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Moses and the American Story
In this groundbreaking book, New York Times bestselling author Bruce Feiler reveals how Moses became America’s true founding father. Traveling through touchstones in American history, Feiler traces the biblical prophet’s influence from the Mayflower through today. Feiler visits the island where the pilgrims spent their first Sabbath, climbs the bell tower where the Liberty Bell was inscribed with a quote from Moses, retraces the Underground Railroad where “Go Down, Moses” was the national anthem of slaves, and dons the robe Charlton Heston wore in The Ten Commandments. READ MORE
My Daughters, My Illness, and the Men Who Could Be Me
When bestselling author Bruce Feiler was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his leg, he could only imagine all the walks he might not take with his daughters, the ballet recitals he would miss, the art projects left undone, and the aisles he might not walk down. Though his daughters would have plenty of resources in their lives, they wouldn’t have their Dad. He decided to write to six men who had been with him throughout his life- men who could become his voice and his daughters’ Council of Dads. READ MORE
Read Bruce’s cancer diary.
Bruce's latest news
Listen to my 1-hour interview about Moses on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show.
The Atlanta History Center has posted a video of my talk about AMERICA’S PROPHET. It lasts about an hour.
Posts Tagged ‘Bruce Feiler’
When Daddy Is Gone
Friday, March 12th, 2010
I just read a beautiful essay by Kevin Helliker about the cost of losing a parent on young children. Interesting stat: Four percent of children lose a parent before age 15, usually a dad. I was surprised that figure was so low. Here’s an excerpt.
Having known my own father for 48 years, I’ve gained perspective from a wife who knew hers for only eight. When I call my 76-year-old dad tomorrow to wish him a happy Father’s Day, he will compliment me on this essay. He reads everything I write.
But without any hope of hearing her father say he is proud, my wife still strives to please him. In her mind, the sound of his voice still echoes, calling her smart, calling her pretty, laughing at her jokes. Twenty-five years after his praise fell silent, being worthy of it still means everything to her. Despite having thrived in the field of journalism — and having received loud hurrahs from her supportive mother — she felt called to follow the path of her father. Last year, she finished law school, passed the bar and entered the practice of law.
The first time I heard her speak about her father I understood that she was in love with him, and at that instant I started falling in love with her. As she gushed about how he had played baseball for a farm club of the Chicago White Sox, how his prosecutorial skills had won him a prestigious award from the U.S. attorney general, how he had posthumously been named one of the outstanding lawyers in Colorado history, what I heard was elation over how much he had loved her. It occurred to me his greatest achievement had been as a father.
Little science exists about the lasting influence of dead fathers, but outcome data suggest that it is powerful. Such data show that children who lose a father fare significantly better than those whose father is alive but not present, and nearly as well as those who never lose theirs. About 4% of American children will lose a parent before the age of 15, and nearly 75% of those losses will involve a father, reflecting the greater vulnerability of men to accident and illness, say bereavement experts. They stress that the loss of a mother can be similarly overcome, especially if the child received professional counseling and sensitive care from the surviving parent.
After years of studying the role of mothers in early life, psychoanalysts are turning with fervor to the influence of fathers. Just last year, an international consortium of Freudian analysts convened a seminar at Columbia University called “The Dead Father,” based in part on the premise that the role of the father in early childhood has been underappreciated. “The father has tended to get left out of the theorizing,” says Stuart Taylor, a Columbia University psychiatrist who helped organize the seminar.
Moses Comes to Glenn Beck
Friday, February 26th, 2010
See a clip of my appearance on Glenn Beck discussing AMERICA’S PROPHET.
Glenn Beck “Trilogy Show”
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
I will be featured on The Glenn Beck Television show on Thursday, February 25th, along with Ben Sherwood and Joshua Ramo. The show is entitled “Three Friends, Three Cities, Three Bestsellers. One Message?” It features what Glenn calls his three favorite books from the last year: Josh’s THE AGE OF THE UNTHINKABLE. Ben’s THE SURVIVORS CLUB. And my book about American values, AMERICA’S PROPHET.
Eden and Tybee’s Valetine’s Day Poem 2010
Sunday, February 14th, 2010
H – Hugs
A – Ask “Be Mine?”
P – Plenty of Cookies
P – Preparing Cards
Y – You Are Mine
V – Very Many Kisses
A – A Lot of Red Roses
L – Love
E – Envelope
N – Nugget
T – Take Me Out to the Valentine’s Party
I – I Love You
N – Necklace
E – Eating Chocolate
S – Snuggles
D – Dear Valentine
A – All About Hearts
Y – Yours Forever
Do you need a Council of Dads or Council of Moms?
Friday, February 12th, 2010
Roy Bahat wonders, then doubts, then seems to inch up to the line.
Michael Lazerow doesn’t exactly say yes, but he’s so enthusiastic maybe he’s persuadable.
Thank You For Survival
Sunday, January 31st, 2010
One-year ago today I was leaving the hospital after my 50th night in less than 150 days. Today, I sat on a stationary bike in a darkened room with over 100 other riders and pedaled for over half an hour. I spent the first half-hour today almost choking on my emotion, and by day’s end, as the inspirational founder of Cycle for Survival handed over a check to my doctors for $2.2 million dollars, I was completely overcome. Upstairs, Linda held Tybee and Eden in her arms and cried as she had not done in many, many months. The celebration was tinged with the news that a leading rider will begin chemo treatment on Tuesday for her fourth recurrence of a soft-tissue sarcoma in the last five years. We join the 2,000 other people who participated today in lending a shoulder of support for her coming days.
Thank you for participating in this deeply memorable day. Thank you to those who gave up their high-tech spinning gear for mere low-tech tennis shoes, to those who came in from New Jersey, to those who left their kids for the morning, to those who babysat, or sacrificed a more exciting day in New York City, or got cut off after just a few minutes on the bike.
And a deep thank you to those who donated to this extremely important cause – raising money to support sarcomas and other rare and orphan cancers. I met a men today who is already in a clinical trial that is being supported by money raised last year from this event. I am personally very grateful, as were the many children, family members, and others touched by the random horror of forgotten diseases.
We were not alone today. And we will not forget.
Love,
Bruce (and Linda)
To make a contribution or learn more about this amazing event, please click here.
The First Review: “The Single Most Inspiring Book I’ve Ever Read”
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
Few things take my breath away completely, unexpectedly. This did.
A few weeks ago I participated in a ceremony to ring the opening bell at the NASDAQ. It seems that someone’s stock truly went up that day!
Today, one of the people I met that day posted this beautiful story — the first printed comments about THE COUNCIL OF DADS.
This morning on my flight to San Francisco I read “The Council of Dads: My Daughters, My Illness, and the Men Who Could Be Me,” the latest book by Bruce Feiler that comes out this April. This is the first time in my life I have read a book cover to cover in one sitting and I can unequivocally say that Bruce’s book is the single most important and heart-felt and inspiring book I have ever read.
[snip.]
While the descriptions of the Council members and what each wants to share with Bruce’s daughters are poignant, enlightening and thought-provoking, it’s Bruce’s own writing about what it was like to fight the cancer during his “Lost Year” while facing imminent death, all in front of two young daughters, that makes The Council of Dads such an astonishing read.
His treatment included an aggressive chemo regime and a 15-hour surgery right out of a sci fi movie in which doctors removed several bones from his leg and reconstructed it in a titanium-filled procedure only one person has ever survived.
Please be warned that this is not one man’s grasp for attention — “look at me, I survived cancer.” It’s a journey of the mind and body, family and friends, love and sadness, in which the author stays present with his emotions throughout and recounts them with vivid detail.
“As you can see,” Bruce writes, “cancer is not linear. Our lives rock unaccountably – and unpredictably – among moments of hardship, stress, joy, pride, laughter and exhaustion. There is profundity to explore, but also laundry to do.”
Bruce’s ability to mix the profound and awe-inspiring with the mundane makes his book accessible and universally actionable to help you live a more balanced and focused life.
Early in his war against cancer, Bruce writes that cancer “is a passport to intimacy. It’s an invitation – even a mandate – to enter the most vital, frightening, and sensitive human arenas.”
By chronicling in such depth and compassion and pain his own relationship with cancer, Bruce’s book serves a passport to understanding and an invitation for each of us to ask ourselves “Who is my Council of Dads?”
Thanks Bruce for a wonderful book that will help guide my life for many years to come.
To read the entire review by Michael Lazerow, click here.
Thank you, Michael. See you on the bikes!
Walking the Walk
Monday, January 11th, 2010
A big milestone around here. One year ago I was just retuning from two weeks in the hospital following a 15-hour surgery to remove my left femur, replace it with titanium, relocate my fibula from my calf to my thigh, and cut out a third of my quad muscle. After fifteen months on crutches, two months on a single crutch, and a few months with a cane, I occasionally walk without any aid these days. I am thinking of celebrating by slipping on the ice outside my door!
To read my account of my harrowing surgery, recovery, and aftermath, click here.