On Admiration

Heroes, Heroines, Role Models, and Mentors

The award-winning author of The Writing on the Wall celebrates the heroes and heroines who have inspired him throughout his life.
 
In a refreshing departure from today’s celebrity worship cultivated by reality television, tabloid photos, and social media, award-winning novelist W. D. Wetherell’s On Admiration celebrates the influential men and women who have peopled his life from his earliest years.
 
Writers, singers, presidents, athletes, cartoonists, artists, activists, and many more are examined here—from Henry David Thoreau to Willa Cather to Albert Camus to Dwight D. Eisenhower to Winston Churchill to Beverly Sills—in this humorous, insightful memoir that speaks powerfully about the state of fame, celebrity culture, and honest admiration.
 
Wetherell skillfully reminds us of the magic and mystery that comes with slow discovery—of that first awareness of those figures who awoke something within us, that inspired us as children, teenagers, and adults—forever altering the landscape of ourselves. From visiting Herman Melville’s study where Moby Dick was written to being a Rangers fan living in NYC—Wetherell examines the meaning of the American cultural landscape—and its remnants—in a candid and personal memoir like no other before him. With this lively and exacting series of pop culture essays, Wetherell joins the ranks of David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, and Chuck Klosterman.
 
“Wetherell’s is a voice of sanity and sense for our increasingly virtual age. Reading him is like coming home.” —San Francisco Chronicle
 
“A likable writer I have admired for a good many years.” —Edward Hoagland, author of In the Country of the Blind