Life Story Links: November 1, 2022
“Remembering is a serious business. It demands attention. For a journey into the past, you have to pick your moment.”
—Charles Fernyhough
Vintage photo of a kids’ football team, October 1947, by Wallace Kirkland for LIFE magazine; © Time.
Memoir minutia
THOSE STORIES YOU’VE TUCKED AWAY
“For a long time, I used to say that I ran away from memoir by writing fiction. I don’t believe that anymore. I think if anything, my fiction writing helped lead me to my heart, to the stories I really wanted to write, to my essays and memoir.” Vanessa Mártir on writing the ghosts that haunt.
THE UNASSAILABILITY OF MEMORY
“Memory is a pinball in a machine — it messily ricochets around between image, idea, fragments of scenes, stories you’ve heard.” Mary Karr on navigating memory while writing memoir.
Life. legacies, POV
WHO GETS THE LAST WORD?
“It’s clear to those who have contributed material that the archive is about safeguarding Mr. Jobs’s legacy. It’s a goal that many of them support.” But some historians worry: Is it more tribute than archive?
OUTLIVING HIS FATHER
“At some point in my early twenties, it occurred to me that although he was no longer here, with me, my father’s life was like a map unfurling beneath mine.” Read an excerpt from Thomas Beller’s new book.
THE JOURNAL DILEMMA
“Like the journal itself, the question of what to do with them is deeply personal—and well worth contemplating.” Suleika Jaouad on making a plan for what becomes of your private writings, and who may be impacted by your choice.
ECHOES ACROSS TIME
When she was growing up, Massachusetts–based personal historian Marjorie Turner Hollman keenly felt the absence of her paternal grandfather. A trip to the Grand Canyon as an adult connected her to “Grampy” in surprising ways.
Media recommendations for personal history fans
BOOKS OF DELIGHT
There are all kinds of autobiographical writing, but oh how I love Ross Gay’s meandering yet distinct essays that, like the titles of his books promise, anticipate and deliver joy. His latest, Inciting Joy, came out October 25.
INTROSPECTIVE ACTOR & PHILANTHROPIST
“With all other people, some things were possible, but not everything. For us, the promise of everything was there from the beginning,” Paul Newman says of Joanne Woodward in this brief excerpt from his new memoir.
WITNESS
Last week I reviewed “Survivors: Faces of the Holocaust,” an exhibition showcasing 75 large-scale portraits taken by photographer Martin Schoeller to mark the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz in 2020.
‘FROM WHERE THEY STOOD’
A handful of prisoners in WWII camps risked their lives to take clandestine photographs and document the hell the Nazis were hiding from the world. The film From Where They Stood attempts to unearth the circumstances and the stories behind their photographs:
...and a few more links
Seeking advice: “Is it okay that my husband keeps mementos of his former love?”
Precious memories: 8 refugees share the things they brought to remind them of home.
“Dark Terrorism: an Unexpected Prisoner of War, Part 1” is a lovely example of compelling family history writing.
Research shows positive and negative memories are stored in different parts of the brain, and what this means for memory manipulation.
How explosive will Prince Harry’s memoir, due in January, be?
10 physician memoirs that offer inspiring accounts of life in medicine
Eliza Dumais cooks through the journals of Sylvia Plath, “a radical academic with a bend towards baking banana bread.”
Short takes
