Jane Scovell

I was born in Brockton, Massachusetts, a city which produced one heavyweight champion, Rocky Marciano, one middleweight champion, Marvin Hagler, and boxing's most prominent referee, Arthur Mercante. I could not hope to pursue a ring career so I decided to become an actress. After graduating from Wheaton College, I moved to New York City where I took classes at the Uta Hagen/Herbert Berghof Studio. I soon learned that boxing is a far gentler profession than acting and retired from the stage--before stepping one foot on it. While attending graduate school at Columbia, I became a teacher, a more brutal profession, by the way, than the last two named. I taught, variously, at a yeshiva in Yonkers, a yeshiva in Dorchester, MA, Beaver Country Day School, and Newton College of the Sacred Heart. At Newton College, I taught the history and appreciation of opera and created another course, "Music in the Film." To this day, my twin passions remain opera and movies, and I usually can be found at the Met Opera in Lincoln Center or at the Film Forum on West Houston Street. Eventually, I grew tired of grading papers, and began conducting extension courses for Pine Manor Junior College and Harvard University's Center for Lifelong Learning. While teaching, I began my writing career. At first, my articles appeared in the Boston underground press and Boston magazine; I wrote everything from movie, music, theatre, and restaurant reviews to interviews with local figures. Later, my articles were published in The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The New York Times, and in national magazines, including Redbook, Vogue, and Travel + Leisure. In the mid-1980s, I started writing "auto" biographies with, among others, Marilyn Horne, Elizabeth Taylor, Ginger Rogers, Kitty Dukakis, Maureen Stapleton, and QVC Host, Kathy Levine. Oona: Living in the Shadows was my first "bio"graphy and Samuel Ramey: American Bass is my latest.