Starting Over at 85.docVIP

James Michener began life as a foundling and started with absolutely nothing. Later, he became a successful writer, with an estimated 50 million copies of his books sold. He made millions of dollars and donated much of his wealth. In 1992, when he was 85, he gave away his last 15 million dollars and started all over again. 詹姆斯?麦切纳刚生下来就成了弃儿，他完全是白手起家。后来，他成为了一位颇有名气的作家，据估计，他的书已售出五千万册。他赚了好几百万美元，也捐赠了很多财产。1992年，他85岁高龄时，捐出了所剩的全部财产——一千五百万美元--并且重新开始创业。In the summer of 1992, I arranged to visit James A. Michener in Brunswick, Maine. I was then collaborating with the renowned author on a book of conversations. Could we meet him?” my younger daughter, Hana, asked. She was only eight at the time, but Hana knew Michener was someone special. Shed seen how carefully Id arranged all the first editions of his books on our bookcase. Each was personally inscribed and redstamped with the initials JAM. That would depend on his schedule, I said. Hes a very busy man.1992年夏天，我计划好去拜访住在缅因州布伦斯威克市的詹姆斯?A?麦切纳。当时我正与这位知名作家合作编著一本谈话类的书。“我们可以见见他吗？”我的小女儿海娜问。她当时只有八岁，可她却知道麦切纳是不同寻常的人物。她以前见过我如何小心翼翼地把麦切纳的所有初版书都摆放书架上。每一本书上都写有赠言，并印上了作家姓名的首字母JAM。“那要看他的日程安排了，”我说，“他很忙。”Nevertheless, Hana told me it was really important that she talk to him. Then she went to work to prepare for the meeting. She took a two-inch blank book and began to write and illustrate stories about seals, one of which was called The Adventure of Taking Erny the Seal to School. To encourage her, I told her that Michener liked to write about animals. 尽管这样，海娜还是告诉我说，能与麦切纳交谈对她来讲真的很重要。之后，她便去为此次见面做准备。她拿来一本两寸厚的空白薄，开始在上面写海豹的故事，其中一则名叫《恩尼上学历险记》。她还为故事画了插图。为了鼓励她，我告诉她，麦切纳喜爱用动物作写作题材。On July 17 I took my family to the simple house where Michener and his wife, Mari, lived. Jim remembered holding my older daughter on his lap when she was a baby. But this was the first time he had met Hana, who told him that she, too, was a writer and had brought her work with her. Jim smiled. Well, he said, I wonder if youll let me see it. He sat down on his couch, and