I’m Daniel A. Sheridan. I was born in New York City in 1965. I studied photojournalism and the history of photography at New York University while working as a darkroom technician. I developed black and white film until the age of pixels, digital cameras, and Adobe Photoshop. Later, I was the editor and photographer at Low-RANGE® magazine, an off-road publication. Visit: www.low-range.com.
After reading about Pip’s Great Expectations by Charles Dickens in the sixth grade, I knew that one day, I should like to be a writer. As a young student, I was rather shy and quiet, but when I put pen to paper, the teacher would often read my composition aloud to the class. Hearing my classmates laugh, react, and enjoy hearing one of my stories, was very rewarding. To be read aloud in class was quite an honor for me. It was like being published. This happened to me in high school and college.
Unfortunately, I am an old-fashioned curmudgeon who prefers to write out in longhand. I think through the pincer grasp of my pen in hand down to the ball-point of the black ink on the page. For some reason, I cannot think or write using ten digits on a typewriter or keyboard. I then type up my silly scribbles with numerous cross-outs and blots of black ink revisions to a neatly typed page. I then red-line edit the draft to keep track of changes as I often go back to the original draft. I realize this is the most cumbersome, inefficient, and time-consuming way to write, so I would strongly advise against writing out in longhand.
Writing a book like Tim was a magical, almost child-like game of pretend — just me and my imagination — where I created fanciful places from long ago with characters who just seemed to appear out of nowhere. It was much like playing the game, Dungeons and Dragons. For instance, I needed a character to work in the mercurial room developing daguerreotypes for Mr. Brady. I then came up with the name of Mr. Pettifog and made him “mad as the hatter” in Alice in Wonderland. With all my years of research into 1850 New York, I found old street maps, old newspaper articles, old photographs, and old lithographs. I am not sure which aspect I enjoyed the most – the research or the writing.
Don’t be like me. Write! I spent way too many years dreaming I would someday be a writer in a seaside cottage like Eugene O’Neill. That day never happened. Back in 1990, while riding the subway to my job as a darkroom technician, I read an author interview with George V. Higgins in The Boston Globe. He gave some blunt, brutally honest advice which has stuck with me all these years. “No one asked you to write. And no one will care if you stop. And if you succeed, no one will notice. It’s a rough, heartless business.” Then he offered a little caveat, “If you do not seek to publish what you have written, then you are not a writer and never will be.”
I’m working on Saving Private Sheridan, a memoir about my Father, a World War II veteran with the 90th Infantry Division. It’s a mix of Forrest Gump and Saving Private Ryan. My Father was wounded on July 13, 1944 in Normandy helping to liberate France. He was again wounded on December 13, 1944 in Germany. The 90th Division liberated the Flossenbürg concentration camp on April 23, 1945. The War ended on his birthday. I hope to finish this book in time for his 100th birthday on May 9th which is the same day the War in Europe ended. V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day) happened on May 9, 1945. Visit: www.SavingPrivateSheridan.com
I first learned about Timothy H. O'Sullivan while studying the history of photography at New York University in the spring of 1989. I became curious about this photographer who apprenticed for Mathew B. Brady and inspired Ansel Adams with his large-format, view camera. New York University is an important place in the history of photography. This is where Brady's mentor, Samuel Morse, experimented with the new discovery he recently brought back from Paris — the Daguerreotype. One day after class, I stood on the corner of Broadway and Tenth, the former location of one of Brady’s Studios. Looking at Grace Church, I thought about O'Sullivan and his photographs. I then decided to write a book about O'Sullivan as a young apprentice at Mathew Brady's studio and the title would be Tim...
I used to play drums in a band called The Immigrants with my brother, Bill Sheridan, on guitar and lead vocals. We were an underground band out of Boston that received favorable reviews in the music press and had our songs played on college radio. I helped my brother with writing lyrics and arranging the songs. Visit: www.theimmigrants.com
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