Overview

Learning Life: A Memoir is the first volume of an unconventional memoir from the highly original educator and writer, Sylvia Baer. Through essays, photographs, and poems-many of which were online sensations during the pandemic, shared worldwide on social media-Baer tells the stories of five generations of her remarkable family. With great grandparents who lived under pogroms in Eastern Europe; grandparents who escaped the Holocaust to Uruguay, where she was born; a grandfather who was a celebrated engineer and German immigrant to the United States in the 1920s; parents from diverse cultures and languages; her own United States immigrant experiences in the late 1950s; and stories of the many people who helped, guided, and influenced her during her childhood, Baer tells her own family's story, an American story, and an universal human story. Vivid family photographs illuminate Baer's lovely, compelling essays. An expert on the poetry of 19th century American poet Emily Dickinson, Baer has chosen and placed lines from Dickinson's poems throughout the book, to reflect and amplify the insights of her own essays.

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Reviews

"""I don't know how I happened to see the first of Sylvia Baer's stories that I read, but I remember what a perfect gem it seemed and how satisfying it was-like the best fiction, though it seemed to have come from real life. I was wowed by that one, but then I saw another, and another, and every one of them was rich and real, most of them pulling you back half a century or more with flawless descriptions of people so real and three-dimensional you could not help wanting to know them. But the heart of each story is the feisty, morally inquisitive little heroine, always looking for the good in people and looking for the right way to treat them, even when coming face-to-face with the prejudices or moral obtuseness of adults. She is a real-life cousin of Anne of Green Gables, and equally charming. Sometimes the stories are funny, as stories about precocious young children tend to be, and sometimes they will move you to tears. But they will always make you feel good. They will make you realize you can do anything. They will make you want to go out and make big changes in the world."" -T. N. R. Rogers, award-winning author of Too Far From Home ""Sylvia Baer writes of her life experiences in a style that makes the reader feel every step of her journey! She is a rare gem in the literary world!"" -Kate Hathaway, Actress, Broadway Producer ""Sylvia is the quintessential scribe of the human condition. Her personal stories of her family and growing up recall experiences that everyone can relate to. She exudes and extols everything that is noble and good in humanity. Sylvia brings out the best in people she meets and everyone she shares her stories with. Her light brightens our path. Her words lighten our loads. Her voice forges our strength. Her wisdom renews our trust in our fellow human beings. Sylvia matters."" -Bobby Manasan, Architect ""Sylvia Baer does in stories what great artists do in pictures. They break through layers of gloom and despair to make one feel what humans are capable of being-their kindness, courage, sense of justice, and above all, hope. The great psychologist Abraham Maslow would have called these stories examples of the further reaches of human nature."" -Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Director, Creativity and Emotions Laboratory ""Sylvia's writing is incredibly lyrical and a joy to read. While some of her stories may tug at your heartstrings, they never make you sad. In fact, each has the power to motivate and inspire."" -Brenda Williams Grubisic, Retired Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction, West Cape May School District ""It's an uncanny experience, to be scrolling over social media and suddenly see that so-and-so is friends with Sylvia Baer, only to realize that, no, they're just reposting one of Sylvia's stories again. Because Sylvia tells those stories-the ones you want to read and share. The ones that make you smile-often-but also the ones that make you see the world just a little bit differently than you did three minutes ago."" -Allison B. Kaufman, PhD, University of Connecticut, Lutz Children's Museum"

Author Information

Dr. Sylvia Baer is a professor of English at Rowan College, an Associate Fellow at Yale University (Davenport), and the Poet Laureate of Cape May, New Jersey, where her famed Poet-Tree blooms with poems each summer. She recently celebrated her fiftieth year of teaching.

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