One More River
Page 25
A Biography of Mary Glickman
Born Mary Kowalski on the south shore of Boston, Massachusetts, Mary Glickman grew up the fourth of seven children in a traditional Irish-Polish Catholic family. Her father had been a pilot in the Army Air Force and later flew for Delta Air Lines. From an early age, Mary was fascinated by faith. Though she attended Catholic school and as a child wanted to become a nun, her attention eventually turned to the Old Testament and she began what would become a lifelong relationship with Jewish culture. “Joseph Campbell said that religion is the poetry that speaks to a man’s soul,” Mary has said, “and Judaism was my soul’s symphony.”
In her twenties, Mary traveled in Europe and explored her passion for writing, composing short stories and poetry. Returning to the United States, she met her future husband, Stephen, a lawyer, and with his encouragement began to consider writing as a career. She enrolled in the Masters in Creative Writing program at Boston University, under the poet George Starbuck, who encouraged her to focus on fiction writing. While taking an MFA class with the late Ivan Gold, Mary completed her first novel, Drones, which received a finalist award from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities but was never published.
Mary also began a career as a freelance writer working with nonprofit organizations on projects ranging from a fund-raising campaign for the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center to an instructional video for the National Scoliosis Foundation’s screening project. Mary and Stephen married in 1978. Mary made a full conversion to Judaism and later worked as treasurer/secretary for her synagogue.
The origins of her love for all things Southern arose from a sabbatical year. In 1987, Mary and Stephen first traveled to the south of Spain, soaking in the life of a fishing village called La Cala. After seven months abroad and, hoping to extend their time away, they sought a warm—and more affordable—locale. The romance of Charleston, South Carolina, its Spanish moss, antebellum architecture, and rich cultural life beckoned.
Settling into a rented house on Seabrook Island, Mary fell in love with the people, language, and rural beauty of her new home. Following a lifelong desire to ride horses, Mary took a position mucking the stalls at the local equestrian center and embraced riding, finding her match in an Appaloosa named King of Harts. The sabbatical ended and the couple returned to life in Boston, but the passion for Southern culture remained with them. They were able to return permanently to Seabrook Island in 2008, where they currently reside with their cat and an elderly King of Harts.
In 2010, Mary’s debut novel, Home in the Morning, was published to critical acclaim, quickly becoming an electronic bestseller. Director/producer Jim Kohlberg optioned the book later that year, with Jeff Sharp of Open Road Integrated Media to produce the film and Peter Riva to serve as executive producer. Home in the Morning will be Open Road’s first original ebook to be adapted for film.
The Kowalski family in 1950. In the back: Frank Kowalski. In the front row, from left to right: Carl, Robert, Mary, Freda, and Kathleen.
The Kowalski brood around 1956. Carl, the oldest brother, is in the back; Robert is holding Patti; Mary is on the left with the braids; and Kathleen is behind her.
The Kowalski family in the mid-1960s, from left to right: mom Freda, Carl, Mary, Robert, Peggy, Kathleen, dad Frank, and Patti, with the youngest, Jeanne, in the foreground.
Glickman and her sisters Patti and Jeanne, seen here at home in the mid-1960s.
Newlyweds Mary and Stephen Glickman sitting on the bimah of Temple Beth Zion in 1978. According to Mary, “Stephen grew a moustache for the event. More’s the pity.”
Stephen, Mary, and their friend Risa Schneider Fine in 1981.
The Kowalski children in 1982. Back row, from left to right: Robert and Carl. Front row, left to right: Jeanne, Patti, Mary, Kathleen, and Peggy.
Glickman’s large family of siblings, with nephews, nieces, aunt, and grandmother, seen here around 1983. Glickman is in the back row, center.
Mary riding a horse in Spain during the seven months she spent in the seaside village of La Cala with her husband Stephen.
A rejection letter from the vice president of Norton, written to Glickman’s former agent about her novel Solomon’s Dotage. The book was one of six unpublished novels she wrote before Home in the Morning.
A postcard from fellow Open Road author Andre Dubus, written around 1990. Glickman and Dubus were friends for several years before his death in 1999.
Glickman walking with King of Harts at home during her Open Road video shoot.
Glickman at home on Seabrook Island, South Carolina, where she lives with her husband, cats, and beloved horse, King of Harts.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this book. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 2011 by Mary Glickman
cover design by Jason Gabbert
interior design by Danielle Young
ISBN: 978-1-4532-2025-2
Published in 2011 by Open Road Integrated Media
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New York, NY 10014
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