Doris Lund, wrote "Eric" starring Patricia Neal
Lenona321
seems to have been her best known book, and it was made into a TV movie
starring Patricia Neal in 1975.
I know her mainly from "The Paint-Box Sea," which is one of the most beautiful
and simple picture books of the 1970s I can think of. OK, so she wasn't the
illustrator, but still....
"Birthday paints
On a little tray
Jane was painting
Penobscot Bay."
(For anyone outside the USA, that's off the coast of Maine.)
I just happened to find this while surfing - it was almost seven months ago! I
can't believe there was no obit (as opposed to a death notice, maybe) in my New
England paper. I DO tend to read the obits closely. She would have turned 85
yesterday had she lived.
Lenona.
Doris Herald Lund died peacefully on June 26th at her home in Rowayton,
Connecticut at the age of 84. Multiple illnesses including Parkinsons
Disease and asthma were the causes of her death.
A writer, an artist and the mother of four children, Doris Lund was most
widely known as the author of Eric, the life story of her son who died in
1972. Worldwide publication of Eric in more than 20 different languages even
included a simplified version for Japanese students learning English. A
Hallmark TV movie based on the book appeared in this country.
Doris Lund wrote The Patchwork Clan and among her children's books, Did You
Ever? Attic of the Wind The Paintbox Sea, You ought to See Herbert's House,
Wonder What's Under, Wastebasket Sam and Hello Baby She also wrote articles
for periodicals including the Readers Digest. Doris Lund belonged to Pen
America and The Authors' Guild. Throughout most of her life, she wrote
poetry spontaneously, almost involuntarily Most of this work has not
been.'published. Also unpublished was. A short book dealing with little-boy
fantasies. No prudent publisher would touch such a taboo day-dream as
"Please, mister, can I have some dynamite?" "Sure kid, help yourself."
Remembering exactly what Doris said without resorting to paraphrase has
always been difficult. The family has captured a few verbatim quotes, such
as: "Let's just pretend that things are the way they really are."
Doris Herold was born in Indianapolis on January 14, 1919 to Don Herold of
Bloomfield, Indiana and Katherine Brown Herold of Indianapolis. She grew up
in New York City and Southern California. Her mother had been an art teacher
in Indiana, and her father was a well-known author, cartoonist and humorist.
Don Herold wrote for Judge and the "old" Life magazine. For a time, he ran a
syndicated cartoon strip, and his books, illustrated with cartoons,
proclaimed his own slant on peoples' foibles and on the game of golf. He
created ads for national magazines, writing the copy, specifying typography,
designing the page layouts and drawing cartoon illustrations, which he
signed. In a business of specialists, such single- handed virtuosity was
rare, if not unique.
Doris Herald attended high school at the Lincoln School in New York, spent
two years at Wellesley College, and graduated from Swarthmore in 1939.
Propelled by a family devotion to creativity and originality of expression,
she became a very successful copywriter at Young and Rubicam and other
advertising agencies during the early 1940's.
She married Sidney Lund of the State of Washington in 1945. Sidney and Doris
Lund, with a two-year-old daughter, moved from New York in 1949 to Rowayton,
Connecticut. Small-boat sailing was a favorite of their growing family until
the mid-fifties when the vertigo of labyrinthitis forced Doris to remain
shorebound. Vero Beach, Florida played a big part in her life, especially
back when it was a very small town. Her parents had retired there, and her
sister Hildegard married and raised a family there. Doris formed close ties
with her relatives and developed many friendships during times she spent in
Vero.
Doris Lund is survived by her husband, Sidney Lund, a daughter, Meredith
Lund of New York City, a son, Mark Lund of Brownsville, Texas, a daughter,
Lisa Lund Leach and her three children of New Canaan, Connecticut and a
sister, Hildegard Sexton of Vero Beach, Florida.