We were lucky to catch up with Douglas Westfall recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Douglas, thanks for joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

The company I had worked at for a dozen years folded in the late 1980s. I had the Training and Publications department so, the wife and I started a small publishing business doing work for other publishers and historical Libraries and Museums. I always loved history and had taught that in public schools. Also giving free lectures at these historic sites, I consistently received historical materials: letters, diaries, journals, photographs and artifacts.
These we began to write into our own books, starting with postcards written from a Lieutenant at Custer’s Last Stand. This process has never stopped, and we continue to receive these first person accounts to this day. Well over 300 sets — all of which is then donated to historic archives after publication. As well we host about 10 university students each semester (& have for 15 years) where they learn to process our materials and get to hold the original items. The each receive three-upper division units and often repeat. About 5% go on to write books and receive royalties. The slow down over the past 15 years is due to the people running the media: Newspapers, radio, television. They didn’t promote history. Yet all that has changed as the Millennial Generation is now in the media and they love our history. Our first news article came just last year in the New York Times. We’re Back!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Having published America’s Histor For folks who may not have read about you before, can you please tell our readers about yourself, how you got into your industry / business / discipline / craft etc, what type of products/services/creative works you provide, what problems you solve for your clients and/or what you think sets you apart from others. What are you most proud of and what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc.

y for 35 years (and teaching for 20 years before that – with a 5-year overlap), My wife and I began The Paragon Agency, Publishers because of my interest in history and my background in teaching and publishing. She had worked in the craft development industry so it was a natural fit for us to work together. We have published 160 of our own books in 30 years, I have personally written one-third of those.
We produce Books on America’s History — from previously unpublished manuscripts, photographs and artifacts. our motto on our website is “Books that Change America’s History” and we have received awards, interviews and honorariums (DAR Historian, Congressionally Certified National Historian, etc.) As well we have donated over 10,000 historic photographs, 1,000s of manuscripts and 100s of artifacts. Three of these artifacts were unseen films of Amelia Earhart, which were donated to a Library, History Center and a University. our proudest moments are when our books are used in schools and universities — one book is used in a graduate class on doing correct historic research. We do publish for other authors aside our own authors such that our author-clients, book store-followers and our reader-fans continue to ask for more. Much of our work includes series of books that follow specific interest groups: Mysteries, Disasters and Significant Events such as Wars, Early Travels and stories from young people who wrote about their experiences later in life.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

To publish, present, preserve and teach America’s History from the people who experienced each event and situation, plus illustrate these stories using unpublished photography when ever possible, and to correct the mistakes and understanding of our history for all ages.
As I have taught grade school through college and adults in industry, I wish to continue this process through our publications, presentations and our preservation of donations. This last element of preservation is key because we want every American who can to visit the archives across the nation, to see and if possible, hold some of the materials we’ve donated. An example is a baseball-size cannon ball from the Mexican-American War.
As well we have been a part of starting library, museum, and archive facilities that continue to receive our donations. We want to expand this process.
In summation, our Mission is to Publish, Present and Preserve America’s History in a way that has never been done before and to ensure we make Books That Change America’s History.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

On many occasions we have contacted family members of a historic American and persuaded them to donate significant materials to appropriate archives for preservation of a item relating to a significant event. This has occurred many times such that we are personally excited to have saved yet another historical element from being sold at auction. The problem of selling our history is, it goes into a private collection where we don’t have access to it and two generations later, a grandson will sell it at auction!
So many times, these people who we have convinced to donate their family materials, later simply give these to us where we log it correctly for archiving, make copies or photographs of the items and then get to donate them to an archive of our choice — in their name of course.
The result of this process is, it helps our university students learn appropriate historical preservation, the items are preserved for ever in an approved archive — and great-grandpa gets in a book! We call it a win, win, win.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.SpecialBooks.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheParagonAgency/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglas-westfall-04b688200/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZqbb4BqFuk
• Other: Personal:

  https://www.DouglasWestfall.com/

Image Credits

The Paragon Agency, Publishers