Professor Emeritus Eugene Stelzig publishes an assortment of autobiographical essays

In Oct. 2022, Distinguished Teaching Professor of English Emeritus Eugene Stelzig published True Lies and Short Takes: Assorted Life Writing Essays, a series of 24 autobiographical essays focusing on Stelzig’s life and many experiences. The assortment is divided into three parts: “Austrian Roots,” which addresses Stelzig’s childhood, “Adult Branchings,” surrounding his transition to America and developing identity, and “Falling Leaves,” a reflection on aging. Geneseo’s Department of English News described the essays as “a kaleidoscopic collection of…attempts at different modes of self-reflexivity.”

In a Zoom interview, Stelzig explained the purpose of the essays: “These essays were written over the last two decades,” Stelzig said. “Some are shorter, some are longer, some are quite playful with a sense of humor… I’m 79 years old, so they cover quite a range of experiences.”

Born in Austria and educated in France and America, the essays provide an eloquent reflection on Stelzig’s national identity and his experiences living in various areas of the world. “I think this essay wants to reflect…our ability to be in this multicultural country and get along with each other. I don’t say that directly in the essays, but it’s even more important than it’s ever been, I think, in these rather stressful political times,” he said.

Stelzig made sure to distinguish, too, that his essays are not meant to focus on any one topic or message too specifically; in addition to this commentary on multiculturalism, Stelzig discussed many essays in which he writes about his love of Shakespeare, dogs, and tennis. “I’m trying to write reflective essays. I’m not trying to sensationalize like many of the best-selling memoirs,” Stelzig said.

Stelzig referenced his career in academia and the courses that he has taught at Geneseo as some of the main sources of inspiration for his decision to take on the series as a creative project. 

“I taught the honors Critical Reading course on a regular basis, and I taught a course on autobiography—you know, [The Confessions of Saint] Augustine, Rousseau’s Confessions,” Stelzig said. “I taught a senior seminar in the English department on autobiography, including even [the] contemporary [autobiography by] Barack Obama. So, that led to my interest in writing, you know, because I’ve done a lot of scholarly writing—books and articles. But here, in the last part of my career, I kind of focused on autobiographical reflective essays in the tradition of the French contemporary Shakespeare Montaigne, Michel de Montaigne, who pioneered the essay form in his essays which are reflective and sort of…meander. I also…taught the romantic poets, English romantic poets, and they have a lot of autobiographies—Charles Lamb, William Hazlitt, the Quincy, they all write autobiographical essays. So, I had a sort of a whole range of kinds of influences.”

This creative reflective work both diverges from traditional autobiography and acknowledges the strong foundation that centuries of autobiographers have provided—a genre of writing that Stelzig refers to as literary autobiography. Stelzig’s innovative meditation is exemplified wonderfully in his title, True Lies and Short Takes.

“‘True lies’ is sort of a playful oxymoron,” Stelzig said. “It’s a contradiction in terms. Because, you know, modern brain science tells us that our memories aren’t…uncontaminated computer files we can just call up from 20 years ago—brain science tells us that our brains, our neurons, rework memories. Memories change as time goes by and we get older. So inevitably, our memories are in the end some fashion fictionalized by our imagination—by lapses of memory, by things we think we remember that weren’t really there. But the thing is, writing about them, we can re-experience them, so they take on a kind of second life in print, in writing. So, it’s a very broad, eclectic collection of autobiographical reflective pieces.”

This experimental take on autobiography is far from Stelzig’s first venture into the world of writing; he has, in addition to True Lies and Short Takes, written five books focusing on his research interests in Romanticism and Autobiography Studies, as well as two books of poetry. Stelzig’s experience in his most recent writing endeavor has, however, proven to be very different from those of his past.

“Academic writing, of course, is always focused on somebody else,” Stelzig said. “I’ve written quite a few articles and I’ve written roughly five books or so, and they’re always focused on a particular topic and a particular writer; so, you’re not really bringing yourself directly into it…these reflective pieces, of course, are me as a writer, not as an academic critic.”

Stelzig went on to distinguish the differences between his purposes for publishing academic writing and the reasons for publishing this autobiographical series.

“I’m not looking for a large audience—I’m looking for like-minded people, introspective, reflective [people] who might enjoy some of these pieces…I’m hoping for just a small group of readers and I’m thinking of, you know, colleagues and friends.”

Though Stelzig did not indicate an explicit goal of impacting a wider audience, his essays are sure to resonate with those who choose to engage. Find True Lies and Short Takes on Amazon or the Rowman & Littlefield website now.