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Welcome to the new New Books Network. Hello, everyone. I am C.P. leslie, the host of New Books in Historical Fiction, a podcast channel on the New Books Network. Today I'm speaking with April Howells about her debut novel, the Unforgettable Mailman. When April's publicist first proposed this book, my initial reaction was that the 1960s were too recent to qualify as history. But reading this novel indeed feels like a dip into a world so different from the present that it couldn't be anything but historical fiction. No email, no texting, no Federal Express or UPS or even zip codes. Everything depended on the US Postal Service, as we'll see. But the story begins with Henry. Thursday, October 13, 1966, 10:03am A note on the counter prompted Henry to shave every day. Another told him in faded ink that he should not under any circumstances, try to use the iron, and one scrawled on the back of an old paper bag screamed, connection is critical to keep your mind sharp. None of them explained where he put the stamps. The letter to his son languished on the kitchen table, its bare corner a constant reminder of the missing postage. Leaning his cane against the wall, he tugged at the middle drawer. A squeal filled the room, expanded wood groaning at the disturbance, shoving items out of the way, rusting scissors, loose matches, three rubber bands. He searched for the roll at the bottom. A fork stared up at him out of place. There were no stamps. And now please join me in welcoming April Howells. Hi April. Thank you for agreeing to talk with me today.
- [02:17]
B
Hi, Carolyn. Thank you for having me. I'm delighted to be here.
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A
How did you get started writing fiction?
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B
Well, I've always been a very voracious reader. My parents like to joke that by, like the age of three, I was reading them the bedtime stories. And I was definitely always a storyteller. I dictated the narrative of play and what McDonald's said and who was who for dress up. But I wasn't really a writer growing up. My biggest creative outlet throughout my teens and early twenties was art and painting. And it wasn't until my mid twenties or so that I really started to think about writing fiction. I had started my career in communications and was still really avid reader when I joined Lululemon in 2015. The company has a purpose, vision and goals program that is really intended to help employees see what's possible for their life and set big goals and go after them. And so I set the goal to write a novel with the hopes of one day being published. And in 2015, I started writing the Unforgettable Mailman. And it's actually the first book I've ever written.
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A
It's a wonderful book, by the way. I really enjoyed it. So I'm so glad that you made that your goal.
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B
Thank you.
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A
So what attracted you to that story, the one that became the Unforgettable Mailman?
- [03:44]
B
I can remember reading a news article and it was like 10 postal facts from around the world. And one of the facts was the 1966 Chicago Post Office crisis, which I know we'll get to, but it included a quote from the postmaster general at the time that said the stacks of mail formed small gray mountain ranges waiting to be shipped out. And I just remember reading that, and I could picture it so vividly in my mind, and I knew there was a story in there and one that I hadn't read before, which excited me.
- [04:23]
A
So, yes, do talk about the shutdown at the Chicago Post office, because that's the inciting incident for your story. And it actually she did occur in 1966. How did you. Oh, you just told us how you found out about it. So could you summarize the historical event for our listeners?
- [04:38]
B
Of course. So throughout the 1800s, Chicago really became a critical hub for mail going east to west. And at the turn of the last century, in the early 1900s, the plan of Chicago outlined a vision for the city that really intended to overhaul both the functionality and the beauty of. Of Chicago. And what's now known as the old Chicago Post office was a building that was really central to that vision. And so construction on the building started in 1921, and by the time it was completed in 1934, it spanned more than 2 million interior square feet and was the largest post office in the entire world. Now, it was very grand in design and beautiful and art deco, but it really relied on outdated systems. And if we jump ahead a couple decades, the post war economy saw an explosion in mail. And not just people sending letters. This was the rise of magazines and circulars and catalogs. And so mail ordering really became prevalent how you and I might shop online nowadays. In 1966, you would receive a catalog to your home, and you would pick out what you wanted, and then you would fill out a little postcard with your money order and mail that back. And then your items would arrive. And so not only were people writing letters, there was this really big boom in pieces of mail, like magazines and mail orders and ordering. And between 1940 and 1960, the amount of mail sent in the United States more than doubled, from 28 billion pieces of mail sent per year to more than 64 billion pieces of mail. And by 1966, this big, beautiful Chicago post office could not keep up anymore. They were 10 million pieces of mail backlogged, and the post office shut down for three weeks to deal with that. And at the same time, as an undercurrent to all of this, we had the civil rights movement. And by 66, the United States Postal Service was the single largest employer of black Americans in the entire country. But morale was really low, and a letter carrier had to work for more than 21 years before they ever saw a cent of a pay raise, which MEANT More than 80% of employees left their job in the same pay grade that when they started. And so we had an absolute explosion of the amount of mail sent, a very unhappy employee base, and a really failing bureaucratic establishment, which led to a very rich backstory for the novel.
- [07:44]
A
Indeed it does. Henry Walton is the heart of the story. And as we discover right from the beginning, he has certain mental and physical challenges. Where is he in his life at this moment? And how would you characterize him?
- [07:58]
B
Yeah, Henry is. He is 81 years old. He is suffering from early signs of dementia and memory loss, but he does not let that stop him. He's wonderfully stubborn and determined and quirky, and he really is caring. He. He wants to help others. And I hope that he's someone you can't help but root for. From page one, I. When I started the novel, older male protagonists were really in the zeitgeist. There was the era of the hundred year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared, the unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry, a man called Ove. And so I always knew that we would have an older male protagonist. And that is where Henry came from.
- [08:50]
A
His family history is complicated, by which I mean, it's difficult to talk about without giving away any spoilers, but could you say a little bit about his family as it's presented in chapter one? Of course.
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B
So we learn really early that Henry has a wife Elsie and a son, William. And Elsie is kind of the life for the party, whereas Henry prefers quiet and structure. Elsie really is the type of woman who will invite you over for dinner and then burn what she's making because she hasn't stopped talking. She is someone that really wants to celebrate the small moments of life and, and really care for others and make people feel special. And William, Henry's son, is full of pride and honor. He is the type of young man who wants to include everyone in the game. He will defend others, he will fight for what's right. He's a little bit like his father, I would say.
- [09:49]
A
Yes, yes, he does come across very similar. Henry also has friends who look out for him. In particular Stan and Stan's wife Flora. What should listeners know about them?
- [10:00]
B
So very early on in drafting, I had multiple points of view. I really loved reading multi POV novels and it came really naturally to me to write that way and what I intended with Stan and Flora. Because Henry at times is an unreliable narrator with his memory, I really wanted Stan and Flora to reflect back to the readers some of the parts of Henry's character and his history and his life that we might not otherwise get from him. So Stan is his closest friend, his closest connection to the post office, and really like his worried guy sidekick. Throughout, there is an undercurrent of trepidation with Stan. He tries to talk Henry out of things. There is no talking Henry out of things. But he really stays by his side in different ways throughout the novel to provide a bit of. A bit of the support that Henry needs. And then Flora is like our wise mentor. She is spiritual, she studies astrology and believes in symbolism. And she really is this steadiness throughout the story and really making it feel to the reader and to Henry like everything will be okay.
- [11:23]
A
So we know from the first few paragraphs that Henry is out of stamps. But why does he decide it's his job to deliver people's mail now that the post office is closed?
- [11:34]
B
So Henry's. Henry's memory loss was really informed by my own experiences with my grandmothers and my mother in law suffering from dementia. And I can remember early on in my mother in law, Joyce's diagnosis, having a conversation with her. We were sitting on the bed and she turned to look at me and she said, april, I can tell something is wrong. I know something's happening in my brain, but I can't explain it. I can't understand it. And it was this knowing that really helped shape that aspect of Henry's character. He knows something is a bit off. He. He can understand that his thoughts are a bit fragmented. He can't quite grasp them. He might have a memory, but he can't bring it to the tip of his tongue to speak it. Things feel more like remnants of emotions than really crisp facts for him at times. And so with this, he really knows that human connection is incredibly important, but he also feels really strongly about holding onto the memories that he has. And so Henry has letters that Elsie sent him when he was at the front in World War I. He has letters from when William was growing up, and. And to him, they're really these tiny time capsules, essentially, that he never wants to lose. And so he feels really strongly that. That others should also receive the letters that are meant for them. And I think it's important. He's not banging down the door of the post office to volunteer to help sort the backlog. He's not chaining himself to the conveyor belt at all. He really feels strongly that he needs to hand deliver them to the people that they were meant for.
- [13:29]
A
And he does, literally. And, I mean, he won't even put them in a mailbox, which we'll get to later. But it's a really lovely element of the story still. He is, as you've noted, 80. And so he's obviously not working in the post office at this moment. So how does he actually get hold of the mail to deliver?
- [13:46]
B
Well, I'm not going to count this a spoiler because it does happen so early in the story, but he stages a heist, which might just be my favorite part of the whole story. It was so fun to send Henry off on this unlikely caper, not just because I got to put him in that environment and he could see the sheer volume of the crisis and understand it, but also because we got to see an octogenarian with a cane up against a failing bureaucratic establishment and see what would happen.
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A
Yes, it was one of my favorite parts of the story, too. Although I do love the deliveries of the letters, which we will also get to at least general terms later on. Before we follow Henry out on the road, let's talk about the novel's other central character, Roger. What's his story and why did you decide to include him?
- [14:36]
B
Roger is a bit of a lost soul. He's 17 years old and he's neurodiverse, and he's the type of kid that gets his work done before everyone else. So then he wants to talk, he wants to help others or tell stories. And this Distraction gets him sent to the back of the room to build radios on a regular basis. Which fun fact is actually pulled from my uncle's life. He was growing up in the 60s and he was smart enough to get his work done before everyone else and always got sent to the back of the room to build radios. And. But for Roger, his dad left when he was young and his closest friend has recently moved away. And so he just wants to get through life. He's kind of on autopilot. He doesn't care about making memories or really doing much of anything. And his mom is really at her wits end. She wants him to go out there and live, and she believes he needs a male role model. So she contacts his father and basically demands that Roger's coming to see him and sends Roger on this journey that he really doesn't want to go on. And so his character really serves as a contrast to Henry, who would give anything to have, like, the crisp edges of his life and memories back. And the intergenerational friendship has always been really a special part of the story to me because I, I got to explore how people at different stages of their life can create these connections and these bonds and what they can learn from each other and teach each other really unknowingly. This summer, Prime Video takes you back before Legally Blonde, before law school, and into the world of Elle woods in high school. Set in 1995, this Gemini vegetarian knows exactly who who she is until her family moves from Bel Air to Seattle. Packed with iconic fashion, 90s nostalgia and a throwback soundtrack, Elle proves one law school was hard. High school was harder. From the world of Legally Blonde, watch Elle, a new original series only on prime video. Watch now.
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A
Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile.
- [16:59]
B
Now.
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A
I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of 45 for 3 months, $90 for 6 months or $180 or 12 month plan required. $15 per month. Equivalent taxes and fees. Extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes.
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B
Me slow when network is busy.
- [17:27]
A
See terms. Yes, I think that's a very good way to summarize their relationship. For the post office side of the story, we have Stokes and Brenda. They disagree how to proceed, but they also have a certain level of conflict just because they're Boston secretary and it's the 1960s. So let's start with Stokes, although frankly, I find Brenda more interesting. But tell us about him, what he wants and how he plans to handle the problems he faces, starting with Henry.
- [17:54]
B
Yeah. So with Stokes and Brenda, the other thing I really wanted to do was to keep the points of view from the post office throughout the story. I found the crisis so fascinating and I didn't want to lose that storyline as we also followed Henry on his journey. Because as I thought about the Crisis, I mean, 10 million letters backlogged does not just happen overnight. There would have been employees sending red flags up to. To management, like our staff are quitting or we don't have enough people to shift this much mail and the, the chutes are jammed or the trains have stopped running. And so I could just imagine all of these red flags being sent up to management and then what type of management perhaps doesn't pay attention to them and ignores them. And so Stokes really is the boss that no one wants. He has risen to upper management not by skill or ability, but because he is a man who thinks he knows best. And I feel like we maybe all know a Stokes, but his idea of dealing with the problem is to ignore it. He wants to just sweep things under the rug and bury his head and not pay any attention to things. When it gets out in the newspapers and reported that the post office is shut down, he just wants citizens to know it's fine, it'll sort itself out, don't worry. And so when he learns that someone has broken into the post office, he fixates on that. It like, Forget about the 10 million pieces of mail clogging up my facility. He wants to know who broke the window. And that's really what he cares about, is fixating on that and not really wanting to deal with the bigger problem that, that he perhaps has been part of causing.
- [19:50]
A
And that's also in part because it gets him bad publicity that somebody. Because they don't know who it is. And so it makes him look bad as well. I mean, when they find out about the 10 million messages, it also makes him look bad, but he may not see it quite that way. So tell us now about Brenda, who has very different ideas, but also, I would say, is not terribly impressed with Stokes.
- [20:16]
B
Yeah, I mean, Brenda is of course smarter than her boss and she really knows that nothing is going to get done by him. So she works to take matters into her own hands, trying to call in people who can help Fix the backlog and trying to make a plan. She also is intelligent enough to realize that at times she needs to just float ideas by Stokes so that he can claim them as his own or suggest one thing, knowing he is going to go in the opposite direction, which perhaps is what she was hoping for all along. And I think it's important to note that Brenda's goal throughout the story doesn't change, and it's really to move through the backlog and get the building reopened and working again. And so I can't promise that she always gets things right or maybe does things the right way, but she does really stay committed, committed to that goal. And their boss secretary dynamic was fun to explore and definitely added lots of tension to scenes.
- [21:22]
A
Yes, it definitely does. So despite everything, the difficulty of the mission, the opposition from Brendan Stokes, his physical and mental infirmities, Henry does get his mail and begin to deliver it. And one of the things I particularly liked about this book is that we get to see first the recipients of the letters as Henry contacts them and talks to them, and then the letters themselves. So just as a structural thing, what made you decide to write the story that way?
- [21:50]
B
The letters have really always been included right from the first draft. If first I had the crisis as the setting and then I had Henry, then really quickly, third, I had the idea for the letters. And I think perhaps the best way to describe it is the notion of sonder, which is a. Is a word coined by writer John Koenig and is defined as the realization that every passerby, every stranger you pass is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. And that notion, that sonder, honestly, it hits me on a regular basis. I will be in the grocery store, in line, and I'll just look around and think, oh, my gosh, these people I've never seen before have have their own really full lives with joy and pain and triumph. And. And I'm just like a little blip passing them in the grocery store. And really what I wanted to show with these letters, I mean, they're little capsules of humanity and little glimpses into the. Into people's lives. And so to be able to send Henry L. And have him deliver them and then also give the reader a glimpse into them was what I wanted to capture this idea. And so some of them are mundane. They are. Hi. I like this dress. I'm going to order it. Do you want one, too? Like the way that we would text now, in 1966, people wrote letters like that. If you didn't want something to be heard on the party line, you would send a letter. So it could be as simple as, do you want to come over for dinner on Friday? And then you would get a letter back in response. And so some of them are. Are more mundane and some of them are. Are more serious. They. They're hurtful or filled with anger or sadness or forgiveness. And I really just wanted to show all of the little aspects of. Of life through them. And I do have to admit some of them are true. There is a letter of a young girl that pulls a fire alarm. And I have to admit that I am that young girl. I think I was five and my older sister was at a swimming class in the middle of winter and it was the early 90s, so I was free to roam the building. And I remember seeing a red lever by the front door that said pull. And I could read, but I probably couldn't read the. The small in case of emergency fine print. And I pulled it and all of the swimmers had to go stand outside in the cold while the fire department came. So it was really fun to mine my own life and my own experiences for some of these stories.
- [24:50]
A
Well, they are wonderful and they do contribute a great deal to the book as a whole. I don't know how much farther we can go into the story without giving away too much, although just if there are other characters or incidents that you'd like listeners to know about, do please share them now.
- [25:08]
B
I don't want to give too many spoilers. I do think what I would just say is that being historically accurate was really important to me. I mean, we both think 1966 could not feel like historical fiction, but it did, did feel like a different time. And writing it that way and making sure that all of the aspects from how people, how they spoke to what they wore to some of the less desirable parts of the era that maybe come in with Stokes in the misogyny and the racism was really important to me. But there's a nostalgia to the story that I hope comes through with and authenticity to that decade.
- [25:53]
A
Well, yes, I'm obviously quite a bit older than you because I was in Chicago in 1966, although I did not remember the post office closing. I was. I guess I was young enough that I didn't really pay attention to it at the time. I know it sounds kind of silly, but I will never look at a zip code the same way again. I. There must have been years when I was in Chicago when there were no zip codes. But, you know, now they're so standard. It's just like, I mean, the big questions are, are the post office going to survive? And stuff like that?
- [26:23]
B
Yeah, well, the history of zip codes I found so fascinating. I don't think I can ever read the word or the acronym zip without hearing zone improvement plan ever again. But they really, I. What I found fascinating in my research was that they really got their start in World War II when all of the seasoned letter carriers who knew their roots like so intimately were sent and were conscripted to the war. And so they were, their roles were filled with less seasoned letter carriers. And an envelope might just say back then something like Mr. Pine's purple house, which is a book, my favorite book from childhood. But Mr. Pine's purple house. And the letter carrier would have to be like, I don't know where that is. Whereas the seasoned letter carrier would have known, oh, it's on Oak street, down the alley. And so during the war, the post office in, in large cities started using one number, zip codes to help denote different areas of town so that the person sorting the mail would know, okay, yeah, Mr. Pine's purple house is on Oak street in the west end and not the north end. And then when the new Postmaster general joined in 1961, he had heard about the idea to add numbers to the front of letters to help sorting. And he thought that that was a brilliant idea, not only because it would help the sorting, but also because computers have a much easier time reading numbers. And with, with the rise in technology, he could see the benefit that would have. And so the five digit postal codes were established in 1963, but they didn't really take off at all because no one wanted to memorize and use a new five digit number on their letters. And so the post office created a campaign using a cartoon character, Mr. Zip, who actually was drawn by the son of a letter carrier. And Mr. Zip then was everywhere throughout the 60s and 70s and even reintroduced in the 80s when they moved to nine digit zip codes. And really as a way to remind people to start using them. And now they're everywhere. There's like single buildings that have their own zip codes and boats that have zip codes. It's fascinating.
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A
It is fascinating. What would you like people to take away from the unforgettable mailman?
- [28:55]
B
I think perhaps two things. I think one, the, this idea of, of connection and how important it is, and, and whether or not we're inspired to write handwritten notes or simply use the technology that is so prevalent now, but the idea that staying connected to one another is more important than ever and and I hope we never lose that. And then also a little bit like it's never too late. It's never too late to do anything or have an adventure. Even if you are like Henry and have to use a can. There's always something out there that's possible for life and I hope we remember to keep making memories, even if we might forget them.
- [29:44]
A
This book came out a couple of months ago. Are you already working on something new? I am.
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B
I can't say too much about it, but I will share that it is inspired by the countless women who have had their work misattributed to men for centuries and it really feels like a love letter to art and friendship and leaving a legacy.
- [30:08]
A
Well, I wish you the best of success with it and thank you so much for sharing your time with us today. April. I've really enjoyed talking with you.
- [30:15]
B
Thank you so much. I loved being here and thank you
- [30:18]
A
for listening to our podcast once again. I'm C.P. leslie, the host of New Books and Historical Fiction, a podcast channel on the New Books Network, and today I've been talking with April Howells about the Unforgettable Mailman. Find out more about her and her book@AprilHowells.com like us on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok UBooks Network. You can find out more about me and my books@cpleslie.com, where I blog about the interviews and in general discuss history, historical fiction, and the rapidly changing publishing industry. Goodbye until my next conversation about historical fiction on the New Books Network.
- [30:55]
B
Thank you for listening to this episode of the New Books Network. We are an academic podcast network with the mission of public education. If you liked this episode, please share it with a friend and rate us on your preferred podcast platform. You can browse all of our episodes on our website newbooksnetwork.com Connect with us on Instagram and BlueSky with the handle ew booksnetwork and subscribe to our weekly Substack newsletter at newbooksnetwork.substack.com to get episode recommendations straight to your inbox.