John Dos Passos Coggin joins us today. Coggin is an author and political strategist, and he's written a biography, Walkin’ Lawton, about Lawton Chiles, who was one of Florida’s most beloved politicians. As a candidate, Chiles walked across the Sunshine State and earned his nickname. In this interview, we discuss why so many Floridians loved Chiles.
John Dos Passos Coggin’s maternal grandfather was John Dos Passos, the novelist perhaps best known for his U.S.A trilogy.
Coggin visited Chattanooga in October for an academic conference about his famous grandfather. Hosted at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the conference featured Coggin as the keynote speaker. He gave a speech titled “Dos Passos, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald: The Writing Habits behind the Masterpieces.” In this interview, Coggin talks about those habits, and discusses the legacy Dos Passos left as an author.