Who was your first celebrity crush? Do you recall it with vivid clarity and a rush of warm feeling? A blush of embarrassment as you recall kissing pictures of the object of your affections that you ripped out of Tiger Beat Magazine and taped to the wall of your bedroom? Either way you're in good company according to the authors of "Crush: Writers Reflect on Love, Longing and the Lasting Power of Their First Celebrity Crush."
Authors Cathy Alter and Dave Singleton have put together a collection of essays from 38 "writers of various ages, ethnicities, orientations and experiences" who examine the near universal experience of having a crush on a celebrity through the lens of their own youthful crushes.
The writers include Stephen King and his one-page memory of seeing Kim Novak in the movie "Picnic" at age eight and the effect the experience had on him for years. Hanna Rosin speculates as to why her 10-year-old self switched crushes from Shaun Cassidy to Mick Jagger.
Jodi Picoult examines why, at age six, she wanted to run away and live with Donny Osmond. Roxane Gay tells of her book crush on Almanzo Wilder from the "Little House on the Prairie" series. The actors James Franco and Andrew McCarthy, certainly objects of many a crush themselves as teenagers, had two very different experiences when it came to their own celebrity crushes.
Smith Magazine founder Larry Smith is also included in the collection. Smith's magazine is the birthplace of Six-Word Memoirs in which people tell their life stories in just six words. He held a contest on his website, SixWordMemoirs.com inviting readers to tell the story of their celebrity crushes in six words. A selection of the best ones are included in "Crush." They include such gems as: "Oh to be Mr. Darcy's shirt" (Colin Firth); "He was as hot as his sauce" (Paul Newman); "My illogical heart belongs to Mr. Spock" (Leonard Nimoy); and "He left me shaken and stirred" (Sean Connery).
More than just a collection of breezy, light-hearted reminisces, some of the essays are startling in their poignancy as the first crush is examined amid the backdrop of painful family dysfunction or, for a few of the writers, the dawning realization their same-sex crush wouldn't be considered "normal."
"Crush: Writers Reflect on Love, Longing, and the Lasting Power of Their First Celebrity Crush" was a fun read that let me take a peek into the interior lives of writers as children and teenagers. I enjoyed it and recommend you give it a try.
Lisa Sanning is the adult services librarian at Missouri River Regional Library.