For the fourth time, Harry Levins of the Post-Dispatch has filed a thoughtful review of one of my books. “Jim Merkel has established himself as a popular historian of St. Louis, with fun-to-read books about the South Side, the city’s German-Americans and the people behind the Gateway Arch,” he writes in a piece in Sunday’s Post-Dispatch book section, along with stltoday.com. Now, with ‘The Colorful Characters of St. Louis,’ Merkel gives readers brief profiles of 80 of this city’s more interesting people (including himself).”
The generally complimentary article includes a couple of criticisms, which one should expect from a critic. One was that I featured way too few women. It’s a problem I’ve had with all of my books. Until fairly recently, men dominated everything. Women didn’t stand out. People didn’t write much about them. It was hard to find women to write about. But, yes, I could have done better.
The review contains one error: it says I’ll give a program about the book at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Buder Branch of the St. Louis Public Library, 4401 Hampton Ave. It’s on Thursday.
Jim Merkel the Writer 