Ask the Author: Janet Cantor

“Ask me a question.” Janet Cantor

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Janet Cantor This is not an idea original to me, but I like it.

My two sentence horror story:

"The sun rose in the west that day. And that is how it all began."
Janet Cantor If there could be a visit to a non fictional book world, it would be Arlene Croce's book about Fred Astaire. I would want to dance with him and be able to watch him dance and hear him sing. Bliss.

As for fiction, I would like to be a bird watching Elizabeth and Darcy as they live their lives full of love. But alas, it would be after they were married and perhaps the bloom would be off the rose. It is funny that most dramatizations of Pride and Prejudice end with their finally acknowledging their love for each other. But the book goes on after that and Mr. Bennett, Elizabeth's father, finally gets his due in a comfort zone with his married Elizabeth.
Janet Cantor I just finished Nutshell by Ian McEwan.
I will soon begin a book of essays but the great Victor Davis Hanson - VDH.
And then I will reread a book I read decades ago - Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?
I will reread Troilas and Cressida because I will be seeing it in a few weeks.
After that I don't know.
Janet Cantor Answer Skip
There are several choices, Jane and Mr. Rochester, Cathy and Heathcliff, and so many more, but I still gravitate to Jane Austen's Elizabeth and Darcy because i love manners, and it took a lot for them to overcome themselves to reach for their ideal mates. Who would you choose?
Janet Cantor I was a math teacher. But my book is not about my teaching experience. My book is about letters I have written to well known people and the responses I have received.
It was always astonishing to me that important people in their fields, and great people took the time to write me and often went to great lengths to explain their motivations and share their personal feelings.
When I wrote, my rule was never to invade people's private lives, but only to express my gratitude. My life has been enriched by these letters I received in response and sometimes I even became friendly with these movers and shakers of our time. I thought these letters should not be lost and that is why I wrote my book.
Some of my readers have been lovely and expressed excitement in their reactions to what I wrote.

There are some coups!
Here are two of them:
When my editor told National Book Award winner, the eminent Professor Carlos Eire about the book I intended to write, even before I had written one word, he became excited about the idea of the book and volunteered to write a Foreword. I am so thrilled with what he wrote. Who wouldn't be?
and
When I asked Sir Richard Eyre of the National Theatre in London for permission to include his obituary of my beloved actor friend, Michael Bryant, he said yes, and I am so proud to have that in my book.
If anyone likes the performing arts and literature, there is much to enjoy, I think, in reading why book.

Since I wrote my book it has taken on a new meaning for me.
The subtitle is about love and gratitude. And the world seems to be forgetting these things. Lots of the protesters and blockers of speakers at universities and complainers and whiners looking for safe spaces forgot about love and gratitude - gratitude for our Founding Fathers, The Constitution and love for G-d and for our wonderful free country.
I want love and gratitude brought back to public discussion.
Janet Cantor I am currently transcribing a book that I hope to see published perhaps his year. It will be fascinating. Here I am 78 years old and I have just had my first book published and am working on another.
In my head I am writing ten books at the same time. I have enough to say about Shakespeare, the current scene in America, music, authors, etc.
But I do not take the time to write those books because they would take away from my life.
I love to write, so I stick to shorter things like essays, letters and commenting on articles.
Janet Cantor I am not a "writer" of books. I wrote only this one. If I wanted to, I could have written many, but I have so many hobbies, I never had the time.
I am a writer of letters and comments, short things.
A full book for me was a one time thing.
Janet Cantor On this book, An Epistolary Life, that was not an issue. I simply took the letters I received and told the back stories. Since I had told these stories all of my life to friends, the words just flowed.
Janet Cantor This is my first book. I am a 77 year old first time author. There is an author's not in the book which explains that I decided to share my exceptional letters with the world because I feared that they would be lost forever if I didn't put them into a book..

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