Magical Memoir Moments
Why Are We Here? Roger Ebert's 100 Answers to that Question in Films
Scroll slowly over this picture. Do you recognize the famous film critic Roger Ebert? I knew that Ebert had battled cancer, lost weight, and kept on going. What I did not know, until I saw that picture and read the article in Esquire about him, was that he has also lost his physical voice and most of…
Who's Being Bagged–Alexandra Penney or the Buyers of Her Memoir?
Remember when we looked at one of the casualties of the Bernie Madoff scandal–artist and blogger Alexandra Penney who got a book deal to tell her story? Here’s the blog post from February 12, 2009 catalogued under the catagory “memoir in the news.” Just one year later, the book is not only written but published,…
Black is Universal: E. Ethelbert Miller Radio Interview on Speaking of Faith
E. Ethelbert Miller spoke to Krista Tippett recently on her American Public Media program “Speaking of Faith.” Tippett described the conversation as a “jazz riff,” and I think you will agree that Miller, who is poet, spiritual seeker, memoirist, and director of the Afro-American Resource Center at Howard University, weaves together a beautiful cloth melody…
Five Google SB Memoir Ad Parodies–Which One is Best and Why?
It had to happen. Since the Google Super Bowl Ad was creative, popular, and infinitely repeatable, we had to start seeing parodies of it. But so soon? Three days after the Super Bowl, five parodies, from light to dark in tone, have reached Mashable! You can watch them here! Google must be bursting with pride, since…
Listen to Six-Word Memoirs on NPR
Want to hear people from all over the country call in their life stories in six words? It’s a pretty good way to spend 17 minutes! Just click here.
Laura Bush Memoir Book Deal Illustrates Recession?
Today’s Daily Beast asserts that Laura Bush received less than Nancy Reagan and Betty Ford–and only one third the amount that the same publisher (Simon & Shuster) paid for Hillary Clinton’s memoir. They speculate that the recession may be to blame. Poor Laura. She got a mere $1.6 million advance. Or could it be that in…
Papa Hemingway's Memoir: A Moveable Feast Redux
If you write a memoir, don’t die before you publish it! That’s one lesson to conclude from the ways in which the Hemingway family and scholars have debated in print over the posthumous memoir A Moveable Feast. Below you can listen to son Patrick Hemingway and grandson Sean Hemingway describe the newly “restored” edition of…
Sarah Palin's Independence Day
You don’t have to be a seer to recognize material for political celebrity memoir these days. Everyone knew that Sarah Palin would ink a book deal (even though she would not ink the memoir herself). Sure enough, HarperCollins signed her. The August issue of Vanity Fair includes an in-depth portrait of Palin by Todd S….
Memoir as Potential Social Movement
Last Friday, The Kalamazoo Gazette published an op-ed I wrote. Its conclusion contains the revolutionary idea that if all of us finished the tasks (see below or click link above) we need to accomplish before a “good” death is possible, we would have years to live free of the fear of death and thus could…
Memoir and Management: A Path to the Corner Office?
The New York Times runs interviews with CEO’s of various companies in a series called “The Corner Office.” On Sunday April 26, 2009, the subject was Richard Anderson, of Delta Air Lines as interviewed by Adam Bryant. Since I taught both English and history to undergraduates, I was delighted to see Anderson’s emphasis on the…