Sixty seconds with Jefferson Bass...
Jefferson Bass is the writing team of Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson.
Dr. Bill Bass is a forensic anthropologist who founded the University of Tennessee's Body Farm, the world's first laboratory devoted to the study of human decomposition. He is the author of more than 200 scientific publications, and two nonfiction books about the Body Farm, DEATH'S ACRE and BEYOND THE BODY FARM, both written with Jon Jefferson.
Jon Jefferson is a journalist, science writer, and documentary filmmaker. Jefferson has written for the New York Times, Newsweek, and National Public Radio, and has written and produced numerous documentaries for the Arts & Entertainment Network and The History Channel. He has also produced two National Geographic documentaries about the Body Farm.
RTE: Describe yourself in a sentence?
Bass: Good god, I don’t know – friendly scientist who likes puzzles?
Jefferson: Well, for starters, I’m a big fan of the Faulknerian three-page sentence (kidding!); I’m enthusiastic, playful, generally joyous, and dangerously prone to procrastination – but really, seriously, I promise I’ll finish this sentence just as soon as I’ve thought about it for a few more …
RTE: What's the one record you'd take to a desert island?
Bass: Oh, shoot, I don’t know – one that has “The Wabash Cannonball” on it, I guess.
Jefferson: The Guinness World Record for Swiftest Rescue!
RTE: What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Bass: A physician, but chemistry eliminated me from that.
Jefferson: Less myopic – so I could be an astronaut.
RTE: Who's your oldest friend?
Bass: Hugh Berryman and Steve Symes, forensic anthropologists who were both students of mine – we’ve been friends for around 35 years.
Jefferson: Chronologically, it’s my mama – she’s amazing at 91; my longest-term friend is my ol’ buddy Jim, who moved to town when I was 12 and who accompanied me through geeky adolescence (while our friends were swiping their dads’ copies of Playboy, Jim & I were poring over catalogues from the Edmund Scientific Company!) and then through the adventures & misadventures of college.
RTE: If I ruled the world...
Bass: … I’d try to cut down on wars; I’d try to educate people to show them that there are better ways of handling things.
Jefferson: … the world would be a much bigger mess than it is now! Neverthelss, I’d spend less on prisons and weapons and more on education and public health.
RTE: Which book do you wish you'd written?
Bass: There are so many good ones out there; I’m glad they’ve been written, but I don’t actually wish I’d written them myself.
Jefferson: The one that’s due next fall. That, and All the Pretty Horses.
RTE: What makes you angry?
Bass: People being mean to animals.
Jefferson: Injustice and cruelty.
RTE: Name your five dream dinner party guests.
Bass: Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson – they were people who experimented with things to find out how they worked; Robert E. Lee; Abraham Lincoln – he thought about things and tried to do the best he could in the times he was in; Dr. Wilton Krogman, my Ph.D. adviser.
Jefferson: Cleopatra, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Pope Julius II, and Mae West.
RTE: Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with?
Bass: A religious fundamentalist.
Jefferson: Hannibal Lecter!
RTE: What inspired you to start writing?
Bass: For years my students had been asking me when I was going to write a popular book about my career, but I’m not good at that kind of writing. Then I met Jon Jefferson, an excellent writer, and we teamed up to do it.
Jefferson: To hide the truth would be no use; I owe it all to Dr. Seuss!
RTE: Where would you most like to live?
Bass: I think Tennessee is a fine place! The weather’s good, I like the mountains, and I’m happy here. Where would I NOT like to live? New York or California.
Jefferson: In a palazzo in Florence, Italy, during the heyday of the Renaissance.
RTE: Sum up your latest book in no more than 12 words.
Bass: An excellent application of forensics to history!
Jefferson: Christ’s bones (perhaps); who will kill for them – and who will die?
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