It’s Official: Jessie Close’s Memoir Is My Next Book

 

 

For Immediate Release:

Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group, announced today that it will publish RESILIENCE, a memoir written by Jessie Close about her struggles and triumphant recovery from a severe mental illness.  Jessie is the younger sister of the acclaimed actress, Glenn Close, who will also contribute to the book by writing three  vignettes about her relationship with Jessie and by writing the book’s epilogue.  RESILIENCE is scheduled to be published January 1, 2015.  Hachette Audio will also release an audio edition read by Glenn Close.

Bestselling author, Pete Earley, whose own memoir about his son’s mental illness, CRAZY, was one of two finalists for a Pulitzer in 2007, will collaborate with Jessie in the telling of her intimate story. 

Deb Futter, VP, GCP and Editor in Chief Hardcovers, preempted World rights from David Vigliano at Vigliano Associates. “Jessie Close’s battle with manic depression (bipolar disorder) is not only moving but one which will resonate with the many who also suffer,” said Deb Futter. “And Glenn Close’s passionate involvement in her sister’s triumph and the current mental health challenges (we face) makes this an unusually compelling memoir.”

In RESILIENCE, Jessie will recount how she and her siblings were separated from each other and their parents after the parents joined Moral Re-Armament in the 1950s, an anti-Communist, quasi-religious group.  Uprooted and moved to an MRA facility in Switzerland, the three sisters and brother rarely saw each other. The family was further fractured after the children’s parents moved without them to the war ravaged Belgian Congo. Several years later Jessie, and eldest sister Tina, joined their parents in what was then Zaire.  Jessie’s father ran the 2000 bed city hospital in Kinshasa and served as the personal physician for the country’s president.  

Jessie began showing signs of severe depression in her early teens. She would later learn that bouts of depression ran in the family but this was a well guarded secret. To cope with her mental illness, Jessie began self-medicating with alcohol and illegal drugs at 15 and suffered wild mood swings. Later, but before she was correctly diagnosed, Jessie burned through five marriages, moved countless times, took on and quit jobs, and attempted suicide three times. Inside the Close family, she was known as the “problem” daughter and sister.

Glenn Close came to her sister’s aide repeatedly during Jessie’s darkest moments.  In RESILENCE, Jessie will describe how she hit rock bottom when her eldest son, Calen Pick, suffered a mental breakdown as a teenager and was hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital for two years. Glenn would later deliver Jessie, when she admitted to experiencing suicidal ideation, to the same hospital. 

Today, Jessie is celebrating twelve years of sobriety and has become an internationally recognized speaker and advocate for persons with mental disorders. After witnessing the struggles that Jessie and Calen faced, Glenn Close co-founded BringChange2Mind, a not-for-profit organization committed to ending the stigma and discrimination around mental health. 

Glenn calls Jessie and Calen her “heroes”.  Both sisters believe that Jessie’s illness brought them closer and helped heal some of the family’s wounds from when they were separated as children.

Glenn Close is one of the world’s most acclaimed and beloved actresses.  She’s been nominated for six Academy Awards, won three Emmys and three Tonys.  She recently starred in Sony and Directv’s Damages and in Albert Nobbs, a film she co-wrote and produced. 

Jessie and her son, Calen, both live in Montana where Calen works as an artist.  Jessie lives with her four dogs, writes poetry and blogs for BringChange2Mind.org.

About Hachette Book Group:

Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a leading trade publisher based in New York and a division of Hachette Livre, the second-largest trade and educational publisher in the world. HBG publishes under the divisions of Little, Brown and Company, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Nashville, Orbit and Hachette Digital.