Lawyer-Turned-Author Says Disease Made Him a Better Writer
Neil Selinger quit his legal job in 2007 at the age of 54, with plans to do volunteer work and pursue writing.
At first, Selinger was able to follow his heart. He volunteered at a food pantry and at Habitat for Humanity. He took a class at the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College and joined a writing group. But within a couple years, his life took a different turn, the New York Times reports.
Selinger couldn’t explain why he stumbled and tripped while playing basketball, or the reason for the involuntary twitching in his arms and legs. By April 2009 he had a diagnosis: amyotrophic lateral schlerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Selinger continued writing, however, with the support of his writing group that moved its meetings to his home, and friends who helped out however they could. In September, when he could still type with one finger, he finished a childhood memoir, the Times says.
The book, A Sloan Product: A Memoir of a Lost Boy, recalls Selinger’s childhood at the New Jersey home that also served as headquarters for his family’s wholesale paper and toy business, Sloan Products, according to the newspaper. Selinger was the quiet kid in a 22-room compound that housed four generations of bickering family and relatives.
ALS didn’t interfere with Selinger’s writing ability; in fact, it made him better, Selinger asserted in a recent unpublished essay quoted by the Times. “As my muscles weakened, my writing became stronger,” Selinger wrote. “As I slowly lost my speech, I gained my voice. As I diminished, I grew. As I lost so much, I finally started to find myself.”
