York Dispatch
York, PA - November 29, 2001
Author
shares grandmother’s story
By Leslie Gray Streeter
What started out as an
effort to preserve family lore turned into a leap of faith, a career change and
a major book deal for Maryland author John Snyder. And he owes it all to his grandmother, the late Anna Snyder.
“I’m sure she’d be
pleased,” said Snyder, who will sign copies of his family holiday story “The
Golden Ring” tomorrow at Borders.
In 1999, Snyder
self-published his book, based on a story about his grandmother’s childhood in
western Pennsylvania. The story was
later excerpted in ”Family Circle” magazine and has now been picked up by
Warner Books, a division of the AOL/Time Warner media conglomerate.
“It’s pretty
mind-blowing, I feel really fortunate that somebody of that stature has picked
me up,” Snyder said.
The owner of an advertising
and public relations company near Annapolis, Snyder’s journey into writing
began with a trip to Cumberland, Md., to visit his grandmother, Anna Snyder.
“I wanted to get her
voice on tape,” he said. “I
asked her about her early life, about her first date with my grandfather, about
her most memorable Christmas.”
One of the stories she told
him was about a golden ring that was one of her most prized possessions as a
child. The story “really grabbed
my imagination,” Snyder said, and inspired him to start writing.
He completed the book in
November 1999, and printed 5,000 copies of it himself.
After selling more than half of that original run, Snyder published
32,000 more copies.
"I was more scared the
second time. I mortgaged my house,
so there was a little more on the line that time,” he said.
“I have got to say that I have a great family behind me, who all
sacrificed. We’d’ all have
suffered the consequences if that didn’t work.
Luckily, it did. I’m glad it did.”
Snyder sold about 24,000
copies of “The Golden Ring” during that second run.
As he promotes “The
Golden Ring,” Snyder is working on two other projects, including another
Christmas story, he said.
Snyder said he’s gotten
e-mails and letters from as far away as India, from people enthusiastic about
his story.
“They’re all very
touching, about how the book has touched them personally. It’s rewarding as a writer to be able to do that for
people,” he said. “People are
searching for something to make them feel good.”
Snyder said that many of
those letter-writers have told him that they’ve been inspired to now record
the stories of their own families, before it’s too late.
“When people pass on,
their stories go with them,” he said. “The
history of our country isn’t written in books.
It’s the specific history in the minds and hearts of the people in our
families.”
The woman who handed this
particular history down to Snyder died just days after receiving a copy of the
book from the original 1999 run. But
her grandson thinks that somehow, she knows what’s happening.
“I’m sure she’s
smiling down on me,” he said. She was just thrilled that I was doing this.
I know she’d be pleased.”