My Ex-Husband’s First Cousin: Mr. Bernstein’s Editor

Here’s a story that proves the world is the size of a pea. In my last post I wrote about this amazing 96 year old man who just published his first book to glowing reviews. (Since I don’t think any of you are 96 yet, I figured this would be pretty inspiring.)  The first comment was this:

"An amazing memoir, yes. I had the privilege to edit it for Ballantine last May and hope to see his second."

Posted by: Helen Glenn | April 11, 2007 at 04:22 AM 

Since my cousin’s name is Helen Glenn Court (techinically my ex-husband’s cousin, but I got to keep all his cousins when we were divorced.) I clicked on her name which links to her website. And lo and behold – it was Cousin Glenn the editor of Mr. B.’s book.  I find this so stunning that it verges on spooky.

Here’s what cousin Glenn wrote on her blog:

"My contact at Random House telephoned last May. "I have a manuscript for you," she said. "Great," said I.

"It's about 450 pages. Typewritten." I paused, wondering. Of course it's typewritten. All RH jobs are hard copy. Tedious, but the price of having Random House as a client. "Typewritten," she said again, "as in on a typewriter. The author is 95 years old."

Ah. Well, then ...The Invisible Wall, by an old man living in Brick, New Jersey... right down the road from the Lyon-Vaiden cottage at Manasquan. It was a delight, a well-done and revealing tale of a decade of his childhood in an English town before World War I, of the Jewish-Christian divide in a working-class neighborhood in a working-class town. It was also the manuscript that got me a reprimand note for stetting the commas in simple compound sentences. Random House doesn't like commas in simple compound sentences.

I glow, however. I'm all atwitter. I worked on a famous book. Okay, not famous, but newsworthy."

Comments

[lorenstephens]

Hi, my mother in her memoir said that it is not "six degrees of separation, but more like two degrees," upon running into a friend in the jungles of Sri Lanka who was driving in the car just ahead of her with an afgan hound in the backseat that looked like the mane of a movie star. Her friend, of coure, was larger than life and could not travel without an entourage which included the dog.

I am going to read this memoir, and may use it for my class at the Japanese American Museum, if I can get through it in time. It is so inspiring. I thought that Harriet Doerr was an inspiration -- began writing in her sixties and published three books including "Stones for Ibarra" which was made into a TV movie about her years living with her husband running a copper mine in Mexico. A resident of Pasadena, she passed away just a few years ago in her nineties. Recommmend all her books.

Thank you for the story. I did finally catch up on the New York Times of last week and read the review and an interview. What was particularly interesting is that he wrote the book after his wife passed away to fill his lonely hours. Loren Stephens

[sarah m]

My 87-year-old mother is just now taking a hard look at her ship logs from twenty-odd years of sailing. I have been encouraging her to do something with them, whether for public or private enjoyment. As she is pretty much housebound taking care of my 93-year-old father these days, I suggested it would give her a creative outlet. She is at a weekend writing workshop this weekend, and I believe she has those logs with her.

We all have a story to tell.

[Barbara]

Loren - Let me know what you think of the book when you read it - (Loved your Sri Lanka story.)

sarah m: Please keep us posted about your mother's progress with the logs - and also how she liked the workshop this weekend.