Laura Hillenbrand, Author of “Unbroken” and “Seabiscuit”
Today, my guest is Laura Hillenbrand, author of the best selling books, Unbroken and Seabiscuit.
Unbroken is the absolutely amazing story of Louie Zamperini, an Olympic class runner who was shot down from an airplane in World War II over the Pacific Ocean and somehow managed to survive on a life raft for 47 days -- only to be captured by the Japanese and tortured as a POW for 2 years before being released.
His story -- and survival -- of this ordeal is an incredible story which Laura brilliantly captured in her book, and which was made into a movie with the same title by Angelina Jolie. Louie lived long enough to read her book and died in 2014 at the age of 97.
In this candid conversation, Laura shared the real stories behind her accidental discovery of Louis Zamperini, the immense emotional toll of researching his life, and the profound personal connection they ultimately shared.
1. An Accidental Discovery. Laura revealed that she stumbled upon Louis Zamperini's incredible story entirely by accident while researching her first book, Seabiscuit. She happened to flip over an old 1930s newspaper article and found a story about the teenage running phenomenon. This chance encounter led to a massive seven-year research project where she interviewed Louis roughly 75 times. Due to her severe health issues, all of these interviews were conducted entirely over the phone, which Laura actually considered an advantage; without the visual distraction of looking at an elderly man, she was able to clearly envision him in her mind as the 17-year-old runner or the 26-year-old soldier he was describing.
2. The 63-Pound Scrapbook. To write Unbroken, Laura relied heavily on Louis's remarkably flawless memory, noting that he rarely made mistakes and could perfectly recall exact race times down to a fifth of a second or the specific color of his shorts from 1932. Furthermore, he was a massive packrat who meticulously saved everything from his life, including a secret diary he kept in his prison camp and an enormous 63-pound scrapbook that was the size of a car tire, which he actually shipped to her house. This treasure trove of primary documents, along with testimonies from his surviving siblings and fellow veterans, allowed her to meticulously corroborate his unbelievable tale of survival.
3. The Heavy Burden of Trauma. Laura admitted that the absolute hardest part of writing the book was navigating the intense emotional attachment she developed with the subjects, many of whom did not survive the war. Interviewing deeply traumatized World War II veterans took a heavy toll, as they would frequently weep on the phone while recounting the horrific brutalities they endured. After some of these intensely distressing interviews, Laura literally had to go outside and walk in circles around her lawn just to physically and mentally shake off the agonizing stories she was absorbing.
4. A Profound Personal Connection. Laura felt an incredibly deep connection to Louis's story because she herself had been severely ill and bedridden for years with chronic fatigue syndrome. While she noted her illness couldn't strictly compare to being a prisoner of war, she deeply understood the acute suffering of confinement, losing the world, and struggling simply to endure the next ten minutes. Louis felt this shared understanding of intense suffering made her the perfect person to tell his story; after reading an article she wrote about her illness, he was so profoundly moved that he actually mailed her his own Purple Heart, insisting that she deserved the medal more than he did.
