Citizens of Chicago slowly took their seats in the Diane and David B. Heller Auditorium and removed their heavy winter coats on Sunday, November 10th. As they sat, the auditorium screen was showing a slideshow thanking all the supporters of the Chicago Humanities Festival. Some looked up, some talked to their neighbor, and some stared at their phones. All of them sat in anticipation to see Sarah Vowell speak.

The program began with a quick video created by the Chicago Humanities Festival titled, “2019 Is The Year of Power.” This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Chicago Humanities Festival, and they chose to commemorate that by inviting author, historian, journalist, and actor Sarah Vowell to come speak.

Vowell is the New York Times’ Bestselling author of seven non-fiction books on American history and culture. She makes connections between the past and present, often offering personal and humorous accounts of the events she writes about. She was a contributing editor of NPR’s This American Life from 1996-2008 and has appeared on numerous talk shows such as The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O’Brien to name a few. Aside from her professional career in writing, she played the role of Violet in The Incredibles (2004), a Disney Pixar movie, and The Incredibles 2 (2018).

As she walked to her blue chair in the middle of the stage, set up directly next to another blue chair as if for the set of a talk show, the audience was on their feet roaring. Justin Kauffman from WGN Radio immediately followed and took his place in the other chair. The style of presentation was to be an interview between Kauffman and Vowell.

Kauffman asked what she liked about having her work in print, and Vowell responded by saying she likes that readers can’t hear her exact voice in her writing, and how her writing can sound the same as Ernest Hemingway. “What I love about print is that everything looks the same…” Vowell said. “…The reader can bring their own imagination to that and they can read it however they want.”

Upper School History teacher Andrew Bigelow teaches US History to juniors and is familiar with Vowell’s books on the American Revolution and her unique style of writing. “What I like about her is she personalizes history,” Bigelow said. “She doesn’t trivialize them, she makes them real. It’s almost as if she has met these people herself.”

Vowell’s most recent book, Lafayette In The Somewhat United States, was released in 2015 and Kauffman asserted that she had become somewhat of a celebrity from it. “It’s still the narrative, non-fiction level of celebrity,” Vowell said as the crowd roared in laughter. “So it’s pretty manageable.”

Her accounts of her own career and upbringing had most of the crowd laughing at almost every answer to each question. Her personality really showed in this casual setting, and Vowell seemed to just roll with whatever she wanted to say. Kauffman stated that he noticed she had become a persona that her readers would want to listen to and be entertained by, and he asked if that was her goal when she began her work. “I mean, I have a Masters Degree in Early Art History,” she said. “Does that sound like someone who wants people to like her? No!”

Whatever her original intentions, Vowell has become a recognizable persona and has appeared on many talk shows. When she was brought onto shows like David Letterman and Conan, not many people were familiar with her. She joked about how the programs would introduce her and no one would know who she was. “Here’s the narrative non-fiction author, Sarah Vowell,…” she said impersonating how the show would introduce her. Then she said what people watching the program would immediately think, ‘Oh, she has a pulse?’”

Vowell has found that to get people to listen to you and like you, you have to start your expectations at the bottom. “The great thing about coming from media that hardly anyone cares about is that you just assume no one gives a hoot,” she said, “so you can start from that place and win them over.” 

Her role as Violet from The Incredibles definitely played a part in her fame and how people perceived her. The role has made her so popular that often at events like the Chicago Humanities Festival, she gets asked about what it was like being Violet instead of her career as a historian. 

A boy at one of her last speaking events asked her if she thought being the voice of Violet was fun, expecting her to answer to be an enthusiastic yes. Instead, she went on to tell him how she was trying to be an actor that had never acted before. 

There was a lot of pressure on her, people staring at her, and she thought she was going to get fired every day for three years. The boy’s response was, “Oh. Well, the movie is fun.” 

When Kaufmann asked her about this, all she had to say was, “I mean the lunches were pleasant. I’m still friends with those people, but they were at the top of their game, and I was just trying to hold my own.”

Through all her early fame from The Incredibles, telling stories of history in a personal and humorous way is most important to her. She wants her audience to read her books and get a more detailed account of the actual people behind history, that they aren’t just names. “When you’re an author, your job isn’t just to sell your own books, it’s to be an ambassador for literature,” Vowell said. “You have to go out there and say, ‘This is why books are important.’”