South Salem author Holly Peppe at a reading of her new work, "Sophie and the Swans." Contributed photo
By MAUREEN L. KOEHL
If it’s true that authors can’t help putting something of themselves into what they write, “Sophie and the Swans,” a new book by South Salem author Holly Peppe, proves the point.
Perhaps the author didn’t start out to tell her story through the voice of Sophie, but after spending a delightful afternoon with Peppe and visiting her cozy writing cabin on the shore of Truesdale Lake, it is obvious her spirit and her love and respect for swans lives through her heroine.
“Sophie and the Swans” tells the story of a young girl and two brothers, new to a lakeside community. Shortly after Sophie witnesses the older brother harassing a pair of swans with rocks, she meets the younger brother and introduces him to “her” swans.
Learning that the reason for the older brother’s anger is the bullying he has endured, when an opportunity arises to show that kindness and understanding are a better way of confronting bullying, Sophie and her new friend come to the rescue of the unhappy older brother.
Peppe’s purpose in writing her book was to offer a better way to overcome bullying, a growing problem in today’s society. By showing a solution rather than just talking about the bullying problem as a more successful path to solving the situation, she envisions her story as a useful message not only for children, but parents and teachers as well.
Published in October — National Bullying Awareness Month — all proceeds from the book will be divided among three organizations: the National Bullying Prevention Center; U.S. government site StopBullying.gov; and the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in South Salem.
At a recent presentation at the Lewisboro Library, Peppe read her book to an enthusiastic crowd of children of all ages, as well as parents and grandparents, who filled the Children’s Room.
In addition to hearing the story of the swans, the audience was fascinated by videos that the author shared of the actual family of swans that befriended her and her family at their Truesdale lakeside home. As if they knew they would be loved by the new owners of this house on the shores of Truesdale Lake, a pair of swans appeared as Holly and her husband, Scot, were shown the property by a realtor. Taking that as a “sign,” the house soon became home and, several months later, as the couple was working by the lake, a pair of the majestic white birds swam by and were immediately christened Romeo and Juliet.
Swans have loomed large in Peppe’s life.
“I have always loved swans,” she told The Recorder, “I think it must have started with ‘The Ugly Duckling,’ one of my favorite books as a child.” In fact, Peppe’s first poem, written at age 5, expressed her love for the elegant, serene bird: “When I grow up I want to be a swan, And swim around in a great big pond …”
Now decades later that love and respect for these birds is manifested in her story for children, using her swans to illustrate that kindness can show bullies a better way to deal with frustrations. Through her story, Peppe said, “I wanted to show that an act of kindness can accomplish more than just talking about a solution.”
Peppe’s career path has traveled the road from “hippiedom” in the wilds of Vermont to the halls of higher education and a Ph.D. in English literature. Her Ph.D. dissertation on Edna St. Vincent Millay led to a friendship with the poet’s sister, Norma, and a stay at the Millay home, Steepletop, in Austerlitz, N.Y., to immerse herself in the poet’s work and life. Peppe is now Millay’s literary executor. As executor, she manages permission for the poet’s published and unpublished literary property overseeing copyrights, royalties and contracts with individuals seeking use of Millay’s work.
She is the editor of the Penguin Classics edition of Millay’s “Early Poems,” and wrote the introduction to the 2016 work, “Selected Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay.”
An op-ed piece in the Connecticut edition of The New York Times in the 1980s led to a serendipitous invitation to work as a public relations representative for Orbis International, a nonprofit that builds strong and sustainable eye-care systems, putting treatment and prevention within reach for populations in developing countries around the globe. It was a hands-on learning experience for this talented writer and adventuresome young woman, a poet, writer and English teacher who had no intentions of becoming a globetrotting, public relations expert who met with presidents and world leaders like Fidel Castro. “This job quickly taught me how to pitch the media, work with press representatives, and organize press conferences,” Peppe said. In addition, she wrote fundraising materials and developed story angles to entice press coverage for Orbis and to promote the Orbis mission to provide better eye care and disease prevention worldwide. In the early days this included a DC-8 flying eye hospital. According to the Orbis International website: “Thanks to her poetic prose, Holly developed a distinctive Orbis voice that secured both increased donor support and front-page headlines around the world.” She worked for the organization as director of external affairs from 1988 to 1996 before starting her own public relations and media strategist firm, Peppe Communications Inc., specializing in the development and promotion of individuals and organizations committed to education, the arts, global health issues, human rights, and psychological well-being.
She truly believes that if you write and speak well, you can accomplish much in your life — a mantra this courageous, thoughtful, empathetic woman has proven in her business sense and especially in her writing.
Peppe’s latest literary offering is “An Absence of Fear,” a collection of love poems and elegies for subjects as eclectic as her wit from Thelonious Monk to a dead farmhouse spider.