Journey to the Catskills:

I grew up a Jewish boy in the suburbs of Baltimore. However, from a very early age, I daydreamed about carrying a Winchester into the Rocky Mountains and living as a mountain man. Don’t ask me where that notion came from, but there it was (and is). The Jewish ‘burbs of B’more were a far piece from the Rockies, so I had nothing to write about but being a Jewish kid in the ‘burbs of B’more which did not interest me at all, and, besides, Philip Roth had begun doing it already, so… When Hollywood brought me to L.A. and began paying me real, cash money, I bought sixty acres on the cusp of 2 ½ million acres of the Bitterroot-Selway Wilderness. My days in Hollywood also brought me a wife, an actress whose love was really Broadway, and wanted to be based in New York City. So, I began commuting between NYC and the Bitterroot Valley. It was an awful commute, one with which I was sincerely unhappy. So, Jamie, my wife, got out all the maps of New York State that she could find and located private property adjoining state land within reach of the City. Eventually, we found the perfect spot, Spruceton Valley, and in September 1983 Montana became history. The Catskills have been home ever since, ironically, more like the Catoctins, the Maryland range I explored as a kid.

Vocation*:

I tell stories.   

Avocation:

I write them down.

Happiness Is:

Passover seder with my family.

Favorite Dish:

Fried chicken; biscuits and gravy; my wife’s chicken soup.

Ideal Country Home:

A grove of sugar maples; rushing creek in front of the house; brook on either side of the house; acreage attached to forest service land; apple trees; whitetail deer; a big, black bear – in other words, where I now live.

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*Foreman has had plays produced on both coasts and was awarded the Yale Literary Prize for Poetry. He was a playwright and poet before screenwriting became his primary form of writing. It wasn’t until 2004 that he began concentrating on novels. His film credentials include “The Jazz Singer” (1980) with Neil Diamond and Sir Lawrence Olivier, “Hostage” (1988) with Carol Burnett and Annette Benning, and a documentary, “America The Beautiful” (1993) with President George H. W. Bush. He is married to actress Jamie Donnelly. Read more about his work at https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Stephen-H-Foreman/42885239