Just About Done With My Revision of Personal Tragedies

Just About Done With My Revision of Personal Tragedies

I mentioned some weeks back that a university press had approached me about another book, and expressed a willingness to look at a scholarly history of deinstitutionalization--so I had to rip out the sections of Personal Tragedies that gave the book human interest. In the process, I have been doing a bit more research, and in some cases, significantly improving the book. In a number of cases, I was able to find primary sources where I had been relying on secondary sources before, and fixed a few errors that I would like to think were entirely in the secondary sources, but who knows? I might have contributed my own errors to the process. I also made the same changes and improvements to Personal Tragedies, in case I find a publisher that wants a mass market book instead.

I just finished reading the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health, Action for Mental Health (1961), the report that started Congress down the road to encouraging deinstitutionalization. I'm letting the manuscript cool for a couple of days, then I will give it one more read through before submitting it to the publisher.

UPDATE: I don't want to give the wrong impression that I have been sitting around, doing nothing (which you might think from the lack of blogging the last few days). I've also written a 9000 word introduction to machining (sort of a Machine Tools for Dummies) which I am hoping to sell; found some more eye candy for an article about the transformation of the gun industry 1790-1820; and wrote an 1800 word article about gunmaking as a family business in early America. (If I don't have a job, I can try and make up for the revenue deficit with more articles.)

While writing that last one, I was able to verify something that I have long suspected. There is a Daniel Nash who is mentioned in 1699 court records from western Massachusetts. A stolen gun was found in his blacksmithing shop; Nash was apparently asked to repair the gun, and does not appear to have been criminally involved. I have long suspected that he was probably related to Thomas Nash, the New Haven colonial armor, gunsmith, and one of my ancestors. My suspicions were based on the last name, the proximity of Daniel Nash's shop to Connecticut, and that Daniel Nash was asked to repair a gun--suggesting that Daniel had some involvement in gunsmithing as well as blacksmithing.

I was able to find confirmation that Daniel Nash was the son of Timothy Nash, youngest son of Thomas Nash. All three of Thomas Nash's sons (John, Joseph, and Timothy) were apparently trained as gunsmiths, but at least Timothy and Daniel put their primary focus on blacksmithing, with gunsmithing as more of a sideline activity. (In small towns, getting too specialized would mean that you wouldn't be employed full-time.)