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Meg Waite Clayton

New York Times Bestselling Author

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August 1, 2013 By Meg Waite Clayton

One true story I perhaps shouldn't admit…

Willoughby cutting a lock of Marianne's hair before they were engaged (Scandalous!)
Willoughby cutting a lock of Marianne’s hair before they were engaged (Scandalous!)
Illustration by Hugh Thomson

One true story I perhaps shouldn’t admit:
The original title for my first novel, The Language of Light, was “Emma.” My dear friend and mentor Madeleine Mysko – whose early support gave me confidence to keep going on the novel – suggested at one point that of course I couldn’t call it “Emma,” that was just a working title, right?
My response: Why not?
That was my introduction to Jane Austen.
In fairness, I came of age in the feminist 1970s, when Austen and her happily-married endings for women were out of favor. My conversation with Madeleine occurred in 1992, years before the Ang Lee production of Sense and Sensibility put Austen back on American readers’ radar scopes.
I learned a few years later about one of my two all-time favorite novels, Middlemarch, during a conversation with a fellow chess parent as we waited for our children to play one of their tournament rounds. And the other contender, To Kill a Mockingbird, was put in my hands by a librarian when I was young.
I know word-of-mouth is how thousands of readers have come to The Wednesday Sisters, too, because they’ve told me. And I’ve signed a delightfully large quantity of books inscribed as gifts for mothers, daughters, and friends. So I have a small thank you for readers who helped The Wednesday Sisters find its way onto the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists, as well as to Beautiful Day author Elin Hilderbrand for her enthusiastic “I never wanted it to end” words about the sequel, The Wednesday Daughters, in the form of a book giveaway.
I’ve found the best ideas for what I’d like to read next come from my friends, and I expect yours do, too. So thanks for helping spread the Wednesday word!
Warmly,
Meg

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Filed Under: Meg's Posts Tagged With: Beautiful Day, Elin Hilderbrand, Emma, George Eliot, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

Meg Waite Clayton

Meg Waite Clayton is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of THE LAST TRAIN TO LONDON, a Jewish Book Award finalist based on the true story of the Kindertransport rescue of ten thousand children from Nazi-occupied Europe—and one brave woman who helped them escape. Her six prior novels include the Langum-Prize honored The Race for Paris and The Wednesday Sisters, one of Entertainment Weekly's 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time. A graduate of the University of Michigan and its law school, she has also written for the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Forbes, Runners World, and public radio, often on the subject of the particular challenges women face. megwaiteclayton.com

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