A most unusual publication party

I just received my first copy of The Most Impor­tant Thing [Can­dlewick Press]. Though it is my sev­en­ty-fifth book, it’s always an excit­ing moment.

Per­haps you have heard of pub­lish­ing par­ties, a cel­e­bra­tion of the pub­li­ca­tion of a book. In all my years of pub­li­ca­tion, I have had only one such par­ty. It was in 1984 and it was for my four­teenth book, Dev­il’s Race, pub­lished by Lip­pin­cott, a pub­lish­er that no longer exists. It may have been my only such par­ty but it was most unusual.

Devil’s Race is a ghost sto­ry, and tells the tale of a boy who has an evil alter-ego who is pur­su­ing him, try­ing to take him over. The boy’s name is John Proud. Ulti­mate­ly, John must embrace his evil half to con­quer him. Sim­ple stuff. But fun.

The idea for the sto­ry came about when I was a mem­ber of a Penn­syl­va­nia back-pack­ing club. One of the places we often camped was a state for­est park called “St. Anthony’s Wilder­ness,” a most won­der­ful name, and a most fas­ci­nat­ing place. In the 18th and 19th cen­tu­ry it had been pop­u­lat­ed. Now, all that remains in the for­est are ruins. And an aban­doned cemetery.

In that ceme­tery there was a lop­sided stone that caught my atten­tion. It read, “RIP John Proud.”

Hence my idea for the sto­ry (it is set in St. Anthony’s Wilder­ness) and my protagonist’s name.

Some friends in that back­pack­ing group learned that I was pub­lish­ing the book and said we must have a book pub­lish­ing par­ty. So we did, each of us pack­ing in a small bot­tle of cham­pagne. Thus we hiked into St. Anthony’s Wilder­ness, and sat around John Proud’s stone, drank a toast to his soul, and to my new book.

My only book pub­lish­ing par­ty, but a mem­o­rable one. I hope it made John Proud, well, proud.