Doris "Granny D" Haddock's
classic memoir!

Doris Haddock P.O. Box 492 Dublin, New Hampshire 03444

"Granny D: You're Never Too Old to Raise a Little Hell" The trade paperback edition is available from Random House, via your favorite neighborhood or online bookstore. If you don't have a favorite store, order it from Doris's favorite store in town.

The extraordinary book has been required reading for incoming freshmen at a number of colleges and universities. Here's what people say about Doris and her book:

"Doris Haddock is a true patriot, and our nation has been blessed by her remarkable life. Her story will entertain, inform, and inspire people of all ages for generations to come." --Jimmy Carter

"Doris, your book is one of a half dozen --including Silent Spring and Walden-- which have turned my life around." --Pete Seeger

"The soul of a citizen shines through these pages." --Bill Moyers

"I believe she represents all that is good in America. She has taken up this struggle to clean up American politics ... Granny D, you exceed any small, modest contributions those of us who have labored in the vineyards of reform have made to this Earth. We are grateful for you." --Sen. John McCain

"A stunning portrait of the American soul."--Library Journal

"Huck is present in this book, as are Thoreau and Whitman, and Jack Kerouac, too."--Keene Sentinel

"Her book is one of the finest I have ever read, about life, travel, friendship, growing up, growing wise, persevering, and humor. It is a life transformer. And a darned good read. --Linda Marsella

LONGER REVIEWS:

Library Journal:

"Granny D" Haddock is a national treasure whose l4-month odyssey walking from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, galvanized the hope of many increasingly dispirited Americans for campaign finance reform. Granny D undertook this journey despite arthritis and emphysema, celebrating her 90th birthday along the way. Following her daily regimen of ten miles, Haddock wrote nightly for two hours. The resulting journal, written with Burke, who accompanied her on the trek, is a multilayered memoir, populist reform treatise, roadside nature field book, Whitmanesque treatment of America, and philosophical summation of a life well spent. It is chock-full of portraits of the countless citizens who welcomed, joined, cared for, and walked with Haddock. Her graceful descriptions of the manifold kindness routinely shown her are collectively a stunning portrait of the American soul. Fortunately, numerous speeches she gave along the way are included as an appendix. Like the rest of the book, they are imbued with the beautifully passionate intelligence and caring spirit of this remarkable individual. To her wonderfully long life as a New Hampshire wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and social activist, Haddock should now also be able to add "best-selling author." Shame on any library that does not order this book. [Preview in Prepub Alert, LJ 12.00.] --Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX

Publishers Weekly:

On January 1, 1999, Haddock began walking from Pasadena, Calif., to Washington, D.C. Outraged by the power big-money interests exert in Washington, she carefully planned to cross the country on foot to rally support for national campaign-finance reform. Accompanied by an ever-changing entourage of relatives, friends, strangers, politicians and journalists, Granny D (her "walking name") traveled 10 miles a day, camping out at night or sleeping in private homes. Ignoring her bad back, arthritis and emphysema, she completed the 3,200-mile trip in 14 months, shortly after her 90th birthday, arriving in Washington on February 29, 2000, to the tune of 2,200 supporters chanting, "Go, Granny, go." Haddock's inspiring message is perfect fodder for family and schoolroom discussions about politics: With the book's low price, retailers should anticipate strong sales.

Kirkus Reviews:

Haddock is a tough old Yankee who seems to have stepped straight out of a Reader's Digest "Most Unforgettable Character" article... Except for 100 miles along the C&O Canal towpath (which she covered on cross-country skis), Haddock walked the entire way...The self-portrait that emerges makes clear that the author's late-in-life public venture was not some sudden whim but an act grounded in a lifetime of intelligent concern, forthrightness, and involvement. A moving reminder of the power of the human will.

Booklist:

Haddock had lived a wonderful 89 years, with a long and loving marriage, wonderful friends, and a large family. Despite suffering from painful arthritis and emphysema, she began to walk across the country to lobby for campaign finance reform. From the Pacific Ocean to Washington, D.C., she shuffled along for 10 miles a day. From John McCain to Al Gore, people stood up and took notice of Granny D, whose passionate political beliefs and ironclad will kept her going through bad weather and pain. This book could easily have been a political tract, but, instead, it is a moving story of Granny D's remarkable life and her unbelievable walk. She doesn't want to bother us too much about campaign finance reform, she says, and in making this story about her rather than her political aims, we meet one woman who managed to have her voice heard above the clamor of money and power in Washington. Granny D's hilarious stories and surprisingly beautiful writing will win fans of all ages and political backgrounds. John Green Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Booklist, the magazine the New York Times calls "an acquisitions bible for public and school librarians nationwide," is the review journal of the American Library Association. It recommends works of fiction, nonfiction, children's books, reference books, and media to its 30,000 institutional and personal subscribers.

Arizona Republic:

At first, you probably thought she was a cute old grandmother in a straw hat walking cross country to rally support for campaign-finance reform. But of all descriptions activist Doris Haddock has attracted, "cute" may be the most inadequate. This book, which her friend Dennis Burke, an Arizona reform activist, helped put together from a diary Haddock kept on her 14-month trip, shows her as intelligent, committed, brave and wise (we suspect she would chafe at the word) and funny. Most of all, it shows her value. You will come away thinking that this country needs more people just like her, even as you know in your heart that people like her are in depressingly short supply. We learn a lot about her life, and it feels like small talk. But there's nothing small about it. Jimmy Carter and John McCain say nice things about her on the jacket (if they haven't read the book, they should). Bill Moyers, who has read it, wrote the foreword.

Toronto Sun, May 6, 2001

This delightful book by 90-year-old Doris Haddock (assisted by writer Dennis Burke) tells the story of her 14-month walk from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1999-2000, in support of campaign finance reform.

If that sounds like an odd cause for such a trek, be advised that Haddock, nicknamed 'Granny D' by an enthralled media and admiring public, has been an activist and reformer all her long life. The New Hampshire great-grandmother ignored arthritis, emphysema and continual foot problems to walk 16 km a day to draw attention to her belief (shared, of course, by pros like Senators John McCain, Russ Feingold and others) that America's elected representatives are now too beholden to special-interest campaign donors, and that voters no longer feel represented by their government.

Her odyssey struck a chord with fellow Americans, who rallied around in small towns and large cities as she walked, helping out with accommodation, food and, most importantly, publicity and support.

Granny D walked through 41C deserts, cross-country skied through blizzards in her 5,150-km trek and met thousands of people who, like her, feel disconnected from Washington. She gave speeches, rich with the wisdom of her 90 years and a life well- lived, and helped jump- start a national movement, in the process becoming a heroine to ordinary people and the powerful alike. An inspiring story. (Random House)

The Huntsville Times, by Reese Danley-Kilgo. 10-21-01

I have a nomination for the spunkiest woman in America: Doris Haddock. Who else nearly ninety could cast off grief and depression, take up a cause she fervently believes in, and walk 3,000 miles across a continent to draw attention to it? It took her fourteen months, carrying a backpack and a large yellow flag proclaiming CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM, to do it.

But despite blistered feet and aching joints, she did it.

Part-memoir, part record of the journey --people, scenery, anecdotes of what happened, some funny, some poignant---this book is as refreshing as these first cold, brisk days of fall, and as inspiring as "Two Old Women" by Velma Wallis.

Bill Moyers, in his foreword says, "The soul of a citizen shines through these pages.... Granny D is a seasoned activist, an eloquent speaker and writer, and an acute observer of the world around us."

"What I am," she says, "is an old reformer."

Doris Haddock is the kind of person I wish I'd known all my life, honored to have as a friend. Open, humble, with a wry sense of humor and a passionate devotion to justice and democracy, she is the sister, mother, and grandmother we'd like to have had and to be.

Besides, she's a Scrabble player.

And a gifted writer. I love this description of Tennessee:

"We were hiking through rolling hills and rainy green pastures set off by rail fences. Horses clopped over through the mud to see what was going on as we walked by. At one little farm, a dog and a goat, obviously old friends, came out together to take a look at us. They were joined a few minutes later by a pig. I had the feeling that their spider friend was back in the barn, spelling out something."

I find her totally D-lightful! Read her book, check out her website, and I know you will, too.

Keene Sentinel

(New Hampshire's oldest newspaper) Review by by J. Patrick Cooucan (condensed):

Doris "GrannyD" Haddock's new memoir "Granny D. Walking across America in my 90th Year," will be read as a classic text of American politics and literature for years to come, and with good reason.

Not since William Greider's "Who Will Tell the People?" has the country been given such a potent statement of political purpose, a rallying cry in the wilderness--literally--for collective action in the face of the overwhelming forces of entrenched power and money... Haddock has done far more than stoke our fires of outrage, however. She has written a moving paean to life, an ode to the possibility of redemption and wisdom, even while death impolitely knocks on the door.

With little fanfare and even less planning, Haddock set out to walk across America in late 1998, hoping to shine a spotlight on the dark morass of political culture in Washington, where the Pentagon, Fortune 500 corporations and their army of influence peddlers always mysteriously seem to get their way, no matter how damaging to the commonweal...

The walk grew out of the Tuesday Morning Academy, a Dublin study group of Haddock and some of her friends. After she gathered tens of thousands of signatures to support the McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation in Congress and distributed them to New Hampshire Sens. Judd Gregg and Bob Smith, she received a form letter from one, and no response at all from the other (leaving the reader to imagine who was more responsive.)

Haddock suddenly told her son James she would walk across America, and like Huck escaping his father, that was that. The allusion is not an arbitrary one... Huck is present in this book, as are Thoreau and Whitman, and Jack Kerouac, too.

Remember, this story is al l about a woman in her 90th year walking across a continent-sized nation.

"I am here. That is the sole fact from which, in the desert, all the distractions fall away. The desert teases with the idea that spiritual enlightenment, elsewhere requiring a lifetime of discipline, might happen almost effortlessly here...Indeed, most of our great spiritual stories begin in the desert, where there is less to misdirect our attention from the fact of our mortality and our immortality.."

That rift, coming at the beginning of the book, is filled with great self-knowing foreshadowing. The landscape, spiritual enlightenment, ascetic discipline, mortality and immortality are all part of her story, and part of the American story she begs us to see, which is why that story is worth defending.

She begins in a place as different from Dublin as possible--the Mojave Desert. Her starting in the West and walking east is significant, for it turns the traditional American myth of "Go west" on its head and beckons a sense of Eastern mysticism. Haddock is in search of herself and fellow travelers, but she's also in search of something more fundamental, more ultimate, something she will see in the rising sun of the East rather than the shadows of a western sunset.

After contracting pneumonia shortly after her journey begins, Haddock is urged to allow others to take up the cause. "...I was prepared to die as part of this journey, if need be. It would be preferable to sitting at home, wishing I had continued. We're all dying, and we might as well be spending ourselves in a good cause."

Death is a constant theme of the book, but one Haddock embraces. Her walk is a cathartic journey, a way to confront the deaths of her husband Jim and best friend Elizabeth, for whom she believes she never properly grieved. Haddock comes to terms with death, and in the process, comes to terms with life.

"The fact is....if you are afraid of death, you are afraid of life, for living your life leads to death. Until you face death, and see its beauty, you will be afraid to really live or you will never properly burn the candle for fear of its end." In coming to terms with life and death, the spring of youth rises up out of Haddock's aged body.

"Perhaps what I had done in taking this long walk in the wilderness was a kind of shoving of my old self out on the ice to see if I would please die, or if I would please be reborn into something new, forged in service to my deepest beliefs. In either case, I knew that my old life had run its course."

In her youthfulness, Haddock comes to accept and embrace the diversity of life, and American life in particular. She walks with a strict vegetarian, seeks protection from bikers, talks sex with a People magazine photographer, shares bread with native Americans, goes skinny-dipping at an artist colony.

Her repose and empathy, experience and understanding attain to wisdom a virtue all but scorned in our youth-obsessed culture. As is proper, her wisdom never condemns that which is true to itself, be it a biker or an artist or a garbage man. Old have been pitted against young in America, but Haddock proves it mustn't be so.

"It mustn't be so" is a theme that courses through "Granny D." Back in 1960, she traveled with her husband to Alaska to protest the detonation of an H-bomb that would have destroyed an indigenous village. it mustn't be so.

Haddock has lived long enough to know that things weren't always that way, and they needn't always be. This is where her political convictions inflame and inspire. Whether its the money chase in Washington, the big-box store monstrosities sprawling into the countryside, or the short-sighted policy to build ever more prisons while ignoring schools, Haddock is a political seer.

"(The discount store) will no doubt be the final blow to the struggling family businesses in the partially boarded-up business district of Coolidge. Those corporations are using their overpowering capital to annihilate small businesses and turn our towns into colonies, and it is quite the same process that impoverished much of the Third World. It is a kind of self-colonialism: American's corporations are turning upon their own countrymen."

Self-evident political ideas, such as equality and liberty for all, have been obscured by the far right, which has used cynical campaigns (funded by corporate millions) to cloud the fundamental issues and drive citizens away from their democracy... Haddock bristles at the nonchalance with which the cynical treat American democracy. "There's rows and rows of crosses for people who died for democracy," she said in our telephone interview.

The truth is there are also hundreds of thousands of Americans alienated from their democracy and from their country because they know what's going on, and they yearn for a sense of democratic hope... Doris Haddock stands as a testament to the finest American, or rather, human impulses, and she deserves emulation.

"What, indeed, would the community look like if it were the perfect expression of our best instincts and deepest beliefs?"

Louisville Courier-Journal (by Tom Louderback):

This year we are engrossed in the epic story of the founders of our country, the Declaration of Independence, and the democratic traditions that have been passed down to us through many generations.  And, nothing inspires our patriotic feelings about these things more than a good book. Early this year, we made Joseph Ellis' book THE FOUNDING BROTHERS a best seller.  Over the summer, we have been just as enthusiastic about David McCulloch's JOHN ADAMS.

Add Doris Haddock's book, and we have an inspiring trilogy that brings us up to our own time.  Better known as 'Granny D,' Haddock knows that the patriotism of our founders is thriving in the 21st Century and she has the sore feet to prove it.  Her optimistic book tells the story of her 14-month walk from California to Washington, DC during 1999 in support of campaign finance reform. She plod ten miles a day, rain or shine, and celebrated two birthdays along the way: her 89th and her 90th. Her book's title is GRANNY D: WALKING ACROSS AMERICA IN MY NINETIETH YEAR.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, Haddock's book is not really about campaign finance reform.  It's really about us: the hopeful, discouraged, old, young, brown, black and white people she met in the deserts, woods, farms, cities, and towns spread out over 3,200 miles.  Plainly, Haddock is not just campaigning for a cause.  She wants to meet everyone in the United States, it seems, one-by-one.  Being a grandma, she wants to encourage us to hang on to our optimism.

Haddock sets the tone of her book in the first few pages and she sticks with it.  "If you are not much interested in campaign finance reform--the reason for my protest walk--do not worry: I will not pester you too much about it as we journey together between these covers.  You will not need imaginary earplugs I hope, just a good imaginary hat."

On the beach, in California, we meet a slew of people who seem to have nothing particular in common except that they are drawn to this the grandmother in the wide brim straw hat.  They include Ken, who was speechwriter of President Truman and is the current West Virginia Secretary of State.  Then there is the vegetarian, Doug, who "munches handfuls of something that looks like birdseed."  

Miles and miles, and a few deserts later, there are a "wee doggie" named Bear, Mrs. White's kindergarten class who hoped to make it on Good Morning America, a native-American who's name translates to "cactus standing," Max who smoked too much, Frank who seemed to be making a pass at Haddock, and a few thousand others.

Several towns meet Haddock and company with welcoming committees and present them keys to the city.  Most of the time, Haddock writes, these committees include official representatives of the local Chambers of Commerce.  A few towns even invite her to walk in their parades.  Before long, it seems as though everyone, everywhere, is recognizing Granny D.  Truckers seem to be on the lookout for her; honking, waving, and calling by CB to other truckers.  During a guided tour of a local archeological site, Haddock is surprised by the first question asked of the tour guide, "Is that the lady who's walking across the country?"     

Arriving in Kentucky, ten months into her walk, Haddock knows that she is entering the "lion's den," the home of US Senator Mitch McConnell one of the greatest foes of campaign finance reform.  Still, courtesy is the best policy in her plan book.  She planned to "scold a bit" at the steps of McConnell's Louisville office but not to vilify. The 150 or so people who meet her at McConnell's office (he is out of town) are expecting something "unkind" but hear some unexpected praise.

"When he speaks on the Senate floor, his arguments are well reasoned and a delight to listen to.  They make good reading, like the orations of Cicero of ancient Rome.  He defends our Constitution--as he sees it--with a vengeance," Haddock says.  She goes on to scold McConnell for acting as a "bagman" but concludes by asking him to join her.  "We must do something, Senator McConnell, and you must help," she declares firmly.

Haddock writes that she embarked on her long walk partly to console her grief over the deaths of her husband Jim, after 60 years of marriage, and her best friend, Elizabeth.  The walk would be a memorial to them, she decided.  Thoughts of them came to her several times along the way and she admits crying herself to sleep a few times.

Only days into the walk, Haddock knew already that she had found a country that cared about its principles and its people.  She tells us at one point early in the book, "...  if taking the walk had been me going off to pout about the disintegration of the civic community and my loss of a place at the table, why, I had found so many new friends along the road, and they had entrusted me with so much of their hearts, that I was not feeling the least bit alone anymore."

THE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, May 6, 2001:

It isn't damning with faint praise to say this book is better than most of us would expect it to be. Back in 1999-2000, tough-minded, elderly New Hampshire resident Doris Haddock decided she'd walk from America's West Coast to its East Coast to call attention to the need for political campaign finance reform - specifically, she believed elected officials entered office in the pockets of rich people and corporations that had provided the millions necessary to get them there.

Along the way, Granny D attracted considerable media attention. At the end of her journey, she was proclaimed a hero by such like-minded national leaders as Sen. John McCain and now, presumably, is happy that new campaign finance legislation has been passed by the U.S. Senate.

As for her book, well, it's a pleasant exercise in grandmotherly wisdom, but there is a nice, dark sense of humor at work as well. After meeting Ross Perot, who promised to supply her with "anything at all," Granny D quips, "I think everyone should have the pleasure of hearing a billionaire prince say that to them." Hear, hear.

Roanoke Times & World News, May 13, 2001

Do not dismiss this book as a piece of reform propaganda by a little old lady in tennis shoes. As lovable and authentic a granny as she is (retired shoe factory worker, great-grandmother of 12), Doris Haddock is no novice at standing up for her beliefs. Early on, she protested for her feminist beliefs, for the stopping of nuclear testing near an Eskimo village and for political reform. This was her platform and her reason for walking across America in her 90th year. And this is her story, cobbled together from nightly road notes with help from activist Dennis Burke.

Bill Moyers wrote a powerful forward to the book in which he said, "Granny D is a seasoned activist, an eloquent speaker and writer and an acute observer of the world around us." Amen to that.

Granny D may be the single most important reason Sen. John McCain's bill to reform campaign spending got as far as it did. She speaks her mind and put her foot in the road to "walk the talk." Outraged by the betrayal of democracy by big spenders with big money, she said, "It is money with no manners for democracy, and must be escorted from the room."

Granny D set out from the beaches of the Pacific and trekked across deserts, mountains and inner cities to tell her tale to ordinary Americans. They came to listen and fell in love with the hard-talking, fast-walking Yankee from New Hampshire. She hiked tirelessly through the elements and proved a lot tougher than the "youngsters" (middle-aged journalists) who accompanied her intermittently. Her mission was successful, her converts faithful to the cause she espoused. Jimmy Carter calls her a "true patriot," and all who met her during her 14-month journey agree.

This is a book that deserves the attention of those who may question whether one person can make a difference in government. Or anything, for that matter. Go Granny Go!