Historical Exploration: Landon Jones Speaks On His Past Accomplishments and New Book

Candace Braun

From researching battles of the West, to witnessing Princeton University's turnover to a co-educational institution, author and editor Landon Y. Jones has led a life of historical exploration.

A retired vice president of strategic planning at Time Inc., Mr. Jones recently published a book on the life of William Clark, the famous American explorer. The Princeton resident shared readings from William Clark and the Shaping of the West at the Princeton Public Library on Wednesday, September 29.

First learning of Clark's historical importance as a child growing up in St. Louis, Mo., where he attended Clark Elementary School, Mr. Jones became acutely aware of Clark's accomplishments in 2000 while editing The Essential Lewis and Clark, a collection of journals written by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark during their expedition across America in the early 1800s. Using his editing experience from Time Inc., Mr. Jones condensed 13 volumes of journal entries into one book composed of what he felt was the most interesting and historically significant information.

Being a meticulous journalist, Mr. Jones reached beyond the surface information commonly known on Clark soon after completing the journals, and found that the Lewis and Clark expedition was just the first of Clark's many contributions to American history.

While Lewis's journey came abruptly to an end three years after the expedition when he committed suicide, Clark went on to serve as the highest-ranking federal official in the West, spending three decades overseeing the consequences of their journey. This included battles with Native Americans and their European allies over the western borderlands that ended in 1832 with the Black Hawk War, when the Native Americans failed in their last attempt to keep their land east of the Mississippi River.

Clark also figured significantly in the lives of historical figures, said Mr. Jones, including almost every president in his lifetime, from George Washington to Martin Van Buren.

Although he was known for driving the Native Americans from their land and being part of a family that never freed any of its slaves, there is something to be said for a man who accomplished much of what he set out to do, said Mr. Jones: "I don't portray Clark as a completely triumphant hero, although there were points in his life where that was the case."

Mr. Jones's book focuses on how the Native Americans were treated by the white men of the time, citing examples such as when Clark wrote about the beauty of the undiscovered American lands, failing to mention that the land had inhabitants many years before he arrived.

One noteworthy story connected to Clark concerns his slave, York. Through Clark's journals Mr. Jones discovered that this man was the only non-white to accompany the members of the Lewis and Clark expedition. And while the white men of the time, including Clark, treated York as a lesser being, Mr. Jones noted that York was looked on by the Native Americans as the most important man on the expedition. They would call him the "big medicine," and would offer their wives to him.

They offered their wives to Clark, as well, according to Mr. Jones, who added that some say that Clark fathered two Native American children, the evidence being their red hair. However this was an honor to the Native Americans, and not a tale they were ashamed of admitting to: "They would get angry at me for even suggesting its not true," said Mr. Jones.

A Writer's Life

Mr. Jones first came to Princeton in 1962, when he attended Princeton University and obtained a bachelor's degree in English. Soon after he became an intern for Time magazine, beginning a lifelong career with Time Inc.

"I was lucky; I think the door closed right after me," he said.

Soon after becoming an education and entertainment writer, Mr. Jones left the magazine for five years to work for the Princeton Alumni Magazine.

"That was an exciting time in Princeton, when the college was going co-ed," he said, adding that the anti-war movement and a visit from Bob Dylan were also big highlights of his time working here.

When People magazine was started by Time Inc., Mr. Jones returned to the company, working his way up through various positions. Remaining with Time Inc. for 37 years, Mr. Jones served as the managing editor of People, as well as Money, the leading personal-finance magazine. Over the years he was also a writer and editor for Life and Time magazines.

Mr. Jones also helped launch four magazines in the People division, including Who Weekly (1992), In Style (1994), People en Espagnol (1996), and Teen People (1998). Prior to his retirement four years ago, he was the company's vice president for strategic planning.

Mr. Jones recalled talking to many politicians and Hollywood celebrities, including Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, and all of the presidents that were in office during his time at People.

After having to repeatedly fact-check and edit stories for the various magazines at Time, Inc., Mr. Jones said he was fully prepared to edit the Lewis and Clark journals: "There's a lot of pressure to pack a lot of information into a small space."

He compared his magazine writing experience to "trying to play the violin while people are throwing tomatoes at you."

When People began there were no competitor magazines, which allowed Mr. Jones to write stories on controversial issues like racism in Hollywood, and the AIDs crisis.

As television programs and other magazines became more tabloid, however, Mr. Jones began to find himself facing moral dilemmas. One example, he said, was when the magazine wanted to take photos of John F. Kennedy Jr., who he considered simply a young lawyer at the time, and not a celebrity.

But Mr. Jones's overall experience with Time Inc. allowed him to learn how to pull the most interesting information to the front of a story, and find the small points of information that the author wouldn't think to write about, but the reader would find the most fascinating, such as the way a celebrity would tie his shoes.

Putting together the information for stories, he said, was like piecing together fragments of colored glass for a stained glass window.

For his book on Clark, Mr. Jones spent three years doing research in libraries, as opposed to travelling the Mississippi in canoes as he first believed would be the case. He did, however, travel to many parts of the Appalachian Trail to get a better sense of the scenery described in his book.

"[This book] led me to a lot of places I didn't expect to go and I met a lot of interesting people along the way," he said.

Unsure of what his next book might be, Mr. Jones said he hopes to find another historical figure with an interesting but not commonly known background to write about.

William Clark and the Shaping of the West is available at the Princeton Public Library and area bookstores.