Looking Back (23 page)

In 1986, a large portion of the state of New Hampshire was nominated by the Department of Energy to become the first-in-the-nation nuclear waste dump. An active organizer and vocal opponent of the project, Maynard published a cover story on the issue for the
New York Times Magazine
. Shown testifying at hearings in spring of 1986, Maynard names the defeat of this project as among the proudest moments of her life.

Maynard with her mother, Fredelle, at Fredelle’s wedding to her longtime partner shortly before her death. In 1989 Maynard’s mother was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Maynard documented the story of her last months in her syndicated newspaper column, “Domestic Affairs.” That same year, Maynard’s marriage ended and she moved with her children from her rural home to the town of Keene, New Hampshire.

A 1991 photo of (left to right) Audrey, Charlie, Willy, and Joyce in the kitchen of their Keene, New Hampshire, home. During this period Maynard was a frequent speaker on family and parenting, and continued to write her “Domestic Affairs” column.

Maynard’s novel
To Die For
was adapted for film in 1994. In the film, she played the lawyer of Nicole Kidman’s character. To fulfill her mother’s childhood ambition to be in the movies, Maynard carried her mother’s ashes in her briefcase.

Maynard at home in Mill Valley, California, in 1997, at one of more than one hundred gatherings she has hosted to teach people how to make pie. “I do it to honor my mother, to encourage the idea of making good food from scratch, with more love than fuss, and to raise money for causes I believe in,” she explains. The family dog Opie is held by one of the bakers; the group stands in front of a painting by Max Maynard.

In 1999, Maynard traveled the globe promoting her memoir
At Home in the World
, which was translated into fifteen languages. At one press photo shoot atop the tallest building in São Paolo, Brazil, her son Charlie’s skateboard turned into a prop: “One reporter asked me to stand on the skateboard. Another suggested I kick up my leg. Just as my son Charlie was saying, ‘Bad idea, Mom!’ the skateboard gave out from under me.”

Maynard teaching a group of students at her annual writing workshop at her second home of Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, in 2006.

Maynard with her sister Rona (former editor-in-chief of the Canadian magazine
Chatelaine
, as well as a writer) in Mill Valley, California, around 2008. This photograph accompanied a story in which Rona and Joyce each wrote about being sisters—a story, Maynard says, “that went a long way to repairing our relationship.”

Maynard pictured with her children on New Year’s Eve 2012. From left to right: Audrey, a school counselor living in New Hampshire; Will, an actor frequently seen on television and in films; Joyce; and Charlie, a DJ and turntable artist known as “Captain Planet.”

Maynard at her home on the shores of Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, in 2006.