Ellyn Spragins will discuss her new book, "What I Now Know: Letters to My Younger Self"
By John Tredrea
Ever find yourself saying: "I wish I knew then what I know now"?
Welcome to the club.
After her mother’s death several years ago, Pennington writer Ellyn Spragins, who lives on South Main Street, found herself wondering about how her mother felt during key moments of her life and what knowledge might have helped her at those times. It was this period of introspection that led Ms. Spragins to approach women she admired and respected and ask them what wisdom they wished they’d possessed at critical moments in their lives.
The result is her new book, "What I Now Know: Letters to My Younger Self," published this month by Broadway Books of New York.
On May 3, Ms. Spragins will read and discuss portions of her book at a benefit for the nonprofit Friends of the Pennington Library.
The benefit, "An Evening With Ellyn Spragins," will be held at Amalfi’s restaurant at 146 Pennington-Lawrenceville Road in Lawrence, from 7-9 p.m. Tickets are $30 and, due to limited space, are for sale only in advance at the Pennington Library. There will be appetizers and a cash bar at the benefit. Ms. Spragins will sign copies of her book, which will be for sale.
"We don’t always have the wisdom we require at the time we need it," Ms. Spragins said. "We struggle. We worry. Often, only later do we understand what would have helped us make a smoother passage." In her book are 41 letters to themselves from famous women, in which they reflect on significant junctures in their lives and offer advice they wish they had been able to receive at that time.
Among the women whose letters appear in the book are former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who addresses herself when she was struggling with the breakup of a marriage of 23 years; singer-songwriter Trisha Yearwood, who encourages herself in her early 20s not to look for validation from others; and author Maya Angelou, who tells herself as she walks out the door with a baby at age 17 that she will succeed, but that she can always go home, too.
Some of the advice in the book is witty. "Laundry will wait very patiently," Nora Roberts says. "Your hair matters far, far less than you think," declares Lisa Scottoline. "Speak the truth but ride a fast horse," confides Kitty Kelley to her younger self.
Other thoughts are quite seriously philosophical. "Don’t be so quick to dismiss another human being," Barbara Boxer writes to herself. "You can leave the world and come back on your own terms," Cokie Roberts says.
Ms. Spragins wrote the "Love and Money" column in the New York Times Sunday business section for three years and is editor-at-large at Fortune Small Business. She also has worked at Newsweek, Business Week, SmartMoney and Forbes and has written for O, The Oprah Magazine, Working Woman and the New York Times Magazine.

