"Like Gaul, my life is divided into three parts: before Tom, with Tom, and after Tom," writes Campion of her late husband. Now 87, the author (Mother Ann Lee: Morning Star of the Shakers
) looks back at her life, in particular lovingly immortalizing her 59-year marriage to Tom Campion, who was director of production for the New York Times
and later vice-chancellor of UMass. at Amherst. In an upbeat, buoyant if superficial style, Campion recounts an essentially happy upper-middle-class life with a good-humored husband and five children. She's at her best describing the diverting ups and downs of their life together, such as the time she had to cook dinner for Times
food critic Craig Claiborne and a reception the couple attended at the Clinton White House. An army brat raised in Kansas and the Panama Canal Zone, Campion grew up with a talent for making the best of things. Although she clearly revered her parents, she is forthright about their anti-Semitism, which ruined her older sister's marriage plans. The author also describes her despair over that sister's death many years later and the difficulty of coping with a son's emotional breakdown. Interestingly, despite her family's military background, Campion became a pacifist in college, but makes little mention of how her political beliefs evolved in later life. 22 b&w photos. (Oct. 29)
