"There's a cancer, and it's killing our democracy. A poor man has to sell his soul to get elected. I cry for this country."
On February 29, 2000, ninety-year-old Doris "Granny D" Haddock completed her 3,200-mile, fourteen-month walk from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. She walked through 105-degree deserts and blinding blizzards, despite arthritis and emphysema. Along her way, her remarkable speeches -- rich with wisdom, love, and political insight -- transformed individuals and communities and jump-started a full-blown movement. She became a national heroine.
On her journey, Haddock kept a diary -- tracking the progress of her walk and recalling events in her life and the insights that have given her. Granny D celebrates an exuberant life of love, activism, and adventure -- from writing one-woman feminist plays in the 1930s to stopping nuclear testing near an Eskimo fishing village in 1960 to Haddock’s current crusade. Threaded throughout is the spirit of her beloved hometown of Dublin/Peterborough, New Hampshire -- Thornton Wilder’s inspirations for Grovers Croner in Out Town -- a quintessentially American center of New England pluck, Yankee ingenuity and can-do attitude.
Told in Doris Haddock’s distinct and unforgettable voice, Granny D will move, amuse, and inspire readers of all ages with its clarion message that one person can indeed make a difference.
Publishers Weekly
Haddock, already a mediagenic spitfire, is sure to draw crowds. Haddock's inspiring message is perfect fodder for family and schoolroom discussions about politics; with the book's low price, retailers should anticipate strong sales.
Library Journal
Granny D Haddock is a national treasure whose 14-month odyssey walking from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, galvanized the hope of many increasingly disspirited Americans for campaign finance reform. Granny D undertook this journey despite arthritis and emphysema, celebrating her 90th birthday along the way. Following her daily regimen of ten miles, Haddock wrote nightly for two hours. The resulting journal, written with Burke, who accompanied her on the trek, is a multilayered memoir, populist reform treatise, roadside nature field book, Whitmanesque treatment of America, and philosophical summation of a life well spent.
An esteemed memoirist examines aging with the grace of Elegy for Iris and the wry irreverence of I Feel Bad About My Neck.
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