Two long-time, well known Newton residents have recently written and published book-length memoirs. The two memoirs are not at all alike. But in deep conversations with both John Stewart and Bob Burke, I have seen that the experience of writing a memoir had changed each of them.
John Stewart: My Life, Parts One and Two
John and I sat chatting in his living room as his wife, Lucia, made coffee in the kitchen. On the coffee table in front of us were two copies each of Stewart’s memoirs, My Life: Part One and My Life: Part Two.
Published in 2018, Part One of John’s memoir begins on December 15, 1932 with his birth in Lowell General Hospital. The subsequent chapters dive into the chronological sequence of his life, from childhood, to his attending Lexington High School, his time in the Army, Boston University, careers, love, family, and so on.
“On the surface, my story is not terribly dramatic. I’ve never done anything with huge public implications, and there are no radical shifts involved: a rise, for example, from terrible poverty to immense wealth, from poor health to great heights of mental or physical triumph, or from tragedy, corruption, or struggle to success upon success.
“Yet, clearly we all have an interesting, maybe even fascinating, and certainly unique, tale to tell, for our lives are inevitably filled with a massive array of events, relationships, environments, atmospheres, and situations and an assortment of ‘course-changing’ moments or delusions, big and small, planned or accidental.” (My Life: Part One, page 1)
After an early career in Washington, John had the opportunity to move back to Massachusetts and work at the new John F. Kennedy Library. He worked there for 33 years before his retirement, which is when the seed of writing a memoir was planted.
“When I left the Kennedy Library, I took with me, with their permission, quite a few papers that I had used in the 33 years,” he…