What I Know Now
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  What I Know Now

Q & A with Ellyn Spragins

 

Ellyn SpraginsWhy did you want to create this book?

    A number of reasons, really. First, I felt the lack of my mother very keenly during some of the hardest passages in my life. I wanted her help and her perspective on my struggles--getting pregnant, balancing work and family, raising kids. I also became more curious about key junctures in her life as I matured. Somehow that desire for her wisdom inspired the idea of asking other women to look back at their lives.

    The format of a letter sent back in time was very meaningful to me, also. It's an invention, sort of a new genre, which satisfies my creative imagination. Too, the difference between asking someone for their advice and asking a woman to write a letter to herself at a specific age and time in her life is enormous. Advice is generic and inevitably trite. But give it the context of detail--of family background, key relationships, beliefs-and the guidance becomes very charged.

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What I Know Now - Contributors PDF Print E-mail

Madeleine Albright, Former Secretary of State

Maya Angelou, Poet, Author, Playwright

Rachel Ashwell, Designer and Entrepreneur

Barbara Boxer, Senator

Susie Buffett, Chairman, Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation

Roz Chast, Cartoonist

Breena Clarke, Author

Ann Curry, News Correspondent Today

Carolyn Deaver, Breast Cancer Survivor

Olympia Dukakis, Actress

Eileen Fisher, Clothing Designer and Entrepreneur

Macy Gray, Singer and Songwriter

Noor Al Hussein, Former Queen of Jordan

Jane Kaczmarek, Actress

Kitty Kelley, Author

Gerry Laybourne, CEO Oxygen Media

Rebecca Lobo, Olympic Basketball Athlete

Camryn Manheim, Actress

Mary Matalin, Political Commentator

Heather Mills McCartney, Activist

Trish McEvoy, Makeup Artist and Founder Trish McEvoy Ltd.

Shannon Miller, Olympic Gymnast

Shelley Morrison, Actress

Marilyn Carlson Nelson, CEO Carlson Companies

Ingrid Newkirk, Founder People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

Jane Bryant Quinn, Author and Columnist

Phylicia Rashad, Actress

Ann Reinking, Dancer and Choreographer

Cokie Roberts, Author, Writer and Commentator

Nora Roberts, Author

Joyce Roche, CEO Girls Inc.

Lisa Scottoline, Novelist

Beverly Sills, Opera Singer

Liz Smith, Gossip Columnist

Picabo Street, Olympic Skier

Joyce Tenneson, Photographer

Vanna White, Wheel of Fortune Hostess

Wendy Walker Whitworth, Producer Larry King Live

Lee Ann Womack, Singer and Songwriter

Trisha Yearwood, Singer and Songwriter
 
What I Know Now - Introduction PDF Print E-mail

    If you could somehow postmark a letter back through time to your younger self, what age would you choose and what would the letter say? This is the question I asked dozens of extraordinary women. Some of the most creative, powerful and famous women of our day were intrigued enough by this question to spend time with me, as I helped each woman focus in on the crucial moment in the past when she could have most used the understanding she now possesses. What I Know Now: Letters To My Younger Self contains their heartfelt responses to my question and shares wisdom that exceeded my greatest expectations.

    I sought the insights of these remarkable women for a very simple reason. I miss my mother. She died in a plane crash when I was 32. This was the first tragedy that ever befell my fortunate family and it seemed like an astonishing, theatrical mistake. Mom? Dead at 60? On a plane headed to her great-aunt’s funeral?

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OVERVIEW

  

WHAT I KNOW NOW™
Letters To My Younger Self

What I Know Now - Buy The Book

    “We don’t always have the wisdom we require at the time we need it. We struggle. We worry. Often, only later do our choices make sense to us,” says Ellyn Spragins in WHAT I KNOW NOW: Letters To My Younger Self (Broadway Books; April 2006) The book contains letters from forty-one famous women reflecting on significant moments in their lives and sharing the advice they wish they had known at that time.

    After losing her mother suddenly several years ago, Ellyn Spragins found herself asking questions about her mother’s life as she navigated her own. She was curious about how her mother felt during some of the key moments and how she would feel about them having the benefit of hindsight. This personal reflection is what ultimately propelled Spragins to approach women she admired and respected about what words of wisdom they wish they had known during pivotal times in their own lives.

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