Who is Monique High?
I knew that I was going to be a novelist at the age of five. That was when I dreamt of being at the top of a winding staircase, in a swirling red dress, looking down at a gorgeous young man waiting for me in black tie. I was going to be that girl, and I was going to write her story. And, by the way, I was going to marry that young man.
When I was growing up in Paris, our apartment faced that of Françoise Sagan, arguably one of the preeminent female authors of the twentieth century in France. I could see her at her desk. Maybe she was only writing thank-you notes or paying her bills, but I thought: Some day, this will be me. I was an only child, and my parents were brilliant, beautiful and sophisticated. They were in the film business, and their salon was always filled with artists, film directors, actors and all manner of amusing people. My job was to pass the peanuts. I could stick around and ask questions. Nobody ever told me to go away. Jules Dassin asked me to help him with his research; another director gave me books on medievalia. I went to the Marché aux Puces with my mother and learned about period furniture and collections. She collected wig stands. I now collect frogs and cats; the frogs are ornamental and the cats… well, they’re ornamental, too, but they’re also very much alive. (Don’t worry; after the demise of eighteen-year-old Petunia, there’s only one kitty left…and many more frogs!)
Some of my friends say I also collect husbands. But that’s not very nice. Of them to say, that is.
My French parents were not pleased that I chose to go to the United States to university. But to me, attending Barnard College in New York was the defining moment of my life. It was there that I formed the lifelong friendships that have supported me since then. We lived through the April 1968 Revolt, through the wonderful Sixties and the birth of Feminism. The great Kate Millett, author of “Sexual Politics,” was our teacher. I went to Florence with medievalist Maristella Lorch and majored in Renaissance Studies. I’d lived in Rome as a tiny child, and my Italian came flooding back to me when I needed to confront a crowd of boisterous boys chasing my friends and me across a Florentine piazza. Maristella was very proud of me and instantly took me under her wing. I was humbled by the education I received under the tutelage of such learned professors, and awed by the friendships I made.
My father comes from a distinguished Russian family, the Gunzburgs. His mother was a baroness from St. Petersburg, his grandfather translator to the Czar. Baron David collected (another collection!) the third-largest private library in the world, after that of Harvard and of the King of England! When my grandmother Sonia died, she left me boxes of journals, notebooks and letters. Thus started my author’s career, with a novel entitled The Four Winds of Heaven, based on her life and that of her siblings. It was followed by five other historical novels.
I was married at graduation to a “Yale man,” Robert Duncan High, who amazed me by pointing out that Portland, Oregon, really existed. My naïveté as a French girl was still phenomenal. We moved steadily westward, and our daughter, Nathalie, was born in Chicago. We ended up in Los Angeles and divorced some time later. Nathalie is now happily married in Vancouver, Washington, and has two children of her own, Evan and Emily.
My marriage to Soviet sports psychologist Grigorii Raiport, who defected during the Olympics in 1976, yielded a nonfiction book on psychology in the Soviet Union which we wrote as a joint effort. Grisha is deceased. During his life, he earned the moniker of “Shrinknik,” given to him by journalist Jan Golab.
The man in the tux turned out to be criminal defense attorney Ben Pesta. He is no longer young, but he still waits for me at the bottom of the staircase, often with an armful of roses. He helped bring up Nathalie and is an eager grandfather to Evan and Emily, and a very good friend and father-in-law to Nathalie’s husband Steve.
We own an eclectic collection of 4,000 books, 1,700 vinyl records, and thousands of classical, jazz, folk and rock CDs. Lately, we’ve been converting these to our iPods.
For two years I taught writing at UCLA, and acquired some fine students. I discovered some talented writers, among them women’s fiction author Jill Smolinski. My students encouraged me to take them beyond what the university could offer them, and so, for ten years, I ran my own seminars and tutorials. From these sprang a literary agency, WriteHigh, which I started with two friends, Susan Chin in Los Angeles and Peter Jaeger in New York. Ben was our literary properties attorney. We formed a loose association with a PR firm, Joel Coler and Friends, in Beverly Hills. It was exciting to help writers find their voice and then find homes with publishers. Susan, Peter and I have remained close to most of our beloved clients.
But at the end of 2008, it seemed time to get back to writing. A novel had been calling for many years—a “reunion novel.” At that time, too, Barnard had called me back to become Reunion Chair for our graduating class. I am heading a committee of some thirty brilliant alumnae putting together what will be our most glorious reunion; women from all over the world will be returning to Barnard in June 2009 to celebrate the women we’ve become after many decades since we left as very young, untried “kids.”
And my new novel, Yearbook, is about four young Barnard women whose lives begin in the turbulent Sixties and who wend their way to their reunion in 2009.
I depend on my fans. Ever since The Four Winds of Heaven, you have kept me going with ideas, suggestions, support, and love. If you write to me, I will answer each email and letter. I have formed friendships across the globe. One of my dearest friends today is Celia, from India, who began writing me when she was thirteen. Now she teaches college and has a steady beau, and has become… a writer!
Below are links that Monique would like to share with friends and fans:
Monique on Fantastic Fiction
Ben Pesta
Authors of family sagas
Author Birthday Directory - May birthdays (hint, hint)
Another directory fo Authors who write family sagas
Wikipedia's people of distinction - Barnard Alumni
Ballet fiction forum
Boston Public Library - suggested reading
Columbus Metropolitan Library - suggested reading |
