100Memoirs.com Reaches 100 Posts: A Mini-Memoir

Time for a little history report. My first blog post ever was written for the Fetzer Institute Campaign for Love and Forgiveness website. The subject was the week-long volunteer opportunity I was given to help with Katrina recovery in New Orleans. March 24-April, 3 blog posts appeared, and USA Today published my op-ed article about the experience on March 20, 2008.  June 1, 2008, wrote my first blog post on the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference website, where I learned to upload photos and place links into posts. I wrote 62 posts there and made some writer/blogger friends who are still reading and writing with me.

July 30, 2008, was my 60th birthday, and my son Anthony gave me the wonderful gift of setting up this website. On August 9, 2008, I wrote my first post on 100Memoirs.com. Today, ten months later, I am posting #100.  Beginning in January I began to be active on fb, which has broadened the readership of this blog.  Maybe Twitter will do the same if I can get to the next step of where to do my updates, how to make tiny URLs, and all the other little tricks of the trade.

I have not reviewed 100 memoirs yet, partly because the readers seem to enjoy a different mix of reviews, commentary, and mini-memoir. Following the advice of readers from the last post, however, I will try to start a list on the home page, building to 100 memoirs eventually.

I would never have imagined how much fun blogging would be. Thank you, readers, for your comments, critiques,  and words of encouragement. I thrive on them!

The Center for Mennonite Writing: Issue on Personal Writing

The English department of Goshen College has created a Center for Mennonite Writing online, including a new journal.  The latest issue deserves special mention because it is about personal writing, life writing, or as we know it here, memoir.

One of my stories, “Daddy’s Girl,” which tells the story of how and why I bit a tobacco worm in two at age 13, was published in this essay.  You can find it here.

For those of you who are interested in why memoir is so important, I recommend the essay of Connie T. Braun, a young scholar whose essay is called “Silence, Memory and Imagination as Story.”

Here’s a juicy morsel extracted from the essay to entice you to read the whole thing:  “History provides facts, but narrative provides the individual truths of history.  Story becomes the metaphor for a life in history.”

Congratulations, English department members both past and present, who have created an excellent new journal with great potential to become a gathering place for writers interested in any aspect of Mennonite life as a whole, Mennonite literature, and the experience and expression of individual Mennonites.

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 need to learn how to write, and the value of reading history, especially biography and autobiography, for leaders in business.

Autobiography and memoir are not synonymous, as we have already discussed here, but a well-written memoir might well be a good primer in leadership.

Or not?  What do you think?

The last memoir I read, How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Bed, probably would not make it on to Anderson’s list, although it was a delightful read.

What memoirs, biographies, or autobiographies would you recommend as texts on leadership and good management?