CARTER GOES TO WAR FORMER PRESIDENT PENS NOVEL ABOUT SOUTH DURING AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

Byline: David Kronke Staff Writer

Most American presidents, upon leaving office, are content to feast upon the fruits of their labor: Unfettered jet-setting, lucrative positions on corporate boards and fat fees for recycled 20-minute speeches highlight the typical manner in which presidents handle the oft-humbling slide from statesman to civilian. But Jimmy Carter is the rare man to exit the presidency and become an even better public servant.

Since leaving office in 1980, Carter, who was a skilled carpenter before entering politics, took up his hammer anew and labored for Habitat for Humanity, building homes for the homeless. Reticent to indulge in self- aggrandizing with the pomp of a presidential library, Carter instead folded his into a larger humanitarian concern - the Carter Center, established in 1982 to help resolve global conflicts, monitor elections in less-democratic parts of the world and eradicate punishing diseases threatening Third World countries. These works were instrumental in Carter's receiving the Nobel Peace Prize last year.

As Hendrik Hertzberg, Carter's former speechwriter, has observed, ``Being a good ex-president doesn't somehow retrospectively make you a better president; what a post-presidency can do, though, is to shed light on the character of a president. We've certainly seen that very clearly with Jimmy Carter in the qualities of perseverance, dedication, integrity, devotion to the values of human rights and peace. Those have all turned out to be very, very real.''

In addition to his philanthropy worldwide, Carter has also found time to write 18 books in the past couple of decades. Most, naturally, have been memoirs (``An Hour Before Daylight'' was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize) and disquisitions on affairs of state. Now, at age 79, the former president has become a first-time novelist, with ``The Hornet's Nest'' (Simon & Schuster; $27), a saga seven years in the making that explores the oft-ignored role the Southern states played in the Revolutionary War.

Billed by its publisher as ``the first work of fiction by a president of the United States'' (Carter laughs at the suggestion that history is strewn with presidential ``works of fiction''), ``The Hornet's Nest'' takes a panoramic look at how rebel militia groups managed to wrest control of the Southern states away from England and how capricious fate almost conspired to alter the war's outcome.

Carter will be signing copies of ``The Hornet's Nest'' Tuesday evening at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena. He spoke to the Daily News recently about the latest addition to his resume: novelist.

Q: In your speech accepting the Nobel Prize, you discussed current U.S. policies unilaterally imposing the administration's will upon the rest of the world. Does this seem an odd time to be discussing a novel, when the world's opinion of America seems so dire?

A: How my story might be pertinent at this time is in how it shows America reaching out to allies of a strong permanent nature to prevail in an international challenge. I think America needs to be reminded about this - we refuse to eat French fries, but we could never have won the war if the French hadn't come to join us and give us overwhelming support to the feeble army of George Washington.

These are facts that have shaped our nation and our moral values that have been sadly forgotten. We forgot that when we decided to unilaterally invade Iraq with a few British troops lagging along. What was understood by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin seems to have receded into the distant background with this administration.

Q: What inspired you to try your hand at fiction?

A: Ten years ago, I wanted to write a book of poems (``Always a Reckoning''). I approached with some temerity a couple of distinguished poets at the University of Arkansas who took me under their wing, and I received the equivalent of a postgraduate course in poetry. With the novel, it was the same thing. I went to college professors who teach creative writing, and they offered their counsel and reading assignments. They instilled in me a pretty good discipline and understanding of plot development, dialogue and descriptions.

I was interested in this subject because very few accounts of the Revolutionary War are definitive in the sense of describing the gamut of the war. Americans know about the Bunker Hill skirmishes, or George Washington at Valley Forge, or Cornwallis' surrender at Georgetown. But all of the major battles fought in the Deep South have been completely ignored by history writers.

There was a small group of American revolutionaries - today we would call them guerrilla fighters - who never gave up, even though the British totally controlled Georgia. They never did surrender. The battles of the South helped shape the Revolution. I personalize it because there was great terror in becoming revolutionaries - many had taken oaths to be loyal to the King. And there was a take-no-prisoners policy in battle - you were executed on the spot by bayonet or hanging. It was the most bloody war in which Americans were ever involved.

I wanted to tell the story of what made people decide to fight for freedom and independence - and how those decisions created a schism within families. There was no geographical division in the Revolutionary War. In the Civil War, you had the divide - Yankees and Confederates. Here, however, there were deep divisions inside families, intense hatred between brothers, between fathers and sons. These aspects have been rarely discussed.

Q: You wrote about your ancestors in the book. Is there more you discovered about your ancestors that isn't included? How much did you fictionalize them?

A: I learned a lot in the process. My ancestors left North Carolina under pressure with a large group. In 1780, Ethan (Pratt, the novel's protagonist) built a stone home after the model of a Pennsylvania home. It's called the Old Rock House, and it's the oldest house in Georgia.

My own life is married in some degree to Ethan's habits. On my farm I did manual labor, and I'm a fairly accomplished furniture builder. I make chairs exactly like those described in the book. And my daddy taught me blacksmith work. A lot of what I describe in his life as a farmer came from personal experiences: How he traveled from one place to another without taking main roads, how he grew flax and rice.

I didn't realize how closely our lives were mirrored. In analyzing my ancestor's lives, I discovered that we farmed practically the same way since the time of Christ. There was virtually no change until tractors came along, and we didn't have a tractor on our farm.

Q: In your acknowledgments, you write that your editors convinced you to reluctantly cut the book's length. I can't imagine possessing the hubris to suggest editing changes to the words of a former president.

A: Actually, they treat me like an author rather than a president all too often (laughs). The most extensive cuts were depictions of Indian life. They knew quite early on that their future would be much better if they cast their lot with the British. The British were the only ones to flatter them with gifts of any substance - guns and gunpowder, knives. The Indians were clever and managed to play off both sides, the British and the settlers, as well as the French and Spanish.

I also had discussions with my editors over the book cover - they originally wanted a painting by N.C. Wyeth, but I wasn't sure. So I painted it myself. On that count, I prevailed.

Q: Was there a specific teacher or moment you recall that inspired your love of history?

A: I had a remarkable teacher named Julia Coleman, whom I've quoted twice in speeches - in my presidential inauguration and when I received the Nobel Prize. She treated this little child in a hamlet like an Oxford scholar or the president of the United States. Something she said has always resonated with me: ``We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.'' And though there has been amazing change since the 1770s, the Revolutionary War has been the most important war that affected our lives. Its outcome shaped our nation's principles that have never really changed. That's been the strength of our country.

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

JIMMY CARTER

What: The former president signs copies of his first novel, ``The Hornet's Nest,'' and his other books. The event is sold out.

Where: Vroman's Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. [phone].

When: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Ticket-holders are advised to show up by 5:45 p.m.

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Former president Jimmy Carter, whose first novel is called ``The Hornet's Nest,'' says the values we as a nation learned during the Revolutionary War are lacking in today's administration.

The New York Times