"Explorers find what they expect to find,
not necessarily what is there."
not necessarily what is there."
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I'm a literature guy—from Day One.
In my new book, you’ll read about the literary crafting of my name by my poet father, Richard Eberhart. Dad was a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Bollingen Prize, and many others. He served as United States Poet Laureate under Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy and for many years as New Hampshire Poet Laureate. Dad’s poetic voice gave me a rhythm, a rhyme, and enriched me with poetic references. My poet father molded me as I sought to know our Father. In my book, you’ll read uplifting stories of my encounters with famous poets, actors, folk singers—even a famous spy—and with the others whom Dad knew. I’m a God guy. I followed God—in the negative or in the positive—through early agnosticism, through many years of Reform Judaism, through a later flirtation with Orthodox Judaism, and then finally, in older age, into evangelical Christianity. Read about how Dad’s poetic soul made this pilgrimage easier and harder at the same time. I’ve got a drawer full of diplomas…dusty now. Dartmouth BA in English. Pacific School of Religion MA in psychology and religion and an MDiv. as well. Graduate Theological Union PhD (in association with the University of California, Berkeley) in religion and art. In retrospect, there was an identifiable direction as I went through all this—but not so identifiable while the process was going on! I’ve had a few careers. Lots of writerly day jobs—cab driver, gardener, baker, sales clerk, chef, teacher. Once, in Paris, I was a photo model—read the memoir. After the doctorate, I did a stint as a seminary administrator. Then—the career job—I spent 28 enjoyable years selling books and software solutions to lawyers in Maine, New Hampshire, and northeastern Massachusetts. I did this first for Shepards/McGraw-Hill, then for Loislaw, and finally I spent the longest time selling for Thomson/West. As a young writer, I published two novels. Later, while I was a salesman, I wrote a weekly feature piece for Maine’s largest newspaper. Taste and Tell was an anonymous restaurant review column. I filed a review for every Sunday edition during 4.5 years. It's fun to be paid to eat. Also, it's fun to write a column that was the paper's most widely read column...of course, after the obits! Later still, I founded my own publishing company—Barquentine Books—and I published two editions of a Maine dining guide. My purpose in writing is to communicate what I have learned during 70 years. One of the things I've learned is the value of responding when one realizes he or she is being pursued by the Holy Spirit. This is not always easy to notice, so certain are many of us that we are in total charge of our lives, decisions, and expectations. In writing, I do my best to entertain with a readable style and with appropriate humor. Whether the subject of the writing is sad or happy, my authorial posture seeks to be humble. I believe the Lord's glory requires humility of us. The Lord exhorts us to maintain an attitude of gratitude. 
Channa when I met her, in 1974.
I am blessed by my family. I’m married to Channa Eberhart—we’ve past 40 years—who is now a partially retired commercial real estate appraiser with a national specialty in Section Eight housing projects. We are grateful for our four children and for our son-in-law and for our five grandchildren.
I’m a writing guy. Always have been. Can’t help it. Like it. Writing comes from a territory of my spirit where I objectify my experience, and then manage it, shape it, and communicate it back. When I do this well enough, in a memoir, for example, it gives pleasure to my readers and sometimes even explains myself to myself. (I'm trying to catch up with what the Lord already knows about me!) Writing allows me to find truth. Truth exists, but it may hide behind what is more easily seen. Explorers find what they expect to find, not necessarily what is there. |
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