Chapters Bookstore will welcome author Ruth Bass
PITTSFIELD, Mass. - Chapters Bookstore will welcome author Ruth Bass to the event room on Saturday January 10, at 3PM for a reading and signing of her book Sarah's Daughter.A career newspaper woman, Ruth Bass published her first novel, “Sarah’s Daughter,” in 2007 at the age of 72. She was born July 18, 1934 in Amherst, Massachusetts, and grew up in various New England communities. A graduate of Westfield (MA) High School and Bates College, she earned a master of science degree in journalism from Columbia University where she also received the Tennessee Williams Award for creative journalism.
She has been a police reporter, newspaper feature magazine editor and Sunday editor for The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. She still writes a weekly column for The Eagle and one year was named by United Press International as the best columnist in New England. She is also a free-lance travel writer, a member of the Society of American Travel Writers, author of ten published cookbooks and has worked as an editor at Storey Publishing Co. in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and The Independent, a twice weekly newspaper in Hillsdale, New York. She has won many prizes for writing and editing and a few years ago was inducted into the New England Newspaper Association’s Hall of Fame for her contributions to community journalism.
Her first journalism experience came in sixth grade when she created a school newspaper. At Bates, she was editor of the student newspaper. She has also been a selectman in her town, a commercial bank director and a member of the town finance and health boards. She was named Woman of the Year by the Professional and Business Women’s Association of Pittsfield and is a winner of the Charles and Mary Kusik Citizenship Award in her town.
Her novel is based on a tiny kernel of knowledge about how her grandmother, at the age of 14, faced bringing up two siblings, running a household, coping with her increasingly alcoholic father. “I was a Girl Scout leader for years and became aware that my scouts faced many of the same problems that confronted my grandmother in the 1880’s and decided a book might be in there somewhere.” Since her grandmother did not talk about her experiences as a teenager, the book is almost entirely fictional, although its historical aspect – especially the daily life in a rural community – was carefully researched.
She is married to novelist and newspaper columnist Milton Bass.
