Ilene Beckerman, Author
When I was 60 years old, I wrote a memoir about my life before I had children. I have 5 children. They didn’t think I had a life before I was their mother. Sometimes even I wondered.
The book was Love, Loss, and What I Wore. It sold a lot of copies and was the inspiration for a hit Off-Broadway play that broke Off-Broadway records.
When I was 62, my second book was published. It’s called What We Do For Love. I had been looking for Prince Charming but I never found him. Cinderella did.
My third book was published when I was 65. It’s called Mother of the Bride: The Dream, The Reality, The Search for a Perfect Dress. Childbirth is a lot easier than being mother of the bride.
At 70, my fourth book, Makeovers at the Beauty Counter of Happinesswas published. I’m still looking for the perfect mascara.
I didn’t write another book for a few years. I cleaned my closets.
When I was 75, my book The Smartest Woman I Know was published. It’s not about me.
I illustrate all of my books but I don’t draw well.
Oprah did a profile of me, my books have been translated into many languages I can’t speak, I’ve written for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Ladies Home Journal, and many other magazines, and I speak to women’s groups and book clubs all over the country.
If someone had told me all this would happen to me, I would have told them to stop smoking whatever they were smoking.
Thank you and all good wishes.
The book was Love, Loss, and What I Wore. It sold a lot of copies and was the inspiration for a hit Off-Broadway play that broke Off-Broadway records.
When I was 62, my second book was published. It’s called What We Do For Love. I had been looking for Prince Charming but I never found him. Cinderella did.
My third book was published when I was 65. It’s called Mother of the Bride: The Dream, The Reality, The Search for a Perfect Dress. Childbirth is a lot easier than being mother of the bride.
At 70, my fourth book, Makeovers at the Beauty Counter of Happinesswas published. I’m still looking for the perfect mascara.
I didn’t write another book for a few years. I cleaned my closets.
When I was 75, my book The Smartest Woman I Know was published. It’s not about me.
I illustrate all of my books but I don’t draw well.
Oprah did a profile of me, my books have been translated into many languages I can’t speak, I’ve written for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Ladies Home Journal, and many other magazines, and I speak to women’s groups and book clubs all over the country.
If someone had told me all this would happen to me, I would have told them to stop smoking whatever they were smoking.
Thank you and all good wishes.
Nora Epheron, Writer
Nora Ephron, acclaimed essayist, novelist, screenwriter and director was born May 19, 1941 New York City. She is the daughter of screenwriting team, Pheobe and Henry Ephron, who wrote classic screenplays such as, There's No Business Like Show Business, What Price Glory and Desk Set. She is the oldest of four sisters, Delia, Amy and Hallie. The Ephrons were a family that valued verbal jousting, and in an article inVanity Fair one Ephron sister compared the family dinner table to the Algonquin Round Table. Ephron grew up in a household where both parents abused alcohol, but she has never let her sometimes difficult childhood defeat her.
Ephron graduated from Wellesley in 1962 with a degree in journalism, and became a reporter for the New York Post. In her autobiographical speech,Adventures Screenwriting, Ephron reveals that in college all she could think about was going to New
York and becoming a journalist. She became one of the counrty's best known journalists with her work inEsquire, New York Times Magazineand New York Magazine. Two collections of her essays, Crazy Salad and Scribble, Scribble were bestsellers, along with her novel,Heartburn, an account of the breakup of her marriage. Ephron was married to writer, Dan Greenburg before marrying Watergate journalist, Carl Bernstein. The couple had two sons, Jacob, 21 and Max, 20. It was the breakup with Bernstein that prompted her novel Heartburn. In 1987, Ephron married Nicholas Pileggi, a journalist and screenwriter. He wrote Wiseguys, which later became Goodfellas.
Ephron graduated from Wellesley in 1962 with a degree in journalism, and became a reporter for the New York Post. In her autobiographical speech,Adventures Screenwriting, Ephron reveals that in college all she could think about was going to New
York and becoming a journalist. She became one of the counrty's best known journalists with her work inEsquire, New York Times Magazineand New York Magazine. Two collections of her essays, Crazy Salad and Scribble, Scribble were bestsellers, along with her novel,Heartburn, an account of the breakup of her marriage. Ephron was married to writer, Dan Greenburg before marrying Watergate journalist, Carl Bernstein. The couple had two sons, Jacob, 21 and Max, 20. It was the breakup with Bernstein that prompted her novel Heartburn. In 1987, Ephron married Nicholas Pileggi, a journalist and screenwriter. He wrote Wiseguys, which later became Goodfellas.
Delia Ephron, Writer
I live in Greenwich Village, the prettiest part of New York City, with my husband Jerome Kass, who is also a writer, and my dog Honey. My favorite things are writing, walking, and cooking, although I also do yoga and the use the treadmill. I absolutely hate the treadmill, but use it because it is good for me. While I am on it, I watch the Food Network or reality shows. I love reality shows. My favorite isProject Runway.
I have always loved to read, and among my most powerful memories are coming home from school, getting a whole bunch of chocolate chip cookies out of the cookie jar, and reading while I ate the cookies slowly: the cookie part first, then the chips, allowing myself two per page. I remember Anne of Green Gables, the Betsy-Tacy books, Homer Price, and Ballet Shoes. These books are on the shelf next to my desk to give me inspiration. I love to write for teenagers and kids because of these happy memories. I hope to give someone else the same joy of escaping into stories.Although the main reason I write is probably because it’s who I am, and I feel very fortunate to have been able to make my living by my imagination.
I have three sisters, Nora, Hallie, and Amy. I’m the second oldest. I grew up in Beverly Hills, California, which was kind of a sleepy town then—not all fancy and famous and snobby the way it is now. My parents wrote screenplays, so I come from a writing family. All my sisters are writers, too.
My favorite city in the world is New York City, but my second favorite is Paris. It is so beautiful there, and I feel sad that my stepson hates Paris and only wants to go to Ireland, but I have learned over the years that you can’t force your kids to like what you like. My stepson Adam Kass, a storyboard artist and illustrator, lives in Los Angeles. My stepdaughter, Julie Kass, lives outside of Seattle, Washington.
I have always loved to read, and among my most powerful memories are coming home from school, getting a whole bunch of chocolate chip cookies out of the cookie jar, and reading while I ate the cookies slowly: the cookie part first, then the chips, allowing myself two per page. I remember Anne of Green Gables, the Betsy-Tacy books, Homer Price, and Ballet Shoes. These books are on the shelf next to my desk to give me inspiration. I love to write for teenagers and kids because of these happy memories. I hope to give someone else the same joy of escaping into stories.Although the main reason I write is probably because it’s who I am, and I feel very fortunate to have been able to make my living by my imagination.
I have three sisters, Nora, Hallie, and Amy. I’m the second oldest. I grew up in Beverly Hills, California, which was kind of a sleepy town then—not all fancy and famous and snobby the way it is now. My parents wrote screenplays, so I come from a writing family. All my sisters are writers, too.
My favorite city in the world is New York City, but my second favorite is Paris. It is so beautiful there, and I feel sad that my stepson hates Paris and only wants to go to Ireland, but I have learned over the years that you can’t force your kids to like what you like. My stepson Adam Kass, a storyboard artist and illustrator, lives in Los Angeles. My stepdaughter, Julie Kass, lives outside of Seattle, Washington.