Before the Call: The Communication Playbook. This item is unavailable.Before the Call: The Communication Playbook

Twenty-one irreverent stories tracing the triumphs and follies of a clan of headstrong, wooden-shoed Dutch immigrants, from 1900 until the end of the century, as told by their deugenits (no-good) gay grandson. The narrator learns what his antecedents could never have witnessed: that blood will out, and Seceders will always return, just not in the same generation. And all, of course, is predestined.The second group of stories includes first-person vignettes of some well-known people like Gerald Ford, Eleanor Roosevelt, and LBJ as encountered during the 1960s. There is a freighter voyage to Tangiers in this section, and a treasure tale.The last group of stories present an Orinoco shaman who outwits an evangelist; a temp secretary who founds a NY art school on nothing more than a monkey wig and her own earnings; we meet a twelve year old boy whose death from an overdose of heroin inspired a social movement; and a 90 year old Quaker who taught youngsters to ignore the bad but answer the good in everyone.Some of tales were published previously. One won a national prize and another reveals facts that weren't printable in the original story, written by this book's author, which appeared in Time Magazine in 1969.

John Schoonbeek is retired from Vassar College, and now lives on the banks of the Suwannee River. His son, Nicholas, provided two drawings and much inspiration for this book. Photographer Jorge Santos contributed as well. The line drawings were created by famed circus artist Karen E. Gersch, who also did the cover art for a previous novel by the author, My Father's Circus, also published by Hudson House.