Ben Marcus Rules
Writing, Research, General Word Nerdiness
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BEN’S BOOKS BY BEN
Latest news 10-30-2022: Just Boon just sent a Danish version of Extreme Surf, so now Ben has been translated into German, English and Danish. Now gotta see if they’re supposed to pay me.
Beginning with the Surf, Skate and Rock Art of Jim Phillips in 2001, Ben has been involved in researching, writing and editing more than 20 books.
Most of those books are about surfing and most of them are listed here - not chronologically but in Order of Pride.
The books Ben is proudest of are The Shorebreak Art of Clark Little because that was a self-published book put together by Ben, Clark Little and Joni Casimiro.
Arcadia's Images of America: Malibu proved that Ben could write about something other than surfing, and is probably the book that has got him the most notoriety.
Malibu people love Malibu history and Ben has gone to dinner with Oscar nominees and billionaires because of that Malibu history book.
Long story behind Las Vegas at Night that begins with Gidget and ends with Casino.
Of his surfing books, Ben did not put his name on the two Chronicle Books surf guides he did for Northern and Southern California, but he is proud of the writing he did in those two guides.
When he was working on The Skateboard, he jokingly suggested they call the book The Good, the Rad and the Gnarly - but the publisher didn't know he was joking, and that is what the book is called.
The original cover of the skateboard book.
The French version of the skateboard book I was unaware of.
Another funny thing happened when the publisher translated The Skateboard into French but neglected to tell Ben - so he was surprised when the Sportel Awards in France told him his book Skateboard - De la rue a la Rampe - had been nominated for Book of the Year, and they were going to fly Ben to Monaco and put him up in the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel.
Ben was a little surprised his book had been translated into French. It was too far to fly from Hawaii to Monaco, so Ben sent photographer Lucia Griggi as his surrogate - Lucia went with her dad to see another book win the 3000 Euro prize.
Merde.
The surf guide Ben did around 2009 was translated into German - Wellenreiten Basics - so that was pretty cool. And it was nice of the publisher to tell Ben they had done that.
As of May 2017, Ben is working on books for Marc Andreini and Buzzy Kerbox.
Women Who Surf was published in May of 2017 - and hopefully it will sell 100,000 copies.
Two of the latest books Ben worked on are Wave Woman - written by Vicky Durand as a tribute to her mother - Betty Heldreich Windstedt - a 20th Century modern woman who was a combination of Amelia Earhart, Emily Dickinson, Esther Williams and Frida Kahlo.
And Ben helped organize, edit and proof a book on Rhuigi Villasenor, a Phillipines-born clothing designer who has had great success with the Rhude label.
CROSSING BAYOU TECHE
Helping a Louisiana gal produce and publish her memoir.
The cover of Crossing Bayou Teche, published by Acadian House.
About a year ago in April 2020, Jennifer and Melanie Grossman asked me to proof/edit a 150,000-word memoir Jennifer’s mother Melanie wrote about growing up Catholic in Saint Martinville, Louisiana in the 1950s - and being swept away by a dashing kinda-Jewish almost-a-doctor from New York City.
They just wanted me to proof it but as I read it I thought: "This is pretty danged good, you know!" And I said so to Melanie but she said "Pshaw, y'all! This is just for me and my family."
But I persisted and she jokingly said I could be her agent.
So on May 6, 2020 around 3:00 I pitched it to Chronicle Books in San Francisco - because Melanie's husband Bill is a prominent cardiologist in San Francisco - and also to a random list of publishers in Louisiana.
One of them - Acadian House - responded in like two hours and asked for more.
Turns out they had published a book on Cajun cooking that sold 200,000 copies - a book written by one of Melanie's many many cousins - Marcelle Bienvenu.
The Cajun/Creole cookbook written by Melanie’s cousin Marcelle Bienvenu.
There's a mess of Bienvenus in Louisiana, apparently. I've met two of them by chance here in Malibu.
So that was maybe a new world record for getting a book deal, and then I proofed the whole dang book which was like 14 chapters and a lot of words and I started calling Melanie "Madame Tolstoy."
Bill and Melanie looking good at the Columbia University graduation ball, 1962.
The working title was 𝐿𝑜𝑢𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑎 𝑄𝑢𝑒𝑒𝑛 but I suggested a couple of titles: 𝐶𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐵𝑎𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑇𝑒𝑐ℎ𝑒 had a nice iambic ring to it and 𝐾𝑜𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝐺𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑜 was cornier and more commercial.
They seemed set on 𝐶𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑡, which is the street Melanie grew up on, named after the town’s cemetery where all of her ancestors are buried. Cemetery Street and Saint Martinville was the center of her life until that kinda-Jewish almost-a-doctor dude swept her away, enticed her to cross Bayou Teche and elope, scandalized her parents, took her to India with the Peace Corps in the 1960s, had three lovely children and now live in San Francisco, where Dr. Bill Grossman is one of the top cardiologists in the country and does his best to keep San Francisco big shots up and running.
Went back and forth with it over the course of a year and suggested Melanie go big on all of it - photos, printing, etc. "This is your immortality! And let’s win an Oscar!"
I always warn everyone that producing a book is like climbing Mount Everest - more work and peril than anyone suspects. Don’t think about the whole mountain or you’ll freak out. Just do what’s in front of you. Get ‘er done. Inch by inch. Page by page. Chapter by chapter.
Out of spring and into summer and fall the book was edited, proofed, rewritten, re-edited. Apparently Melanie scandalized the publisher Trent Angers the same way she had scandalized her parents - by making a lot of changes after it had been laid out.
But she was worried about the response to the book as she was telling true stories about her family - and she has a lot of family.
I tried to reassure Melanie with the 50/50 rule, which states: “No matter what you do, 50% of the people will love it and 50% will hate it.”
Did another read of the whole durned thing over the last couple of weeks in March of 2021 and found some booboos: “Rein” instead of “reign.” “Thirfty” instead of “thrifty.”
And now it's at the printers under the title 𝐶𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐵𝑎𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑇𝑒𝑐ℎ𝑒.
I think they are doing an all-in version for the family and maybe a shorter version for public consumption. Somewhere between Eat, Pray Love at 130,000 words and Rememberance of Things Past at 1.5 million words.
I will not be at all surprised if this book goes big - Melanie has a pleasing voice and a good story to tell and the book has mid-century, Cajun/Kennedy/Kosher manners and perspective and is kind of like 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝐺𝑢𝑚𝑝 in the timespan it covers.
And Bill and Melanie are nice-looking people who are nice.
And now I’m trying to get her onto the Ellen show, because Ellen is from Metairie, Louisiana and might be sympatico.
There was a time when people dressed for church when they were flying. This is Bill and Melanie headed for India with the Peace Corps - Bill’s mother Dede and her husband Richard Draper seeing them off at Dulles International.
Mysto George Carr holds up a copy of Wave Woman. Photo: Ben.
Mock up of a possible cover for the book on Pinoy clothing designer Rhuigi Villasenor.
The charming and glamorous Mercedes Maidana and the strikingly tall and super pregnant Wrenna Delgado stand proudly with their fresh copies of Women Who Surf. Three Tables on the North Shore, May of 2017. Photo: Ben Marcus.
The latest book project - editing, organizing and guiding The Gift for Marc Andreini - from chaos came quality.
