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Preface

This is my second self-published book after three others placed with regular firms—Richard Wright (Ungar), Afro-American Fiction, 1853-1976, with coauthor Edward Margolies (Gale Research), Jimmy Durante: His Show Business Career (McFarland).

I knew that my fourth book, a memoir, would not draw a publisher in what would have been a fruitless search and waste of time. Zero to Seventy-Five in 30 Snapshots was edited and formatted by my wife, Linda, who—among other jobs—had done some freelance editing for Scholastic Books. The resulting book, 265 pages, showed a professional touch in formatting the text and skillful placing of thirty photos. With a cherubic black-and-white photo of the author at age four as a cover and a color back cover of a mustached professor in his thirties, the book was registered with the Library of Congress and printed on demand by CreateSpace, a subsidiary of Amazon, and listed on Amazon.com but had no other publicity. Complimentary copies drew mostly silence or an unexplained “wow!” from startled friends and silence from family.

Linda passed away from breast cancer complicated by progressive multiple sclerosis. Her long illness and death had me spending all my time trying to meet her needs as she struggled with unrelenting pain. My mind went into a deep depression in the precious time before and after she died.

As Thanksgiving 2019 approached, my mind awoke from the depths to resume work on this, my fifth book. The book is entitled Drowning Naked in Paradise & Other Essays. It has more humor and no photographs aside from the front and back covers. The essays on the whole are much shorter than in the earlier memoir and as in the earlier book can be read independent of each other.

Some pieces were written as part of my participation in a writer’s group led by Ruth Lehrer, writer, neighbor, and friend. I am grateful to members of this group, past and present, for their constructive criticism in the biweekly sessions. I also want to thank Michael Greene, my Great Neck therapist, chosen for me by my wife as she researched the internet on her deathbed. He helped with formatting and much more, including emotional support. Important additional support was provided by, among others, Rabbi Sidney and Ruth Solomon, Jacqueline and Aron Weinbach, Jackie Friedland, Raizie Lutwak, Susan Cutter, Naomi Joy Greshman, Lynn Silverman May, and Fernando Giordano.