Forty Years in the Making
Will Schwalbe knew everyone he needed to know as a junior in college and was hesitant to join a secret society at Yale when the invitation was extended to him. After serious consideration he made the commitment which entailed 2 dinners a week with the eclectic group, and this decision changed his life. We Should Not Be Friends is an insightful story that begins during the time when AIDS was prevalent, MTV was big, and there was an uncertainty of what tomorrow would bring.
Maxey was a jock, the kind of guy Will normally avoided, as Will was an out of the closet gay man and jocks were not his people. A loud wrestler, Maxey had plans to become a Navy SEAL and Will was still unsure of his future. Over the years, the two men looked beyond any preconceived notions and learned how to communicate in a way that allowed what turned out to be a very special friendship to flourish. Through lifes ups and downs, periods of being in touch and dry spells with little communication, over time and will conscious effort, these two men grew to become important people in each other’s lives. From expressing their true feelings to listening without judgement, Will and Maxey cultivated an enviable and meaningful relationship anyone would be blessed to be a part of.
About Will Schwalbe:
I was born in New York in 1962; grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts; went to boarding school in New Hampshire, and to college in New Haven, Connecticut. So I consider myself a New Englander, even though I’m not one by birth.
I’ve worked as a journalist, in the television business, and even (briefly, in college) as a substitute teacher. But I’ve spent most of my life in publishing: at William Morrow, and then at Hyperion, where I was Editor in Chief. In January 2008, I left Hyperion to found a startup called Cookstr.com and ran that for six years. It’s now part of Macmillan Publishers, where I’ve worked since 2014.
Books have been the constant in my life. From those my mother read me when I was too young to read, to those my father read us when we could read but still liked to be read to. From books I read under the covers, long after I was supposed to be asleep—including every single thriller by the magnificent Alistair Maclean—to books that I found in my teens that helped me imagine all different kinds of lives, and see the world through others’ eyes.
I’ve written four books. The first — SEND: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do it Better – was written with my friend David Shipley. The second, THE END OF YOUR LIFE BOOK CLUB, is about the books I read with my mother when she was dying. The third is BOOKS FOR LIVING, about the role books can play in our lives and how they can show us how to live each day more fully and with more meaning. And the fourth is WE SHOULD NOT BE FRIENDS: The Story of an Unlikely Friendship that started in college and has enriched my life for forty years and counting.
I live in New York City with my husband. We’ve been together since way back when I first moved to Hong Kong in 1984. We have one African violet, that’s a bit lopsided; books everywhere; and are obsessed with our neighbor’s adorable chow, Lucky. We also have five godchildren, one niece, and four nephews.
