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Friends Digitally Publish Friend’s Book

New York, NY (PRWEB) December 4, 2010

Jack Rosenblatt’s friends are still at it. The digital version of Rosenblatt’s popular posthumous novel Neighborhood Boys Who Ran (ISBN 978-0-9826123-4-7, splash’em LLC, $ 7.99) is now available on amazon’s kindle and Barnes & Noble’s nook. The friends David Anchel and George Leibson, who were profiled in “After A Friend’s Death, Giving His Novel Life,” 6/18/10, The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/nyregion/20jack.html?_r=1&ref=alan_feuer), decided to go with new technology rather than a paperback edition.

“Jack was always behind the times on gadgets and other trends,” says Leibson. “He probably would have wanted people to read paper but would have come around when he saw the kindle/nook in action.” Both Rosenblatt and Leibson were industry insiders. Leibson owned the famed New York Coliseum Books and Rosenblatt worked as a publishing salesman and bookseller. Anchel had been reading a draft of his childhood friend’s novel but did not realize it had been completed until after Rosenblatt’s death. Anchel couldn’t let it rest in the computer and spearheaded a team to get it published.

Neighborhood Boys Who Ran is a noirish thriller set in New York in early 2000. It has all the elements of an Elmore Leonard or Dashiell Hammett mystery. “The dialogue is Mike Hammer’s if he had favored hunan pork as much as whiskey,” writes Alan Feuer of The New York Times.

Andy Rosenzsweig, Retired Chief Investigator of the Manhattan D.A.’s Office and a Detective/Lieutenant, N.Y.P.D. calls it “a classic New York crime story. The book hurtles along from the West Side of Manhattan to Little Italy and points beyond with the noirish Jack Dooney running into and through all kinds of obstacles, characters and land mines to get to the bottom of a vexing mystery. Anyone who likes New York City and crime stories will love Neighborhood Boys.” Rosenzweig is an oft-mentioned but unseen character in the book.

Both friends feel the book’s tone is like having Rosenblatt tell them a great story. They like the idea of the fast-paced thriller being turned into a “real page scroller,” according to Leibson. “That would be screen scroller,” parries Anchel.

For readers who prefer a traditional hardback Neighborhood Boys Who Ran (ISBN 978-0-9826123-1-6, splash’em LLC, $ 21.00) is available at amazon.com and bn.com.

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Their reunion was unlike any other. Graduates from the Macon, Georgia class of 1959 gathered together in 2009, even though many of them never had an opportunity to meet during their high school days.

Schools in the 1950’s, like most other public locations, were segregated in Georgia. Kids were forced to attend different schools depending on the color of their skin, and those with white skin were further separated by gender. Fifty years later these people who were not allowed to associate with each other were finally able to connect.

It all began with the personal journey of a man named Tom Johnson. He grew up in Macon and enjoyed a very successful career which included serving as the publisher of the Los Angeles Times and president of CNN. Tom’s life changed drastically over the years, but he still felt the desire to reconnect with his roots.

In 2005 Johnson returned to Macon with his son, Wyatt. As the pair drove around town, a father recounted high school stories to his son. He talked about how students attended one of three schools: Ballard-Hudson, Lanier or Miller. Wyatt looked over at his father and said: “Dad, think about how many friends you missed getting to know.”

Johnson did spend time thinking about the people he never got the chance to meet. He decided to do something about it.

The first step was to find people who graduated from all three schools. Johnson wrote to each person and proposed they all get together for a luncheon. He explained that even though they were kept apart during their youth, they didn’t have to be separated anymore. People listened, and his classmates received the message with open hearts. A reunion date was set for October.

More than 200 former Macon students traveled hundreds of miles to reunite with people who went to high school with them, and others that should have. People greeted old friends and made new ones as the celebration began. It was an unprecedented event; former students coming together to make up for the time they had lost during the days of segregation. For this group, however, even that wasn’t enough.

The attendees agreed to plan an annual reunion. During the year each one would do what they could to break down barriers and bring people together regardless of their race,  gender or any other factors. People created a list of 59 things the class of 59 could do to help make this world a better place.

One of their first goals centered around one person who refused to attend the luncheon. Johnson reached out to everyone he could and received an overwhelmingly positive response. Among the replies, however, was one full of hatred and anger. It came from a graduate of the all-white school, and it helped prove the fact that even in 2009 we are still dealing with racial issues.

When word of this hateful response got around to the revelers, their response was a little surprising. It would have been easy to react with anger, but they chose another path. They discussed ideas on how to help their classmate understand that no matter what color anyone is, we are all just people sharing our lives on this planet. With a little luck and a lot of patience the group hopes to have this person join them at their next reunion.

It is heart warming to hear of an event that restarted old friendships and kindled new ones, and we can all join the Macon class of 1959 in attempting to make our world a better place for everyone. Do what you can, and celebrate the humanity we all share.