Author Q&A

Author Q&A: Judith and Milton Viorst

"Writer's block is pretty much an unknown in this house," said Milton Viorst as he, his wife Judith Viorst and I visited in their Northwest Washington home.

"Let's knock on wood when we say that," added Judith quickly. They nodded in unison at the thought.

WIW members Milton and Judith Viorst have been married over 40 years. They are independently prolific and successful as writers of contrasting genres, and jointly creative as life partners. Their eyes sparkled with amusement and affection as they reflected on life and recalled the ways in which family has wound its way through their writings.

The Viorsts met while both were history majors at Rutgers University. Milton moved to Washington in 1957 to work for the Washington Pos t, while Judith moved to Greenwich Village. They married in 1960.

"I specialized in history . . . and went on to spend much of my professional life seeking to fuse history with the craft of journalism," wrote Milton in his book What Shall I Do With This People: Jews and the Fractious Politics of Judais m. He has covered Middle East issues for many publications and produced major books about the Arab world, including In the Shadow of the Prophet: The Struggle for the Soul of Islam.

Judith traveled her literary path with poetry, children's stories, magazine columns and six years' study at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute. Her Institute study led her to write the bestseller Necessary Losses, a book that examines people's ability to grow and change as they accept the inevitable loss of loved ones. This winter the Kennedy Center is presenting the world premiere of Alexander Who's Not Not Not Not Not Not Going To Mov e. It is the second musical based on one of Judith's popular "Alexander" series of children's books.

Each critiques everything the other writes. "Always," they smiled. But they do not collaborate. They enjoyed writing one restaurant review book during the late 1970s.

"And we did one book review," Judith added with finality. "The book was written by Milton Friedman and his wife," Judith explained, "and we wrote this book review together. We took turns passing it back and forth." Her eyes widened. "Then Milton came in and said, 'Well I'm knocking out these first two lines and replacing them with. . . .'" Her hand cut a blank line into the air. ". . . and I said, 'Who gave you the authority to decide what we knock out?'" She paused. "It reminded me of why we should never, ever write together again."

By story's end they were smiling at each other with an enviable mix of affection, amusement and wisdom. In 2002 Judith published her book Grown-up Marriage: What We Know, Wish We Had Known, and Still Need to Know About Being Married.

What are the secrets of their success as writers? Loving the hard work—especially research—and persisting despite publishers who rejected even their most successful books. Judith's first bestseller, It's Hard to Be Hip Over Thirty, was turned down, as were Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and Necessary Losses.

Both have also found ways to combine their hard work with family. Milton has worked at home when not traveling. Judith has used experiences of family and friends, and her desire to understand them, as inspiration for her varied writings.