Bio of the Author

Hi, my name is Christina Waldman. When I was younger, I thought all I needed to be productively happy were a decent typewriter, a sewing machine, and a piano. Now, of course, the typewriter has morphed into a computer, there are space-age sewing machines that Grandma could never have imagined, and the piano is more likely to be an electronic keyboard. Still, there were pluses to the old models. My old Underwood typewriter was free of security risks. Many beautiful old cast-iron sewing machines, like Mom’s treadle or Grandma’s old White Rotary, my first sewing machine, still work after years in storage, unlike modern machines. A piano is a lovely thing to have in a home, but they are so hard to move! I have had to say good-bye to several over the years.

I am the mother of grown children and a grandmother. Like many of you, I love books and learning, art and music, beautiful old buildings, especially libraries and churches, and fabrics and sewing. I believe in arts education for all ages, especially children. In the past few years, I’ve allowed myself to indulge in a passion for patchwork and quilting. Once you embrace this empty nest thing, it isn’t so bad! It has given me time to do some of the things I always wanted to do, like writing Francis Bacon’s Hidden Hand.

I studied history and law at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Illinois. Over the years, I have practiced law from a home office and written for publishers of legal reference books. When, in 1982, I couldn’t decide whether to go to law school or “be a writer” (not realizing one could do both), I wrote to one of my favorite authors, Bernard Malamud, asking his advice. I had just finished reading his book, Dubin’s Lives. His advice for writers: “You must know and love literature and read and think of it endlessly.” I did write a children’s novel while I was in law school, during the summer break of 1983. I expanded and revised it beginning in 1992, the year our family got its first computer and was sending it out to publishers in 1994.

When I was in college, I used to wonder why the world had never produced another Shakespeare. I figured it had something to do with the way we educate children. Francis Bacon had a lot to say about education. He recognized the educational value of theatre, praising the Jesuits particularly in this regard. Maybe there will never be another Shakespeare. Maybe he was not just one person. But don’t we want to be educating the whole person, putting a priority on arts education? Studies show that the benefits go far beyond just fostering creativity, though this world certainly needs creative thinkers to solve its many problems.

For children during the pandemic, my daughter Eliza and I did a story-song project, with my story (“Pink Bunny Slippers for Molly”) and her song (“Pink Bunny Slippers”) which she wrote when she was ten. I have always liked this song. It has such a catchy tune! https://christinagwaldman.com/slippers-for-molly-a-childrens-story/.

It is hard to imagine Francis Bacon having a public website–he whose invention of the binary cipher led to the development of the first computer. He was a very private person. I wonder what he would think of the idea,

(last revised 4-30-23)