Biography
Hester Bass is a dream believer, goal achiever, and story weaver. As a child, she made a list of things she wanted to do and places she wanted to go. (Her life has been all about checking things off that list.)
Hester grew up in rural Georgia, close enough to Atlanta to experience the jewels of city life yet still raise tadpoles on the porch. She was shaped by her mother's love of language, her father's love of family, and books by favorite authors such as Beatrix Potter and A.A. Milne. Her first story was about a green-eyed cat. Her first job was at a wild animal park. (Read books, write stories, have a job that's fun.)
Educated in Boston, she received a B.A. in Communications from Simmons College, then remained in Massachusetts to work as a writer and voiceover talent in radio and television advertising. She was also the lead singer of Flight 19. During this time, Hester traveled to Britain, making her pilgrimage to Liverpool to stand at the edge of the Mersey, just like John. (Be on the radio, know every Beatles song, sing in a rock band.)
Moving to New York to study acting, she concentrated on Shakespeare at the HB Studio. Her day job was delivering singing telegrams to the unknown and the famous, including Andy Warhol and Barbara Walters. Hester appeared with Dick Clark on TV's “$50,000 Pyramid,” winning a pen-and-pencil set and some towels. (Live in great cities, be an actress, be on a game show.)
In a Greenwich Village record store, Hester met her husband, an artist from North Carolina. Manhattan still feels like home although they now live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. (Make new friends, go where life takes you, enjoy your time.)
Hester has taught kindergartners and first graders to knit on their fingers and hands, and to draw forms in the air and on paper. She has performed at conferences, libraries, schools, museums, and festivals - visiting 43 states and 13 foreign countries - to encourage everyone to reach for their dreams. (Try different things, inspire others, travel a lot.)
Some things are worth doing more than once, so Hester Bass appeared on another TV game show, “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” with Meredith Vieira, which went six-figure well. She then tackled a long-held dream of becoming a children's author and saw her first children's book become a reality - So Many Houses. (Enjoy life, be persistent, be a writer.)
Her next book was The Secret World of Walter Anderson, a picture book biography of the remarkable Mississippi artist, Walter Inglis Anderson, which won the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children. Her nonfiction picture book Seeds of Freedom: The Peaceful Integration of Huntsville, Alabama received the NCSS Carter G. Woodson Book Award Elementary Honor. Success happens. Decide what you want and go for it. (Write more books, follow your instincts, spread the joy.)
Hester is forever adding to her list of things to do and places to go. Recent entries include: "Be in a Christopher Nolan film" - "Be a JEOPARDY! champion" - “Visit New Zealand" - "Be photographed by Annie Leibovitz" - and "See the Northern Lights." (Dream big, work toward your goals everyday, never give up.)