Page 47 - The Costco Connection - October 2018
P. 47

THE PIECES
                                                                                      COME TOGETHER

                                                                                      On August 22, 2012, literary
                                                                                      agent Molly Friedrich received
                                                                                      a query letter from Sally Field.
                                                                                      Friedrich’s reply? “I don’t rep
                                                                                      celebrity bios,” she tells the
                                                                                      Connection. “I’m not interested
                                                                                      in big one-hit wonders.”
                                                                                      Still, Field shared a keynote
                                                                                      address she’d written for the
                                                                                      Omega Institute, and Friedrich
                                                                                      suggested they meet the next
                                                                                      time Field was in New York City.
                                                                                      That meeting led to an
                                                                                      agreement that Friedrich would
                                                                                      look at the fi rst 80 to 100 pages
                                                                                      of the book. Friedrich says that
                                                                                      when Field got back to her it
                                                                                      was with “something young,”
                                                                                      but, she adds, “there was the
                                                                                      start of something real there.”
                                                                                      As Field recalls, Friedrich said
                                                                                      that if she liked Field’s work, she
                                                                                      would represent that, not Field
                                                                                      as a celebrity. According to
                                                                                      Field, “That rang all my bells,
                                                                                      because that meant she would
                                                                                      feel the work had merit, and
                                                                                      that it was worth her time and
                                                                                      expertise, and not that she saw
                                                                                      that she was going to sell me
                                                                                      as a celebrity.”
                                                                                      After years spent fi tting writing
                                                                                      around acting, Field submitted
                                                                                      the completed manuscript.
                                                                                      Although that fi rst draft “needed
                                                                                      more response,” Friedrich says
                                                                                      that it’s a “classically propor-
                                                                                      tioned mother-daughter story.”
                                                                                      She also appreciated that Field
                                                                                      “writes about the process of
                                                                                      acting in a way I’ve rarely read.
                                                                                      It struck me how hard she’s
                                                                                      worked all her life, and how
                                                                                      unglamorous it is.”
                                                                                      She adds, “The book is
                                                                                      wonderful, powerful and
                                                                                      moving. I’m impossibly proud
                                                                                      of this book.”—SEP











                                                                                   Left: At home, 2018.
                                                                                   Right: With her fi rstborn
                                                                                   son, Peter Craig, 1969.


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