My writing teacher sent us out to identify a
mentor whose writing life we might model ourselves after. This
was to be an opportunity to find a writer with an internet presence if
possible. (She did say that if our role model was a recluse, without
an internet platform that would make the assignment easy).
An obvious choice would have been Melody Beattie,
but instead someone else came startlingly to mind: Penelope
Niven. Last year I fell in love with her memoir, Swimming
Lessons. In it I learned that she began publishing books rather late in
life (not much younger than I am now).
I went googling straight away to see if I might
find a way to follow Penelope, hoping to take a peek at her path.
She'd already inspired me with her memoir, and I suspected she had
more big plans in the works. Maybe her focus would rub off on me.
Or maybe even one day I'd ask her to blurb the book I aspire
to write?
So how did she get started? "Penelope
Niven was a high school English teacher, nearing 40, when she began work
on a biography of Carl Sandburg. She had never written a book before.
She didn’t have a Ph.D. in literature and hadn’t even been that familiar
with Sandburg’s work.But the volume she produced 14 years later, “Carl Sandburg:
A Biography”(1991), was ground breaking and helped revive interest
in a nearly forgotten poet, Lincoln biographer and literary folk hero of his
time."
I was happy to find her shining smile and elegant
gray coif pictured at the top of her webpage:
http://www.penelopeniven.com
But the print below her picture told me of her
writing landmarks, achievements and honorary degrees-- in the past
tense. Niven had passed last August of an aneurism, the
day before my mom's birthday.
I tell myself coincidences are God's way of being
anonymous. But does her death mean that I must give up on her as a “mentor” or
role model?
Greetings! Many times I've read your words, which I found through Syd's website and links. What a surprise today to read your homage to Penny Niven. I was fortunate enough to know her slightly through work. I say keep her as your mentor; she was a truly wonderful person. Please g.oogle her obituary and read it (not the article posted in the Winston-Salem Journal about her death, but the "true" obituary found in that and other area newspapers). All she did, and all she wanted to be, will inspire you to keep her as your mentor.
ReplyDeleteAnother Niven fan
I absolutely appreciate that this was a meaningful coincidence for you, to chance by me, via Syd and find … Penny!
ReplyDeleteI never thought of her as Penny, and so it makes me smile today that you know her even slightly. I am wondering if you mean the obituary and life tribute on her own website, or that was in the national paper?
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/08/arts/penelope-niven-carl-sandburg-biographer-dies-at-75.html