The 1999 winner of the Mass Film Commission screenwriter's competition for his screenplay "Henry David Thoreau".

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Jon West, winner of the '99 Mass Film Commission Screenwriting Competition will be winging his way to LA - he'll be there from 10/18 - 10/22. His script is a real treat & he's a nice guy (even tho he's not from Massachusetts!^) He stayed w/me in Concord - very appropriate & helpful since he's from Eugene Oregon & had never been to Concord before.  I took him to Walden Pond & Mr. T's homesite, then to the Throreau Society where he left a copy of his script, then on to the the Old Manse (Emerson's house), the Orchard (Alcott) House, the cemetary/author's ridge, and finally on to the Concord library where they had read about him in the Boston Globe & he got to hold some of T's writings from his own hand, including his last essay "Walking" published after his death. Jon almost wept. Seldom get a chance to see someone that happy. Way cool.

On the other hand - my fav moment of the day was when one of the librarians mentioned her favorite author was Hawthorne, and asked if he had made it into the script - Jon's reply: "Oh I had too many characters so I killed off Hawthorne in a dog fight" (he didn't kill off H in the script - really). Woman's face froze in horror & I nearly fell off my chair laughing.

But Henry would have laughed too!

~Scott W. Anderson~