The Times Union (Albany, New York)
February 17, 2008 Sunday
1 EDITION
Armenian-americans no longer ‘forgotten’
By TRESCA WEINSTEIN Special to the Times Union
TRAVEL-BOOKS; Pg. J1
Throughout his childhood and youth, David Kherdian’s mother begged
him to listen to the story of her life. It was a story that included
her family’s deportation from her native Turkey during the Armenian
genocide, the death of her parents and siblings when she was still a
child and her wounding in the Turkish-Greek conflicts. Kherdian
didn’t want to hear about any of it.
"I used to say, `Don’t tell me,’ he recalled. "It was too painful.
But when I realized I was a writer, I couldn’t deny her her wish
anymore."
He asked his mother to put her story on paper, and the 11 pages she
gave him – written in Armenian – became the basis for Kherdian’s
Newbery Award "honor" novel "The Road From Home: The Story of An
Armenian Girl," first published in 1979.
"I really became my mother when I wrote that story," he said,
speaking by phone recently from his home in Spencertown. "I had those
experiences. When it was done, she asked me, `How did you know what
it was like?’
Along with "The Road from Home," Kherdian has published some 50 books
– poetry, memoirs, novels, biographies and children’s books, some in
collaboration with his wife, Caldecott Medal-winning author and
illustrator Nonny Hogrogian, whom he married in 1971. He has also run
three small presses and edited several literary journals, including
the Armenian-American journal "Ararat."
Kherdian’s most recent book is "Forgotten Bread" (Heyday; 481 pages;
$29.95) an anthology of writing by 17 first-generation
Armenian-Americans, which he edited and includes selections from his
work. He will speak about the book and read from his poetry Saturday
evening at 7 p.m. at St. Peter’s Presbyterian Church, 5219 Route 7,
Spencertown.
No time for art
The idea for "Forgotten Bread," Kherdian said, first came to him some
40 years ago, when he was just beginning his journey as a writer and
was deeply inspired by Armenian-American authors like Peter Sourian
(a professor of English at Bard College since 1965) and William
Saroyan, best known for his 1943 novel "The Human Comedy." (Secretary
to Saroyan for a time, Kherdian published a definitive bibliography
of Saroyan’s work in 1965.)
At that time, most of these writers – almost all born to parents who
were genocide survivors – "weren’t known to their own people,"
Kherdian says. "Their own people were more interested in making a
life – they didn’t have time for art."
Although their styles differ greatly, Kherdian believes he and the 16
other writers featured in "Forgotten Bread" share what might be
called an Armenian-American voice.
"Unmistakably, we have this particular sensibility that’s Armenian –
a certain kind of naivete, a sense of irony and laughter and
bittersweetness, and a love of nature," Kherdian said. "You don’t see
(these writers) trying to be clever and sophisticated."
They also have in common a history and worldview that they did not
come by firsthand, but instead absorbed through every pore as they
grew up.
"I had my own peculiar background and identity and suffering that I
understood was mine," Kherdian said. "My feeling was, I have to do
something out of the ordinary to balance that loss, to mark it in a
way that gave it some kind of dignity and wholeness, a resolution out
of the ashes. So I became a writer. I did it for myself but I also
did it for my people."
Beat Generation
"The Road Home," which Kherdian calls his gift to his mother, ends
with its heroine, Veron Dumehjian, about to become a mail-order
bride. In 1924, his mother came to America to marry Melkon Kherdian;
David was born seven years later and raised in Racine, Wis. (he also
has a sister, Virginia). After high school, David sold magazines
door-to-door before being drafted into the army during the Korean
War, which he spent in Japan. By 1960, he was in San Francisco, in
the midst of the poetry movement that would become known as the Beat
Generation.
"He drank beer with Lew Welch and Allen Ginsberg, shot pool with
Richard Brautigan, and roomed across the way from Philip Whalen,"
writes Aris Janigian in his brief profile of Kherdian in "Forgotten
Bread."
Kherdian himself wanted to write prose fiction like Saroyan, but it
was poetry that flowed most easily from his pen and his heart. "You
play the hand you’re dealt. … It was painful to accept in one way,
but joyful in another," he said. Among all his work, he says, his
poems are "between me and God."
He has written extensively about his parents, his wife and his
heritage. In the poem "Histories," he writes:
What do we gain from our
parents
that was never ours
but in being theirs was ours.
I wonder about the food and
music
and especially the tongue
that never ceased to make me
laugh or weep.
And in "Melkon," he writes:
Father I have your rug
I sit on it now – not as you
did, but on a chair before
a table, and write.
Now 76, Kherdian continues to write daily, rising early and finishing
by noon: "The best energy is in the morning," he said. "If you don’t
work first thing, it gets diluted."
His current projects include translating the work of the 20th-century
Armenian poet Shems, and cataloging some 500 works that have
connections to "Forgotten Bread." He envisions the anthology – which
he calls "a book of recovery" – launching conferences, scholarly
articles and research projects.
"This is history, art, culture – this is our story," he said. "Now
these writers can’t ever be completely forgotten."
Tresca Weinstein is is a freelance writer living in Canaan and a
frequent contributor to the Times Union.
Author talk DAVID KHERDIAN
What: The author will speak about the "Forgotten Bread," an anthology
of works by first generation Armenian-American writers, and read from
his poetry. When: 7 p.m. Saturday Where: St. Peter’s Presbyterian
Church, 5219 Route 7, Spencertown Info: Irene Young, 672-7537, or via
e-mail at [email protected]