I was at a reception many years ago and ran into Grace Paley. I couldn't think of anything worth saying and couldn't shut up, so I burbled how excited I was to meet her and that she and Esther Broner were my favorite authors. That, at least, was true. Ms. Paley exclaimed, "why, I came here with Esther, ... Esther, here is a fan" or something equally embarrassing, and we met.
A few years later, I got the chance to typeset the Hebrew for "The Women's Haggadah." I had a question about one of the last alterations and had to call her to ask her about it. Turned out that the publisher had decided not to pass on a host of alterations. We had a lot of fun making everything right. Since I had only the Hebrew text, not the accompanying English, I had to translate sections back from the Hebrew into English so that we knew that we were talking about the same text. Her excitement at hearing prayers she had written in English, which had been translated by a friend into Hebrew, and now, were translated back, still conveying the meaning she had intended was one of the high points of my life in typography.
In subsequent years, on the rare occasions we were at the same event, I had only to walk up and mention our work on the Haggadah to get an effusive smile. I miss her very much.
I was at a reception many years ago and ran into Grace Paley. I couldn't think of anything worth saying and couldn't shut up, so I burbled how excited I was to meet her and that she and Esther Broner were my favorite authors. That, at least, was true. Ms. Paley exclaimed, "why, I came here with Esther, ... Esther, here is a fan" or something equally embarrassing, and we met.
A few years later, I got the chance to typeset the Hebrew for "The Women's Haggadah." I had a question about one of the last alterations and had to call her to ask her about it. Turned out that the publisher had decided not to pass on a host of alterations. We had a lot of fun making everything right. Since I had only the Hebrew text, not the accompanying English, I had to translate sections back from the Hebrew into English so that we knew that we were talking about the same text. Her excitement at hearing prayers she had written in English, which had been translated by a friend into Hebrew, and now, were translated back, still conveying the meaning she had intended was one of the high points of my life in typography.
In subsequent years, on the rare occasions we were at the same event, I had only to walk up and mention our work on the Haggadah to get an effusive smile. I miss her very much.