Jon Hassler’s Good People . . .

“In search of the nature of good-ness, Jon Hassler turns his novelist’s eye on the real and fictional charac-ters who have peopled his life. The result is as revealing as the sun at noon—clear, wise, and loving.”—Sally Cunneen, author, In Search of Mary

“Jon Hassler’s sketches of good people are much like his novels. But these good people are not fiction. They have real blood in their veins and were responsible for fashioning what Hassler calls ‘that all-important cocoon of goodness.’”—Tim Unsworth, columnist, National Catholic Reporter

“Those of us who admire Jon Hassler’s novels will find that these etchings evoke many memories of the characters, mostly loving, that he invented, plus all kinds of new and real people who haunt his memories. He lets us glance for a moment into the web of his own life, and we are grateful for his goodness.”—Most Reverend Rembert G.

Weakland, O.S.B., archbishop of

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“Hassler’s memoir makes good-ness intriguing—a mystery that awes and inspires and consoles.” —Carol deChant, author, Momma’s Enchanted Supper

“Here you have the seedbed of all the fragile, persnickety, and peach-pit-hearted folks who populate Jon Hassler’s villages and campuses. . . . In revealing their goodness, Hassler reveals his own, and it is a privilege to spend some time with him and his friends.”—William J. o’Malley, S.J., author, God—The Oldest Question

Jon Hassler is an award-winning author of eleven novels, two story collections, three plays, and one other work of nonfiction. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his wife. He has been writing for more than thirty years and is currently working on a novel, a children’s book, and a book of stories.

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$12.95 U.S.