Finance Partner Gets “His Shot” As a Guidebook Author
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ISSUE 12 | PERSPECTIVES INTERVIEW BY PASCALE RUCKER Finance Partner Gets “His Shot” as a Guidebook Author PASCALE RUCKER IS A MARKETING & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST IN OUR NEW YORK OFFICE. Banking & Finance partner Bryan Barreras (NY) is more of a “math/science guy” than a history buff, but in early 2016, this all changed after attending a performance of Hamilton: An American Musical with his family. Consumed by a sudden fascination with the historical sites featured in the show, Bryan decided to begin researching and visiting the ones in New York. Soon after, he dove headfirst into writing his first book, a Hamilton location guide titled Where Was the Room Where It Happened?, which he self-published. This was followed by another book, The Unofficial Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them location guide, co-authored with his daughter, who had a keen interest in the Harry Potter series (Fantastic Beasts is a prequel). Bryan joined Mayer Brown in December 2016 as a partner in the Firm’s New York office and a member of the global Banking & Finance and Fund Finance practices. 12 Sharing the Experiences of Our People What came first: your interest in latter is about the trial of Levi Weeks, which is just a snippet in Alexander Hamilton as a historical the show. However, it was the first big murder mystery in the figure or the Broadway show, United States. Hamilton: An American Musical? Hamilton and Burr were co-counsel for the defendant, and the trial was held at Federal Hall in New York. I pieced this I’m a math/science guy—so seeing the musical is definitely together with what I had read in Chernow’s biography—that how it started. I was drawn to both the history and the music. Federal Hall is also where the first government was housed, We’re big performing arts fans in our family, so I’m already and I suddenly found myself interested in the history of the pre-disposed to like theater and appreciate the talent of the locations in the show and began researching and visiting people putting on the show. I just loved every element of the them here in New York. At these locations, I found myself show—from the music, to the choreography, to the cos- surrounded by crowds of tourists and realized that there was tumes, to the set design—everything is so well done. I found an audience for a type of location guide. myself equally struck by the whole story of Hamilton. I didn’t realize going into the show that he was so central to our country’s founding. Living in New York, were you aware of most of these sites prior to seeing the show or were you How did you come up with the idea discovering them for the first time? for a location guide? No, I wasn’t really aware of most of these sites. I didn’t know After seeing the show, I wanted to dive deeper into Hamilton’s about Hamilton Grange. I might have heard about Fraunces history, so I read Ron Chernow’s biography, Alexander Tavern, but I had certainly never been there and definitely was Hamilton, and Paul Collins’s Duel with the Devil: The True unaware of its historical significance and connection to Story of How Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Teamed Up Hamilton. I’d walked by Trinity Church tons of times without to Take on America’s First Sensational Murder Mystery. The ever having gone into the graveyard, where Hamilton is buried. mayer brown 13 ISSUE 12 | PERSPECTIVES Besides physically visiting the Was it difficult to set aside time sites, how did you conduct research to write? and collect the pieces of trivia for your book, Where Was the Room Where I wasn’t actually practicing full-time when I wrote the book. I It Happened? was in-house at a bank and left to join a start-up, which didn’t work out. I suddenly found myself with time on my Most of the sites are pretty historic, so once I started looking hands while I was figuring out my next career step. I saw the for it there was information to be had. I didn’t want to just show in January 2016, got the idea to write the book in “Wikipedia” everything, though, so I used Chernow’s February 2016, finished writing it in July 2016 and joined biography as a starting point to confirm historical informa- Mayer Brown in December 2016. tion, dates, who was and wasn’t there, and so on. I also did end up going to all the sites and collecting the information available there. Did you face any hurdles working on this book? In terms of writing process, I started with one location, Fraunces Tavern. I collected my research and laid out the information how I envisioned it (its setting in the show, who What was actually more difficult was navigating the self-pub- was really there, address and map, how to get there by lishing process. I didn’t anticipate how much of writing a book subway, history/items of interest, etc.). I then ran it by my wasn’t actually spent writing. I had all the information, but family to see if they thought anything was there; they were on then I had to figure out how to turn it into a real paperback board, so I continued with the rest of the sites. book. There w[ere] a lot of layout issues, cover decisions and finding people to read it and write reviews. Then I realized, turning the book into an e-book is a whole different process. Which historical site featured in Because my book isn’t just text—there’s a lot of pictures, your location guide was the most maps and graphics—something as simple as subway symbols exciting to learn about? don’t easily convert to e-book, and because it’s a reference book I added hyperlinks throughout to make it easier to To me, the history of Federal Hall was fascinating to learn navigate. On top of that, each platform (iTunes, Amazon, etc.) about just because it has played such different roles through- requires different formats. You can’t simply use one file for out our country’s history. However, my favorite site is them all. I didn’t know this going in, but there is a lot of probably Morris-Jumel Mansion because it’s one of the few logistical work behind the scenes to make it happen. sites that has both Hamilton-related history and musical- related history. Not only is it the oldest residential home in Manhattan, but because of its strategic location on one of the Did anything unexpected come out of the writing and publishing process? highest points in Manhattan, George Washington temporar- ily used it as his headquarters during the Revolutionary War. Later, Aaron Burr would live there during his marriage to Eliza One neat thing to come out of writing the book is the people Jumel. Fast forward to current day, and [playwright] Lin I’ve met. One of the first places to carry my book was the Manuel-Miranda would write a portion of the show there in Museum of American Finance here in New York (which was Burr’s old bedroom. also the first place where I gave a talk about my book). At the 14 Sharing the Experiences of Our People time, the front and back covers were pretty simple—no quotes or endorsements. But then, the museum shop manager there got it into the hands of the founder of the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society, who then reached out to me and has helped put me in contact with other Hamilton scholars and enthusiasts. The Society has been very supportive of the book and has included me in events it hosts every year around Hamilton’s birthday and the day of the duel. I’ve even spoken at a few of those events. You’ve authored a second location guide, The Unofficial Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, this time with your daughter. How did the creative process differ between this and Where Was the Room Where It Happened? Having already gone through the experience for Hamilton, Fantastic Beasts was a breeze. From start to finish, it took less than a month, and it was great working on it with my daughter. The movie takes place in New York, so I was able to borrow most of the same layout, format and writing process from Hamilton. While I was writing it, though, I realized it likely wouldn’t have the same appeal. Unlike Hamilton, where when you go to sites like Federal Hall you see real history, the Fantastic Beasts franchise is fiction. You can place the fictional MACUSA Headquarters in the actual Woolworth Building, but nothing actually happened there related to the Harry Potter universe. It’s an interesting New York site, but the ties to Fantastic Beasts [are] fictional. Interestingly enough, one museum that carried my Hamilton book in their store, the New-York Historical Society, is now hosting a Harry Potter exhibit, so they recently started carrying my Fantastic Beasts book in tandem with the exhibit. u TOP: Federal Hall, 26 Wall Street, New York City MIDDLE: Fraunces Tavern, 54 Pearl Street, New York City BOTTOM: Morris-Jumel Mansion, Roger Morris Park, 65 Jumel Terrace, New York City mayer brown 15.