A Tarbell title

[Rob Wick]

Coming up with a title for a book is almost as important as writing the book itself. It is a title that initially "sells" the book to a publisher. For me, the best way to find a title is to find something that seems to encapsulate the work of the author taken from either his/her own words or the words of another. I think I've hit on something.

I've decided to tentatively give my book the title Star Seeker After Truth: Ida M. Tarbell's Study of Abraham Lincoln.

It comes from a letter to Tarbell by a woman named Jane Hamand, who donated her collection of Ann Rutledge-related material to the Decatur (Ill.) Public Library. On December 21, 1922, Hamand wrote to Tarbell:

Ah my dear Miss Tarbell, you are the star Seeker after Truth; this fact is borne in upon the mind of the reader in every line and between the lines and for this I love and honor you.

Not too bad, if I say so myself.

Best
Rob