Matthew Di Paoli ’08 Publishes New Book ‘Holliday’
Holliday, the newest book written by Matthew Di Paoli ’08, was published on July 3, 2023.
Holliday follows the infamous 1880s gambler, dentist, and gunslinger, Doc Holliday. From the outset, Doc has been diagnosed with tuberculosis and is told to head to dryer climates and imbibe to prolong his life. He has also heard of a spring located somewhere along the frontier that could cure him—what he believes to be the mythical Fountain of Youth. The novel portrays Holliday as a rock star, a living legend, increasingly hounded by paparazzi, enamored by death, cards, booze, and women. Doc is a mixture of Clint Eastwood and Jim Morrison, and though he is able to help his friend, Wyatt Earp, exact revenge, his condition worsens, traveling from Arizona to Denver, and finally dying in a sanatorium in Colorado with his boots off. A slow and unfitting end for such a bombastic outlaw.
While Doc Holliday has been interpreted in many different ways in popular culture, Val Kilmer’s portrayal of the American folk (anti)hero in Tombstone (Buena Vista Pictures, 1993) stuck with Di Paoli in particular.
“It was that voice that I had in my mind as I was writing,” Di Paoli said in an interview with Sunbury Press.
Di Paoli also shared the ways in which his take on Doc Holliday both builds on and diverges from the mythos surrounding Doc Holliday:
“I did about six months of research, and everything in the book comes from a place of history,” Di Paoli said. “It’s very accurate, with two main things that are different. One is that in my book, he’s chasing after the fountain of youth. There becomes a possibility that despite what we know about him, he could survive. Then there’s also an element of his being an absolute rock star, with people following him around. I really played up that aspect.”
Di Paoli often finds inspiration for his writing from real life, be it history or his own experiences.
“Killstanbul [Di Paoli’s first book, a pulp crime novel(la)] came from my travels. But other times, I might be at a museum or reading something and come across something that strikes me and makes me want to research for the next six months. It starts with this idea that sparks my interest—that makes me want to go down the rabbit hole until I feel qualified enough to write about it.”
Order your copy of Holliday here.
Matthew Di Paoli has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three times including 2020. He has won the Wilbur & Niso Smith Adventure Writing Prize, the Prism Review, 2 Elizabeth’s, and Momaya Review Short Story Contests. Matthew earned his MFA in Fiction at Columbia University. He has been published in Boulevard, Fjords, Post Road, and Cleaver, among others. He is the author of Killstanbul with El Balazo Press and, Holliday with Sunbury Press.