FOREWORD to Helen Hayes: A Bio-Bibliography (1993, Greenwood Press)

I am not one to sit and ponder about the past. There is too much in the present demanding attention. So much to see! So much to encounter in the world!

And so I have never stopped to keep scrapbooks. I’ve been terrible about that one thing and I am sorry. I apologize to the world for it.

I guess I haven’t had any great sense of myself as history because as I lived my life, that was enough for me. I never kept my notices, good or bad. They came through and then passed out of my hands and out of my life.

But it is good to know what the past has been: that enables you to enjoy the present. Therefore I appreciate this assembly of such a host of names of my fellow players and such a grand recording of past events. The memories rush back! I appreciate the research effort which went into this volume which will remind me of so much I had forgotten in my long and overcrowded life. Donn Murphy and Stephen Moore remember more about me than I do, I can tell you that! This project has been a delight to me.

But the best part was living it, and for that I give thanks!

Helen Hayes
Nyack, New York
October 10, 1991

(Above photos by Stephen Moore)