With all the glad-handing and back-slapping, the 2004 Ken Book Awards had the feeling of a class reunion. Several hundred people crowded into the grand ballroom at the Yale Club in Manhattan on April 28 for the awards presented by NAMI-NYC Metro to the best writers on mental illness. However, many in attendance no doubt remembered their discharges from hospitals as well as their school graduations. Every Ken Book Award is bittersweet because the honor is named for Kenneth Johnson, a young man who took his life in the throes of manic depression.
His mother, Patricia Warburg Cliff, created the Kenneth Johnson Memorial Research Library at NAMI-NYC Metro. The library sponsors the Ken Book Awards. As the 25th anniversary of NAMI National approaches, it is clear that the sacrifices of families such as Patricia's were not in vain. A NAMI National board member, Patricia honored the two women, Beverly and Harriet, who started NAMI in their Madison, Wisconsin kitchens in 1979.
As we all know, this cottage industry has grown into a well-oiled machine, and the Ken Book Awards, while not scripted by Hollywood, cater to a growing hunger for information about mental illness, especially information that is well researched and well prepared. As Patricia noted, in the 1980s, when Kenneth was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, there was no literature on the subject. The library is not only an homage to Ken's intellectual curiosity, it is also a boon to those who seek advice about mental illness.
A 2003 Ken Book Award winner for his volume on adolescent depression, Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz presented the keynote speech. Just as NAMI-NYC Metro President Charlotte Moses Fischman called Patricia a "force of nature," Koplowicz praised Cliff for "being so successful because of her energy, her perseverance, and the fear I have of saying no to her."
The director of the NYU Child Study Center promoted the early identification of mental illness in children, citing long-term trials demonstrating that Ritalin is more effective in children who take it earlier. Children and mental illness was the theme of this year's Ken Book Awards. Perhaps the most powerful demonstration of that theme is 11-year-old Eric
Lederman's poem from The Ups and Downs of Raising a Bipolar Child:
The World Inside My Head
With the world inside my head I might as well be dead
Sparks flying but never dying turning into anger
Stronger and stronger my anger burns longer
Going, going never slowing running, feeding off my mind
The evil fire raging now I don't know why I don't know how
Long lasting anger longer, longer ever growing stronger, stronger
The power of hate burning in my soul sizzling and sizzling as the bell tolls
The evil in my head is all turning red at the same time I am wishing it is dead
The following book descriptions were printed in the April 2004
issue of NAMI New York City Metro's "Reporter" newsletter:
The Ups and Downs of Raising a Bipolar Child: A Survival Guide for Parents
By Judith Lederman & Candida Fink; Simon & Schuster
Bipolar disorder has recently been identified as one of the most misunderstood
and underdiagnosed conditions affecting children. This book gives parents the
information needed to cope with this challenging diagnosis, and provides advice
on how to provide essential care and support for a bipolar child as well as the
rest of the family.
Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading
Problems at Any Level
By Sally E. Shaywitz; Alfred A. Knopf
Written by a neuroscientist and pediatrician, this guide for dyslexics and
their families aims to demystify the subject of reading difficulties. Drawing
upon recent research, Shaywitz describes the mechanisms underlying dyslexia
along with the range of effective treatments available for dyslexic people
of all ages.
Lost in America: A Journey with My Father
By Sherwin B. Nuland; Alfred A. Knopf
This powerful book traces Nuland's relationship with his immigrant father.
Starting from the point of his own severe depression, Nuland digs up the
abundant frustration, despair, anger, and loss that plagued the life of his
father and profoundly shaped his own life.
Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories from a Decade Gone Mad
By Virginia Holman; Simon & Schuster
This beautifully written memoir tells the story of how the author, held
hostage by her mother's delusions of being inducted by a secret army,
survived a childhood engulfed by chaos and psychosis and managed to grow
into a young woman capable of finding the strength to keep alive a family
love that had lost its way.
John Clare: A Biography
By Jonathan Bate; Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
This is the first comprehensive literary biography of John Clare (1793-1864),
England's great working class poet, who after making his way into the inner
circle of the literary world, was struck by mental illness and spent the last
years of his life in an asylum.