Persistence Pays Off
Selden Edwards's first novel was a labor of love lasting more than 30 years. Fortunately for the 71-year-old author, the going was easier the second time around. The manuscript that became the bestseller The Little Book, which Edwards, MA '75, began working on at Stanford, went through a half dozen "final" drafts and numerous rejections before it was published—to wide acclaim—in 2008. For his sophomore effort, The Lost Prince (Dutton; August 2012), Edwards revisits characters who traipse through time and rub elbows with great artists and thinkers of the dawning 20th century.
>Greener Greetings
The U.S. Green Building Council has awarded its highest distinction, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification, to Posty Cards of Kansas City, Mo. Of the seven manufacturing plants in the country to earn the designation, the 65-year-old, family-owned greeting card company, run by third-generation president Erick Jessee, '89, is by far the smallest. (Others include a Volkswagen facility and a ConAgra operation.) One of the lead architects of the expansion and renovation project—which doubled the facility's space while significantly reducing its carbon footprint per square foot—was Mark McHenry, '73, with McHenry Shaffer Mitchell.
Oh, Mickey!
The United States Golf Association Museum in New Jersey has dedicated a gallery to Mary Kathryn "Mickey" Wright, '56. The fourth person to have a room named in her honor, Wright joins the ranks of Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones and Arnold Palmer. Among the memorabilia on display is the set of 1963 Wilson Staff Dynapower clubs she played with for 32 years while perfecting the swing Hogan once called "the greatest golf swing I ever saw." There's also the 1955 Bulls-Eye putter she used to win all but one of her 82 LPGA titles, including 13 major championships. A four-time U.S. Women's Open champion (1958-59, 1961, 1964), Wright is the only player in LPGA history to hold all four major titles at the same time (1961-62).
"I had a vision, or an idea, that Mr. Darcy is going to be involved in the technology of the time. We hear from Austen's pen that he is a man of letters and that he's involved in business. In my book, I chose to make Mr. Darcy a forward thinking man of the Age of Reason, a man who wanted his wife as a partner, not his arm candy."
—Cisco co-founder and Austen scholar Sandy Lerner, MS '81, on the inspiration for Second Impressions, her "sequel" to Pride and Prejudice.
