Buzzy Jackson is the award-winning author of three nonfiction books and the novel “To Die Beautiful.” Jackson grew up in an extended family of writers in Truckee, California, and Missoula, Montana and now lives in Boulder, Colorado. She has a Ph.D. in History from UC Berkeley and is a member of the National Book Critics’ Circle. She is currently at work on a new novel inspired by a midcentury American true crime.
Her book “To Die Beautiful” won the 2024 Colorado Book Award for Historical Fiction.
SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory. What inspired you to write it? Where did the story/theme originate?
Buzzy Jackson: Around Christmas 2016 I was fortunate to take a trip to Amsterdam. I had visited before and this time I wanted to see something new, so a friend suggested the Verzetsmuseum: the Museum of Resistance.
Walking through the front doors we passed a bullet-scarred bust of Adolf Hitler, used for target practice by resistance fighters. And a few steps later, I saw a small glass display case with a photograph of a young woman within. I looked closer.
Inside were a pair of round, wire-rimmed glasses, a battered pistol, and a photo of a young, auburn-haired woman in a skirt, blouse, and sensible shoes, with a defiant look on her face. This was Hannie Schaft.
Because she looked so mild and sweet, it was a shock to learn that Hannie and two other teenage girls, sisters Truus and Freddie Oversteegen, were among the few women to take up arms in the Dutch Resistance; the gun on display was Hannie’s own. Between the three of them they were responsible for dozens of violent actions, including weapons transports, sabotage, and bombings. Hannie in particular was infamous for her assassinations of Nazi officials and her reputation eventually spread all the way to Berlin, where Adolf Hitler ordered that “the Girl with Red Hair,” as she was known, be captured and killed. Somehow, in the midst of all this, Hannie also risked her life to shelter two of her best friends and fellow law students, Sonja and Philine, who were Jewish, in her own home.
UNDERWRITTEN BY
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I wanted to read Hannie’s biography but was surprised to discover that no such book in English existed. Even the books in Dutch were decades old. But, as a trained historian, I knew I had the skills to investigate Hannie’s life and times. So, when I returned to Colorado in January 2017, I began work on this challenging new project.
SunLit: Place this excerpt in context. How does it fit into the book as a whole? Why did you select it?
Jackson: This excerpt, from Chapter 6, comes from a point in Hannie’s life when she is finally beginning to realize just how bad things are getting for Jews – and everyone – in the Netherlands by 1943. Unlike many other Nazi-occupied countries, the Germans implemented their antisemitic policies slowly, over years, so as not to alarm the general public. At this moment, Hannie is starting to understand just how well that strategy has worked.
SunLit: Tell us about creating this book. What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write?
Jackson: I began work on this book (starting with the research), in early 2017, with the intention of writing a nonfiction biography of Hannie Schaft – not a historical novel. But over time I realized that going the fiction route would allow for a better experience for the reader, and it was important to me that this be a book people would actually enjoy reading, as opposed to a bunch of history homework.
SunLit: Are there lessons you take away from each experience of writing a book? And if so, what did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter?
Jackson: Although I studied history in school, World War II was a big blind spot for me. I had to overcome a fear of my own ignorance to take this project on; for starters, I don’t speak Dutch and needed to do a lot of research in Dutch archives. Fortunately, I had the help of Dutch friends. In the end, I learned so much about WWII that the marketing algorithms now think I’m a military veteran (I’m not). But I loved doing that research!
SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book?
Jackson: Because “To Die Beautiful” is based on the lives of real people, some of whom were still alive when I began my research, I felt a serious responsibility to portray these people as accurately and sensitively as possible. I tried to stay as close to the documented facts of events as possible, which wasn’t too hard to do because the true story is more dramatic than any novel could be. I’m very grateful to the families of some of the characters, who supported this book from the beginning.
SunLit: If you could pick just one thing – a theme, lesson, emotion or realization — that readers would take from this book, what would that be?
Jackson: I think what I learned is that no act of kindness or compassion is ever wasted. In learning about the Dutch Resistance, I saw the way in which even the smallest actions – for example, choosing not to report a household where Jews were hiding – were such an important part of achieving the greater goal.
“To Die Beautiful”
Where to find it:
- Prospector: Search the combined catalogs of 23 Colorado libraries
- Libby: E-books and audio books
- NewPages Guide: List of Colorado independent bookstores
- Bookshop.org: Searchable database of bookstores nationwide
SunLit present new excerpts from some of the best Colorado authors that not only spin engaging narratives but also illuminate who we are as a community. Read more.
SunLit: In a highly politicized atmosphere where books, and people’s access to them, has become increasingly contentious, what would you add to the conversation about books, libraries and generally the availability of literature in the public sphere?
Jackson: People who ban books tend to do so because the author’s viewpoint doesn’t conform to their own. Since freedom of expression is a legal right in the U.S., what’s a book banner to do? Easy: Write your own book, with your own point of view, and give your ideas the opportunity to find readers who agree with you. Then please leave the rest of us, and our books, alone… we have a lot of reading to do.
SunLit: Walk us through your writing process: Where and how do you write?
Jackson: I write at home at a desk in my office, with lots of sticky notes everywhere reminding me of details I want to include or a good potential character detail. On the bookshelf to my right is a collection of my all-time favorite books, which keep me inspired. I have carefully positioned the bird feeder so I can see the chickadees while I work. My loyal dog Ralph is usually sleeping somewhere near my feet.
SunLit: How does a teenaged girl known only for her shyness transform, in the space of a few years, into a gun-toting, feared assassin? And what will that do to her?
A: It took me so long to answer this question that I ended up writing a whole book about it. 🙂
Just a few more quick questions
SunLit: Do you look forward to the actual work of writing or is it a chore that you dread but must do to achieve good things?
Jackson: Ninety-five percent of the time I love it. The other 5% I’ll do if there’s a firm deadline.
SunLit: What’s the first piece of writing – at any age – that you remember being proud of?
Jackson: Probably a high school report I did on the New Journalism of Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, Joan Didion, etc. I was so inspired by the writers that I really poured my heart into the writing assignment, probably for the first time.
SunLit: When you look back at your early professional writing, how do you feel about it? Impressed? Embarrassed? Satisfied? Wish you could have a do-over?
Jackson: As various creative people have said over the years, an artistic project is never finished, it is just abandoned. I think that’s true… there’s always room to make it better, but at some point you have to let go. I try to stay in a zone of neutral-to-mild pride when it comes to my own work. Mostly I’m proud to have completed them.
SunLit: What three writers, from any era, can you imagine having over for a great discussion about literature and writing? And why?
Jackson: Dorothy Parker, Shirley Jackson, and Eve Babitz – we would drink a million martinis and tell jokes all night.
SunLit: Do you have a favorite quote about writing?
Jackson: “The universe is made of stories, not of atoms. – Muriel Rukeyser, from her poem, “The Speed of Darkness.”
SunLit: What does the current collection of books on your home shelves tell visitors about you?
Jackson: That I read a lot more science books than you may have expected.
SunLit: Soundtrack or silence? What’s the audio background that helps you write?
Jackson: Sometimes I need silence, but usually I like to hear something beautiful and instrumental in the background, often pianist Bill Evans, the soundtracks of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, or the Oscar Peterson Trio.
SunLit: What event, and at what age, convinced you that you wanted to be a writer?
Jackson: I spent 25 years denying I wanted to be a writer before I finally got the courage to admit it to myself. So I think I always knew.
SunLit: As an author, what’s your greatest fear?
Jackson: An excess of group activities.
SunLit: Greatest satisfaction?
Jackson: Reading an incredible book (by someone else).