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Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day, Writing Moms

First of all, I hope all the non-writing moms out there have a very happy Mother's Day. As for you writing moms, happy Mother's Day to you, too-- perhaps your offspring will follow in your shoes (if they haven't already). Here's a few mother & child writers that I could come up with:

1. Laura Beatrice Berton and Pierre Berton:

Okay, so Pierre's output was quite larger than his mom's, but I've heard good things about Laura's one and only book: her memoirs, I Married The Klondike. I still need to read it.

2. Tabitha King and Joe Hill and Owen King

Almost anyone who mentions author Joe Hill subsequently mentions his father, Stephen King. Poor mom. She's an author, too, you know. I'm sure she had some influence on Joe's decision to write. Oh and on Owen, too. Geez, either these people have egos of steel or they have a whole team of family counsellors. What about daughter Naomi? Perhaps wisely she hasn't taken up the pen. Not yet, anyway.

3. Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane


I'm sure more people have heard of Laura, but according to some folks, Rose may have been read more often than realized. They claim that Rose may have had a hand, and a heavy hand at that, in her mom's writing process.

4. Alice Munro and Sheila Munro

Despite how little I care for Alice Munro's stories, I curiously want to read her daughter Sheila's memoirs about "growing up with Alice Munro."

Which of these authors have you read? Can you think of other examples?

6 comments:

Kate said...

What about Carol Shields and Anne Giardini?

I avoided Carol Shields after reading The Stone Diaries (a book which I detested), but after several years came back to her and enjoyed some of her other books. I've not read anything by Anne Giardini, the the example is fresh in my mind because just yesterday, Shelagh Rogers on CBC mentioned that she would be interviewing Anne Giardini at some point in the next couple of weeks.

John Mutford said...

Kate: Good one! While I've heard of her (Ragdoll reviewed her book The Sad Truth About Happiness for the Canadian Book Challenge), I totally forgot her for this.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget Edwina Power and Laura Power. :-)

John Mutford said...

Ferry Tales: I honestly had you two in mind!

Bybee said...

Rebecca Harding Davis and Richard Harding Davis.

JoAnn said...

How about Anita Desai and her daughter Kiran Desai?