The world knows Jane Green as a best-selling author. Her books have sold more than 10 million copies, and been translated into 31 (!) languages.
Westport knows Jane Green as our neighbor. Her volunteer activities are broad and unique. Only she would think of building a free, mobile library “bookcycle,” naming it after our late, beloved Remarkable Book Shop — and adding its joyful “dancing man” logo.
Jane also founded Westport Back Front Porch, the Facebook page that gets even more comments than “06880.”
The other day, Jane and I chatted at the Westport Library for my “06880” podcast. We talked about her new book, “Sister Stardust”; her (yes) remarkable career from journalism and Cosmo to novelist; and of course, her life in Westport.
Click below for 30 minutes with one of Westport’s most interesting people.
Local To Market — the food/coffee/gift/gift basket/and more shop that opened a few months ago in the former Talbots/Remarkable Book Shop prime space at the Main Street entrance to Parker Harding Plaza — is closing soon.
Whether it’s temporary or permanent is uncertain. And, in a way, up all of us.
Owner Chris Marcocci must move out by April 30, because the building was sold.
He has not yet found a new location. “We may have to hit pause,” he says, “but hopefully not for too long.
“Bringing Local To Market to Main Street was an amazing experience. My wife Rita, general manager Jon Clement and I are grateful for the wonderful community support, especially our loyal customers and amazing Connecticut suppliers.
“Bringing in the Art Collective of Westport for our art gallery, featuring local musicians and giving back to local charities made this very worthwhile.
“We wish to remain in Westport, and hope to be open again soon with an even wider assortment of products and services. We are looking for our next location, and possible partners to add a café and more.”
Almost two dozen Y’s Men spent yesterday serving the community.
Joined by 1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker, they gathered with bags, gloves, coffee, donuts and homemade matzoh bark at the Baldwin Parking Lot. They spent hours gathering trash — cans, paper, cigarette butts, even a tent from — from the periphery.
Dewey Loselle, head of the group’s Community Service, organized the event.
Y’s Men of Westport/Weston includes almost 400 retired men. They meet weekly from Labor Day to Memorial Day, sharing coffee and donuts and hearing speakers.
Activities range from bridge. boating, golf, tennis, hiking and walking to a global issues discussion group, dining and field trips.
Meetings are Thursdays, 9:30 a.m. at the Saugatuck Congregational Church. Click here for more information, or email
1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker (6th from right) and Y’s Men at the Baldwin Parking Lot.
The New York Times describes a new musical in the works. “Everyone Comes to Elaine’s” is based on the Upper East Side spot that for decades attracted celebrities from Frank Sinatra, Woody Allen and Truman Capote to Joe DiMaggio and Keith Richards.
The creators optioned the rights to the 2004 book “Everyone Comes to Elaine’s.” It was written by A.E. Hotchner, a Westport resident and Elaine’s regular. He died in 2020, at 102.
They added Hotchner’s son Timothy, who grew up here, as a creative and business partner. Click here for the full Times story. (Hat tip: Fred Cantor)
Congratulations to April’s Staples High School Students of the Month: seniors Emma Londoner and Rachel Greenberg, juniors Carine Rosado and Ian Patton, sophomores Sacha Maidique and Nicholas De Munck, and freshmen Brady Dennett and Shelby Weisman.
Principal Stafford Thomas said they were chosen for helping make their school “a welcoming place for peers and teachers. They are the ‘glue’ of the Staples community: the type of kind, cheerful, hard-working, trustworthy students who keep the high school together, making it the special place it is.”
From left: Shelby Weisman, Ian Patton, Sacha Maidique, Carina Rosado, Brady Dennett, Rachel Greenberg, Emma Londoner. Missing: Nicholas de Munck.
The Westport Police Department will be out in “force” next Saturday (April 23, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Stop & Shop), collecting food for the Gillespie Center and Westport Human Services food pantry.
The event is co-sponsored with the Westport Rotary Club, and Westport Woman’s Club. They ask for non-perishable items only — and no glass!
Yesterday’s Roundup included a video with what I was told were the sons of Plácido Domingo, Andrea Bocelli and Luciano Pavarotti’s.
Nope. The trio are called Il Novo, and though they are extremely talented, they have nothing to do with those three stars. One more reason to remember that, as Abraham Lincoln once said, “you can’t believe everything you see on the internet.”
And finally … until yesterday, I’d never heard of Art Rupe.
But without him, chances are I’d also never have heard of the music I love.
The founder of Specialty Records, he brought rhythm and blues — formerly “race music” — into the white mainstream. He jump-started the careers of singers like Little Richard and Lloyd Price. Hearing those artists influenced groups like the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Animals.
Art Rupe died on Friday at his home in Santa Barbara. He was 104. Click here for a full obituary. (Hat tip: Michael Taylor)
Ella Alpert is broadcast director of Inklings, Staples High School’s newspaper/magazine.
She is also president of the Young Democrats Club, and one of the presidents of the Staples chapter of TEAM Westport.
For far longer, she’s been a competitive swimmer. After many years in the sport, Ella was named captain of last fall’s Staples swim and dive team.
It was quite a season — but not always in ways she expected. This month, Ella — who heads to Scripps College next year, to major in political science, American studies, or writing and rhetoric — wrote about her experience for Inklings.
Her words are insightful; her message, important. With her permission, I’m reprinting them here:
Throughout my childhood, I’ve missed birthday parties, sleepovers, playdates, you name it. Instead, I was staring at the black line on the bottom of a pool. Six days a week, 3 hours a day and around 48 weeks a year. This routine lasted for my 10 years as a competitive swimmer.
I finished my senior season as captain of the Staples swim and dive team this past fall. Then I took my cap and goggles off for the last time and quit. Even after starting the college recruitment process, I was no longer willing to keep up with the commitment and pressure of it all. I can now see how pressure and toxic competition hurt my relationship with the sport that I loved and limited my ability to pursue other passions.
Ella Alpert: on the pool deck …
I joined my first club swim team in 2ndgrade, and fell in love. Something always clicked in the pool. I loved the excitement of racing, the feeling of diving into the water, nailing the turns, pushing your body to the limit and the pride of hard work paying off.
However, I was adamant that I made time for my other interests. I liked my balance of orchestra practice, dance lessons, Girl Scout meetings and swimming. But I watched as my teammates improved greatly by making swimming their priority. And I was receiving the same advice from coaches: “You have great potential but need to be more committed if you want to improve.”
They told me double practices before and after school, 6:30 a.m. Saturday workouts and hours of daily exercise outside of the pool would be what it takes to become a serious, successful swimmer.
As a competitive person, I wanted to succeed, so I became fully committed to the sport and began to see results.
For many years, my love for swimming outweighed my desire for a normal childhood. But after years of serious commitment, my love began to fade and I resented swimming for taking it all away. Yet I wouldn’t let myself think about quitting. Swimming had become my whole life, identity, purpose. The child in me who vowed she wouldn’t let swimming consume her entire life was gone — whisked away by the pressure.
… and in the water.
I was lucky that my parents never added to the pressure that I received from coaches and teammates, but many of my teammates weren’t as fortunate. My best friend’s parents pressured her to workout at home in addition to swim workouts and hired outside coaches for private lessons. They put so much pressure on her success that she pitted herself against her closest friends, damaging friendships.
Even as early as middle school, some parents were under the impression that swimming was going to get their child to college, and they needed to stay on the path to get there.
That being said, I don’t hate swimming or even regret my years in the sport. I love swimming and despite the pressure felt a deep yearning for success just like all competitive athletes. The sport introduced me to some of my best friends and taught me invaluable life lessons. However, I do wish I could have explored my other interests without the immense guilt that came with missing practice.
Now that I’m done with swimming, I have the time and flexibility to enjoy the rest of my senior year with friends, explore new hobbies and dedicate more time to the other extracurriculars that I enjoy. I’m excited to enter my college years without 6 am practices limiting my social life.
Swimming was such a huge part of my identity and for a while I didn’t know who I would be or what I would do without it. But I am excited to find out.
It’s hard to believe, but Westport Volunteer Emergency Medical Service — the men and women who save lives, patch wounds and do everything in between — have to fund raise for nearly all their needs.
From ambulances to Band-Aids, they depend on all of us.
The Westport Woman’s Club is helping, big-time. Yesterday, Westport’s 115-year-old civic organization made it official: They’re providing $300,000 for a new ambulance.
Half the funds come from the club itself. The other half comes from a member’s anonymous contribution.
That’s just part of the WWC’s good works. They recently awarded $39,000 to Fairfield County non-profits. Soon, they’ll grant $36,000 in scholarships to Staples High School seniors.
WVEMS thanks the WWC. And every Westporter should join “06880” in thanking both import life-saving, and life-changing, groups.
Police, town, EMS and Westport Woman’s Club officials, with a $300,000 check. (Photo/Lauri Weiser)
Media personality David Briggs has interviewed some heavy hitters in his career.
But, he says, actor/filmmaker/director/martial artist/studio head Michael Jai White was “the most inspirational person” he’s ever talked with.
The InstagramLive interview is deep and intriguing (see below). And you can see — and listen to — White live and in person tomorrow.
He kicks off the 2nd day of the Westport Library’s VersoFest — a music-and-media extravaganza modeled on South by Southwest — with an 11 a.m. keynote address. It’s free, as are nearly all the events starting today.
Click here for a full schedule and more details — including 3 big concerts.
Wakeman Town Farm is crowing about its “egg-cellent” 3-session series: an introduction to raising chickens responsibly at home.
Whether you attend just one, two or all three of the sessions, you’ll have a chance to bring home 2 Farm-raised chicks, along with a handy starter pack, (feeder, waterer, wood shavings, and 5-pound bag of organic feed).
Instructors include WTF staff and “local chicken experts.”
Session 1 (April 26, 7 p.m., $40): “Introduction and Starting Your Flock” covers how chickens can enrich your life; positive environmental impacts; chicken facts and anatomy; starting a flock, dos and don’ts and more.
Session 2 (May 17, 7 p.m., $55): “Coop, Habitat, Environment and Basic Needs” includes housing and spacing issues, free range pros and cons, local zoning, and creating a happy, stress-free environment.
Session 3 (June 21, 7 p.m., $55): “Products, Maintaining Your Flock, Behavior and Physical Health” offers product recommendations, plus coop maintenance and advice on physical behavior and disease.
Westport Sunrise Rotary’s contribution of $5,000 to the only coding school for girls in Afghanistan has gone a long way.
It helped ensure that 160 females ages 15 to 24 had access to computers — including 12 laptops purchased through the grant — in class and at home during COVID lockdowns, then following the rise of the Taliban when the school was closed.
Twenty girls and women have already received remote jobs, ranging from design and animation to website development. They have earned $10,000 — an enormous sum in that impoverished country.
Since graduating from Staples High School in 2015, and the University of Southern California, she’s been a producer’s assistant on “Love, Victor” and
“Euphoria.” Season 2. Zoe now works for the president of the K Period Media production company.
In her free time she produced a short web series (“LolaMay”) and a short film (“Great White Lies”). In 2020 Zoe co-founded the Mental Health Content Collective.
(Oh, yeah — she’s also been a tutor, restaurant hostess, communications intern for the Two Oh Three lifestyle brand, babysitter, Challah Connection worker, jewelry designer helper, and started a greeting card/poster business).
Now Zoe has joined a few other young creative-types to produce a play.
“Get It Together” is a woman-led comedy/drama about 2 alienated kids finding a sad, imperfect, real romance at the most confusing time of their lives: stuck between home and the rest of the world.
Since premiering at Boston College in 2018, the play has won awards at the NYC Indie and Denver Fringe Festivals.
Zoe and her crew are raising funds to pay for the crew, set, props, marketing and LA’s Zephyr Theater. To help with a tax-deductible contribution, click here.
Westport artist/author/illustrator Elaine Clayton as she discusses those topics (and more) as she celebrates her newest book, “The Way of the Empath: How Compassion, Empathy and Intuition Can Heal Your World.”
The in-person and virtual event is set for the Westport Library on April 20 (7 p.m.).
Her book mentions fellow Westport artist/author Miggs Burroughs’ book “What If?” Clayton says his art “shifts people and communities into a place of compassion.”
No prior experience is needed — just curiosity, and a willingness to be open and have fun. Click here to register, and for more information.
Nancy (Roach) Tanzer — a longtime social studies teacher at Bedford Middle and Staples High Schools — died March 29 in Marshfield, Massachusetts. She was 92, and suffered from congestive heart failure.
She grew up in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Nancy graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pennsylvania in 1952. She played lacrosse there, and was one of the few women enrolled in business classes.
She began her career in advertising and public relations, where she met her first husband, Duane Roach. After starting a family, Nancy earned a master’s degree in education at Fairfield University and became a history teacher.
Throughout her 20-year career in Westport, she impacted the lives of students in the classroom, and through ski trips and outdoor backpacking adventures. She spent her summers racing sailboats on Long Island Sound. When her children were in college, Nancy became a volunteer Emergency Medical Technician.
Nancy enjoyed the peacefulness of Vermont, and had a vacation/retirement home built there. During a sabbatical year from teaching, she lived in her Vermont home and earned a second master’s degree at Dartmouth College. While there she met Henry Tanzer, who shared her love of the Vermont lifestyle.
After retiring to Vermont with Henry, Nancy volunteered reenacting historical events at Billings Farm and Museum, and giving presentations at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science.
She enjoyed playing bridge, was president of the garden club, and an active member and trustee of the senior center.
She skied at Killington and Okemo well into her 70s. Her love of travel brought her to 36 countries, and she saw 5 of the 7 wonders of the modern world.
Nancy was predeceased by Duane Roach and Henry Tanzer. She is survived by her daughter Deborah (Jeff) Lasala of Scituate, Massachusetts; son Jeff (Susan) Roach of St. Charles, Missouri; her granddaughter Mary (Jake) Genthon and her husband Jake of Ballwin, Missouri, and the Tanzer and Benjamin families of Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Nancy was passionate about the work of Doctors without Borders, the World Wildlife Fund, and St. Jude’s children’s hospital. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to any of those causes.
Are you a chicken person (see story above) or a turkey person (read on!).
Dianne Behrmann has had 12 turkeys in her Partrick Road back yard. She thinks they live in the nearby wetlands.
“They came running down the driveway one morning, had breakfast and left,” she says.
She took this photo for our “Westport … Naturally” feature, adding: “This is the first time I saw the males all puffed up and making lots of noise. Many gobbles!”
And finally … Francisco González, a founding member of Los Lobos, died recently. He was 68, and had been diagnosed with cancer.
The group blended “rock-and-roll and R&B, surf music and soul, mariachi and música norteña, punk rock and country,” their website says. NPR called it “Chicano hippies playing mariachi music.” Click here for a full obituary.
The Great Lawn at Saugatuck Church hosts lots of events. Social justice rallies, blessings of animals, plant sales — you name it, it’s there at one of Westport’s most visible and handsome sites.
Yesterday, it was an Easter egg hunt. Hundreds of youngsters raced around, finding thousands of eggs.
The afternoon was organized by WestportMoms — the multi-platform social media group, not a generic bunch of mothers — with volunteer support by Boy Scout Troop 36.
Great hunt, on the great lawn. (Photo/Craig Patton)
For 15 years, 1971 Staples High School graduate Jalna Jaeger has decorated a tree on her property (3 East Avenue in Norwalk, not far from Stew Leonard’s).
It’s an homage to Ostereierbaum — the German tradition of filling trees and bushes with Easter eggs. It’s always colorful and fun.
This year, it sends a message.
Most of Jalna’s eggs are blue and yellow: the colors of Ukraine.
Many Americans are doing what they can to show support for that embattled nation. But Jalna’s Ostereierbaum tree may be the only one like it anywhere.
As Russian troops retreat in parts of Ukraine, the horrors of their occupation are only now beginning to be known.
One of the world’s first looks at what the invaders did — and left behind — comes today in the New York Times. A story headlined “‘This is True Barbarity’: Life and Death Under Russian Occupation” describes the past month in Trostyanets, a strategically located town that soldiers finally fled a few days ago.
“A monthlong Russian occupation reduced much of the town to rubble, a decimated landscape of mangled tank hulks, snapped trees and rattled but resilient survivors,” the Times says.
The piece is accompanied by more than a dozen photos from Tyler Hicks. The Pulitzer Prize winner graduated from Staples High School in 1988. Click here for the full story and photos.
Svitlana Grebinyk’s home was left in disarray after being inhabited by Russian soldiers during the occupation of Trostyanets. (Photo/Tyler Hicks for the New York Times)
Entire blocks of homes were destroyed in Trostyanets, after Russian occupation. (Photo/Tyler Hicks for the New York Times)
There was plenty of action yesterday at Sherwood Island State Park.
Michele Sorensen — Friends of Sherwood Island’s next president — organized volunteers to plant beach grass. It helps revitalize the dunes, and prevents erosion.
They’ll return over the next few weeks. But they need others. Click here to help, via Signup Genius.
Restoring dunes at Sherwood Island. (Photo/Ilene Mirkine)
I’m not sure what was in the air (or water) yesterday. But three — three! — readers sent examples of jaw-droppingly, spectacularly self-centered entitled parking jobs.
In 3 different parking lots.
Occasionally, photos like these bring out apologists. “The parking brake must have failed, and it rolled backward!” people will say.
Or, “Maybe it was a medical emergency!”
Judging by where these folks “parked” — no.
They are just drivers who can’t be bothered to read signs, follow rules, or think about anyone other than themselves.
Don’t be That Guy.
This is an actual parked car in the Parker Harding lot. No one could squeeze by. Entire lines of cars had to back up, for a looooong time. The car was eventually towed. (Photo/Miggs Burroughs)
This driver took up a clearly marked handicap-adjacent zone, yet pulled in crookedly and not fully, blocking everyone trying to pass in the narrow lane behind him. (Yes, it was a male.) (Photo/Rob Campignino)
No, this driver was not pulling out of the upper Westport Library lot. This was a parked car, with no driver in sight. Again, for quite a while. (Photo/David Sampson)
Lynsey Addario — the 1991 Staples High School graduate whose New Your Times photos from Ukraine have impacted the world — was the Friday night guest on “Firing Line.”
Click here to see Margaret Hoover’s riveting interview with the Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist. (Hat tip: Debbie Zucker)
A large crowd of punks — and art lovers — filled MoCA Westport’s galleries last night.
“Punk is Coming” had its grand opening. The diverse group exhibition features over 50 photographers, filmmakers and artists whose work defined the punk era in 1970’s New York, London, Los Angeles and other cities. There are never-before-seen videos and photographs,, art created by the era’s musicians, and contemporary works heavily influenced by the movement.
Free supporting programming, featuring those central to the punk movement (like the original video jockey!) take place on Thursday evenings. Click here to learn more.
The show runs through June 5.
MoCA’s “Punk is Coming” exhibit. (Photo/Leslie LaSala)
Today’s “Westport … Naturally” photo features a fox. Bob Weingarten apologies for not getting a full side-on view. But it’s still a fine-looking creature.
Mitchells may own 8 high-end clothing stores on both coasts. But since its humble beginnings in Westport 64 years ago, they’ve never lost their small-town, human touch.
As the son of founders Ed and Norma Mitchell, Jack Mitchell carries on the family tradition. He’s helped raise service to a new level.
Jack has written best-selling books about “hugging” customers and employees. He’s an internationally known speaker.
The other day, he sat on the Westport Library stage with me. We chatted about Mitchells, the state of retailing today, Westport old and young — and hugging.
Click below for our homey, half-hour conversation.
Admit it: You hear “RTM” all the time. And you don’t know a thing about it.
Well, for one thing, it stands for “Representative Town Meeting.” For another, it’s our special local legislative body.
For a third, Westport’s League of Women Voters is sponsoring a series of “Know Your Town” events. And — wouldn’t you know it — the first one is “Know Your RTM.”
Set for this Wednesday (March 23, 7 p.m., Westport Library Trefz Forum and Zoom), the all-star (and all-RTM) panel includes former moderator Velma Heller, who’ll discuss the body’s history; member Matthew Mandell (today’s RTM), and current moderator Jeff Wieser (why you should run for office).
For the first time ever, Inklings — the nearly 100-year-old Staples High School publication — earned a Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Crown award for Hybrid News. Only 16 other high schools in the country received that honor.
Inklings has won numerous Gold Circle Awards for individual reporter excellence, along with overall Silver Crowns. This is the first Gold Crown since switching to a magazine model — and it came in Inklings’ first year with the format.
“I think the change in layout and design spoke to our strengths,” says co-advisor Mary Elizabeth Fulco. ” I’m so incredibly proud of our hard-working students for achieving this national recognition.” The other advisor is Joe Del Gobbo.
Fast fashion — mass production of cheap clothing that destroys resources and pollutes the planet — is endemic.
On March 28 (6:30 p.m., Wakeman Town Farm), WTF sponsors a “Sustainability Forum.”
Panelists will discuss the effects of fast fashion on our environment, consumers and workers. Attendees will learn how to identify sustainable businesses, make smarter buying choices, and what it means to be a conscious consumer.
There’s also a spotlight on local sustainable clothing business, including Our Woven Community, The Exchange Project and Shop Tomorrows.
Meanwhile, a few yards south of the Town Farm, a group of Staples High School students is doing something about fast fashion too.
The school’s Zero Waste Committee is creating a pop-up thrift store, The EcoBoutique opens April 27 during lunch waves in the courtyard.
Whether you’re a student, parent or just a Westporter interested in the planet, you can help.
The Zero Waste Committee is collecting donations (gently used clothing, handers and bins) from March 28 to April 11, at Staples’ front atrium.
In addition to education the community about the importance of limiting fast fashion, and thrifting, funds from the pop-up thrift store will help the ZWC’s sustainability initiatives: composting, recycling and more.
Eurovision — the European singing contest that began in the 1950s, and brought fame to bands like ABBA — is coming to the US.
Instead of a variety of countries, our version — “The American Song Contest” — includes acts from all 50 states, plus US territories, possessions and Washington, DC.
The “06880” connection? Connecticut’s representative is Westport’s own Michael Bolton.
“The American Song Contest” starts tonight. Click here for more information, and to vote — hopefully for our neighbor. (Hat tip: Mark Mathias)
Screenshot from the “American Song Contest” website.
And finally … we usually say, “Spring can’t come soon enough!” Yesterday it snuck in, a day earlier than normal. Whenever it arrives, we’re more than happy to greet it.
As Metro-North trains grew progressively slower, Fairfield County commuters groaned.
When bad weather, aging infrastructure or acts of God turned delays of minutes into hours, men and women gnashed their teeth, or wished the windows opened so they could jump out.
Ted Aldrich was thrilled.
For 8 years, the banker used his time between Greens Farms and Grand Central not to try to answer emails, watch movies on a phone screen or wish he were anywhere else.
Aldrich read history books. He organized notes. Then he wrote a book.
Ted Aldrich
Not just any book. He wrote 800 pages — then edited it down to 500 — on the odd relationship, and amazing success, of George Marshall and Henry Stimson.
The general and diplomat, Aldrich says, are hugely responsible for America’s logistical success in World War II. It’s a fresh area of study, one no historian has previously examined.
Yet Aldrich is not a historian. He’s a banker.
And this is his first book ever.
The Rowayton native and former Brien McMahon High School all-state soccer player has been a history buff as long as he remembers. But after playing at Colgate University, living and working in Europe, then moving to Westport in 1999, that passion was limited to reading on trains.
In 2008 he realized he could put that commuting time to productive use, by writing a book he’d long thought about. He had a subject: the collaboration between the unlikely duo of the U.S. Army chief of staff and President Roosevelt’s Secretary of War.
From adjoining offices at the Pentagon, the career military man and the Wall Street lawyer — both from vastly different backgrounds — created and led a war machine that helped crush a powerful enemy.
Blending politics, diplomacy, bureaucracy and war fighting, they transformed an outdated, poorly equipped army into a modern fighting force. They developed strategy and logistics, coordinated with allies, and planned for post-war peace.
General George Marshall, and Secretary of War Henry Stimson.
Aldrich had the idea for the story. But with Metro-North’s spotty cell service, conducting the all-important research — during the only time he had available — was impossible.
Then he stumbled on Stimson’s 10,000-page diary. Because the men occupied adjoining offices, most of their collaboration took place in conversations. Little was written down — except in the diary.
It was housed at Yale, but not digitized. Aldrich paid to have it converted, and put it on a thumb drive. Suddenly, the train became his office.
The longer the commute was, the more productive and happier he became. Research took 3 years. Writing took 5 more.
Adlrich looked forward to to long business flights to Asia too. While most passengers slept or watched movies, Aldrich wrote, edited, and wrote some more.
That was the easy part. Selling his work to publishers seemed impossible. Major houses were not interested in a long book by a non-historian who had never written anything before.
Neither were smaller publishers.
Finally, Stackpole Books responded to Aldrich’s cold call. Three days later, they offered him a contract.
The Partnership: George Marshall, Henry Stimson, and the Extraordinary Collaboration That Won World War II will be published April 15. Best-selling author Walter Isaacson calls it “a valuable addition to history.”
Noted writer Evan Thomas adds:
The contrast to the current day will pop out at readers. Aldrich writes with a confident, readable style that carries you along. Through these men we remember how America truly did become great. At the same time, Aldrich has a clear eye about their foibles and blind spots. Stimson and Marshall were Olympian figures, yet in Aldrich’s capable hands, human and relatable.
Unlike many writers who head out on book tours, Aldrich has a full-time job. His personal promotion will be limited to groups in the tri-state area, and Washington — talks he can give while still working his day job.
Meanwhile, he’d love to write another book. But he has to find the right subject — and make sure much of the material is available on a thumb drive.
On the other hand, at the rate Metro-North is going, Aldrich may have even more time to write than before.
(For more information and to order Ted Aldrich’s book, click here.)
I hate to ask for funds. But the NPR/PBS model is the only way I can continue to tell stories about the people, places and past of this town; to bring you news and photos, and to do all the back-end stuff no one ever sees but that takes all of my time, 24/7/365.
Someone congratulated me this weekend on 13 years of “06880” — then said, “Sorry I missed your contribution day. I’ll send a check next year.”
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Finally, Stackpole Books responded to Aldrich’s cold call. Three days later, they offered him a contract.
