- My publisher at Berkley/Perigee Books tells me they shipped 16,500 copies of the new, revised edition of The Survivor Personality in September. The enthusiastic foreword by Bernie Siegel has contributed a lot to the book's widespread acceptance by bookstore buyers. It feels delightful to walk into any bookstore and find copies in the self-help section. I even found a copy in a small book shop in the Los Angeles airport two weeks ago.
If you purchased the first edition, it is basically the same book. The new edition dropped the two appendices, added some quotes from pilot Scott O'Grady about surviving being shot down over Bosnia, and deleted the passage where Burt Reynolds attributes his recovery of his health to Loni Anderson's love for him. The only major rewrite was the chapter on "Surviving Mother Nature." It us now one of the stronger chapters.
- Thorsons will publish a UK edition (with a different title) in London in February. A Dutch language edition is coming out soon in Holland. A German language edition, titled Erfolgreich Krisen bewîltigen: eine Anleitung zum -berlegen was just published in Europe by Hugendubel/Irisiana Books.
- The Berkley book publicist is getting excellent results:
- The Survivor Personality received positive reviews in the September issue of New Woman magazine and the December issue of Men's Fitness.
- I've been interviewed on over a dozen radio talk shows and was quoted in the Wall Street Journal recently.
- There will be an article in Professional Sales magazine this winter.
- The December issue of Mademoiselle magazine has a nice article (p. 183) that includes a self-assessment quiz I helped them develop. I'd like to know what you think about it.
- The breadth of response continues to amaze me. It the same time the editors of Mademoiselle were deciding that information in The Survivor Personality had value for their young female readers, I learned that the U.S. military has decided to give an autographed copy of The Survivor Personality as the award to the top student in each survival training class. This is the training that all Air Force pilots go through. In the past the top student was given a "Rambo" type survival knife. Switching to the book as the prize emphasizes that the will to live is more important than having a knife in your hand.
From the very beginning I've said that my description of the personality qualities of life's best survivors is the same as a describing people with exceptional mental health. I had an article titled "Exceptional Mental Health: The Synergistic Personality" published in the July-August issue of Perspectives: A Mental Health Internet Magazine.
Also available on the internet is a "Survivor Story of the Month" at my web site. The December story is about Maryam Rohbar, a woman with multiple sclerosis who first wrote to me in 1988. I was finally able to meet her and interview her during my recent trip to Nepal. She has been a rebel all her life and has an inspiring story to tell.
- Now available: The Thriving Manual: Guidelines for Self-Managed Learning in the School of Life. The manual provides a place for going through the various self-development activities suggested in The Survivor Personality. It is patterned after the student workbooks I've written to accompany psychology textbooks. The price for readers of this newsletter is only $10 plus $2.00 p&h.
- New project: During my survivor personality research I became aware of a big gap in survivor stories. I found stories about people being made stronger and better from every kind of human adversity except for people who have gone through a mental or emotional disturbance.
My request is to ask for your help locating people who, although diagnosed by psychiatrists as mentally ill, were transformed by their experience, became stronger, better, more talented, more productive, more effective, and so forth. See an online description of the " Weller Than Well" project. Thanks.
- Workshops: Many groups are contacting me to speak about surviving and thriving. Three West Coast workshops based on my book and open to the public are:
- December 11th - "Managing Transition and Change"
- Professional Development Center, Portland State University, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. $155.
- January 25th - "The Survivor Personality"
- Learning Exchange, Sacramento, California, 1-4 p.m. $29
- February 15th - "The Survivor Personality"
- Discover U, Seattle, Washington, 1-4 p.m. $29
Please stay in touch. I love hearing from people about how they've overcome adversity. One woman says she has always thought of herself as "a flourisher."
Have you run across any new books on resiliency or thriving that you would recommend? Please let me know.
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