BY MARK CURNUTTE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Beginning in 1979, Jessie Lee Brown Foveaux wrote 3,000 words a week about her life and took them to her writing class at a senior citizen center.
Charley Kempthorne, a former college English instructor, was her teacher. Week by week, the pieces of Mrs. Foveaux's 80 years came together: The Manhattan, Kan., mother of eight was the wife of an alcoholic husband and divorced him in 1940, decades before divorce was acceptable.
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IF YOU GO
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What: "Lifewriting: Recording the Stories of Your Life."
When: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursday.
Where: Grailville, 932 O'Bannonville Road, Loveland.
Cost: $75.
Miscellaneous: Organizers would prefer participants to register by the end of business today. But registrations will be accepted, for the same price, until all spots are filled. Information: 232-6749.
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As her story unfolded, Mr. Kempthorne made copies for Mrs. Foveaux's children and sent excerpts to a Wall Street Journal reporter, who profiled Mrs. Foveaux in March 1997. Later that month, she had a $1 million deal with Warner Books. Published last fall, her book, Any Given Day, has sold more than 100,000 copies.
The success story of one of Mr. Kempthorne's students isn't told to raise hopes of quick riches. More important, says the Manhattan, Kan., farmer and writing teacher, Mrs. Foveaux's success speaks to the increasing popularity and power in the true-to-life, honestly told stories of everyday people -- which he calls "lifewriting."
Mr. Kempthorne will lead a session on lifewriting Thursdayat Grailville in Loveland.
"Families are all over the country now," he says. "They're not in the same village anymore. That's why telling the stories of the family are more important than ever. We have a need to stay connected."
The popularity of lifewriting coincides with the huge growth in genealogy.
"But this is softer," Mr. Kempthorne says. "It's not enough to know that "Uncle Jack' was born in Covington, Ky., and died in Cincinnati. People want to know what Uncle Jack was like."
To that end, Mr. Kempthorne is not in the business of training professional writers. Most of his students are 50-plus. The typical one is a 58-year-old female.
"My students are people who want to write and self-publish their family stories for their children and grandchildren," he says.
Mr. Kempthorne concentrates on teaching people to write "scenes." That is, "to put flesh on the bones of genealogy. We talk about seeing your life as a series of scenes, like a movie, scenes that have action and dialogue."
He is author of For All Time: A Complete Guide to Writing Your Family History (Heinemann, $15.95) and is founder of The LifeStory Institute, the Manhattan, Kan.-based, non-profit corporation devoted to research and education in family writing.
He encourages people to write and save copies of letters. The ease of writing and copying on computers, he says, has also contributed to the increase in the number of lifewriters.
"We don't take the fun out of writing by stressing grammar," says Mr. Kempthorne, 60, who has kept a daily diary for 34 years. "It's all about emotions."
