Memoirs The Gift That Keeps On Giving
Was it Hallmark Cards that used this line as their sales motto?
The gift I have in mind is of far, far greater value and lasting meaning than any greeting card.
It’s one I’ve known about for years. I became aware of it as both a writer/historian, and in my other life as a commercial printer/publisher. Over 25-odd years, I turned from printing business cards, office stationery and the like to specializing in an area where my journalistic skills were called into play, the printing of books, many of them—indeed most—telling the clients’ life stories.
I’m referring to family histories, autobiographies, memoirs, life histories, reminiscences, whatever you want to call them. Genealogy has become a popular phenomenon for family researchers and historians, both on hobby and professional levels. But a family tree goes only so far.
Where’s the flesh and blood in vital statistics?
Obviously, no amount of research can fill in all the gaps–which is precisely why I urge people to record their own life’s story for future generations of their family if not for Posterity.
“There are 8 million stories in the Naked City.” That was the weekly conclusion to that classic TV drama. Exactly! Everyone has a story to tell, a chronicle of their journey through life that’s as unique as is the proverbial snowflake.
Most people are modest. Even if they’ve led full, possibly colourful lives, if they haven’t achieved public acclaim in public life or in the military or in the professional world they think no one would be interested in what they have done or what they have to say.
Horse potatoes!
Two of the best memoirs I’ve had the privilege to work with, and to read for pure pleasure, are The Tofino Kid by the late Tony Guppy, Nanaimo, and Bill and Ted Merrill’s River Runts. The former, as its title suggests, deals with the arrival of the Guppy family after the father’s retiring from the Indian Civil Service (which did nothing to equip him for the Canadian wilderness), in outpost Tofino in 1921.
Growing up in an isolated fishing village through the Depression gave Tony a special affection and regard for the beaches and inlets and forests where he, his brothers and his sister played and learned to fish and hunt and sail. While still at school, Tony began to work during the summers and soon acquired his first boat.
After serving overseas with the Canadian Army during the Second World War, he returned to the West Coast to service boats and marine engines; he had his own diesel engine repair business until he retired in 1981 and reincarnated himself as a successful marine artist.
Young people especially should read this inspiring book in which he describes the fascinating characters he met and their adventures. His chapter, “The Cannery,” and that on the tragically heroic John Darville, should be must reading in our secondary schools.
As for the Merrills’ River Runts, perhaps it’s because my all-time favourite book and literary character (at least when younger) is Tom Sawyer that I so enjoyed their account of what can only be described as an idyllic childhood in Idaho. Both their parents were avid freshwater anglers and the boys’ growing up years were an extended fishing trip.
In their 70s when they published their memoir in 2002, the brothers carry the reader along like the river current itself as they describe their learning the lessons of angling–and life–in the rural American Northwest.
Writing from the heart for generations to come…
I think I’ve made my point. To create a memoir—for one’s own family, one written from the heart of one’s own unique experiences for the enjoyment and enlightenment of generations to come—is the greatest gift of all.
And you can always publish it as a ‘real’ book or online if you so choose.
Now, let’s get something perfectly clear right now.
I have the highest respect for people who, for any number of reasons, publish their own works. In doing so myself for more than 40 years, I’ve taken a page from some of the greatest names in Literature who have opted to take this route from time to time. The term ‘vanity press’ has long been the cruel euphemism for any self-published book–without justification in as many cases as not.
In truth, ego is seldom involved. Some of the finest books in my library are self-published. The most common motivation for these authors, it seems to me, upon having worked with so many of them, is the sincere need to tell a story that is dear to their hearts and destined to be lost in limbo if they don’t set it down on paper.
Where’s the vanity in that?
And take my word for it: if you really, really believe in what you’re writing about, your passion will allow you to achieve an eloquence that will surprise you.
A Final Word
Not everyone has lived an idyllic life; tragedy and hardship are almost inevitable as we travel life’s road. For some, looking back and looking within can rekindle old hurts. We all have the choice of embracing our pasts or trying to forget them; in the former case writing one’s memoirs can prove to be therapeutic.
That decision, of course, lies with each of us.
