Five Questions: Reflections from Modern Memoirs Authors

As a special project to celebrate Modern Memoirs’ 30th anniversary, our staff decided to compile client interviews from our monthly “Reflections” blog series into a Digital Book entitled Five Questions: Reflections from Modern Memoirs Authors. Genealogist Liz Sonnenberg has been writing the “Reflections” series for the past three years. She brings a deep familiarity with each profiled author’s work to every one of her interviews, along with a genuine curiosity about the inspirations, struggles, and rewards they encountered along the self-publishing journey. The goal of each interview is to gain a deeper understanding of our authors as we allow them to process the impressive undertaking they have accomplished. For their part, our interviewees consistently honor us with honest, eloquent, and profoundly insightful reflections on their book projects.

“The goal of each interview is to gain a deeper understanding of our authors and allow them to process the impressive undertaking they have accomplished.”

As with each “Reflections” blog in the series, the creation of the Digital Book was a team effort that drew on the talents of the entire staff. The finished product is easy to share digitally with those curious about self-publishing, who may see a reflection of themselves in our former clients.

One of my favorite aspects of Five Questions is its variety of clients and projects. Five Questions represents authors who began the self-publishing process unsure of the value of their stories, authors who have sent their Modern Memoirs-published books to the Library of Congress, authors who wrote books primarily for the benefit of family or even for one specific family member, and authors who wrote books for self-expression. One client who has published three books with us, Stephen Rostand, explained his motivation for writing a family history in his interview: “I wanted to make sure my children and grandchildren and cousins knew something about their origins so they would not be orphans in history. After all, our past is part of all of us and knowing who we are should help guide us in the future.”

The presence of several repeat authors in Five Questions, some of whom are featured more than once in the book, may point to the value that our clients find not just in the Modern Memoirs publishing experience, but in these interviews, as well. A former client who is considering embarking on a new project with Modern Memoirs may revisit their “Reflections” blog to recall the specific obstacles they encountered and rewards they received from their first book. In her interview with client Elizabeth Tsai, who has published five books with Modern Memoirs, Liz asked what made her decide to return to the company to pursue her second project. Tsai answered, “[My first project] A Grandmother’s Diary was a way to test the waters. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Modern Memoirs, and I was confident that they would be as superb and as encouraging, if not more so, with the second project. The experience of working on the autobiography was akin to, but more fun and fruitful than, taking a course on memoir writing at a university. I learned a great deal, I had the fervent support of experts, and I exulted in the friendship of noble souls.”

As we celebrate three decades of helping hundreds of writers create the beautiful books they envision, we invite you to read about some of their experiences, and to share this Digital Book with anyone who might be ready to publish a book of their own with Modern Memoirs, Inc.

Emma Solis is publishing associate for Modern Memoirs.

Reflections from Modern Memoirs Director of Publishing Ali de Groot, Part 1

Director of Publishing Alison “Ali” de Groot began her official employment at Modern Memoirs in September 2004. In honor of her 20th anniversary this year, we are presenting a two-part blog series in which we asked de Groot to reflect on two books of her own. In Part 1 below, she discusses Learning to Speak, a bereavement book dedicated to her mother, which de Groot published herself in 1999. Later, in Part 2, we will look into The Reader’s Chair: An Anthology of Memoirs-in-Progress, edited by de Groot and published by Modern Memoirs in 2018.

© 1999 Alison de Groot

Ali de Groot’s mother, Nancy Phillipson de Groot (1932–1974), died when de Groot was 14 years old. In the Introduction to Learning to Speak, de Groot describes the years of silence that followed her mother’s death, and the years it took de Groot to realize what she had gone through after her mother died. Her book came about when, decades later, de Groot joined a “Bereavement Book” writing group facilitated by Kitty Axelson-Berry, who is a writer, editor, and founder of Modern Memoirs.




1. Your book opens with a quote by C.S. Lewis from A Grief Observed: “It doesn’t matter—not much—if my memory of her is imperfect. Images, whether on paper or in the mind, are not important for themselves. Merely links.” Why do these words resonate with you, and how do they reflect your experience with writing this book?

Ali de Groot: Firstly, C.S. Lewis was a favorite author of my late mother’s. She taught me the word “theologian” when I was a child and would have me read aloud to her in bed before I went off to sleep. We read all the Chronicles of Narnia by Lewis, as well as scores of spiritual writings by other theologians my mother admired. Decades later, when I came across C.S. Lewis’ book A Grief Observed, I was riveted because of how raw and honest Lewis sounded in describing his feelings after the death of his wife. It wasn’t a theologian talking, it was a man questioning everything he had ever learned or known or felt.

This particular quote is important to me because memory is indeed imperfect. What is important is to keep the memories alive. My memory of my mother is obviously going to be different from other people’s memories of her, and I had to come to terms with that once I started writing. But my primary goal was first to try to remember her, then to record my memories by writing them down. And I really wanted to be able to talk about her with my young children, who never knew their maternal grandmother.

2. In the Introduction you write, “This project was very, very hard to do at first, and I went slowly and with much anxiety. I had never separated my mother from the death itself, so there was no difference between thinking of her and thinking of aloneness and darkness. I do not exaggerate when I say that fear almost consumed me.” What was it that eventually opened you up, allowing you to overcome your trepidation?

Ali de Groot: It’s hard for me to imagine now, but for decades after my mother died, I never talked about her. Since I was only 14 and it was a sudden, unexpected death, it all became weirdly normal—she was just “gone” and we didn’t talk about her. That sounds horrible and callous to me now, but I think the main reason I didn’t talk is that nobody around me talked about her. This was in the 1970s, and resources for young people around the topic of death and dying were minimal. Plus, in my family culture, death wasn’t much discussed. We all went on with our lives.

What opened me up was the Bereavement Book writing group that Kitty led. It was a small group of just a few people, all of whom had lost a family member, recently or even far in the past (my mother had died 24 years earlier). The workshop offered a safe, tight structure and required setting aside a dedicated time to write weekly, far away from my home life.

The writing assignments sorted themselves into two themes, the first being a tribute to my mother, and the second being a chronicle of my bereavement and breaking the silence which had engulfed me. Starting with the easy exercises and positive memories really helped. One of the assignments was to bring in a picture of the deceased and write a couple of paragraphs about it. For many people this might be a nice activity, but any pictures I had of my mother were stuffed away in a box that hadn’t been touched since 1974. Having just that one task to do (which seemed insurmountable until I did it) became somehow manageable. Baby steps.

“I didn’t even remember much about my mother, or so I thought. Once I started writing, more and more memories came, and the positive memories far outweighed the darkness of loss.”

The workshop was practical, focused, and Kitty was the consummate facilitator. One of the first things I remember her saying to us was, “This is a writing group, not a therapy group, so it might be a good idea to get a therapist on the side.” This I did, and it was a great support because challenging feelings did come up, and I then had a fitting place to work through them. After the workshop was over, I continued writing every week with another group member. (We became very close friends and have always carved out time to write together, even now.) It took another year to finish the book, with the help of a generous designer friend and with production assistance from Kitty.

3. You say that initially yours was a personal bereavement book, written only for you. What changed and made you decide to share it with your family and friends? What did you hope they would gain by reading it? Looking back, how do you think this book has impacted others in your life?

Ali de Groot: I didn’t think this would ever become a book in the first place—just a few handwritten vignettes in notebook. If I had started to imagine other people reading anything, I probably would’ve stopped writing. I didn’t even remember much about my mother, or so I thought. Once I started writing, more and more memories came, and the positive memories far outweighed the darkness of loss. I also found many of her journals in the old boxes and decided to include scans of her own writing in the book. When I realized it was becoming somewhat biographical of my mother, I thought about giving it to family and close friends.

I hoped that family members would also reminisce about my mother, and I even left a chunk of blank pages in the middle of the book for people to write down their own memories. I’ve gotten lots of feedback over the years, ranging from “That’s not the mother I knew!” to “I learned so much about her, and about you.” More recently, I was at an aunt’s funeral and was surprised to see someone had brought the book and set it on the display table along with photos of my late aunt. I’m glad the book has sort of taken on a life of its own.

Front cover and inside page of a daily journal of my mother's, c. 1969

4. In the end, what were the personal rewards of undertaking this project?

Ali de Groot: The biggest personal reward: understanding the phases of grief and having the ability finally to talk about my mother. I can talk about her endlessly now! Hence the title, Learning to Speak. This is a double entendre, because before I was born, my mother developed esophageal cancer and literally had to learn to speak again after surgery. She was able to speak without a larynx and even become a teacher of other laryngectomees, which I didn’t even realize until I started looking back at her life and found a newspaper article about her.

Another invaluable reward was giving a copy of the book to each of my three kids, and hearing back from them now as adults. After all, this was the grandmother they never knew, but they can probably all name her favorite flower (lily of the valley), her favorite state, her middle name, her flaws. And they know more about me. I’ve also given the book to my closest friends, especially my old friends who knew me when I was so bottled up, and I hope they, too, came to understand me better.

5. How did writing this book influence your desire to join Modern Memoirs and pursue the work of helping others to self-publish their life stories and family histories?

Ali de Groot: When I finished the book and, with the help of Kitty, got it into print, I realized a couple of things: firstly, that writing is a deeply cathartic form of self-expression, and secondly, that I could probably do writing and editing as a profession. (I was a college teacher at that time.) So after 9/11 when there was an opening at Modern Memoirs’ nonprofit American Tribute Center for a volunteer writer, I contacted Kitty and told her I was available. That first job was unpaid, but it was a profound experience (I’ll write about that another time) that cemented my commitment to work in this field.

I love my job. I love the mentoring that I’ve gotten from Kitty and from everyone at Modern Memoirs. I love getting to know our clients, authors who all, at some point, seem to encounter struggles during the writing or completion of their books, challenges I often understand. And I can say, hands down, the best and most surprising thing I’ve ever done in my life—besides having children—is writing a book about my late mother.

* * *

For an early blog by Ali de Groot on a related topic, see “Writing and Healing: How Bereavement Became a Book.”

Liz Sonnenberg is genealogist for Modern Memoirs, Inc.

Reflections from Dr. Gail Twersky Reimer, Friend of Modern Memoirs Client Dr. Evelyn Fox Keller

Dr. Evelyn Fox Keller published Making Sense of My Life in Science: A Memoir with Modern Memoirs in February 2023. Sadly, Keller passed away in September that year, but not before celebrating the book’s arrival with two launch parties, one for residents of the hospice-care facility in which she was staying, and one for family and friends. Dr. Gail Twersky Reimer, one of Keller’s closest friends, initiated the publication process with Modern Memoirs and shepherded it through its completion. Fast-tracked because of Keller’s declining health, print editions of the Assisted Memoir were available two and a half months after Reimer initiated the project, and an eBook followed one week later. We asked Reimer to reflect on her relationship with Keller, and what she feels it meant to Keller to share her books with others.

Introduction

Keller earned her doctorate in physics from Harvard University in 1965. As described on the Jewish Women’s Archive website, “Evelyn Fox Keller was a scientist working in theoretical physics and mathematical biology until the rise of feminism in the 1970s prompted her to turn her scientific analysis to the ways gender ideology shapes scientific inquiry and concepts.” She taught, lectured, and wrote multiple articles and books, including:

She also received several awards and honors, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 1992.

Reimer received her doctorate in English and American Literature from Rutgers University. She was a faculty member of Wellesley College, associate director of the Massachusetts Foundation of the Humanities, and was the founding director of the Jewish Women’s Archive.

1. In Making Sense of My Life in Science, you and Diane Paul are singled out by Keller as friends, who, along with her family, “have been there for me whenever I needed help.” When and how did you meet Keller? What drew you to her as a friend and solidified your relationship?

Gail Reimer: As she was completing her memoir, Evelyn needed quite a bit of help. But when she and I first met in 1984, I was the one in need of help. I was coming off of three difficult and demeaning years in which my senior colleagues regularly belittled my intellectual interests and disparaged my style of teaching. Drawing on how she had come to understand her own painful experiences as a graduate student, Evelyn took it as her mission to fortify my understanding that the assault on my interests was not about me and to mentor me as I planned how best to pursue my interests going forward. Several years later we both found ourselves under attack at about the same time—Evelyn by the “defenders of science,” and I by Lynn Cheney and the defenders of “traditional history.” The support we offered one another as we combatted the misrepresentations of our respective work, along with mutual respect and eventually deep love solidified our relationship and our commitment to being there for each other in good times and bad.

2. Keller mentions you again as a member of the “Mothers’ Group,” which she and her friend Marianne Hirsch organized in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the mid-1980s “as an attempt to restore the maternal voice to feminist theory.” Describe this group and its work. What energy and insights did Keller bring to it?

Gail Reimer: The mothers’ group was a hybrid consciousness raising/discussion group. It developed from a conversation over coffee at Café Algiers in which Marianne Hirsch identified a problem she was struggling with—the mother’s voice was always theorized from the point of view of the daughter—and Evelyn, who was rarely daunted by a problem, said, “If there is no theory, let’s bring together some smart women and make one.” A small group of women, all mothers and scholars whose work touched on mothering in one way or another, met regularly in Evelyn’s apartment. Over wine and cheese, we struggled to give voice to our maternal experience “without,” as Hirsch has written, “being naïve about what the notion means or facile about its discursive character.” In her memoir Evelyn recalls our discussions as “invariably intense, provocative and stimulating.” What she leaves out is the frequency with which she was the one asking the toughest questions.

“The memoir allows readers to see behind the success, into her dreams and disappointments, her internal struggles, her loneliness and vulnerability, as well as her brilliance, boldness, and astounding self-confidence.”

3. In learning how to write her books, Keller describes learning the “discipline of clarity,” which meant “demanding that the meaning I sought to convey in every sentence be crystal clear.” She said this was “in complete accord with my overriding quest, always, to be understood.” How would you say this memoir contributes to Keller’s life and work being understood by its readers?

Gail Reimer: The title of Evelyn’s memoir, which references an earlier book of hers, Making Sense of Life (2002), makes clear that the memoir is about HER “life in science”—the concerns and questions she brought to her work in science, as well as the difficulties she faced as she tried to make a life for herself in science. Given her prominence, the numerous honors and awards she received, including the MacArthur “genius” award, as well as her extensive list of influential publications, it would be easy to imagine her career as a remarkable success story. The memoir allows readers to see behind the success, into her dreams and disappointments, her internal struggles, her loneliness and vulnerability, as well as her brilliance, boldness, and astounding self-confidence.

4. When did Keller begin and finish writing her memoir? At what point did you become involved in its publication, and what can you share about your experience in helping her with the process?

Gail Reimer: Midway through her memoir, in the chapter titled “Terra Firma, A Crucial Turning Point,” Evelyn quotes a long section from a 1977 essay she wrote about her personal struggles titled “The Anomaly of a Woman in Physics. “ I would argue that by deciding to include the essay in her memoir, Evelyn was in a sense acknowledging its significance as her initial foray into memoir writing. It wasn’t till some 35 years later, after completing the book about the climate crisis that she co-authored with Phil Kitcher (The Seasons Alter: How to Save Our Planet in Six Acts), that Evelyn returned to writing about her personal experience. She continued to work on the memoir as her health declined, relying on her son and a few friends to comment, critique, and help edit the manuscript. Concerned that time was running out and knowing how important it was to Evelyn to see the memoir published, I suggested that she self-publish and avoid the time lag from manuscript to publication typical at trade publishing houses. Modern Memoirs immediately understood the necessity to fast-track the book, and I worked closely with Evelyn to respond to their timely queries and suggested edits, choose and caption photos, decide on a title and final jacket design, and more. What for some time had felt like a book that would never see the light of day became a regular source of joy as galleys, blurbs, images of the cover, and finally the book itself arrived.

5. What was Keller’s reaction to seeing the final product? Tell us about the launch parties and the responses of the people who attended.

Gail Reimer: Given how many books she had published, it was kind of surprising to experience her excitement when the first copy arrived. She was deeply moved by the blurbs, delighted by how beautifully the cover came out (and how beautiful she looked), and thrilled that she would now be able to share the book with family and friends. There were two launch parties: one for residents of Youville House, the assisted living facility where Evelyn had been in residence for several years, and one, several weeks later, for family and friends. She spoke and read from the memoir at both, though by the second party she was too weak to finish reading the section she’d chosen. Though many of the residents and staff at Youville knew her, most were surprised and fascinated by her life story and many accomplishments, and Evelyn was amused by her sudden celebrity status at Youville. The second party was more of a love fest with many people in the room eager to expand on something mentioned in the memoir or recall a story that was not included. Evelyn was especially moved by how much her sister, Frances Fox Piven, wanted to share stories of their “sisterhood” as young children. Sadly, by the time the book was done, Evelyn no longer had the energy to write long inscriptions to the friends with whom she most wanted to share her memoir. Thankfully she’d been able to acknowledge how much those friends and colleagues meant to her in the final pages of the memoir.




If you are interested in purchasing Keller’s memoir, please visit the Modern Memoirs online shop, Memory Lane Books & Gifts.

Many of Keller’s other books are available for purchase through our affiliate page on Bookshop.org.

Liz Sonnenberg is genealogist for Modern Memoirs, Inc.

THE END: Sometimes Authors Just Don’t Want to Finish

I understand procrastination. I think it’s human nature—we all have a bit in us, and some people, more than a bit. It can be seen as a benevolent source of gravity keeping us grounded in the present (“I’d rather go out with my friend than write an agenda for next week’s meeting”) or a bargaining chip (“I’m cleaning out my silverware drawer instead of starting my taxes”) or surely it can be a debilitating problem (“I can’t finish anything”).

I’ve been trying to figure out for several decades why some people simply cannot seem to finish writing their memoirs. Or they can pretty much finish writing but can’t seem to bring it to completion, to production. One conclusion is that the memoir writing keeps the author going, mentally and even physically, and there’s little we can do to hurry it along to fruition. Of course, with the omnipresence of reminiscence, there’s always another event to write about when writing a memoir. New things always arise:

“Oh, here’s another paragraph about my second cousin once removed—it’s important.”

“I found a photo of a trophy I won in high school. Please add it!”

“Can I add something about the trip we took to Hokkaido last month?”

“Should I change the way I described my ex-wife’s parents? I think it's not very nice.” (“Hmm… yes,” I would answer.)

I’m sure that perfectionism, not procrastination, plays a role for some writers. Every re-reading of a piece lays bare the disappointing truth that one could say it differently. So one keeps revising and revising and revising. Or awareness of an audience suddenly looms: “What will my children think of this chapter?” Or “This book is too long/too short/too nice/too harsh/too boring…” More likely, the writer has become bored from reading the same piece over and over for some years.

“Every re-reading of a piece lays bare the disappointing truth that one could say it differently”

My favorite expression in writing and in other pursuits is attributed to Voltaire, referencing the words of an Italian sage: “Le mieux et l’ennemie du bien.”[1] Literally, “the best is the enemy of good.” I take it to mean: Seeking perfection gets in the way of good writing. Don’t be a perfectionist! Or, to put into action—when writing, go with what feels good and authentic, and don’t keep reworking in an attempt to be so-called “great.” This will just drag you down and stall completion. To what end? To have changed the verb “close” to “shut”? To say “upset” instead of “furious”?

Oscar Wilde is thought to have said, “I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.”

Another serious issue that can hold up the writing process is showing your writing to a friend or family member. Of course, we understand the need to get some details accurate, or fill in missing information, etc. However, letting others read your work inevitably allows the entrance of more opinions, “corrections,” and burdensome advice that can get in the way of completion. Some authors thrive on this and are motivated to plow forward; others are stalled and sometimes paralyzed by it. One client sent the manuscript, midstream, to his family member to “check a few details” and the manuscript was returned to us 7 months later. There were all of 10 sentences of revisions in 350 pages.

From the publisher’s perspective, despite our commitment to white-glove service and always respecting the client’s timetable, the longer a client’s project stretches on, the harder it becomes for the team working behind the scenes to manage it. A lengthy project means increased and long-term juggling with many other projects, some of which become priority because they are moving at a normal clip. It also means inefficiently having to adjust the interior design over and over to accommodate new paragraphs or new photos. It means having to re-read the writing many times, because it is impossible to hold on to the details of a 400-page storyline, especially over a matter of months or years. It gets harder to maintain the flow of the narrative, harder to remember the custom grammar and spelling styles (even with our custom style sheets), and harder to catch repeated information. It means regularly having to refresh the entire team on the details of the project if it’s been so long since anyone last worked on the manuscript.

Our longest book projects in the past were memorable. One took 10 years because the client became ill for 5 of those years, then luckily improved and completed the project. Not without persistent, encouraging phone calls from me every single month, for which he later thanked me.

Another client insisted on writing her book one chapter at a time, adding the photos to that chapter and making it “perfect” both editorially and design-wise before proceeding to the next chapter. For 36 chapters, this process was highly inefficient, but it worked for her, and the book was completed in 11 years!

For other clients, life interferes, and we (usually) always understand. But as an editor and project manager, I sometimes have to use the following phrases for the unassuming author, and I try to say them gently and with a smile—

“Just letting you know that these revisions/additions will extend the time and the cost of the project….”

“In the time that it takes you to consider and submit your next round of revisions, we could have this book completed and delivered to you.”

“Did you want this book in hand by the end of the current year?”

I was crestfallen when one author said to me, “I think all the friends I wrote about in my memoir have now passed away, one by one.” This, and the barbs of perfectionism, are what I doggedly try to fend off.

Full well I know that when the book is completed, or let us say “born,” authors feel a great sense of relief and accomplishment. They hold their “baby” in their hands, pass it around to adoring family and friends, and are able to say, “I did it! And it is good!”

Not always perfect, but good.

* * *

[1] from Voltaire’s La Bégueule, 1772: Dans ses écrits un sage Italien / Dit que le mieux est l’ennemi du bien. Voltaire cites the Italian verse in his article “Art dramatique” in Dictionnaire philosophique. 

Ali de Groot is director of publishing for Modern Memoirs, Inc.

Family Reunions at the Homestead, a Place of Our Hearts

This post is the tenth in a series-in-progress by company president Megan St. Marie about heirlooms and objects related to her family history that she keeps in her office to inform and inspire her work at Modern Memoirs.

“The Homestead” a painting by Sean Paul Lambert, hanging in Megan St. Marie’s office

Recently, I travelled to northwestern Vermont for the annual family reunion on my father’s side of the family. This was the 51st year of the gathering, and it was held at the house where my father, Ray Lambert, and his twelve younger siblings were raised. Referred to as “the homestead,” the old farmhouse is now owned by an uncle whose late wife was my father’s younger sister, and I’ve often considered writing a biography of the place to document its history and reflect on all it means to me and to our family. Though I haven’t embarked on such a project yet, my brother, Sean Paul Lambert, is an artist, and a print of a painting he made of the homestead hangs in my office, with another copy at my house, and many more prints in the possession of the extended Lambert family.

Original journal entry of July 5, 2024 by Megan St. Marie’s father, Raymond A. Lambert, transcribed below

This year, our reunion at the homestead was smaller than usual, with “only” about 75 people in attendance. My siblings and some of my cousins couldn’t make the trip, as was the case for some teens and twenty-somethings in my children’s generation. This was also the first year my father was unable to attend, due to a brief illness that kept him home. But of course, Dad was at the reunion in all of our hearts, and a journal entry he wrote expresses that he was there with us in his heart, too. With his permission, I share his reflections on the “reasons and purposes” of family reunions below, in the same spirit that so many Modern Memoirs clients come to us in order to preserve and share their parents’ words of wisdom:


July 5, 2024, Fri. of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time

(Daily Journal Entry by Raymond A. Lambert)

Family reunion has reasons and purposes. When thinking about our family reunion in Highgate, Center, Vermont at the Lambert/Chevalier homestead these reasons and purposes come to mind:

  • Reunion: To reconnect the bonds of family, friendship, love and concern within and across generations.

  • Refresh: To take in the atmosphere of hospitality with conversation and by partaking of shared food and drink.

  • Relax: To be at ease with family members and friends invited to celebrate the whole family.

  • Rejoice: Our French heritage has a certain “joie de vie,” a joy of life, in life, about life, so evident in the laughter of all at the reunion.

  • Recall: To remember those who have passed and to share stories with each other about them and about their lives and ours.

  • Resolve: To be firmly committed to family unity and continuity by supporting each other during the good times and in times of need.

  • Return: To come to the annual family reunion as each one is able and to encourage every family member to attend, if possible.

“We also gather to Regale each other with entertainment…Rediscover the gifts that each person brings…And we Remind each other of who we are and where we come from”

I’ll add a few other words to Dad’s excellent list of reunion reasons and purposes. In our family, we also gather to Regale each other with entertainment at the annual talent show, during which children show off athletic feats or skills honed in dance and music lessons, and adults perform jokes, skits, and songs that inspire laughter, tears, and occasional groans from the audience. We Rediscover the gifts that each person brings, as family members present their latest knitting and sewing projects, invite us on local home and garden tours to see how a renovation or building project is going and to enjoy the bounty of their green thumbs, or they treat us to favorite recipes. And we Remind each other of who we are and where we come from, connected through love and a heritage we share, no matter how different we may feel from each other in some ways, or where our life paths have taken us.

There were several years I missed our family reunion when I was a teenager and in my young adulthood. I had all kinds of excuses for failing to prioritize the annual gathering, none of which hold water for me anymore, and all of which I now realize were grounded in a youthful sense of having plenty of time ahead of me for such events. Today I know better—not just because my own age in midlife tells me I likely have more time behind me than I do ahead of me, but also because as I see my father’s generation aging and continuing to give of themselves to our family, I truly recognize how precious all times of reunion with them are. Someday if I do write a biography of the homestead, there will be at least one chapter devoted to the Lambert family reunion, to record for future generations just how lucky we’ve been to have these gatherings in this very special place of our hearts.

The homestead in the early 20th century, before it belonged to the Lambert family, pictured on a postcard noting that it was the birthplace of U. S. Senator Warren R. Austin (1877–1962)

Megan St. Marie, photo by Jason Lamb Photography

Megan St. Marie is president of Modern Memoirs, Inc.

A Modern Memoirs First: Publishing a Pair of Tête-bêche Books

As lovers of books of all shapes, sizes, and types, the Modern Memoirs staff is always on the lookout for opportunities to push the limits of conventional book design. Recently, a repeat client wished to publish a bilingual, two-volume autobiography, with each volume containing the original Chinese text and its English translation. After exploring several out-of-the-box design possibilities, Modern Memoirs ended up creating an economical, very special pair of books with an uncommon binding method called tête-bêche.

“the tête-bêche technique is used to combine two books into one”

Tête-bêche roughly translates to “head-to-foot,” with the latter part of the term from an archaic French word for "double-ended." (The French phrase “un lit bêchevet” is a related term that refers to a bed with heads at either end, and etymology ultimately traces back to the Latin “biceps,” or two-headed.) In bookbinding, the tête-bêche technique is used to combine two books into one, as the second book is rotated 180 degrees so that it is upside down and begins at the back cover. The reader can choose either side of the book to begin from, and then flip it over to read the rest.

Though tête-bêche binding is very rarely used today, you may be familiar with it if you’ve read science fiction or mystery stories published by Ace Books in the 1950s–1970s. Earlier examples date back to Europe in the 19th century (and possibly beforehand), which combine religious texts—consider, for example, having the Old and New Testaments bound in this way. Today, tête-bêche binding is most commonly used in countries with two official languages, such as Canada. Since each text in a tête-bêche book gets its own front cover and place on the spine, the style presents both texts in the same way, without implying a hierarchy of one version or language as the primary one.

“The design’s effectiveness in affirming the equal value and importance of two languages was an excellent reason for us to use tête-bêche binding for our client’s two-volume, bilingual autobiography”

The design’s effectiveness in affirming the equal value and importance of two languages was an excellent reason for us to use tête-bêche binding for our client’s two-volume, bilingual autobiography. Once translation, editorial, and design phases were complete, we worked closely with our printer affiliate to pull off the resulting complex production process. We even shipped printed, tapebound galleys for the printer to use as hard-copy mockups to ensure all of the pages in the differently oriented parts of the two books were placed correctly, and that the two “front” covers on each book were properly positioned. We were all nervous when advance copies arrived at our office, and when we unboxed them we were relieved and delighted. The books came out beautifully! Our client received lots of praise, and we were gratified that we had been able to create custom books that fit all of our client’s wants and needs.

Now we find ourselves positively bursting with ideas for other uses of tête-bêche bindings. Imagine a tête-bêche memoir about a marriage, with one side by each partner; a memoir about one’s parents or grandparents; or a genealogy for both sides of the family. Once you start dreaming up possibilities, it’s hard to stop! Contact us today if any of these ideas spark your imagination, or if you’d like to explore other custom binding options to suit a special project of your own.

Emma Solis is publishing associate for Modern Memoirs.

MODERN MEMOIRS, INC.

417 West Street, Suite 104, Amherst, MA 01002

413-253-2353