For years, Daniel Quinn hoped his subversive ideas about humanity’s place in nature would find their way into the educational system.
But it wasn’t until he abandoned hope that he succeeded.
In 1991, after 11 years and seven complete rewrites, Quinn’s novel “Ishmael” (Bantam) was published. His initial hope for it was that it would find a cult following, maybe a few thousand 30-somethings.
Instead the book sold more than 300,000 copies and found its way into the classrooms of middle schools, high schools and colleges around the country as a text for classes ranging from history and anthropology to business and economics.
“I had no thoughts that it would appear in a classroom,” said Quinn, a former Chicagoan who lives with his wife, Rennie, in Austin, Texas. The couple came to town recently for a social studies convention that included a seminar instructing teachers on using “Ishmael” as a teaching tool.
The book is essentially a long conversation between a student and his teacher, a lowland gorilla named Ishmael, who communicates telepathically. Through a series of discussions the author argues that we are a “Taker” society living with the misconception that the Earth was made for us and we are slowly destroying it and ourselves by refusing to accept and live by the laws of nature. In contrast, the “Leaver” society, made up of a few tribal peoples and the remaining animal and plant species, have lived a stable existence for millions of years by following these laws. The book argues that there’s still hope for humanity if it can learn to follow nature’s law.
The New York Times Book Review praised “Ishmael” as “a thoughtful, fearlessly low-key novel about the role of our species in the planet . . . laid out for us with an originality and a clarity that few would deny.”
After writing several versions of the book, Quinn learned of a $500,000 fellowship created by media mogul Ted Turner, who was looking for a novel that gave a view of the future that would ensure humanity’s survival.
He submitted his book, and it was chosen out of more than 2,500 entries for the Turner Tomorrow Award.
“I knew that if Turner was serious about wanting the kind of book that he said, I had a good chance of winning,” Quinn said.
A long road to publication
Fellowships and book deals are a far cry from what he thought possible several decades ago.
After graduating from Chicago’s Loyola University in 1957, Quinn remained in the city, working part of that time as an editor at American People Encyclopedia, and later as math director at Encyclopaedia Britannica Education Corp.
The Quinns moved to Santa Fe in 1979 and owned an antiques and general store, and then started a regional weekly newspaper that they eventually sold. In 1986 they moved to Austin, and Rennie took a job editing for a New York-based publisher to support them while Quinn continued refining his book.
Twice he sent early “Ishmael” incarnations to a publisher, and twice they were rejected. He kept trying and, finally, the seventh version was accepted, Quinn said, but he turned the offer down after a disagreement with the publisher.
Finally in 1991, after receiving the Turner fellowship, “Ishmael” was published.
But it wasn’t until it came out in paperback that the Quinns started receiving mail from an unexpected group.
“We put an address in the first edition and we started to hear directly from students and teachers about using the book. We realized we had a growing trend, so we decided we’d better get behind it.”
The Quinns sent a brochure with an offer for a free copy to social and environmental studies teachers and received a 20 percent response.
“I had given up the idea of ever reaching the schools, and now I’ve done what I wanted to do,” Quinn said.
Students are receptive
In Wredling Middle School in St. Charles (one of the more than 400 schools using “Ishmael”), Peg Anderson teaches her Academically Talented section of 7th graders using the shortened audio version.
“The book was introduced to me through a consultant,” Anderson said. “We were looking into how we can teach ecological concepts, and the book was suggested as a must-read. I read it and so did some colleagues and we found it thought-provoking.
“I decided to use the audio tapes instead of the book directly, and the depth of some of the students’ conversations amazed me and some of the writing they were doing was incredible.”
Although the book was not written at a 7th-grade level, both Quinn and Anderson believe that many of the concepts have a better chance of altering the views of a younger audience, less set in its ways and perhaps less cynical than college students.
But while Anderson’s students may be able to grasp the idea of Taker vs. Leaver society, they disagree on its being a positive outlook on the future.
“It scares me a lot that we’re ruining everything and that there isn’t any way to go back,” said Nancy Shanahan, 13. “There is so much new technology and we’re making more money that makes us happy and it doesn’t make us want to go back. I think we could change the way we live, but it’s easier said than done.”
Classmate Mark Krywaruczenko said that hearing “Ishmael” changed the way he thought about how we live. “We think the world is made for us, and that everything we do is always right. We learned that we should try to live a more Leaver lifestyle.”
Despite the children’s pessimistic view of our society learning to live in harmony with the Earth, Anderson argues, “The only way to change is through individuals. They are reading `Ishmael’ and thinking of making a change, and that’s where we need to start.”
The Wredling students are replaying the audio tapes and trying to rewrite the story in a children’s version.
To aid teachers from middle school through graduate programs, the Quinns have created “The Ishmael Companion.” The 24-page booklet gives brief profiles of how teachers in each level use the book, why they use it and the students’ reactions.
It also includes a series of discussion questions and additional reading material on similar subjects.
Harvey Lyon is a professor at DePaul University School for New Learning who uses “Ishmael” in two of his classes.
“It’s a very powerful book, which is one of the reasons I use it,” said Lyon, whose class met with the Quinns during their stay. “It grabs the students by the throat and doesn’t let go. But I don’t think the book is a downer in spite of what it’s saying, because he doesn’t say that there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Another big surprise, Quinn said, is the lack of criticism from various academic or religious groups regarding his theories on evolution, specifically that the appearance of humans did not mark the end of evolution any more than when the jellyfish first swam the water.
“I keep expecting to hear from the Christian Coalition and keep expecting to hear about teachers who have troubles using it in schools, and the publisher is holding its breath, but I’m looking forward to it,” Quinn said. “It’s publicity you can’t buy.”
“Ishmael,” Quinn believes, is destined to become a movie or mini-series, but Ted Turner will not be the one to make it. The Turner fellowship, which has not been awarded again, was created so Turner would have a book that could be made into a movie, Quinn said. All contestants signed over their rights to their book should it win.
“But his advisers told him that there was no way to make a movie out of it,” Quinn said. “I don’t know why they told him that. They didn’t even give it a day’s thought. I have someone with money waiting for their option to run out who wants to make it into a movie, and I am confident that there will be one.”
For now, Quinn will have to be satisfied with a book that continues to sell thousands of copies a month and allows him to filter his subversive ideas into the mainstream.
