Modern Memoirs

08/28/2025

Our August newsletter features a quotation from Holocaust survivor Viktor E. Frankl's powerful book, Man's Search for Meaning, first published in 1947. Click on this link https://conta.cc/4lTNLSG to read our company president's recommendation of Frankl's work, "Books as 'Soul Teachers' and Mentor Texts," and to find other news and inspiration from our staff and clients.

08/18/2025

For over 30 years, we at Modern Memoirs, Inc. have helped people privately publish their memoirs and family histories in beautiful, heirloom-quality books. Our writers have different motivations, with gratitude and a wish to honor their ancestors high on the list. That’s why our staff includes a professional genealogist, who documents and preserves our clients’ family histories to add to their own life stories. ❤️📚

A new generation of wealthy retirees is commissioning their own memoirs. They’re not trying to reach the bestseller list. Many of them just want the kids to know how hard they had it. 🔗: https://on.wsj.com/45EJcpi

Rudi Pauly, 92, paid $12,000 for a 185-page book about her life and family history from LifeBook Memoirs. The book, “From Menzingen to Lake Chelan,” starts off with her German immigrant grandparents living in a sod dugout on a Nebraska farm at the end of the 19th century. Five of the couple’s 14 children died, including two in a lightning strike.

The ghostwritten memoirs can run hundreds of pages and cost up to $100,000. An entire ecosystem of writers and high-end self-publishers has emerged to meet the demand.

Some reveal family secrets (Grandpa’s acid trip, anyone?). Most gloss over drama like divorces and alcohol issues and focus on uplifting narratives about their humble upbringings and the sweat and tears that enabled the comfortable lives of their intended audience: their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

08/14/2025

Today is last day in the office for our summer 2025 publishing intern, Cecelia Allentuck. We are pleased to share her new blog post, "How Poetry Slams Set Me Free as a Writer" https://www.modernmemoirs.com/mmblog/2025/8/writing-for-a-judge-and-letting-go-how-competitive-poetry-slams-set-me-free-as-a-writer. Thank you for your terrific work, Cecelia! We wish you well as you head back to St. Andrews University this fall.

08/07/2025

"To others the Denlinger Cemetery may be just a jumbled mix of broken and still-standing gravestones hidden in a tangle of trees and weeds at the far intersection of four cornfields in rural Pennsylvania, but this place felt sacred to me. And as we stood there, I couldn’t help but think: I wouldn’t have known about any of this if someone hadn’t written it down." —Genealogist Liz Sonnenberg

Read the latest blog post from our staff genealogist, "Put Your Family History in Writing."https://www.modernmemoirs.com/mmblog/2025/8/put-your-family-history-in-writing

cc: Gravestone Girls Mennonite Church USA

08/04/2025

"Each year since my dad has been gone, I reread the book on his birthday.”

These touching words are from our latest blog interview, in which a past client reflects on how he and his brothers worked with Modern Memoirs to surprise their father on his 90th birthday with a book about his career. https://www.modernmemoirs.com/mmblog/2025/8/reflections-from-jay-k-musoff

07/28/2025

Our July 2025 newsletter is here, with news and inspiration from Modern Memoirs clients and staff. Please read and share! https://conta.cc/457lrph

07/22/2025

Thanks to company founder, Kitty Axelson-Berry, for sharing this wonderful article with us. We love beautiful books, and this Parisian bookbinder does exceptional, artisanal work. 😍📖

At Atelier Devauchelle, artisans repair damaged books, some of them hundreds of years old.

07/15/2025

“Here’s a story that suggests I was successful. About 10 years after completing my memoir, one of my sons said […], ‘I reread your memoir last night, and I’d like to hear more about…’”

Our latest client interview is here! This month we share reflections on a Commissioned Memoir published in 2010. Read more here: https://www.modernmemoirs.com/mmblog/2025/7/reflections-from-stanley-r-clemens

07/07/2025

Summer 2025 Publishing Intern .13, a student at , has written a beautiful piece for our blog about her late Uncle John and writing through grief. Read "The Last I Love You” here: https://www.modernmemoirs.com/mmblog/2025/6/the-last-i-love-you-how-memoirs-can-guide-us-through-grief

07/04/2025

We are celebrating the 4th of July with a READ, WHITE, AND BLUE display of Modern Memoirs books. What are you reading over the long holiday weekend?

06/20/2025

Wishing you a Happy Solstice from Modern Memoirs, Inc.! As the longest day of the year unfolds, we hope you find moments of reflection and joy.

06/19/2025

We are pleased to welcome Cecelia Allentuck as the Summer 2025 Publishing Intern at Modern Memoirs, Inc. Cecelia is a rising sophomore at , where she is majoring in Modern Languages with an emphasis in Spanish and Italian.

In her bio on our website she writes, "It’s hard to envision a time when I was not in love with reading and writing. From an early age I loved to talk, and as soon as I learned the alphabet, talking quickly turned into writing."

Read more about Cecelia on the Meet the Staff page of the Modern Memoirs website. https://www.modernmemoirs.com/meet-the-staff