Merle Saferstein is a longtime Friend of the Fair who has called Miami home for 50 years. She’s also an avid journal writer who recently released the book Living and Leaving My Legacy Vol. 1, comprising excerpts from the 359 journals that she’s kept since 1974.
How old were you when you first began journaling and how did you start?
I started journaling, actually diary writing, when I was in junior high school. And yes, I had the little plastic book – mine had a poodle on it – with the lock and key. But I stopped in high school and didn’t pick it up again until I was 30. That’s when I took a gestalt class at Miami Dade College. We had to keep a dream log and I had a notebook for that, and then one day I just started journaling in that notebook. It took me about eight years to really become a serious journal writer, but that’s when it started.
Looking back at all those old journals to pull together the book must have been mind-blowing – to go back and revisit the person you used to be. Did you rediscover anything about yourself that you’d forgotten about?
It’s interesting. Because I wrote, there’s really very little that I forgot about. But what I really saw and gained from it was to see where I had planted a seed and then watch it grow through the years. Another thing that struck me was that, most of the people I know who are journal writers write when things are difficult, and for some reason I wrote about the good and the bad.
What I now understand is that journal writing really helped me get to know myself better, and to see the ebb and flow and life. Just because something is terrible one day that doesn’t mean it’s going to be terrible for the rest of my life. But yes, going back and reading all those old journals was really intense.
What’s the topic that you found you had written the most about?
I think the most was Who am I? Because I think I was always just searching for who I am and what matters most to me. And parenting and marriage had a lot! My husband, Daryl, and I have been married for 55 years – we were high school sweethearts – and we have two children and two grandchildren. One of them is at Ohio State right now, and that’s where my husband and I went. We actually visited in April, for the first time since we graduated.
Just a few of Merle’s 359 journals, which date back 40 years
Wow.
I know, it was crazy; it was so exciting. I actually thought about leaving my journals to an archive and someone suggested I start with Ohio State. I wasn’t journaling in college but I did still have all my calendar books – which had a lot of stuff about my time at school – and the archivists said they’d love those. So when we went to visit my granddaughter I brought them with me and they’re now part of the archives at the college.
Where do you keep all your journals?
Early on I used to keep them in a safe deposit box on Hollywood Beach, because I used to go there all the time. So about once a month I’d go for a walk on the broadwalk and then drop a journal off at the bank. Then I went to an office supply warehouse and bought a 700-pound fireproof safe – it took three men to bring it into the house! – not because my husband and children didn’t respect the privacy of my journals, they did, but because we’d had a house fire years before and I wanted to make sure I didn’t lose any of them.
Let’s talk about the Fair. How did you first learn about it?
In 1984 I was going to FIU a lot to do research for a book I was writing, and I saw a notice in the library about something called Books on the Bay [the Fair’s original name]. So I went to the very first Book Fair and have been going every year since, except for a couple of years when I had a conflict and couldn’t. And I was really disappointed when that happened!
That’s a lot of Book Fairs – what are some of your favorite moments over the years?
Amy Tan was speaking one year and she had a little purse on her shoulder that she put down on the table next to her on stage, and it started moving. And when it came time for the audience Q&A, someone stood up and asked her, “Why is your purse moving?” and she opened it up and pulled out a little dog.
(both laugh)
It was so cute! Another year Anne Lamott was speaking and there was a child crying in the audience. She stopped talking, went into her purse, got crayons, went out into the audience, walked over to the child’s mother, and handed her the crayons and said, “I always come prepared.” I thought that was so great.
Is there an author you first heard speak at the Fair and then immediately started reading their work?
Yes, Maya Angelou. She was there in 1986 and I hadn’t read her before that. I became a huge fan of hers. I was just captivated by her from the moment I heard her speak.
What was the last great book you read?
I’m usually reading a few at a time. I read a lot of memoirs and the last two really great ones were Don’t Call Me Mother by Linda Joy Myers and Api’s Berlin Diaries: My Quest to Understand My Grandfather’s Nazi Past by Gabrielle Robinson. Both of those are really, really powerful books. The Robinson one was especially interesting for me because I work with Holocaust survivors. I always learned about the war from the Jewish aspect, and the aspect of Germans living in Germany during the Holocaust was a whole different view. Her story of learning after her mother died that her grandfather was a Nazi was incredible.
What book did you read as a child that you carry with you?
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. I can’t tell you how many times I read that book as a young person, and then again in 1985, when I brought the “Anne Frank in the World: 1929-1945” exhibition to Miami.
Interestingly enough, Pat Conroy was at Book Fair one year and talked about his mother reading him the book when he was 7 years old, and not telling him what happened to Anne Frank until the very end. And she told him that she wanted to raise a family that would hide Jews. That has always just struck me.
Do you book fair solo or with friends?
With friends. We go together and usually stay together, but one year all three of us went to see different authors and then sat and spent I don’t know how many hours talking about what we had learned from each of them. That was really fun to do.
Who would you love to see at Book Fair?
Viola Davis. I just got her book Finding Me. I heard her interviewed by Oprah and I was so taken with her honesty and who she is as a human being – she’s so real. I’d love to see her at the Fair.
Interview by Elisa Chemayne Agostinho.
