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The Man with an Edge: Interview with Michael Pepper
By Carin Chea
Michael Pepper is an architect and urban planner by training and trade.
A graduate of Princeton University (’71), Pepper would go on to become a successful project manager of skyscrapers, as well as a professor of real estate development in some of the most renowned graduate programs in the nation.
But perhaps equally as monumental and awe-inspiring as his architectural creations is the journey he embarked upon as a young Princeton graduate.
Pepper’s story as a youthful Princetonian is marred by the general sense of dread brought on by the Vietnam War and its impending draft.
Having already lost a friend to the war, Pepper’s story begins with a general uneasiness, a stark juxtaposition of his draft eligibility to the excitement and vigor of college graduation.
This is where Royal Edge begins.
Set against the uncertain climate of the times, Royal Edge is the story of the ultimate odd couple: Pepper (a young Princeton graduate) and Ella, his landlord-turned-inspiration who is also a Russian countess and a descendant of Czar Alexander II.
Royal Edge serves as a heartwarming respite during a historical time period fraught with uneasiness. Perhaps it is apropos that the author refers to Ella as “my Polaris, my North Star.”
Is Royal Edge your first book?
Yes. I graduated in architecture and I’ve had a career in architecture and the construction of large buildings.
What prompted you to write this book?
The book came about as memories of what happened to me after graduation came into my broader life perspective.
Little by little, the story of my time with Ella became increasingly relevant to my personal journey. It was something I’d share with my young daughters while we were hiking.
On long and at times challenging hikes they enjoyed the distraction of my telling them stories of the royal countess I lived with the year after my graduation in 1971. I can remember their saying, ‘Tell us more about Ella!’
I was subject to the draft, you know. There was a draft lottery that was in place the year before my graduation.
Birthdates, 366 of them, were written on ping pong balls, which were taken one by one from a large jar, with the sequence determining one’s place in the order for military service.
I had a low enough number that there was a good chance I would be sent to Vietnam.
That must’ve been a horrible feeling.
That was quite a contrast: I had come to the end of my college years, but then I was in queue to go to Vietnam. That’s the way the book starts.
I decided to stay in Princeton to wait out the draft. I was in limbo. So, I stayed in Princeton and got a job at nearby Rutgers.
In looking for a place to live and walking through town, I came across a woman who was having trouble exiting a store with her grocery cart. I offered to help her and then we walked together a few blocks.
She led me to the house where her sister lived and where I ended taking up residence.
By the time I toured the available room in that house (a priest had lived there just before me), I was told I could take the room and that there’d be no cost. And when leaving the house that day Ella’s sister looked at me and said, “You were sent to us, you know.”
That’s the tone I lived with for the next nine months.
Ella was older and near the end of her life and I was at the beginning of mine. I remember we had guests every weekend. But, during the week, Ella and I got to know each other.
Over nine months we found common ground and formed a deep friendship. Little by little, Ella’s story came out.
She shared how she was born into royalty, and how she escaped the Russian revolution. She shared choices she made early in her life, some of which her family frowned upon.
I not only learned her stories, but we became friends. We laughed, and there were also times we were in tears. I learned so much about life and the journey of life from Ella.
What do you hope your readers take away from Royal Edge?
Ella was born into royalty, but one does not have to be born into royalty to live a royal life. That’s a big essence of the story.
She defined royalty by the friends she surrounded herself with along with books, poetry, art, marvelous food and wine, music, and even several pets.
Ella was born into defined royalty, but it was the way she lived her life was that I came to understand her royalty.
As a young woman she pushed aside royal influences telling her not to work as a nurse in a military hospital. And in the telling one sees a wounded soldier, whose leg she had replaced with a prosthetic, ultimately becomes responsible for saving her life.
One of my favorite books growing up was Catcher in the Rye. There’s a scene in protagonist Holden Caulfield’s imagination where children are playing in a field, and he is thinking about his younger sister Phoebe.
In his mind the children are chasing butterflies as he stands at the edge of the field ready to catch them before any fall off the cliff into treacherous waters below.
It’s his imagination where he sees the innocent beauty of children that he wants to protect from a world he believes is made phony by inauthentic adults.
Holden thinks that if Phoebe would near a fall from the edge, he would catch her in his net and return her to the field of rye and the innocence of youth. He would protect his young sister from growing up in a world soured by adults.
My take is: I’m standing at the edge there, but I want to grow up. One desires a lovely childhood, no question. That sets the foundation for the rest of one’s life.
But, the best part is to define one’s life; doing the things one wants and surrounding oneself with that which one loves.
I saw Ella do that and I wanted to emulate that in my life. I wanted to create my version of living a royal life. I saw that in front of me at her dining table every night.
You see, in my view one wants to grow up and one wants to go over that edge. There’s so much beauty in taking control of one’s own life. Ella did just that. She was living a royal life because she defined royalty as the people and the way of life she surrounded herself with.
I wasn’t expecting that, for you to reference this classic book and say, “I want to do the opposite of that.”
I hope I don’t get in trouble for that!
No way. It’s refreshing. But, what caused the end of your and Ella’s arrangements? It seemed so idyllic.
At the very end of my time with Ella, I saw the doors closing on the government drafting me. Congress was bickering and there was a delay in the reinstatement of the draft law. I decided it was time to move on with my life with the foundation I formed with Ella.
I bought the cheapest ticket to Europe on Italian Line. It was the last time the ship named Christopher Columbus would make a transatlantic crossing. That voyage is followed by some European hitchhiking for me.
I started in Naples, hitch-hiked through Switzerland and went on to experience the modern architecture of the 1972 Olympic site in Munich.
At the time I did not realize how close it was to the Dachau Nazi death camp. I took the time to see and feel the depths of humanity there, depths that Ella had experienced in other ways.
It’s because of her that I continued my travels to the Paris Opera House where I experienced a Stravinsky performance of Firebird. It is so very beautiful.
There I was, sitting in the incredible architecture of the opera house, feasting on the arts of the very people Ella spoke about at our dinner table.
Afterwards I begin my career, which is pretty much where the book concludes. I was determined to create my version of a royal life like Ella did.
Many years later, I wanted to share my royal experience and perspective with my daughters, which came out on the hikes we’d take. Eventually I recorded my memories and organized them into this telling.
Do you consider the countess your ultimate muse?
Absolutely. One of the comments in an Amazon review was, “In Ella, Michael finds his muse.”
My mother was also a muse for me. She encouraged me to appreciate the arts. And coincidently, she was named Elizabeth as well.
Who would play her if your book were to be turned into a movie?
I could see Meryl Streep doing a great job. Meryl was a best friend of a best friend of mine growing up and while I never met her, I have always felt a connection.
Are there any upcoming projects you’d like us to know about?
I’m focused on getting the book out there. But I’d also like to tell the story of one of the skyscrapers I led the way on in Chicago.
I don’t think people in general have much of an idea of the complexities and drama of creating a skyscraper.
You’re full of surprises. I wasn’t expecting that answer!
Michael Pepper’s book is currently available to purchase on Amazon.
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