"Truths about how to live"--The Lens of Eternity #hybridmemoir #LGBTQ #amreading
I am delighted to continue to tell you about my new hybrid memoir that was just published by Wipf and Stock Publishers: The Lens of Eternity: Queer Love from Two Pandemics. The book reflects on my year of quarantining in 2020 with my partner. This was an interesting year for us because we had just gone to a vegan, plant-based diet, so that was new and interesting to us in the midst of the devastation of the pandemic. I combine our lives with those of the noted photographer Berenice Abbott, who survived the 1918 pandemic and her long-time lesbian partner, Elizabeth McCausland, who was a well-known art critic. The book also highlights the importance of Berenice in championing the work of the Parisian Eugene Atget, who became a Master of Photography.
I thought I would introduce the book to you by gradually highlighting the blurbs of the back cover. This blurb is by Louis Greenstein, author of The Song of Life as well as other books.
Louis's blurb is recorded below for YouTube, and below that is the text and under that is other information from the back of the book.
“Janet Mason’s The Lens of Eternity puts a focus on two long-term loving relationships a century apart while navigating a judgmental society, artistic freedom, a pandemic, health and nutrition, road trips, and what it means to grow old together. Mason’s genius lies in her talent for synthesizing two stories from different eras to reveal truths about how to live.”—Louis Greenstein, author of The Song of Life
How does long-term love shape people? What are the practicalities of the mystery? Find out in The Lens of Eternity: Queer Love from Two Pandemics. It addresses the life of photographer Berenice Abbott and her partner, Elizabeth McCausland, a noted art critic, as well as the author’s own life while quarantining with her partner.
This page-turner also offers an insider's view of photographic and art history, including how, through Berenice’s efforts, Eugene Atget, who photographed “Old Paris,” came to be known as the Master of Photography that history accorded him.
Berenice Abbott, who survived the “Spanish flu” pandemic of 1918–1920, is known for, among other things, her photography while living in Paris for a decade in the 1920s and her work photographing Manhattan in the 1930s. Elizabeth McCausland was often overlooked in her lifetime, especially as Berenice’s long-term partner.
Mason brings together these four queer lives in the past and the present in long-term relationships that require compromise and forgiveness as she gives shape to the shadows and reveals what can be learned from hidden lives. Ultimately, including the author’s and her partner’s choice to go to a plant-based diet for health and ethical reasons, it's all about love.
Janet Mason is an award-winning creative writer, teacher, and occasional blogger for such places as The Huffington Post. Her book, Tea Leaves, A Memoir Of Mothers And Daughters, published by Bella Books in 2012, was chosen by the American Library Association for its 2013 Over the Rainbow List. Tea Leaves also received a Goldie Award. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her novel THEY: A biblical tale of secret genders (Adelaide Books – New York and Lisbon) was featured at the 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair. Adelaide Books also published her novel THE UNICORN, THE MYSTERY late in 2020. Her novel Loving Artemis: An Endearing Tale Of Revolution, Love, And Marriage, was published by Thorned Heart Press in August of 2022. Her novel CINNAMON: a dairy cow's (and her farmer's) path to freedom was published by Adelaide Books in 2024. The Lens of Eternity: Queer Love from Two Pandemics was published by Wipf and Stock Publishers in 2026. Her memoir LOST: A Daughter Navigates Father Loss and Discovers What It Means To Belong is forthcoming.
The Lens of Eternity: Queer Love from Two Pandemics by Janet Mason, from Resource Publications, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers, 9798385215195 / paperback / $19/£17/AU$27 is available online at www.wipfandstock.com and Amazon at The Lens of Eternity: Queer Love from Two Pandemics: Mason, Janet: 9798385215195: Amazon.com: Books
and wherever books are sold. Her author website is: JanetMason.org | Queer Books
I was especially honored by the beautiful cover that Wipf and Stock Publishers did, which features a photograph that Berenice Abbott took, which she titled "Manhattan Bridge Looking Up."
The Lens of Eternity: Queer Lives from Two Pandemics, my hybrid memoir highlighting the life of noted photographer Berenice Abbott and her long-term partner, an art critic of note, was just published. For more information, click here: The Lens of Eternity: Queer Love from Two Pandemics: Mason, Janet: 9798385215201: Amazon.com: Books
CINNAMON, my most recent novel, is available on amazon.com: Cinnamon: A dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom: Mason, Janet: 9781958419786: Amazon.com: Books
CINNAMON is also available through your local bookstore and library
(ask them to order it if they don’t have it).
For more information on my novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders published by Adelaide Books, click here.
To learn more about The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:
For more information on my most recent novel, Loving Artemis, an endearing tale of revolution, love, and marriage, click here.
To order my book, Tea Leaves, a memoir of mothers and daughters, click here.
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