A Bit of History: The Memoir Network
The Memoir Network was founded in the fall of 1988 by Denis Ledoux.
Our mission has never changed: We’ll provide memoir-writing help so you can create the kind of memoir you are dreaming of holding in your hands and giving to family, friends, and possibly the world—a meaningful, interesting memoir.
How did Denis know in 1988 that memoir writing would become so important? He didn’t—he just liked writing memoirs and working with people who wanted to be writers of memoirs. He was responding from the inside out.
At first—we’re talking ’90s here, people would say: “I may be crazy. I want to write my memoir.” But Denis knew that these people were not crazy. He knew these first-time memoir writers—and perhaps only-time book writers—were being impelled by a storytelling urgency that is as old as the impulse of our ancestors gathered around campfires to tell their stories.
Gradually, the public’s appreciation for memoir writing changed, and people who approached Denis began to express that it might be a normal activity to write a memoir—and The Memoir Network was there to show them how by providing the best memoir-writing help available on the net.
Denis has won awards for his writing: the 1989 Maine Fiction Competition and 1991 and 1996 Individual Writing Fellowships.
Kind Words About Our Work
Over the years, we’ve been fortunate that people say a lot of nice things about The Memoir Network, about our products, about Denis and about our team of professional writers:
- Time Magazine included Denis in a roundup article on memoir writing in April 1999. Read the article in our In the News page.
- The Christian Science Monitor ran roundups and feature articles on Denis. Three times. Read the article in our In the News page.
- Turning Memories Into Memoirs was deemed by Booklist (American Library Association) as “very beneficial…helps writers get off to a great start.”
- Rhonda Kanning Anderson, co-founder and president of the erstwhile premier scrapbooking company Creative Memories, said of our Photo Scribe: “The Photo Scribe has inspired me to a new level of photo-journaling. This practical step-by-step guide can enable anyone to discover the depth of their memories.”
- Bottomline Publications acknowledged (in a feature article) Denis’s work as a memoir ghostwriter, editor and coach.
- The Cincinnati Post praised Turning Memories Into Memoirs / A Handbook for Writing Lifestories as: “…a step-by-step manual, lots of examples, a fine appendix and a detailed index, making it a useful reference over time.”
- Network founder Denis Ledoux has been interviewed on a variety of radio stations in cities as far-flung as Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Montréal. He has been interviewed by NPR affiliates as well as Radio Canada.