Women Who Launch would have remained a glitter in my eye if it were not for my literary agent, Roger Williams. His words always mirror Ms. Anthony’s own: “Failure is impossible.” It was an honor working with him on my former book, Behind Every Great Man: The Forgotten Women Behind the World’s Famous and Infamous, and I look forward to our birthing future manuscripts. Mr. Roger rocks!
A heartfelt thanks to my editor, Brenda Knight, whose emails never fail to enthuse and to encourage. No doubt her experience as an author makes her empathetic to the challenges confronting writers. Unfortunately, Roger and Brenda are not in my zip code and so I have not had the pleasure of meeting them in person. Definitely on the bucket list.
Family doubles joys and halves sorrows, and my husband, Joel Geller, and my daughter, Jordanna Geller, helped me along the smooth and rough paths that are part and parcel of publishing. They never begrudge dinners prepared compliments of Swanson; they understand that with a full-time teaching job, the hours left for writing are as scarce as the proverbial hen’s teeth. I am deeply saddened that my mother, Gilda Wagman, always my greatest advocate, is not here to see my new book. Her loss is, and always will be, a never-ending sorrow.
The women profiled in these pages remain sterling examples of the power of persistence, individuals who believed that dreams do not just have to be for sleeping. Proof the latter is possible: my book in your hands. How fortunate we are to have such shoulders to stand on. Their stories share the message to keep our eyes on the prize—whatever it may be—and, despite setbacks, to persevere. They embody the truth of the quotation I chanced upon during research, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” It is my sincere hope that these ladies who launched have inspired readers with their intelligence and tenacity; they certainly had that effect on me.
I would love to hear from you through email: onceagaintozelda@hotmail.com or through that great connector, Facebook (where I am Marlene Wagman), or through my website, marlenewagmangeller.com. Comments on Amazon and Goodreads would also be eagerly embraced. By the way—a woman, Elizabeth Khuri, along with her husband, Chandler, cofounded Goodreads, the world’s greatest book club. It currently has fifteen million members; the Chandlers sold it to Amazon for approximately one hundred and fifty million dollars. Women who launch indeed!
—Marlene Wagman-Geller
San Diego, California (2017)