Jonathan Butler: On the History of Resistance in the U.S.
In this interview, author Jonathan Butler discusses how his hope to write a screenplay turned into his debut nonfiction book, Join the Conspiracy.
Jonathan Butler is a Brooklyn-based writer and entrepreneur. A financial journalist earlier in his career, Jonathan launched the local real estate and architecture blog Brownstoner.com in the earliest days of online and social media, growing it into the largest website in Brooklyn before selling it 10 years later in 2015. In 2008, Jonathan co-founded the Brooklyn Flea, New York City's biggest flea market business, and three years later launched Smorgasburg, the artisanal food festival that supports hundreds of diverse mom-and-pop businesses and has attracted millions of visitors from all over the world to its weekly locations in Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Miami.
Jonathan has received awards for his writing and civic work from the Brooklyn Historical Society, the Historic Districts Council, and the Municipal Art Society. He received his BA in American History from Princeton University in 1992 and an MBA from New York University in 1998. He resides with his wife and two children in Clinton Hill. Follow him on X (Twitter) and Instagram, and find him online at JonathanButler.org.
In this interview, Jonathan discusses how his hope to write a screenplay turned into his debut nonfiction book, Join the Conspiracy, his advice for other writers, and more.
Name: Jonathan Butler
Literary agent: Deirdre Mullane
Book title: Join the Conspiracy: How a Brooklyn Eccentric Got Lost on the Right, Infiltrated the Left, and Brought Down the Biggest Bombing Network in New York
Publisher: Fordham University Press/Empire State Editions
Release date: September 3, 2024
Genre/category: Nonfiction/Thriller
Elevator pitch: A right-wing factory worker from Brooklyn, convinced that the United States is being taken over by Communists, moves to the East Village in the late 1960 to infiltrate the radical left—all by himself. Over the course of two years as an FBI informant, George Demmerle crafts an alter ego known as Prince Crazie and cavorts through the streets of New York, Washington D.C., and Chicago with the Yippies, the Black Panthers, and his own group called the Crazies, before being asked to join the Melville Collective, a group of journalists, porn stars, and dropouts, for their eighth and, because of Demmerle, final bombing attempt as the curtain falls on the turbulent decade.
What prompted you to write this book?
About five years ago, I read concert promoter Bill Graham’s autobiography hoping to find inspiration for a screenplay. His run-ins with fringe groups in the East Village led me down the rabbit hole to a brief mention of the informant who brought down the group of East Village bombers known as the Melville Collective.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
I began research in early 2020, still thinking the project would become a screenplay. In early 2021, having gotten hundreds of pages of records from the FBI and a box full of photos, flyers, and personal effects from Demmerle’s widow, it became clear to me it should be a book. Shortly thereafter, in the space of a few weeks, I wrote a rough draft. I was connected with my agent in the middle of that year and in early 2022 had my first contact with Fredric Nachbaur at Fordham. He immediately got excited about the project but, in part because of my newbie status, the peer review process took a very long time. By early 2023, I’d completed an almost-final draft, and by August the book was basically in the can. The book doubled in length from the first to final drafts but the narrative arc and focus remained the same.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
The hardest part for me, as someone old enough to have already achieved some level of success and reputation in other fields, was going back to the bottom rung of a new industry and having to figure ways to get busy people to take the time to give my work a look. None of which should have been a surprise, but it didn’t make it any easier!
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
The research component, while certainly not easy, was adrenaline-filled and completely addictive. The harder part, having compiled all this information, was figuring out how to piece it together in a narrative that felt like more than a list of names and dates, deciding how much broader context to provide, and where to draw the line in terms of minor characters.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I hope they will have more fun reading it than your average history book—it has its fair share of drugs, sex and rock’n’roll, after all, not to mention bombs—but I hope it will also make them think about radicalism in general, the history of resistance in this country, and give them particular perspective on this current era of political divisiveness and campus protest that we are living through now.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Grind, grind, grind! There are so many hurdles and reasons to feel self-doubt that it takes a single-mindedness and ultimately blind faith to push through and do the work day-in, day-out.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
