137: The Book That Changed Your Life
This American Life episode features four stories about books that changed people's lives, including a playwright who followed a dead Broadway legend's autobiography as a life blueprint, David Sedaris's family's comic encounter with found pornography, a construction worker who built a world-class Lewis and Clark collection without reading the books, and a New York writer who moved to Nebraska inspired by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Summary
The episode opens with Act One, where Alexa Young (credited as Alexa McLain/Young) describes discovering her grandfather's annotated book collection as a child. Her playwright grandfather's marginal notes—particularly his rare 'ah!' exclamations—led her to Moss Hart's autobiography 'Act One,' which became a life-defining text. She memorized long passages, developed a romantic fixation on Hart, and unconsciously modeled her life on his: moving to New York, writing plays, and even soliciting funding from strangers in imitation of Hart's own fundraising tactics. A pivotal moment came when she met Hart's widow Kitty Carlisle after a college lecture and confessed her feelings, frightening the elderly woman. The act concludes with a reading of Alexa's grandfather Marvin Borowski's moving farewell letter to his students, revealing the deep connection between her feelings for Hart and her unexpressed grief for a grandfather she never knew.
Act Two features David Sedaris recounting how he found a pornographic novel in the woods at age 13 and passed it through his siblings, each interpreting it differently. His sister Gretchen became convinced that all middle-class adults were secretly engaged in the book's lurid activities, barricading her bedroom door at night. Sister Amy used it as a classroom textbook in her imaginary school. The book eventually made its way to their mother, who found it hidden between the mattress springs—validating Gretchen's paranoid theories. Sedaris ultimately disposes of the book by tossing it into a stranger's pickup truck at a grocery store, ending the family's infection.
Act Three tells the story of Roger Wendland, a Portland construction worker who began collecting Lewis and Clark memorabilia from a plate given by his grandmother. After amassing 1,100 fair items, he transitioned to collecting books about Lewis and Clark. Goaded by a bookseller who laughed at his ambition, Roger spent 14 years maxing out 12 credit cards and refinancing his house three times to build what became the largest known private Lewis and Clark book collection in the United States—all without actually reading the books. Only later did he begin to engage with their contents, eventually becoming a recognized scholar. He sold his collection to Lewis and Clark College for a substantial sum, retired at 54, and spent his remaining years as a resident scholar. He later wrote a memoir about his collecting life before his death in 2023.
Act Four follows writer Megan Daum, who as a child obsessively identified with Laura Ingalls Wilder's pioneer books and eventually decided to leave New York City for Nebraska. She visits De Smet, South Dakota—the real setting of six of Wilder's books—where she attends the annual Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant, interviews longtime participants including pageant author Marion Kramer, and explores the Ingalls homestead with landowners Tim and Joan Sullivan. She finds that De Smet genuinely resembles the world Laura described, with townspeople embodying the values of self-reliance and honesty from the books. The episode closes noting that Megan did move to Nebraska two weeks after the story first aired, living there for several years before moving back and forth across the country—paralleling Laura Ingalls Wilder's own restless life.
About this episode
We want to believe our lives can be changed by the ideas contained in a book. Visit <a href="https://thisamericanlife.supercast.com?utm_id=lifepartners&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=shownotes" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners</a> to sign up for our premium subscription.<ul><li>Prologue: When Alexa was seven, she started going through her grandfather's books. Her grandfather was a playwright and teacher, and through the books—and especially through his notes in the margins—she entered the world of 1930's American theater. And she found a book that changed her life: writer Moss Hart's autobiography Act One. (5 minutes)</li><li>Act One: More of Alexa Junge and how Moss Hart's autobiography changed her life. She followed his path, learned specific lessons, and had a vision of him that was absolutely clear—until she met his widow. (10 minutes)</li><li>Act Two: A book that changed a family's life—temporarily, and not for the better. David Sedaris on what happened when he found a dirty book in the woods and passed it along to his sisters. (9 minutes)</li><li>Act Three: Reporter Jeremy Goldstein tells the story of a man who had many books change his life, even though he'd never read them. (14 minutes)</li><li>Act Four: Writer Meghan Daum travels to De Smet, South Dakota—where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived and set most of her Little House books. What surprises her is how much it matches what she'd imagined. The people there seem to be genuinely living by the values Laura wrote about. (15 minutes)</li></ul>Transcripts are available at <a href="https://www.thisamericanlife.org/137/transcript" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">thisamericanlife.org</a><a href="https://www.thisamericanlife.org/page/privacy-policy" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">This American Life privacy policy.</a><br /><a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Learn more about sponsor message choices.</a><br /><br />🎬 SEE THE STORY UNFOLD:<br />Want to see the original photos, documents, and the faces behind this week's acts?<br />👇 View the visual archive for this episode here:<br /><b><a href="https://goo.su/XwNQm" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">https://goo.su/XwNQm</a></b><br />(Updated for each story)
Key Insights
- Alexa Young argues that her childhood discovery of her grandfather's annotated books created a surrogate emotional connection to both him and Moss Hart, effectively substituting literary mentorship for a familial relationship she never had.
- Alexa Young claims she unconsciously modeled major life decisions—moving to New York, fundraising tactics, career path—on Moss Hart's autobiography, suggesting books can function as unintentional life blueprints rather than conscious guides.
- David Sedaris illustrates how a single piece of found pornography functionally restructured his younger sister Gretchen's entire worldview, causing her to reinterpret all adult behavior as evidence of secret depravity.
- Roger Wendland's story demonstrates that a book collection can transform a person's social identity and intellectual life even when the collector never reads the books—his expertise and scholarly reputation were built primarily through ownership and physical familiarity.
- Roger Wendland was motivated into 14 years of financial sacrifice and credit card debt largely by a bookseller's dismissive laughter, suggesting that ridicule can be as powerful a motivator as inspiration.
- Megan Daum observes that the prairie landscape of De Smet physically strips away irony and cynicism, making sincere, even clichéd statements about simple virtues sound genuinely profound rather than sentimental.
- Marion Kramer, the Laura Ingalls Wilder pageant author, argues that her own pre-electricity farm childhood made Laura's books feel like non-fiction documentation of her own life rather than historical fiction, blurring the line between personal memory and literary identification.
- Ira Glass observes that while people romanticize the idea of a book changing their life, real lives are typically altered by dumb luck, tragedy, and coincidence—making book-driven transformation feel aspirational and exceptional rather than ordinary.
Topics
Transcript
When she was seven, when she would visit her grandmother, Alexa would look through the books that her grandfather had owned back when he was alive. What she liked especially was finding the books where he'd made little notes in the margin. So that was the part that was really compelling. Because they were hints about who he was. Exactly. And a lot of times they were really critical. He would just write, I steadfastly disagree or something like that. Wow. Or he would write, ah, if he really liked something. As a kid, over the course of about a year, she systematically divided the books into two piles, the ones with markings and the ones without. And then she…
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