Addeo Discusses Leadbelly Book in Tiburon

The subjects of science fiction writer Ray Bradbury and blues legend Leadbelly don’t pop up in many of the same conversations.

That is until you chat with Mill Valley writer Ed Addeo, who received some early career advice from Bradbury at a science fiction convention that led him and writing partner Dick Garvin to tackle a book project about Leadbelly more than four decades ago. That book, The Midnight Special, drew some rave reviews and media attention at the time but died an early death when the book’s publisher went out of business.

Addeo has revived The Midnight Special with a new edition through self-publishing service AuthorHouse and is speaking about the book Tuesday night at the Belvedere-Tiburon Library at 7:30 p.m.

We spoke with Addeo about the book and his long career in writing and journalism, including a stint as executive editor of the Marinscope newspapers in Marin. Addeo said he was recently fired as the “Four Dots” columnist at Marinscope several months ago after he made a less-than-savory reference to the wine served at San Rafael Joe’s.

Mill Valley Patch: You and Dick had written a pair of science fiction novels when you met Ray Bradbury at a convention in Berkeley. What was it that he told that made you shift gears to the life of Leadbelly?

Ed Addeo: He just said, ‘You should do something different. Do something important.’ Coming from Ray Bradbury, that meant a lot. On the way home, Dick was telling me about Leadbelly (real name Huddie Ledbetter) and how violent he life. He had been sentenced to life imprisonment in both Texas and Louisiana, and both times he sang for the governor and got a pardon. That says something about the guy. He lived a very violent and tragic life. He was a victim of his own temper but also of the racial injustice in the south at that time.

MVP: How did you dive into his life?

EA: We spent six months driving around and researching him. The racial prejudice in the south at the time we did the research in 1968 was palpable.

MVP: The book came out and received a positive review from the New York Times but, as you described it, was “still born” because the publisher went under. What made you want to revive it more than 40 years later?

EA: People have been nagging me over the years to re-publish it and while I couldn’t find a legitimate publisher to publish a new edition of it, with the advent of digital publishing, I decided it was possible to do myself.

MVP: What are you working on now?

EA: I have a new book coming out called The Woman Who Cured Cancer. Its about this German doctor I ghost wrote a book for 20 years ago. Her name was Dr. Virginia Livingston, and she came up with a number of cancer treatments at that time and had produced a 90 percent cure rate among her patents. She was largely castigated for the things she did back then and she has since died in 1991. But I’ve gone back and researched those treatments and found that many of them are being used today.

The 411: Ed Addeo discusses The Midnight Special ay 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 31, at the Belvedere-Tiburon Library, 1501 Tiburon Blvd. in Tiburon.