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137: The Book That Changed Your Life
Brief
Books functioned as intimate companions and life scripts across four linked stories: Alexa Junge found a youthful mentor in Moss Hart's Act One, David Sedaris experienced contagion and suspicion from an illicit paperback, Roger Wendlick converted material collecting into scholarly life, and Meghan Daum followed Laura Ingalls Wilder to the prairie. The program frames each episode as a different way a book can change a life — as blueprint, contamination, catalyst, or map to place — and speakers repeatedly tie book effects to personal history and longing.
In Act One Alexa Junge recounts memorizing her grandfather's margin‑noted copy of Moss Hart's Act One, then unconsciously imitating Hart's life path — New York theater, then Hollywood screenwriting — until a face‑to‑face encounter with Kitty Carlisle forced her to confront how intensely she'd personalized a book. David Sedaris's Act Two demonstrates the darker, almost viral effect of a book: a damaged erotic novel found in the woods at age 13 spread through his family and reshaped their perception of neighbors and parents, provoking fear, role‑playing, and ultimately rejection of the object. Act Three, reported by Jeremy Goldstein, follows Roger Wendlick's obsessive collecting of Lewis & Clark material: a 1984 $695 purchase snowballed into a 1,100‑item library, financial overreach (12 credit cards, multiple refinancings), a pivotal 1994 acquisition of the 1814 journals that finally led him to read and become a recognized scholar — later gifting the collection to Lewis & Clark College and retiring. Meghan Daum's Act Four closes with place‑making: De Smet, South Dakota, a town of about 1,200, stages a 29‑year Laura Ingalls Wilder pageant (700 nightly attendees, $5 admission) that materially enacts the books' values; Daum decides to move to Nebraska to inhabit the world she loved on the page. Across acts the program shows agreement on a theme — books act as engines of identity — while presenting different outcomes (comfort vs. obsession vs. communal ritual) depending on context and the reader's inner life.
Why it matters
Alexa Junge (Act One) credits Moss Hart's autobiography Act One — repeatedly read from her grandfather's marked 444‑page copy — with shaping her career choices: she moved to New York to become a playwright, later moved to Los Angeles, and went on to be an executive producer for the TV show Friends.
Key details
- Alexa's emotional attachment had a personal root: her grandfather Marvin Borowsky wrote a 1969 letter to students describing his illness and closing, "I'm a damn fortunate man," which Junge says mirrored the tone she loved in Moss Hart and served as a stand‑in for the grandfather she didn't know.
- David Sedaris (Act Two) found a mutilated erotic paperback in the woods at age 13; its explicit, typo‑ridden text spread through his family (sisters Lisa, Gretchen age 11, Amy age 10, Tiffany age 8) and transformed their worldview — Gretchen barricaded her door, Amy used it as a classroom prop — and Sedaris ultimately discarded the book into a pickup truck, whose owner pocketed it.
- Roger Wendlick (Act Three) began collecting Lewis & Clark memorabilia after finding a 1905 fair plate; in 1984 he bought an 80‑year‑old set for $695, amassed about 1,100 items, carried 12 credit cards, refinanced his house three times, and in 1994 bought a coveted 1814 two‑volume first official account at an LA book fair (listed $12,500) through a payment agreement — that book triggered him to read seriously and, later, to sell his collection to Lewis & Clark College and retire at 54.
- Roger's collecting became scholarship: he shifted from owning books unread to studying the journals that inspired his purchases, quoting the expedition's line "Ocean in view! O! The joy!" and now spends days in the college Heritage Room as a respected local expert (stories reported by Jeremy Goldstein).
- Meghan Daum (Act Four) traces nine Laura Ingalls Wilder books to De Smet, South Dakota: the town (pop. ~1,200) runs a 29‑year Laura pageant three weekends each summer, draws about 700 attendees nightly, charges $5 admission, and sustains civic identity and volunteer labor that enact the pioneer life she idolized — Daum plans to move to Nebraska in two weeks.