Stacy Schiff Delivers Assembly on Salem Witch Trials

“History is Snapchat, not Instagram. History is not the one directly staring you in the face.” Speaking from the assembly stage last Friday, Stacy Schiff, a Pulitzer prize winning historical author, shared her experience and wisdom with students in the audience.

Schiff was introduced by her daugher, senior Josephine de La Bruyère, and spoke about her latest work, “The Witches,” which detailed the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692.

“The whole idea of American exceptionalism begins in Salem, so everything points back to it. Here’s a fresh piece of history that we’ve reduced to three meaningless words. So what are we really talking about when we talk about Salem?”

“The whole idea of American exceptionalism begins in Salem, so everything points back to it. Here’s a fresh piece of history that we’ve reduced to three meaningless words. So what are we really talking about when we talk about Salem?”

In “The Witches,” Schiff aims to unlock the historical events around Salem, while giving life to its characters. “One reason to write about the events that year it that we see them as having involved a cast of starched, bleached characters that seem like stick figures. I wanted to put flesh on their bones, a difficult task, but also a rewarding one,” Schiff said. “Suddenly personalities, class tensions, family strains, and politics that are nearly invisible at first glance begin to surface.”

Schiff started the assembly by sharing Raymond Chandler’s practical writing advice. “Lock yourself in a room. You can look out the window, you can stand on your head, but you have to respect two essentials. You don’t have to write, but you aren’t allowed to do anything else, because motions come to thoughts.” She then confessed that she believes in an opposite school of thought, the “stray from your desk” school. “Motion creates thoughts. And thoughts, blessedly, come to us in words.”

She then moved on to talking about her research, sharing an anecdote to illustrate the process of trial and error that producing a large work of literature requires. In one of the book’s earlier drafts, Schiff had set the time that the “witch” Anne Foster took her flight at night, following popular belief about witches. However, she later stumbled upon a testimonial from Foster’s granddaughter that said the “flight” took place at noon.

Textual evidence and other specific materials were also integral to her research. This included carvings and documents of the time, much of which she conducted through the Institute for Technology in the Advanced Studies of the Humanities (IATH) at the University of Virginia. History Instructor Kent McConnell was involved in the development of the database, one of the most comprehensive resources about the Salem trials.

“Among other things, this project makes available most, if not all the primary source documents related to the court cases for the witchcraft trials,” McConnell said. “Dr. Benjamin C. Ray (Professor of Religious Studies) and I spent many years of collaboration working with primary sources and mapping these sources so they are represented in a geographically accurate historic timeframe.”

De La Bruyère mentioned her excitement on hearing her mom’s assembly and how much she appreciates having her mother’s historical expertise available as she studies similar subjects at Exeter. “She can answer really every question I ask her—whether it’s about syntax or history or crafting a good argument,” she said. “She’s the smartest person I know; every conversation I have with her makes me smarter. She pushes me to think critically, to argue convincingly, to read as much as I can. She’s the best.”

Other students had varying reactions to the assembly. Prep Beatrice Burack saw the talk as informative and engaging. She especially enjoyed hearing about about Schiff’s struggles and triumphs as a writer.

“I thought she gave really good insight in the crossroad between fiction and history,” said upper Niko Amber. “It inspired me for my 333 and made me realize how important research is.”

  Others were not as entertained. “I thought the speaker had good information, but her presentation was a little boring and lacked emotion and passion,” prep Carly Mae Buckner said.

Alongside the highly prestigious Pulitzer Prize, Schiff has also received prizes from the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities for her book “Vera.”

In 1995, Schiff was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in biography, the same category she won 5 years later, for her book “Saint-Exupéry: A Biography.” Later, in 2008, she was invited to be a juror of the prize.

An alumni of Phillips Academy Andover, Schiff was a guest columnist for The New York Times prior to starting her career as a nonfiction author. Her other articles appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and The Washington Post.

Schiff emphasized the importance of examining history from a critical and fresh perspective. “The past often reverberates loudest in what someone hesitated to say, or crossed out, in the letter he chose not to mail. The story is not about what happens at the center of the frame but in the bottom left corner: It’s about the blurted words and the uncurated moments.”