Jack first heard about me at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, when he and a biology professor who had been reviewing my work for years were reflecting on the impending breakup of CRM Books, an over-the-top experiment in textbook publishing. Random House and other publishers were circling like sharks, and Jack was assessing whether it would be in Wadsworth’s interest to join the hunt.
You don’t need CRM, he was told. “Just get Cecie Starr.”
CRM had no internal walls compartmentalizing its creative staff. We all hit the ground running, hard, and were expected to become proficient IMMEDIATELY in editorial, design, production, marketing, publishing, and sales. The best among them trained me and reinforced not only my work ethic but also my sense of honor and integrity; and in those bedrock values, Wadsworth came across as singularly bright and shining.
Against strong pushback, Dick Greenberg listened to Jack and McD. He carved out an in-house niche for me, at first no more than a typewriter on a flimsy metal stand in an upstairs hall at 10 Davis Drive. In six months we put together the first, forgettable edition of UDL. But then we started to create our ground-breaking innovations, together. Not knowing that being involved in everything was a wild exception rather than the rule in publishing, I was running back and forth all over everybody’s turf and was sometimes hugely resented for it. Exasperated, Dick finally announced, “Give her what she wants, she’s going to get it anyway."
They gave me Gary Head, who became my codesigner, my in-house partner, my shrink. Gary is so modest, to this day not many of you know how integral he was to the evolving success of the Starr franchise. For four months every year, Jack would travel and listen to what professors wanted. He would come back home with his wishlist, knowing that Gary and I would somehow turn it into a responsive product. Topic spreads and other innovations to make each major concept as accessible as possible? Sure. Complex biological processes explained through nonthreatening, deceptively simple step-by-step illustrations? No problem, all in a day’s work. The most informative as well as staggeringly beautiful photographs in the world? We will find them!
Just kidding. Jack always came back asking for the moon, the stars, the Milky Way, Andromeda. Shouts, slamming doors, stomping and fuming. And Gary, my Rock of Reason, calmly listening, sitting side by side with me at our computers, quietly helping me burn off steam and get to it and give Jack what he wanted.
1 comment:
It was a good dynamic. Jack telling us what he wanted and us telling him that his request was unreasonable and impossible. THEN we went about figuring out a way to give him a better version of what he envisioned!
Post a Comment