Renown author to address graduates

December 10, 2007 —

Best-selling author Ken Follett will visit SVSU as the keynote speaker for fall commencement.

Ken Follett was born to humble origins in Cardiff, Wales on June 5, 1949. His father, who was a tax inspector in postwar Europe, was not able to provide much beyond the basic necessities. This lack of luxury allowed the young Follett to develop a powerful imagination. Moving to London at the age of 10, he entered the public school system and graduated from the University College London in 1970. He began his writing career using pen names in a variety of genres including screen plays, journalism, children's books, and novels. Follett moved onto the national scene with the publishing of his first best-selling thriller Eye of the Needle in 1978.

Follett last visited SVSU in 2004 to donate his archive of notes, first drafts, personal correspondence, and unpublished work. These documents, housed in Zahnow Library, were placed in SVSU's care because of the work of Carlos Ramet, the executive assistant to the president.

As an English professor at SVSU, Ramet began to further pursue an interest in Follett's work that dated back to a graduate school assignment. After a sabbatical from teaching, Ramet published a full length analytical book about Follett's style and growth as an author titled Ken Follett: The Transformation of a Writer.

Ramet's book, the culmination of a series of articles on Follett, presented a number of challenges for the then-English professor. During the process, Ramet made a specific point of not attempting to meet or even contact Follett, fearing that a relationship on a personal level might alter the objectivity of his work. Ramet felt that the difficulty was worth it though, as it allowed him to experience the "satisfaction of development" in watching his project grow from basic ideas to a finished project that would have a positive effect on SVSU.

The book follows the change in Follett's work from his beginnings as a journalist in Wales, through a series of best selling thrillers, and then traces his dramatic change of style with the publication of The Pillars of the Earth. Pillars, a novel about the building of a cathedral in the Middle Ages, became an instant success worldwide, staying on the New York Times best seller list for 18 weeks.

Ramet, who continues to write about Follett, believes the archives to be a valuable gift to the school and to the student body.

"It gives SVSU students an insight into how popular artists work and it allows students to see the hard work, adaptation, and growth that go into the making of a best-selling author ... people tend to think too much about inspiration, and not enough about the process."

Ramet also thinks it significant that the archives were entrusted to SVSU, and said the University should be honored by the gift.

Ken Follett's books, his archive collection, and Ramet's book are all available through Zahnnow Library, and the archives are in an online exhibit via the library's Web site.