Life Story Links: November 19, 2024
“Stories are everywhere, and although you cannot touch them, you may see them like fireflies in your backyard; they fill the night with magic.”
—Tristine Rainer
What we remember
BOOMERS, SENTIMENTAL COLLECTORS?
“In many case, it will fall to kids and grandkids to decide what to do with the old dance costumes, school art projects, and childhood memorabilia their parents insisted on keeping in the attic or basement.” Read on for an expert’s advice for how to navigate “boomer junk.”
VIRTUES OF FORGETTING
“Memory for humans has been so fleeting that when we then get tools to conserve, we overindulge in it. We go overboard because we haven’t learned how to temperate our appetite for memory.” A look at context-free nostalgia and the affect of digital ‘memories’ on our actual memory.
Memoirs & oral histories of note
LEGENDARY ORAL HISTORIAN
Studs Terkel “let his interviewees tell their own stories in their own voices, and through them he painted an honest and intimate history of the American people.” Here are excerpts from five of his most iconic books.
PERSONAL ARCHAEOLOGY
Augusto Monterroso’s “memoir, with its detours and vignettes, reads like a book of experimental essays, the unifying subject matter being Monterroso’s excavation of the people and events that helped him form an early idea of himself.”
A CANCER PATIENT TURNS TO MEMOIRS
“I found consolation in these [cancer] memoirs, identifying with the struggle to hang onto and forge a meaningful life. I have experienced an intensification of emotions...[and] a new relation to my body, in particular, a sensitivity to tune into it and listen.”
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
“I have suggested that if a life is worth writing down, it should also carry some meaning—something beyond the important tale of this is what happened to me. But what, I have been asked, do I mean by that word ‘meaning?’” Beth Kephart on the universal in memoir, and a life’s work.
Preservation, posterity & personal history
GRAVERS UNITE
“I decided to solve a longtime mystery about my family. It led me to a controversial pastime that consumes thousands—and has changed untold lives.” Tony Ho Tran on his weekends with the dead.
KEEPING MEMORIES ALIVE THROUGH BRUSHSTROKES
“I don’t want to forget my Lola. I feel like we live through our stories,” this artist says of his grandmother in a poignant portrait of an intergenerational relationship he captured in a glorious self-published book. “This is. my way of keeping her present.” Here they are:
‘THE GIRL IN THE GRASS’
“A woman whose family had to sell a [Pissarro] painting in the Holocaust and a museum have struck a deal. The museum will keep the work but will help to publish a book telling the family’s story.”
A LIBRARIAN’S LEGACY (AND THE FAMILY HISTORY SHE ERASED)
While Belle da Costa Greene “was very much a public figure in the forefront of New York high society, her personal history was shrouded in secrecy, the continuance of which she took an active role in ensuring.” Now the Morgan Library is honoring the dual life of its inaugural director with a new exhibition.
SACRED PLACES
“Her room just completely speaks of who she was.” How do you make a portrait of a child who isn't there? Photographer Lou Bopp photographed the still-intact bedrooms of kids who were killed in school shootings.
Family history & storytelling resources
TURKEY AND TALES
Last week I shared a roundup of some of the most helpful and popular stories on the Modern Heirloom Books site to help you preserve your family stories this Thanksgiving.
HONOR, SERVICE, AND SACRIFICE
A new Smithsonian guide covers “Veterans Day history, personal stories, military branches and awards, and intergenerational activities to honor the legacy of the country’s veterans.”
‘DAD, I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE WAR’
“My father would never talk about the past, not five years ago, not five minutes ago.... That’s not the way you survive in battle.” Becky Ellis in conversation with Crista Cowan about opening the door to her father’s wartime memories. Listen in below, or read the transcript here.
...and a few more links
New heritage preservation app Fireside launches to help families capture video memories.
Norman Maclean biography uncovers personal stories of beloved UChicago author.
Queen Elizabeth’s final diary entry was “as factual and practical as ever,” says her biographer.
Memories are not only in the brain: cells throughout your body store memory.
Norah Rami on tracing her history at an archival epistolary exhibition in India.
Read an excerpt from Letters by Oliver Sacks, edited by Kate Edgar (Alfred A. Knopf, 2024).
Short takes