Memoir of an Unimagined Career: 43 Years Inside Mennonite Media

If you are interested in history or interested in Mennonites, you may be interested in Melodie Davis’s new memoir: Memoir of an Unimagined Career: 43 Years Inside Mennonite Media.

Melodie Davis was my managing editor during the production of Anything But Simple, and I greatly enjoyed working with her and staying in contact with her in the ensuing years. We met during my Anything But Simple book tour, and when Turtle Heart came out several years later, Melodie wrote a review in her newspaper column Another Way.

Here’s a photo of us in Harrisonburg, Virginia, soon after we first met.

When Masthoff Press contacted me asking if I would consider writing a review of her new memoir, I quickly agreed. Of course I would be interested in reading my former editor’s memoir.

The memoir gave me a chance to peek behind the scenes into the working of Mennonite Media which later combined with Herald Press to become the publisher of my first book. Menno Media/Herald Press gave me such a royal carpet treatment during the writing and publication of Anything But Simple, I would very positively consider the possibility of publishing with them again. And Melodie Davis was right in the thick of it.

I found it interesting to hear about Melodie’s career journey along with the projects and changes in Menno Media over the years. Because I grew up in conservative Mennonite circles, many of the media projects mentioned were unfamiliar to me but would probably be familiar to someone who has longstanding ties with the Mennonite Church or the General Conference Mennonite Church (now combined into Mennonite Church USA).

A few things I found interesting:

• Learning more about the organization and behind-the-scenes work of The Mennonite Hour, a name I knew vaguely as an old-time Mennonite singing radio group. The organization that formed The Mennonite Hour, as well as other radio programs, was Mennonite Broadcasts, Inc, later called Mennonite Media.
• Mennonite Broadcasts put together all sorts of radio spots, including rewritten proverbs like this one: “It’s better to eat soup with someone you love, than steak with someone you hate.” Imagine how fun that would be to hear coming over the radio waves, followed by a resounding and deep-voiced: “A proverb for today, from the Mennonite churches.”
• Mennonite Media once launched a media campaign to clear up misconceptions about Mennonites. One ad, for example, featured a horse tied to an Amish buggy backward, with the words “Ask Some Mennonites To Hitch Up A Horse And Buggy, And You’ll Either Have A Confused Horse, Or A Very Strange Ride.”
• Mennonite Media produced award-winning documentaries for national television, using real people’s stories to explore topics like forgiveness, suicide, poverty, mental illness, aging, the difficult journey of ex-offenders, and peace alternative for Christians and Muslims. I would love to watch some of these documentaries myself.

Memoir of an Unimagined Career is what I would call a factual memoir, containing many names and dates along with anecdotes. It could almost be said to be the biography of an organization as much as a memoir about Melodie. The book wouldn’t have interested me if I hadn’t known Melodie personally and had some contact with Menno Media. With that being said, if you are interested in the history and doings of Mennonites in the 1900’s, you will probably enjoy this book.

You can pick up your copy on Amazon.