Copyright © 2020 by Roger Rosenblatt
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher.
Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be sent to: Turtle Point Press, 208 Java Street, Fifth Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rosenblatt, Roger, author.
Title: The story I am : mad about the writing life / Roger Rosenblatt.
Other titles: Mad about the writing life
Identifiers: LCCN 2019052259 (print) | LCCN 2019052260 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Authorship. | Life in literature. | Authors, American—20th century—Biography.
Classification: LCC PS3618.O8336 A6 2020 (print) | LCC PS3618.O8336 (ebook) | DDC 818/.5403—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019052259
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019052260
Excerpts from Rules for Aging by Roger Rosenblatt. Copyright © 2000 by Roger Rosenblatt. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Excerpts from Anything Can Happen by Roger Rosenblatt. Copyright © 2003 by Roger Rosenblatt. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Excerpts from Making Toast by Roger Rosenblatt. Copyright © 2010 by Roger Rosenblatt. Courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers.
Excerpts from Unless It Moves the Human Heart by Roger Rosenblatt. Copyright © 2011 by Roger Rosenblatt. Courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers.
Excerpts from Kayak Morning by Roger Rosenblatt. Copyright © 2012 by Roger Rosenblatt. Courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers.
Excerpts from The Boy Detective by Roger Rosenblatt. Copyright © 2013 by Roger Rosenblatt. Courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers.
Excerpts from The Book of Love by Roger Rosenblatt. Copyright © 2015 by Roger Rosenblatt. Courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers.
Excerpts from Thomas Murphy by Roger Rosenblatt. Copyright © 2016 by Roger Rosenblatt. Courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers.
Cover Design by Alban Fischer Design
Interior Design by Misha Beletsky
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-885983-82-4
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-885983-78-7
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-885983-79-4
Printed in the United States of America
for Jane and Garrybeyond words
Contents
2 From the Memoir: Kayak Morning
6 Everyone’s Work Is Magnificent
7 My Bear
8 From the Unpublished Novel: Young Murph
10 From the Book-length Essay: The Book of Love
11 From the Memoir: Kayak Morning
12 Mash Note
13 From the Novel: Thomas Murphy
14 Essays. I, Too, Dislike Them
16 Nobody Is Thinking About You
17 From the Unpublished Memoir: Unaccompanied Minor
18 From the Memoir: The Boy Detective
19 From the Unpublished Memoir: Unaccompanied Minor
20 The Disease That Takes Your Breath Away
21 From the Novel: Thomas Murphy
22 From the Unpublished Memoir: Unaccompanied Minor
24 From the Memoir: Making Toast
25 From the Unpublished Novel: Young Murph
26 From the Memoir: The Boy Detective
27 From the Memoir: Kayak Morning
30 From the Memoir: Making Toast
31 From the Book on Writing: Unless It Moves the Human Heart