Legacy : A Step-By-Step Guide to Writing Personal History
Selected Book Details
- Paperback
- Author: Linda Spence
- Publisher: Swallow Press
- Release Date: November 1997
- ISBN-10: 080401003X
- ISBN-13: 9780804010030
- List Price: $14.95
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryLinda Spence's Legacy proves to be just that: the creation of a family heirloom that money couldn't buy. Through a series of thought-provoking questions about each phase in human life, Spence helps readers record their personal history, think back to feelings that any number of snapshots could never capture, and reflect upon their lives. What events occurred during your childhood? What did you like most about school? What do you wish your parents had done for you? The text includes sample essays by the author and quotations by other writers to encourage your muse. |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Great to Share
Rating:
The first copy of this book came as a gift from a daughter to my husband. She wanted her dad to tell his life's story. It took a while, but now my husband and I are "Writing," as the author said, "for our great grandchildren who will never know us." I've bought several copies to give to friends. It's full of fun ways to start your life story. Mine began, "Horses I have known." That chapter may not make the book, but it was a beginning.
I have a diary written by my great grandfather during his first year in the War Between the States, and I know how precious his account has become to our family. Buy this book and share your story. Dig up those good--and yes, bad memories from the past and get them in print. You will be glad you did. OK, you can leave it to be published or read after you die, but it's a way to live on.
Making Memoir Writing Easy
Rating: 
Spence has provided a tool for eliciting and recording family history with relative ease. Her book can become a catalyst for coaxing memories even from people who protest about recording their experiences or who lack confidence about their ability to remember. However many of the numerous helpful prompts you use, you will create a worthwhile legacy.
A GIFT ONLY YOU CAN GIVE YOUR DESCENDANTS
Rating:
What were you like as a child? What did you think? What did you do?
Not many of us escape these questions from our children and grandchildren.
This wonderful book enables us to leave a legacy of memories and history for our descendants. It gives step by step instructions on how to write
a personal history. The process also brings back many memories and gives the writer a clearer picture of his/her life experiences. At 78 I hope I have enough time to finish my gift to my family. Wish I'd had this book 20 years ago.
Gets You Started
Rating:
This book is a step-by-step guide to writing your life's stories as a legacy for other family members. The author has worked with seniors for many years, gathering their stories and helping them document their life histories. In this book, she presents a simple methodology that anyone can follow to help them get over the hardest step in the process-getting started. In the introduction, she urges the reader to set aside some time and space for writing, in a notebook, on an audio cassette, on a typewriter, or on a computer, whichever is most comfortable and convenient. Then she provides lists of reflective questions to get the juices flowing. The questions are organized by topic, including earliest memories, school life, young adulthood, marriage, children, grandchildren, and later adult years. Interspersed with these questions are quotations from unknown as well as famous published memoirists whose writing illustrates the topic at hand.
Everybody has had life experiences which are fascinating, amazing, or potentially edifying for others. The trouble is, so few of these stories ever get passed on because it's so hard to actually sit down and write them. With this book, Spence makes the task seem easy. Writers can sit down with the book, open to a page at random, and begin writing responses to her prompts. Or they can begin with the first question and work methodically through the book. Each question can easily require an entire essay to answer in full. Once the individual essays start collecting, the raw material is ready to edit into a book. Or, the answers can simply be left as drafts in the writer's notebook to be passed on to others as a legacy. It should be noted that Spence's goal is to help readers to document their life histories in a positive way so as to create a product that can be passed on to other family members, rather than to explore negative memories as a means of self-growth. The book is not about style, grammar, or esthetic qualities of writing. Spence finds it more important for writers to use their own voices naturally rather than to adopt formal stylistic attributes. The book would make an excellent gift for older family members who have stories to tell but just haven't gotten around to writing them down yet.
Enough questions to last a lifetime
Rating:
I am teaching a life history class for the first time and am using Linda Spence's book as part of my curriculum. She literally has hundreds and hundreds of questions to ask which can be a little daunting, but just remember to take only a few at a time and know that not all questions will pertain to you. In the end, the answers will give a lot of good information to your children or grandchildren that you can leave as is or refine in "book" form. This book is also good for audio or video testimonials as you can just answer the questions for a more informal feeling.
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