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Many people know author Robert James Waller for his knowledge (and authorship) of The Bridges of Madison County. But how many know that more than 20 years before the publication of that best-selling book, he distinguished himself by earning a doctorate at the Indiana University School of Business?
Last weekend, Waller returned to the Bloomington campus to participate in the 50th anniversary celebration of the IU School of Business' doctoral programs. He presented a reading Saturday (Sept. 20), at a breakfast for alumni, faculty and current doctoral students.
"What we were trying to do was come up with a mix of events for this conference that would include both academically oriented events and social events," said Janet Near, chair of doctoral programs for the school. "Actually, Waller has been a professor in the past and he planned on talking about alternative careers for professors as part of the reading.
"He's had a career as a musician, a professor and, of course, a writer, so I think he's got a unique perspective on this," Near added.
Two decades before writing his best-selling books such as Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend and Border Music, Waller completed work in 1968 on a dissertation about "American Guitar Manufacturing: Oligopoly and the Economics of a Craft Industry."
After receiving his doctorate in management from IU, the Iowa native went on to teach and become a dean at the University of Northern Iowa. He left the school after the publication of The Bridges of Madison County.
"It's not particularly surprising that he would write the kind of books he does, which focus on human relationships, because that's what management professors study," Near observed. "Usually they focus on relationships in the workplace. For him to extend that and to look at relationships outside the workplace, as his novels do, seems to me not to be a stretch at all.
"Another thing we need to remember is that academics do spend a lot of their time writing. It may not be the best prose always, but that's because our writing is forced into a particular style. Some faculty members might be very effective fiction writers if given the chance to use a different style."
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