Merrill, Jane 1946-

(Jane Merrill Filstrup, Janie Filstrup)

PERSONAL: Born October 26, 1946, in San Francisco, CA; daughter of Russell O. (a naval commander and high school mathematics teacher) and Phoebe D. (a model and homemaker) Merrill; married E. Christian Filstrup (a writer and academic), 1968 (divorced); married Michael J. Parry, 1988 (marriage ended); children: Emma Filstrup, Burton Filstrup, Julia Merrill, Rosalind Parry. Ethnicity: “French/Dutch/English—American stock.” Education: Wellesley College, B.A., 1968; Harvard University, M.A.T., 1970; Columbia University, M.A., M.L.S. Politics: “Skepticism.” Religion: “Animism.” Hobbies and other interests: Running, quilting, studying Persian language.

ADDRESSES: Home—Westport, CT. Office—Blackbird Group, 125 Main St., Westport, CT 06880. Agent—Ike Williams, Kneerim & Williams, 45 Rockefeller Plaza, Ste. 2800, New York, NY 10111. E-mail—janep merrill@msn.com.

CAREER: Blackbird Group (public relations firm), Westport, CT, staff member. Formerly worked at an international school in Tehran, Iran; at a public library in Cambridge, MA; for U.S. Committee for UNICEF; at a restaurant in Stamford, CT; at Young Men’s Christian Association, Westport; and for Montcalm Publishing and Whitney Publications.

WRITINGS:

(Under name Jane Merrill Filstrup; with Dorothy W. Gross) Monday through Friday: Day Care Alternatives, Teachers College Press (New York, NY), 1982.

(Under name Janie Filstrup; with Christian Filstrup) Beadazzled—The Story of Beads, Frederick Warne (New York, NY), 1982.

(Under name Janie Filstrup; with Christian Filstrup) China: From Emperors to Communes, Dillon Press (Minneapolis, MN), 1983.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1984.

Great Legs! Every Girl’s Guide to Healthy, Sexy, Strong Legs, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2005.

The Ultimate Guide to Oral Sex: How to Give a Man Mind-Blowing Pleasure, Sourcebooks (Naperville, IL), 2005.

(With Gary Stromberg) The Harder They Fall: Celebrities Tell Their Real-Life Stories of Addiction and Recovery, Hazelden (Center City, MN), 2005.

(With Gary Stromberg) Feeding the Fame: Celebrities Tell Their Real-Life Stories of Eating Disorders and Recovery, Hazelden (Center City, MN), 2006.

Author of magazine articles.

SIDELIGHTS: Jane Merrill told CA: “My profession (including ghostwriting) has offered me (and many others) a respectable alternative to a nine-to-five job. It’s hard! To write an assigned or self-engendered piece I imagine being locked up in an ancient tower with food, drink, paper, and pens. When I’m finished, I tap on the wall to be let out into the real world.

“There are some prose writers who continually put wind in my sails: E.B. White, Anais Nin, Thomas Bernhard, Italo Calvino, and the nineteenth-century New England writers, especially Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne. I think modern fiction is forgettable and that it’s a golden era for history-writing.

“Writing only under my own name since a divorce a few years ago, I am finding intriguing new subjects I believe in—recovery from addition to drugs, recovery from addiction to food, sexual technique and sex and love, and a memoir with two cool ladies, the Barbi twins, Sia and Shane.

“I don’t like to suffer unnecessarily, so long ago I decided not to give in to the loneliness of the writing profession. Long ago I wrote with my first husband, Chris Filstrup. I like ghostwriting as well, for the collaborations, and I have had a fertile writing relationship lately with Gary Stromberg, former Hollywood publicist and film producer.”