The memoir in the attic: Canton Elegy

Posted on April 23, 2012 by moonbridgebooks

Wouldn’t that be a dream to find an old memoir hidden in a trunk in the attic? To turn the yellowed pages of time and find an amazing story of a great-grandfather’s or grandmother’s everyday life long ago when times were tougher and the world was changing so rapidly? Well it does happen.

The latest I’ve heard of is Canton Elegy, the title so far. London writer Howard Webster married a Chinese-American girl and was shown the pages of her grandfather’s memoir the family had put away for 50-some years, not knowing what to do with it. Webster found the story beautiful, moving, and harrowing, documenting in English-second-language the journey of Stephen Jin-Nom Lee from poverty to being a colonel in the Canton military, through war and revolution. Agent Susan Mears says, “Effectively it’s a male version of Jung Chang’s Wild Swans but much more of an engaging read.”

How nice we live in a time when publishing has never been easier. In Webster’s case, the memoir, which he edited and presented to Mears, was attractive to a trade publisher, but if it wasn’t he could have gone with a small press or indie-published it himself.

My mother wishes she hadn’t lost her diary in a firestorm during WWII, and what a dream that would have been to have her read it to me. But, at least she remembered a lot and we’ve now got her Cherry Blossoms in Twilight memoir published. Stories like the Lee family’s do happen frequently, but usually it’s a diary or journal that’s found. Makes you wish everybody kept one.

WWI illustrated diary found
Old diary reveals Japanese and Jews in WWII
400-year-old diary of witch hunts
What to do with an old diary you find

Posted in history, journal | 3 Comments

Finding The Personal History of Rachel Dupree

Posted on April 15, 2012 by moonbridgebooks

Author Ann Weisgarber flew in from Texas to talk to our St. Louis Publishers Association about the publishing journey for her debut novel, The Personal History of Rachel Dupree. The book is fiction, but its story has value for memoirists, too.

While on vacation in South Dakota, Ann saw a photo of a young black woman standing in front of a sod dugout. Something about this woman haunted her – who was she, was she alone, what was it like being black on the frontier? Ann felt a story was there, and she wanted to tell it, even if she didn’t know it. Unfortunately she soon discovered she didn’t write very well! (Yes, her husband gently broke the news to her.) Did that stop her? No.

Ann wanted to honor this unknown woman’s courage, perseverence and sacrifice, common traits all pioneers had to have, but here was a black woman whose life must have been all the more difficult. So Ann took non-credit writing classes. She also did a lot of research about pioneer life in South Dakota and spoke to residents there about stories they had heard from their parents or grandparents. She researched other places of that time period (Buffalo Soldiers, Chicago stockyards, Ida Mae Wells-Barnett) that she wanted to include. And she did all this with no intention of being published! Until, that is, a writing teacher told her she had something special.

I won’t talk about how hard it was for Ann to find a publisher; the main point is that she did not give up in her quest to tell a story she felt was historic, important and forgotten. It had to be fiction, but a lot is based on real history, real hardships, real personal stories from those she interviewed. I think she is an inspiration for those of us wondering about the stories of relatives now deceased. Ann let me know that even people who have passed on have traces of story left. All it takes is a little research.

If there are any genealogy fans out there mixing stories into their lists of family names, let me know your experiences doing this. I’m thinking of posting how to combine genealogy with stories.

By the way, Ann’s book is very good – lots of drama, dust, and determination.

Posted in book talk, history, multicultural | Tagged | 2 Comments

The importance of story, but mainly of family

Posted on April 8, 2012 by moonbridgebooks

Katie is breathing her last. She came to the nursing home a few days before my mother and they were the new girls together. I love her dearly, and she told me many a story of the old days when her parents died and left her an orphan at the age of 13. She and her 16-year-old brother raised their three younger brothers alone, under the watchful eye of a few neighbors who tried to help as they could. This was the Depression, after all, and families had their own troubles to deal with.

I found Katie much worse today, but asleep and in no pain. Her son and his wife had been with her most of the night and were coming back from taking a break when I arrived. They thanked me again for writing her childhood stories into a book. Their pastor had a copy and was reading it in preparation for the funeral we know will come soon. As sad as we are she is leaving us, we know we will always remember her by her stories, printed and bound fast to our hearts.

In her last days
Life seems exquisitely sweet
She dreams of lilies?
They bloom in the garden
The one that awaits her

 

Posted in capturing memories, death | 9 Comments