Andrew H. Stephens, son of Eugene E. Stephens, recently completed the posthumous publication of his father’s collection of essays and poems entitled Blue Collar Rage with Modern Memoirs in 2024. This project took seven months from the day we started it until books arrived on Stephens’ doorstep. In honor of Father’s Day this month, we asked Stephens to reflect on what the publication process was like for him, and what it has meant to share his father’s writings with others.
In the opening pages of Blue Collar Rage, Andrew Stephens describes his father, Eugene Stephens, as a one-of-a-kind “Renaissance man” locked in an endless exploration of knowledge and the arts. Andrew writes, “I believe my father’s uniqueness came from the fact that not only was he an intellectual who loved to read, sculpt, paint, write poetry and pursue his philosophy, but at the same time he carried his lunch pail to work every day as a blue collar factory worker for thirty-five years.”
Over his lifetime, Eugene wrote his essays and reflections in 32 notebooks. Shortly before his death in 1993 at the age of 68, Eugene selected from those writings and drafted an introduction intended to be collected into a book and shared with his children and grandchildren. The book was never completed.
Andrew inherited the notebooks upon his father’s death and spent the next eight years transcribing and typing all of them into a single manuscript. From this, he produced a paperback book at a copy shop. He later commissioned Modern Memoirs to design and publish a hardcover version.
1. What was it like to transcribe your father’s notebooks?
Andrew Stephens: My father never discussed with me what he was writing, nor did he ever state why he was writing in his journals. When I began typing from his four decades of journal entries, I was focused solely on making progress and being as efficient with my time as possible. However, it quickly became apparent that I had a unique opportunity to learn more about my father’s intimate thoughts about his life and his journey to understand his spirituality. I started to slow down and attempted to observe how his thoughts evolved over this multi-decade period. What a gift it was for me, as I later realized.
2. What do you think your father understood his role as father to be?
Andrew Stephens: Great question and a challenging one for me to answer. My father grew up in a family struggling to make financial ends meet. Born before the Great Depression, he talked about the struggles he endured in early life. He aspired to work at a good company that would allow his two sons to “go to college,” which was the American Dream for his generation. Traditional father interactions in our neighborhood, like fishing, hunting, or pitching a baseball in the front yard, never happened. Interactions with my father centered on conversations at the dinner table, often revolving around history, science, and religion. These conversations, more often than not, turned into constructive but sometimes heated debates.
“I think he began to prepare his book when he came to the conclusion that his writings would be his legacy that he could pass down to his two sons and his grandchildren. A gift that keeps on giving.”
3. What do you think his intentions were in attempting to share his writings with you?
Andrew Stephens: I believe my father’s initial intention and motivation when he journaled into his notebooks was strictly for himself. It was his way to formulate his thinking, debate with himself, and to revise his ongoing worldview. He starved for intellectual conversation. It was a common occurrence for my brother and myself, when we visited as adults, that our father would initiate dinner conversations that would last until bedtime, with our father, at times, standing in the doorway still making his last point. I think he began to prepare his book when he came to the conclusion that his writings would be his legacy that he could pass down to his two sons and his grandchildren. A gift that keeps on giving.
4. What inspired you to publish the second, hardcover volume with Modern Memoirs? What are the most significant differences between the two books?
Andrew Stephens: I knew his writings were something special that had great value to me. I realized I needed to invest in creating a professional and well-made edition that would stand the test of time. Ultimately, out of respect for my father, I wanted the quality of the outside hardcover binding to match the quality of the inside content.
5. Your father self-developed skills in leather tooling and book binding. How did the cover design and binding selections you made at Modern Memoirs pay homage to that?
Andrew Stephens: The font for the cover and layout design was put together by my father himself. It was very unusual, and I could not replicate it. Therefore, on the first softcover edition, I did something very different. I was quite impressed that Modern Memoirs proactively suggested we attempt to match what he designed nearly thirty years ago. They were successful, and I know my father is looking down from above with a smile on his face at what ultimately became of his memoir in this beautifully crafted book.
Liz Sonnenberg is staff genealogist for Modern Memoirs, Inc.