Bookshelf

Alumni and faculty members who would like to have their books considered for this listing should contact Stacey Himmelberger, editor of Hamilton magazine. This list, which dates back to 2018, is updated periodically with books appearing alphabetically on the date of entry.

I Got Mine: Confessions of a Midlist Writer by Jim Nichols ’62

October 1, 2022

Tags Alumni Book

(Albuquerque, N.M.: High Road Books/University of New Mexico Press, 2022).
From the publisher: “I Got Mine: Confessions of a Midlist Writer is the memoir of Nichols’ extraordinary life, as seen through the lens of his writing. Everything that went into making him a writer and eventually found an outlet in his work — his education, family, wives, children, friends, enemies, politics, and place — is told from the point of view of his daily practice of writing. Beginning with his first novel, The Sterile Cuckoo, published in 1965 when he was just 24, Nichols shares his highs and lows: his ambivalent relationship with money; his growing disenchantment with the hypocrisy of capitalism; and his love-hate relationship with Hollywood — including the years-long struggle of working with director Robert Redford on the film version of The Milagro Beanfield War, which was filmed around Truchas and featured many of Nichols’ northern New Mexico neighbors. Throughout I Got Mine Nichols spins a shining thread connecting his lifelong engagement with progressive political causes, his passionate interest in and identification with ordinary people, and his deep connection to the land.”