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Sibling RibaldryCynthia's Column Feb. 2005 Now that my younger sister Laura has become a professional writer, my interest has been piqued in how environment and genetics combine to create families of writers. In case you missed the big news, Laura sold her first novel to Houghton Mifflin. A Certain Slant of Light will be out next fall. She followed this immediately with an assignment to co-author a writing book for Writers Digest Books. Here are the results of my exploration into Sibling Scribe Stories. The first famous writing sister act was probably the Brontes. There were three of them living a fairly isolated life in their father's house. They all wrote in secret for some time, before they discovered that they were all doing it. Their first published work was a collection of poems by all three girls written under pseudonyms. (Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, maintaining their initials, but pretending to be men, apparently. ) Sadly only two copies of the book were sold. I wonder what those two books would be worth today at Sotheby's. Any family that could give birth to Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights had to be pretty amazing. The eldest sister, Charlotte's Jane Eyre was published first, followed in less than a year by Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey. Would it have been harder for an older sibling to follow in a younger's footsteps? I imagine those girls' pens scratching away on writing desks in adjoining rooms and what fun their evenings must have been reading aloud before the fire. Sadly none of them had children or lived to see a fortieth birthday. Romantic Charlotte, however, did find love and was happy in marriage for a short time after her sisters'and brother's deaths. When I started writing screenplays at 20, the writer whose footsteps I wanted to follow in, was William Goldman. (Novelist turned screenwriter. ) His older brother is playwright James Goldman who wrote The Lion in Winter and Follies. James was already a successful Broadway playwright before William began writing. They collaborated on a play together, then William's first novel became an instant success and was followed by a string of books. James won the Academy Award for his screen adaptation of his play The Lion in Winter in 1969. He was followed one year later by William's Oscar for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Kind of a neat family coup, back to back Oscars for the brothers Goldman. These guys got along well. They both wrote screenplays, but for most of their careers James had the theatre beat staked out, while William's novels (including Boys and Girls Together, Marathon Man and The Princess Bride) brought him fame and fortune. Having read most of their work, it's interesting to me that William is more drawn to friendship between men. Butch and Sundance. All the President's Men's Woodstein partnership. Even Maverick was about Mel Gibson and James Garner's friendship. James Goldman focused more on male/female relationships. Lion in Winter. Robin and Marian. They Might Be Giants. It was a different story for the Simon boys. Danny was firstborn and funnier. He dragged along his younger brother Doc (so dubbed from a kid obsession with a toy doctor kit) to help him come up with jokes in quantity and on a deadline for Borscht Belt comics. Kid brother Neil Simon ended up the most successful American playwright of the last fifty years which pretty much eclipsed Danny Simon's career. Danny was immortalized by his brother in The Odd Couple. When newly divorced Danny moved in with a divorced buddy to save on expenses, his accounts of their life together were so hysterical that Neil kept bugging him to write a play about it."Sure, sure," Danny would say and launch into another anecdotal gem. Finally Neil got permission to write the play himself, giving Danny a huge chunk of the profits. Oscar or Felix? Which one was based on Danny? By the way, the play is still being performed all over the world in theatres large and small. Danny's cut was enough to support him in luxury for the rest of his life. You think he was Oscar? Wrong. Felix Unger is Neil Simon's affectionate portrait of his big brother Danny. Did you know that Booker Prize winning novelist A. S. Byatt is the half sister of novelist Margaret Drabble? They apparently don't get along as well as some of the other sib-scribes. Antonia is three years older than Margaret and became published author first, so things proceeded in natural order, so to speak. They are the daughters of novelist John F. Drabble, so they were born into a novel-writing environment. One of my favorite examples of author siblings is the Shaffer brothers. Peter and Anthony Shaffer were fraternal twins. Peter wrote the plays Equus, Amadeus and Royal Hunt of the Sun and their screen adaptations. Anthony wrote the play Sleuth and the screenplay for the film which starred Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. Anthony also wrote the novel and movie The Wicker Man which has gained cult classic status among horror film buffs. The Shaffer brothers must have gotten along well since they wrote several murder mystery novels in collaboration under the pen name Peter Anthony. Anthony died in 2001, but Peter is still with us. Frank McCourt is only a year older than his brother Malachy. After retiring from 30 years teaching English at a public high school, Frank became an overnight bestselling author with the publication of his memoir Angela's Ashes, which stayed on the NY Times best seller list for two years. Instead of being jealous, Malachy, who'd been a character actor for years, jumped right on the bandwagon and wrote his own memoir A Monk Swimming. He doesn't write as well as Frank, but is a charming raconteur. Both boys followed with sequels, Frank's ‘Tis and Malachy's Singing My Him Song. And together they wrote a two-man play A Couple of Blaguards based on their combined memories. The Ephron sisters were born of Hollywood Screenwriting Royalty. So again, genetics and environment and we get a sib-scribe-situation. Henry and Phoebe Ephron wrote the Hepburn/Tracy Desk Set as well as the screenplays for Carousel and What Price Glory? They also wrote Broadway plays including Take Her, She's Mine. The eldest, Nora, was the first sister to take up the pen, writing a bestselling memoir called Heartburn based on her disastrous marriage to Carl Bernstein (See All the President's Men above. )This became a movie with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson. Nora's directorial debut was a film called This is My Life starring Julie Kavner about a dysfunctional Hollywood family, a single mother and two young daughters. Nora brought Delia in to help her with the script and in doing so introduced her to the movie industry. Nora also wrote When Harry Men Sally directed by Rob Reiner. Then went on to great success as a hot Hollywood screenwriter and film director. She wrote and directed Sleepless in Seattle starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. This time out director Rob Reiner was an actor. (David S. Ward and Jeff Arch were also credited on the script. ) Followed by You've Got Mail which Nora also directed and which was co-written with Delia. Once again Ryan and Hanks starred. And both sisters wore producers' hats as well. Delia had been somewhat intimidated having both parents and her older sister successful writers. She didn't start writing until she was 30, feeling like writing was "Nora's turf." Delia is the second of four sisters. Her own autobiographical novel Hanging Up became a film starring and directed by Diane Keaton (in the Nora role), Meg Ryan (in the Delia role) and Lisa Kudrow as a younger sister. Walter Matthau plays their father. Nora had originally planned to direct the film, but decided she was too close to the material and that it might be perceived as "an Ephron family vanity project."So she stepped out and Diane Keaton took over the helm. Delia and Nora also co-wrote the movies Mixed Nuts starring Steve Martin, and Michael in which John Travolta plays an angel. The two youngest Ephron sisters have now taken up writing as well. Amy began in her thirties. And the youngest Hallie didn't begin until she was in her forties and only recently sold her first novel. So what of the Sisters Whitcomb? How is it with our family? We come from teachers and preachers, but our great-grandfather Uncle Bud Robinson was a famous evangelist in the twenties and thirties and his inspirational books (folksy sermons and bits of humorous inspiration) sold hundreds of thousands of copies. My grandmother was a poet, but published only an occasional poem. Laura is eight years younger than I, so we've never been competitive the way sisters are who grow up closer in age. When I was starting out as a writer in my early twenties, I'd be at one end of the dining room table and adolescent Laurie would sit at the other end and we would write together. I'd type screenplays, while she bent her head over hundreds of notebook pages filled with an epic romantic adventure novel about a runaway princess and two poor boys who help her escape her wicked uncle. Imagine Luke, Leia and Han morphed with Robin, Marian and Little John. I think when someone in a family achieves success as a writer, it becomes much more possible for younger siblings to make it as well. Not because of any doors that get opened, or strings that get pulled, but because those younger ones live in a world in which they believe it's possible to sell books or screenplays. They've seen it done right under their own noses. And hey, if she can do it, so can I! Cynthia Whitcomb is president of Willamette Writers, and has had 29 of her screenplays produced. She is author of The Writers' Guide to Writing Your Screenplay and The Writers' Guide to Selling Your Screenplay. She teaches screenwriting classes at Portland State University.and through Willamette Writers. |