Marian Leah Knapp
Author Interview - Marian Leah Knapp
Author of Prohibition Wine: A True Story of One Woman’s Daring in Twentieth-Century America
In 1918, my grandmother, Rebecca Wernick Goldberg, became a widow when her husband, Nathan, died in an accident. Prohibition was enacted in 1920 and, to earn some money to help feed her six children and herself, she began selling illegal alcohol out of the back door of her house in Wilmington, Massachusetts. She got caught in 1925 and was called before a judge. Her case made headline news in Boston and local newspapers.
Author Interview - Marian Leah Knapp
Author I draw inspiration from: Anthony Doer. His writing creates rich images in our imagination that we can see, feel, touch, and smell.
Author Interview - Marian Leah Knapp
Favorite place to read a book: I have a swivel chair that sits in front of a northwest-facing window on the seventh floor of my condo. I love the soft light – the kind that visual artists often like to paint in. From time-to-time I turn my chair around to look at the peaceful and forested conservation land in my backyard.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: Susan Orleans, (both author and character), The Orchid Thief. I love how she unabashedly inserts herself into the lives, locations, and circumstances of interesting people who are around us but whom we are never able to truly get to know and understand.
Author Interview - Marian Leah Knapp
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: I am not one of those people who, at an early age, knew she wanted to write. My realization about writing landed serendipitously when I was sixty-five years old. I had gone back to graduate school to earn a doctoral degree and was in a class that offered an optional essay. Since I was the only person in the class that had written anything, the instructor asked me to read. When I was finished, she simply said, “You should get that published.”
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: When I read books, I usually read hardcover or paperbacks. I do read the newspaper on-line, but I like the feel of an actual volume in my hands. People I know talk fondly about audiobooks, but I am not there yet. I am planning to make an audiobook for Prohibition Wine.
The last book I read: The Beautiful and Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald. I am reading books from the Prohibition era to understand and compare my grandmother’s experience to that of the privileged people that Fitzgerald and others wrote about. It is a startling contrast.
Author Interview - Marian Leah Knapp
Pen & paper or computer: I read The Beautiful and Damned in an old hardcover that I got out of the library.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: I’m not sure I can answer this question. Over the years I have identified with different characters in different books. My choice of whom I would like to be best friends with would vary greatly depending on how old I would have been and what was going on in my life when I read the book and what was meaningful to me at that time.
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: An Archaeologist. During my varied educational experiences, I had obtained a Master’s Degree in Anthropology with a concentration in archaeology. I guess I am intrigued with trying to find answers to lingering unanswered questions.
Favorite decade in fashion history: 1920s hats, shoes, dresses, and jewelry – especially the hats.
Place I’d most like to travel: I have been to many places around the world on all continents. I have not been to Greece or Hawaii. It would be nice to travel there – maybe, someday – but I don’t feel compelled.
My signature drink: Black coffee or a glass of red or white wine with dinner, or maybe a splash of gin over ice. When I was a kid, it was coffee milk – a Rhode Island specialty.
Favorite artist: Amedeo Modigliani. I love the elongated images and the confrontational stares of his, primarily women, subjects.
Number one on my bucket list: I don’t have a bucket list. I very much acknowledge the idea that dying is inevitable, but I would rather focus on doing things that are meaningful and where I learn something. I would like to visit more American National Parks. Seeing Yellowstone a couple of years ago, was mind-blowing.
Anything else you'd like to add: It is never too late in life to create and recreate oneself. But I can say this because I have been so lucky to have good health and an adequate amount of security that allows me to explore different options.
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Author Bio: Marian Leah Knapp is a writer and community activist. Her previously published books include Aging in Places: Reflective Preparation for the Future (2014); A Steadfast Spirit: The Essence of Caregiving (2017); and, with Vivien Goldman, The Outermost Cape: Encountering Time. For more than ten years, she has written a monthly column “Aging in Places” for her local newspaper The Newton (MA) TAB. When Marian was sixty-four years old, she went back to school to obtain a doctoral degree and passed her dissertation defense right before her seventieth birthday. She has been a political activist in her city, focusing on the issues that people face as they get older. She has two sons, two daughters-in-law, and three grandchildren.
