My Background Story of "The Detective and Dorothy Day"

I arrived uninvited at the Catholic Worker farm in Tivoli, NY, on March 19, 1974, one week after I turned 20 years old. At dinner there was plentiful meat -- which they good-naturedly told me not to get used to, because it was to mark the feast of St. Joseph. I stayed until late summer, then lived and worked in Manhattan through the winter, returning to Tivoli the following spring. I moved to Missouri the next winter (1975-6), and worked in a lumber yard. Then with three other people whom I'd met at Tivoli, we bought 40 acres of cheap woodland in the Ozarks. I was still clinging to the fantasy we were hippie peaceful revolutionaries. None of us or our descendants still lives on the property (but I think it's in good hands).

I also thought that way in Tivoli. It would have made more sense, given my actual skills and how my career would work out (mostly at newspapers), to have gotten involved with The Catholic Worker paper. But I did farm work instead, and was distracted with new friends and experiences, e.g. falling in love for the first time. Nor did I go to Mass, despite my Catholic upbringing, only returning to the church after I got married at age 30 (to someone I'd met the year before). 

The dedication of my 2026 novel The Detective and Dorothy Day, says: "For old friends from the Catholic Worker, living and dead. Most of whom knew Dorothy Day much better than I did." Dorothy was not at Tivoli a lot when I was there. Her daughter and grandchildren were in Vermont, and she herself lived mostly in New York City. When she was at the farm, I made no effort to hang out with her, thinking it would be a phony thing for me to do. I only recall one brief conversation, about selling out, a fictionalized version of which is in the novel.

It was not included in the book's first draft, written almost 40 years ago, and nor was Dorothy. That was a straight detective novel told in the first person and influenced by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, especially the latter. It was based on my four years as a reporter, labor organizer and leader at The Post-Star in Glens Falls, NY.

Much later, I wrote my first three published books, all focused on the American Civil War. Only one of these was a novel, The Last Circle of Ulysses Grant, which is written from the perspective of multiple historical characters, and is technically more sophisticated than the first-person narrative of The Detective and Dorothy Day.

I rewrote the detective story's 1987 draft, moving it back 12 years to add Dorothy, who gives it needed moral ballast. Among the things I cut were some but not all of the conversations about Grant and the Civil War. What stayed got amended and included in Dorothy's pacifist vision, which partly becomes the detective's. Grant, too, in his way, became a man of peace.

Grant the Writer

 

The image of Grant from the cover of my 2018 novel is derived from a famous photo of him on the porch of the cottage at Mount McGregor, a few weeks before his death. It was taken by an otherwise unidentified person named Howe, who apparently sold the rights to Mark Twain, publisher of Grant's Memoirs. Here it is below (aged into a brownish color): Grant, as you can see, is intently working on the manuscript of the book which Twain would publish. I think it was taken early in the morning, before Julia was up, as she would probably have preferred to see her beloved husband more properly dressed, in suit and top hat, as he appeared in most of his postwar photos including others taken at Mount McGregor. The earliness of the hour, along with the considerable weight loss Grant experienced as his health deteriorated, might also account for why he was so warmly dressed in summer. But the flap on the right side of his face was not so much as to protect against a gust of wind as to conceal the tumor which was rapidly killing him from throat cancer. Grant's book, his first, turned out to be a masterpiece. Not as long as originally planned, it left out his political career. But he got up to the end of the war, and wrote a conclusion.

This Saturday June 13 is Community Day up at the cottage, with various free family events "to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our great nation." I made arrangements to be a vendor selling my four books, but now that they've put me in the Visitor Center next to the gift store, I realize I can't be competing against that store and selling the two books of mine they have. So I'll just put one copy each of the Grant novel and Gordon Granger biography out, directing potential customers to buy them in the room next door. And I'll sell copies of my two other books, the James Montgomery biography and the new historical novel, The Detective and Dorothy Day. You might think the latter has nothing to do with Grant, but that is not the case. There are a couple of conversations about him in it, and also mention of the Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest. There was even more about Grant in the first draft, written almost 40 years ago in the 1980s. But I cut some of it, since the other three books are focused on the Civil War and this one is set a century later, and added the nonviolent radical Catholic activist Dorothy Day. 

Come on up and I'll tell you some stories, maybe of Suye Narita Gambino, who spent most of her long and remarkable life -- as inspiring, in its way, as Grant's -- at the cottage. Her husband Tony gave me and my girlfriend (now wife) Barbara our first tour of the place in 1983, while Suye (as with Barbara's help I figured out years later) was working in the garden. The Gambinos are buried nearby, in Gurn Springs Cemetery on Ballard Road in Wilton.

War and Peace

 

I'll be representing Grant Cottage (ie not selling my own books) at this event tomorrow in the Saratoga Springs Public Library (see this link for details about programs cut off at the bottom of the image).

Then on Sunday May 24 I'll be a tour guide at the cottage, maybe taking in a program by my fellow old-timer Steve Trimm. On June 13, Community Day at the cottage, I will be selling my own books and doing some more volunteering on the side. 

Even though my new historical novel, The Detective and Dorothy Day, is partly about a somewhat famous pacifist, I remain connected to the community of local historians and people interested in the American Civil War, which was the main subject of my first three books.

And I remain formed by the Catholic Worker, where I briefly interacted with Dorothy in 1974-5, as the Vietnam War came to an end. Since then, the United States has involved itself in many other conflicts, mostly in the Middle East. 

Ulysses S. Grant avoided foreign wars as president, and had a peace policy with the American Indians -- although it fell apart in 1876. He also, as readers of his Memoirs can attest, was a blunt, honest and forceful critic of the Mexican War, in which he had fought hard as a young officer. Grant, like Washington and Eisenhower, was obviously no pacifist, but I think all three would be almost as appalled as Day at the routine involvement of our country in a seemingly endless series of wars over the past several generations, with a potential all-destroying world war an ever-present possibility.

The remains of 44 people, mostly young soldiers of the Continental Army, are being reinterred this weekend in Lake George. They were veterans of that army's disastrous Canadian campaign of 1775-6, and very likely died from smallpox. It is proper and poignant for their bones to be laid to rest at Lake George Battlefield Park, and for us to remember, celebrating 250 years since the nation's birth, how the turning point of that war came only 30-odd miles south of Lake George. It was the year after their deaths and the Declaration of Independence, when the Continental Army won the battles of Saratoga. 

But I can't help thinking of Iran, how easy it is to start an unnecessary war expecting easy victory, only to become immediately responsible, through an apparent targeting error, for the deaths of many schoolgirls. Easy, too, to get ensnared in escalation when things go wrong instead of cutting losses, theirs and ours.

Boozy Algorithms (updated)

 

I signed up too late to be on this poster, but will indeed be a vendor (ie selling and signing copies of all four of the books I've written) at this event on Saturday evening May 9 in historic Schuylerville, NY. It sounds like fun, though designated drivers might be a good idea.

Sponsored by Advocates for the Schuylerville Public Library (to which I'll donate some books for raffle or whatever), it will be held at the Old Saratoga American Legion on Clancy Street from 6 to 8 pm. My books will be priced from 10 to 20 dollars each, there will be time to chat, so come on down.

Meanwhile, on the bleaker front of cyberspace, Amazon for some reason listed my new novel The Detective and Dorothy Day as "Temporarily out of stock" for at least several days at the beginning of this month. I am informed this had something to do with their mysterious algorithm but didn't really mean what it said -- ie when that notice appears you can still order the book there without any serious delay in shipping -- but it has contributed to a slump in sales on that site, which presumably is not good for said algorithm. The "out of stock" notice has gone now, so I hope sales will recover. (Update May 7: Sales on Amazon have indeed improved.)

Of course you can still order the book from a store if you want to escape Amazon's clutches. The two lines near the bottom of this Publishers Weekly ad refer to HC (hardcover, with a list price of $19.99) and EB (ebook), along with their ISBNs (international standard book numbers), which might be useful for ordering.

But the truth is non-famous writers can't escape Amazon in the modern book marketplace. That's where you'll make most of your sales, and where the book may take off if people notice it. Good reviews on Amazon are particularly helpful, especially if you bought the book there making it a "verified purchase" -- though they are also helpful on other social media, including specialized sites such as goodreads.

Alas I, being on the technologically clueless and tactless side, have been unable to successfully take control of my goodreads page, and have had limited success (despite their graciousness) on the separate site librarything. Amazon, on the other hand, is easy to navigate and I appreciate its author page. I don't plan to give up on them or urge anyone else to do so.

See you in Schuylerville, maybe. 



 

Couple more Amazon reviews

They say Amazon reviews are the key to building sales, so I was happy to see two more five-stars there over the past few days:

 

Video killed the radio star

 

 

They say keep these things short, but if I'd had more time I would have mentioned my turn from writing books about the Civil War to one partly about a famous pacifist (or someone about as famous as pacifists get). Seems like a good time to study how to avoid another civil war, or a world war.

The Detective and Dorothy Day, a novel by Robert C. Conner (updated)

 

First Amazon customer review is up:

• 

  Books That Inspire

  5.0 out of 5 stars Smart and compelling

  Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2026

  Format: Kindle

  This book really captured the feel of the mid-1970s. I liked how Sy’s investigation uncovered more
• than just a single crime. The deeper he dug, the more complex everything became. The moral
• dilemmas he faces are handled thoughtfully. It’s a mystery that doesn’t rush its message. I’m glad I
• picked this one up.

Press release here:

(Sorry, original link didn't work. This one will.)

BioGamer Girl weighs in.

This is the dedication:

Today (March 9) in nearby Saratoga Springs was the first warm day of spring, nice walking weather for me and Bella. In my prior post Blog Name Change, I hinted about moving away from the Civil War, the focus of my first three books, to this new historical novel, which is partly about a pacifist activist. I don't know if I'm fully on board with Dorothy's views yet, but the quiet streets of Saratoga seemed in sharp contrast to Iran now, or Ukraine, both of which places are in urgent need of an immediate cease-fire followed by peacemaking.