Meet the Authors with Paul Clerici, Edward Clark, Daniel DeStefano

For a special pre-holiday event, come meet three local authors at Bestsellers Cafe on December 21, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., 24 High Street, Medford MA. This is a great chance to purchase a special gift, signed by the authors! In addition, volunteers from the Medford Historical Society & Museum will be on hand from 1:00 to 4:00 to gift wrap your Bestsellers Cafe purchases. There is no charge for this service, however donations to the MHSM are greatly appreciated.

Paul C. Clerici is the author of “Boston Marathon History by the Mile”.

From Hopkinton to Boylston Street, the beloved 26.2 miles of the Boston Marathon mark historic moments and memories dating back to 1897. Town by town and step by step, follow author, journalist, and runner Paul C. Clerici as he goes deeper into each town and city along the route with firsthand descriptions of the course from the uphill climbs to the spirited sprints.

Insightful anecdotes, from the naming of Heartbreak Hill to the incorporation of women runners, reveal meaningful racing heritage along the route. This comprehensive and unique journey also explores the stories behind notable landmarks, statues, and mile markers throughout the course.

Woven into the course history is expert advice on how to run each leg of the race from renowned running coach Bill Squires. Whether you’re a runner, spectator, or fan, “Boston Marathon: History by the Mile” has it all.

Edward Clark is the author of “A Man From Ohio”, his autobiography in which he relates the story of a life at once entirely familiar and remarkably singular.

Volume I: Home and Beyond charts the origins of Clark’s hardworking small-town Ohio family; his early childhood, played out with cautious joy beneath the ever-present shadow of the Great Depression; an adolescence marked in equal measure by hopeful confidence and uncertain prospects; the brief euphoria of college life, cut short by war; involvement in the Allied push for victory in Europe; an emerging wanderlust and the growing sense that, maybe, the Continent was his true home. In prose that is forthright, evocative and often luminous, Clark recounts a life that, while tethered to the twin pillars of a loving family and the unquestioned traditions of Christian middle America, is inexorably drawn into the larger world—fraught with change and the unknown, with obstacles and dangers both real and imagined—by his own burgeoning need to understand the why of things.

Volume ll: At Home and Abroad, continues the story. Returning from the war, Clark’s small town seems yet smaller, too small to contain his quest for words, learning, and life. He eventually returns to Europe and continues his education through the halls of Cambridge University in England, the Sorbonne in France, and Heidleberg College in Germany. A small-town man, with an expanded mind, he balances his homespun values against his real world experiences, hungers for life and love, searches for a place where all he is and all he wants to be can coexist.

Far from offering the reader a safe interpretation of events filtered through the soft lens of memory, Clark relates them precisely as they were lived and felt, thereby allowing the reader to experience happenings of long ago as if they were happening once again. Equal parts archivist and storyteller, Clark supplements an impressive knack for recall with a healthy dollop of period sources: family letters and court documents, sports columns and newspaper articles, song lyrics and catchy advertisements, military communiqués and propaganda, even some of his own work from his days as a cub reporter. Behind this wealth of detail and the faithful portrait of a bygone era, another, quieter, story emerges. The story of a man who allows himself to be guided, in the search for the person he wants to be, by the person he already is. Fortunately for the reader that person—filled with honesty and optimism, with a native curiosity and tolerance, with an endless ability to marvel at the actions and achievements of others and the world around him, above all with an unwavering belief that, come what may, his is truly a life worth living—is also the teller of this tale.

Daniel DeStefano is co-author and co-illustrator of “Sails and Rails, Nahant Massachusetts A History of the Island and Her Ships”.

What’s in a name? For the picturesque island of Nahant, Massachusetts, answering that question brings you along on Viking raids, below decks on blockade-running schooners, and into harm’s way in Civil War battles. Its name, Nahant, is one connection between the many subjects of Sails and Rails. This illustrated history was carefully researched by historians Daniel deStefano and Gerald Butler, and served as deStefano’s inspiration for the original artwork reproduced on these pages. This exclusive collection of his work and their research is proudly offered as homage to the island, its people, and to those who’ve pursued their calling upon (or near) the sea.