<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=12HzQg_0vizjt1X00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=12HzQg_0vizjt1X00" width="1000" height="750" ><figcaption>Michael Rockland in his study in Morristown, September 2024. Photo by Michael Lovito.</figcaption></figure>Most people don’t have enough ideas in them to write 16 books. Fewer still would have the discipline to revisit and update two of those books years after they were published. But Michael Aaron Rockland isn’t most people.Rockland, a retired Rutgers professor and longtime Morristown resident, will be discussing expanded editions of his books Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike and The George Washington Bridge: Poetry in Steel, at the Morristown &amp; Morris Township Library this Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, and at The Kellogg Club on Sunday, Oct. 13.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3kjzde_0vizjt1X00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3kjzde_0vizjt1X00" width="661" height="983" ><figcaption>‘Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike,’ by Angus Gillespie and Michael Rockland</figcaption></figure>Attendees at either talk are sure learn to more than they ever could expect about those two famous pieces of New Jersey infrastructure. But Rockland’s areas of expertise go far beyond concrete and steel.Sporting a resume that spans the military, foreign relations, academia, and publishing, the 89-year old Rockland has amassed a cache of stories and experiences that would make the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the World jealous. Forrtunately, many of these adventures are documented in his diverse and expansive bibliography.Key to Rockland’s prodigious output is his equally impressive work ethic. While some authors might deal with writer’s block by going for a walk or having a snack, Rockland’s solution is simply to write more, a strategy his first developed in the late 1980s.While struggling to complete A Bliss Case, his popular first novel, Rockland was approached by his Rutgers colleague Angus K. Gillespie about collaborating on the book that would become Looking for America.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=16Wue4_0vizjt1X00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=16Wue4_0vizjt1X00" width="337" height="495" ><figcaption>HE DIDN’T WRITE THIS ONE…but Michael Rockland’s son Jeffrey appeared in the 1965 film ‘Dr. Zhivago.’ Photo via IMDB.com</figcaption></figure>Initially hesitant, Rockland realized that ideas for A Bliss Case came to him easier while he was working on Looking for America, and ideas for Looking for America came to him easier while he was working on A Bliss Case. Ever since, Rockland always has juggled two books or magazine pieces at the same time.“I discovered a crazy thing,” Rockland said about his writing philosophy. “You can look at it and say it’s nuts, and it is technically nuts, but it gets me to relax and gets my imagination flowing.”It’s delivered results beyond mere page counts, too. A Bliss Case was named a New York Times Notable Book of the year for 1989, while Looking for America was named by the New Jersey State Library as one of the 10 best books either written about New Jersey or by New Jerseyeans.‘FORM FOLLOWING FUNCTION’While Rockland has only published one new book, The Other Jersey Shore, this year, the twin release of the revisions to Looking for America and The George Washington Bridge seem to mirror his two-fisted writing strategy.According to Rockland, he and Gillespie decided to update Looking for America because of key changes made to the famous road since the book’s release 35 years ago — such as the introduction of E-ZPass and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority being granted control of the Garden State Parkway.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1XSBxV_0vizjt1X00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1XSBxV_0vizjt1X00" width="678" height="1000" ><figcaption>Revised and expanded version of Michael Rockland’s ‘The George Washington Bridge, Poetry in Steel.’ Photo by Michael Lovito</figcaption></figure>For Rockland, the most positive of these recent developments has been the renovations to the Turnpike’s rest stops, which he says gives a road famous for its gas refineries and shipping terminals some much needed aesthetic appeal. However, he still concedes that the Turnpike’s “exercise in ugliness” is part of what makes it representative of the state.“Bruce Springsteen and The Sopranos are the two greatest things in modern times that New Jersey has produced. Are they pretty? No,” Rockland said. “Bruce isn’t trying to be pretty. He’s telling the truth. That’s why we love him so much.”But Rockland has said he wouldn’t change much about the similarly-maligned George Washington Bridge, which he insists is the “most beautiful bridge in the world.”Part of the Bronx-raised Rockland’s affinity for what he lovingly calls “the George” stems from childhood memories of crossing it with his friends to go camping in New Jersey. But he also praised it for its bare bones design.“It’s a modernism thing, form following function,” Rockland said. “There’s no BS about it. It’s just steel.”Unlike the updates to Looking for America, which are rooted in a sense of progress, the new portions of The George Washington Bridge draw from tragedy and controversy. The first is the suicide of Tyler Clementi, a gay Rutgers student who jumped to his death from the bridge after being the target of homophobic bullying.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3Aq9Gv_0vizjt1X00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3Aq9Gv_0vizjt1X00" width="1000" height="750" ><figcaption>Michael_Rockland with a ruler that belonged to George Washington Bridge architect Othmar_Ammann, September 2024. Photo by Michael Lovito</figcaption></figure>The other is the infamous Bridgegate, wherein staff members of then-Gov. Chris Christie closed lanes on the upper level of the bridge to cause a traffic jam, allegedly to settle a score with Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich.But these recent low points in the George’s history haven’t dampened Rockland’s enthusiasm for what he likes to call “my bridge.”Sitting in a prominent spot on the back wall of his study is a ruler that once belong to bridge architect Othmar Ammann, which was presented to Rockland by Ammann’s daughter in 2008.‘IT’S WHO I AM’Rockland’s “adventures,” as he calls them, stretch beyond his books. While working as a U.S. cultural attaché in Spain during the 1960s, he spent the day with Martin Luther King Jr., who was touring Europe at the time.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2HtPhZ_0vizjt1X00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2HtPhZ_0vizjt1X00" width="472" height="329" ><figcaption>Renee Zellweger and Meryl Streep in Michael Rockland’s kitchen, which was rebuilt for the movie ‘One True Thing,’ and then restored to its original condition. Photo via IMDB.com</figcaption></figure>At that same post, his son Jeffrey was cast as Sasha in David Lean’s Dr. Zhivago, a brush with the film world that would be matched when Rockland’s house on Farragut Place was used as the main set for the Meryl Streep and Renee Zellweger drama One True Thing.Rockland himself starred in the PBS film Three Days on Big City Waters, which documented his and another professor’s canoe trip from Princeton to Ellis Island, which he also wrote about in his book Snowshoeing through Sewers.Rockland’s not entirely sure what his next move is – he’s open to writing another book (or, if history is any indication, two books) and plans to keep contributing to New Jersey Monthly, where his work has appeared since 1977. Either way, he doesn’t plan to put his pen down anytime soon.“Retiring as a writer is another word for suicide,” Rockland said. “I mean, it’s what I love. It’s who I am.”Michael Rockland will be discussing Looking for America on the Garden State Parkway at the Morristown and Morris Township Library, at One Miller Road in Morristown, on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, at 7 pm. The talk is free. Books will be available for purchase and signing at a discount. On Sunday, Oct. 13, he will speak at 3 pm in The Kellogg Club, 25 Colles Ave., also in Morristown.</div></body>

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The Turnpike and The GW: Second looks, from Morristown author Michael Rockland, Sept. 26

Most people don’t have enough ideas in them to write 16 books. Fewer still would have the discipline to revisit and update two of those books years after they were published. But Michael Aaron Rockland isn’t most people. Rockland, a retired Rutgers professor and longtime Morristown resident, will...