Martha Deed
First Writing 1941 before Age 1
Writing was in my DNA
By Martha Deed
A "writing" from 1941 may explain why I have no memory of when I started writing. I do know I was born into at least five generations of newspaper people. My great and 2d great grandfathers published and edited The Long-Islander ‒ Walt Whitman's paper though WW had left Huntington long before my grandfathers took over. Father and son ran the paper for more than 70 years (ca 1851-1927).
In our family, writing was not unusual even at an early age and my writings were saved. My Dad ‒ writers on his side, too ‒ was a local reporter for The Journal-News in 1941, but soon after became a senior editor at Young America Magazine, a competitor of My Weekly Reader. He took each of us to work with him at least once a year once we were old enough to tolerate his commute from Nyack to midtown Manhattan.
Once there, I would write my story while he wrote his. Before 1948, I made stories on paper with illustrations. These were made into tiny books. Once I was strong enough to hit the keys, a spare typewriter would be wheeled into my father's office, and I wrote on letterhead.
Written at the Office 1948 Age 7
Spring 1958, I followed my parents' footsteps by being appointed Editor-in-Chief of the school newspaper, a position each parent had held in the 1930s. That appointment was pivotal in my development as a writer. I learned layout, how to write editorials and organize publication, including seminars for school newspaper editors at Columbia University and trips to the local printer for proofreading. When I found more typos after the paper was published, I proofread again, reminding myself to be more careful.
School Newspaper December 1958 Page 1
As the newly-appointed Editor-in-Chief, I promptly overstepped my bounds. My first editorial was a critique of a new grading system that put advance class students at risk of losing their class rank at a time when college scholarships and acceptances were highly competitive. The editorial got me sent to the Principal's office for censorship which I accepted with indignation.
Next, I fired a features editor when he failed to meet a deadline. I was forced to rehire him. The editor I fired was Dan Menaker who would go on to become Senior Fiction Editor at The New Yorker for 26 years and later Editor-in-Chief at Random House. We did remain on speaking terms.
My first non-newspaper "publication" came in 1958 and was not the result of my own efforts. We were given a homework assignment to write a descriptive essay, and I was in full rebellion against unnecessary words. I drafted the essay, then used a thesaurus to insert adjectives and adverbs for nearly every noun and verb, choosing the most flowery archaic words I could find.
My teacher entered it into the school's creative writing contest without my knowledge. I came in second.
Elsewhere, I have mentioned writing days spent with my Grandmother. Those writing sessions began in early elementary days. She taught me to revise until the writing was the best I could do. Once the polishing was done, she taught me how to submit work by studying possible publications through careful reading, constructing appealing cover letters, making submissions free of error. She taught me that marketing my work required as much precision as writing it in the first place.
My only problem was I didn't have much to write about.
A few years later, I did. Although I considered myself to be headed toward a newspaper or magazine career, I was able to do an Independent Study with a future Consultant to Congress (Poet Laureate) for most of a year. Reed Whittemore helped me to edit my writing after I had put it on paper. Under his guidance, I wrote a play, The Opening Way, which contained sections of poetry, and was produced by Carleton College's theater department the following Fall.