»♦ »
» ? » 4 »
»
» » t • • • '• ♦ '• » » • * » » r t » • ♦ » '
,•» » » » ■ « » » » » «
November 7,1990 The Portland Observer-Paie 7
Possible Pulitzer for Burbank biographer
Pulitzer Prize in Letters for bio
graphy by the Pulitzer Prizes com
mittee at Columbia University.
“ It’s a thrill,” Merrin said, “and
it’s hers,” referring to the Indo
nesian dancer whose rise from pov
erty to world prominence Merrin
chronicled through four years of
taped interviews.
Merrin, a 10-year Burbank resi
dent, said a friend first introduced
her to the dancer, who was looking
for someone to write her biography
from a personal level. It was a job
Merrin was eager to accept.
"It facinated m e,” she said of
working with a woman who had
been courted by Indian princes,
conductor Leopold Stokowski and
author Henry Miller. “She really
wanted to reach out to people who
had humble beginnings to show
By GREG SPRING
rxyr—pondwX
Leona Mayer Merrin thought
many things when she was first ap
proached to write dancer Devi
Dja’s biography, but a Pulitzer
prize nom ination never even
crossed her mind.
“I wasn't sure about the book at
all," she said, recalling that first
day “I was VCI7 doubtful as to
whether 1 could do it.”
Even when she received a
message saying that the Pulitzer
committee in New York had called,
she didn’t know what they were af
ter.
She knows now.
Merrin’s book, a first-person
»hv titled “Standing Ova-
tions: Devi • D ja, "■
Woman of
o f J Java,”
was recently nominated for a
them that everything is possible;
the American way.”
But the soft-spoken Merrin
maintains that D ja’s life is also the
story of struggle and sacrifice that
included her fleeing Europe and
being prevented from returning
home to Indonesia once World
War II erupted. Dja sought asylum
in the United States, and so great
was her love for this nation that she
once turned down an invitation
from the Indonesian government to
revoke her U .S. citizenship and re
turn to her homeland.
“She was caring, loving, humor
ous and an amazing combination of
u n d erstan d in g and universal
good,” Merrin said, though admit
ting that she had no idea the book
would be so critically acclaimed.
“One is in trouble if one thinks
about that in advance,” she said
with a smile. “ I had to tell myself
that the joy was in the doing."
And Merrin, whose mother was
also a dancer, found working on
the biography to be a joy.
“I think that was the catalyst,”
she said, “ and we were somehow
celebrating people like my mother
as well as Devi Dja. I found so
many connecting threads in her
struggle to overcome so many in
credible personal obstacles that the
story become everyone’s story, it
had a connection to every human
being who has shed tears and has
ambition.”
though this was Merrin’s first
book, she is no way a stranger to
writing. Merrin has co-authored
several unpublished stage produc
tions, worked for newspapers in
both Missouri and Texas. She has
worked in public relations for such
notables as Irving Wallace, Studs
Terkel and Barbara Taylor Brad
ford.
Still, she said, “Standing Ova
tions,” was quite a challenge. “I
thought it was going to be a brief
recounting of her life,” she said
grinning. “We then talked for four
years.”
Merrin said finding someone to
publish the book was another
struggle. “ I recall that all the re
sponses from major publishers
were overwhelmingly enthusiastic,
but...”
She finally found a taker in Dr.
A. Lee Henderson, founder of Lee
and Lee Publishing in Santa
Monica, who published the book
this September. Though happy
with the final product, Merrin said
that she would have liked to have
more time to research the subject.
“I think that I’m a typical writer
in that the end production is the
baby," she said, “and you can’t in
sult the baby. But if you had to do
it again, you’d make a different
baby ”
LUNCH
MEATS
ARMOUR
Six V arieties
99c
SLICED BACON
70*
10 to 12 oz.
PKG.
MARGARINE
IMPERIAL
P O U N D OF
FOUR QUARTERS
Happy Birthday Twyla
St»f* photo by BONNIE BURBQVK. , . ;
For Burbank author Leona Mayer Merrin, The joy was in the doing.
______ —-------- —-------------------—
------------------ ar-----------
Contact Office Held Open House to
Welcome Staff
ft
EACH
BARS
Celebrates her
14th Birthday
Twyla Is an 'A' Student at
Madison High School
She has always been
her dads
Ace of Hearts'
I p
hours
Î m Î bv S
c
59
THE FRIENDLIEST STO RES IN TOWN SINCE 1908 V-
H
SPECIALS EFFECTIVE NOV. 6 thru 1 1 1990
’ tol S t
MEMBER OF UNITED GROCERS
awmws
SIM)**
«*llto ZFM
DRIVE
RECOGNIZES NO
UMITS TO LEARNING.
African-American achievers
share a common trait: a profound
commitment, an inner drive, that
lets nothing stand in the way of
The Iris Court Community
act O fice, part o f the Portland Bu-
s community policing efforts, held
pen house to announce regular of-
hours and welcomed two new staff
ibers on Tuesday, October 16,at the
, 315 N. Sumner, #3 (south of Van-
er and Killingsworth).
The Police Burau has opened
; contact offices this year, one in
i o f the city’s three precintcu. The
act offices are within the bounda
o f community policing demonstra-
projccts being conducted by each
inct.
Iris Court is the first to hire
F and set office hours. Lt. Charles
education. Because they know
that education is critical for
Moose, project facilitator for North
Precinct’s Iris Court Demonstration
Project, said he is pleased to welcome
Ina Hart and Katie Burrell to the project.
The two will staff the office from 11
a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays.
Hart and Burrell were placed
through the Private industry Council’s
senior employment program.
Police Bureau officials and rep
resentatives from social service, neigh
borhood, business and civic organiza
tions were expected to attend the open
house. The public was welcome.
“ Having people here for regu
lar hours will help us to serve this com
munity better,” said Moose.
success.
At RJR Nabisco, we share that
drive for educational opportunity.
So that every African-American
son and daughter can achieve
the potential within them.
R JR N abisco: C om m itted to Education
A century of support for minority education— including
millions of dollars nationally for scholarships, faculty and
facilities-from Richard J. Reynolds personal gift in 1891
Ki>si City Copter of the Phyiovs Society
and
Pfae 'Reynolds Auxiliary of t/w Tftyllis Chapter
to help establish historically-Black Winston-Salem State
University to the company’s $4-million grant to WSSU this year
» A major contributor to the United Negro College Fund since
•Prince MallAffiliated
it was created in 1944, and a founding member of its
Cordially invite you and your friends
“Million Dollar RoundtableT
► Dedicated to improving K-12 public education by funding
to thtir
Introductory <Tca
Sunday, M e m b e r 11,1990
1:30 P -M to 4:00 P.M.
at the
•Prince 'Hall Masonic Temple
116 W E - “
K iissedStreet
Portland, Oregon
ibisco
NABISCO BRANDS. INC.
PLANTERS LIFESAVERS COMPANY
R.J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO COMPANY
Proving Our Commitment...Every Day.
-
I SAVE I
w
fp
Twyla Joyce Wells
Love Dad
Still, she said, the result* were
better than she had hoped for. “ It
truly was a pleasure,” she said.
“The great joy I had is that D evi
Dja did not read English, and I
would read each chapter to her,
and she would cry and laugh. That
made it all worthwhile. There’s no
greater applause in the world.”
innovative programs through our $30-million Next Century
School Fund, which this year awarded many of its first 15
grants to schools with predominately minority student bodies