Snapshots of My Father, John Silber

“Rachel Silber Devlin’s fine portrait of her father is filled with such illuminating private detail, with stories that would have been unavailable to anyone who had not been there for all of those years—anyone who was not John Silber’s child. Her rendering has a transcendent objectivity and clarity and understanding that could only come from having known him as she did. Here are the Texas roots, the antecedents—the cultural and family background, the accumulation of intimate and accidental details, the stories.” 

— From the Foreword by Lance Morrow, American writer and author of seven books, whose award winning essays are published in several magazines, including more than 150 cover stories in TIME

Snapshots of My Father, John Silber is a candid and extensively illustrated biography of John Silber, who entirely transformed Boston University as its president and was a controversial, yet intellectually formidable, candidate for governor of Massachusetts. In this book, Rachel Silber Devlin looks at her family and her father’s trajectory from Texas to Boston and what life became like there; she examines his personality and temperament; and she describes his later years, the hardships he weathered and his continued accomplishments out of the public eye.

Devlin chose to tell her father’s story because John Silber is so controversial and widely misunderstood. People who knew him either loved him or hated him. Each chapter is like a snapshot taken from a daughter’s perspective, peering into the past she saw.

Silber championed freedom of speech, believing all sides should be heard, especially on college campuses. He was also the father of seven children. Snapshots of My Father is a clear-eyed vision of this authentic man of principle who had a drive to achieve great things.

*The book includes over 200 images from Boston University and family archives.*

JOHN SILBER…
-Was the president and chancellor who entirely transformed Boston University from a commuter school to a renowned institution of learning and research
-Was born with a birth defect that shortened his right arm, Silber became an outstanding scholar, athlete, artist, and leader
-Was a controversial, yet intellectually formidable, candidate for governor of Massachusetts. Learn the background of the television interview that some say cost Silber the election.
-Was friends with artists Ray Kinstler and Niel Welliver, scholar Elie Wiesel, and writer Tom Wolfe
-Was chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education and served on the original commission that created Head Start