Life With Father

More and more toward the end of his life - he died at the age of sixty-one in 1935 - arthritis tied Clarence Day to a hard pallet, from which he always arose with difficulty. It was during this period he began amusing himself most with his recollections of Father and Mother. The first priceless result to appear in print was GOD AND MY FATHER, which was published first in Harper's Magazine, and later as a small book. Thought it includes some of the most delightful anecdotes, it had sold fewer than ten thousand copies when, in 1935, other pieces about Father and Mother, which had appeared in various periodicals, were rounded by Clarence Day into a connected narrative and put out in book form as LFIE WITH FATHER. Before it appeared, the publisher received this note from the author: Thanks for the good letter. Anyway this book will probably sell as well as or better than GOD AND MY FATHER, and they may help each other a little, so at least I seem to be heading in the right direction. It all helps, in the long run, and my next book ought to benefit by it. I hope you are keeping your head and not throwing your money out of the window by advertising it before it takes hold...However, I haven't much confidence in you - you've gone mad and wasted good money on me in the past, and I suspect that sooner or later you'll do it again. The dubiety was far from being put on. It was the result of a lifetime of hard-bitten writing experience, during which his delightful essays and drawings, though always appreciated, had been caviar to the general public. Then suddenly LIFE WITH FATHER was made a Book-of-the-Month and there came to Clarence Day an amazing "quick accumulation of renown." Untold tens of millions, reading the book, seeing the play and the movie, have since reveled in Father and Mother and their little red-haired boys, and more untold millions will in years to come. For Clarence Day's Father stories are enduringly established among the beloved classics of American literature.