By Tyler Maheu
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CLAREMONT — Former Claremont resident, 83-year-old Joseph D. Steinfield, has a new book coming out entitled “Time for Everything: My Curious Life.”
The 1957 Stevens High School graduate has taken his experiences from growing up in the City of Claremont, and now transformed them into two books. His first, “Claremont Boy: My New Hampshire Roots and the Gift of Memory” was published in 2014 and presents a series of stories about his childhood. These stories were originally published in the Monadnock-Ledger Transcript, an opportunity that came knocking on his front door.
“My wife was being interviewed by a reporter from the Monadnock-Ledger Transcript,” said Steinfield, a lifelong lawyer. From there, he asked the reporter if he would like to publish one of his stories in the paper. Steinfield’s piece ran in April 2006, and he has been writing a monthly column for that paper ever since.
These stories, around 90 in total, discuss what life was like at a different time in Claremont’s history. “It was a very good place to grow up,” said Steinfield. “Claremont was a thriving community, and it was the shopping center of the county.”
Another big piece of growing up at this time in the city, Steinfield said, was the cultural diversity. “Claremont was a very diverse community in one sense, but certainly not in a racial sense. It was a white community, with a healthy Jewish presence.” He stated that while being Jewish was a large part of his identity, so wasn’t the City of Claremont. “We were aware that we were Jewish, but I think it’s fair to say we were equally aware that we were Claremonters.”
He remains proud of being from the city where he grew up. “Even the people who leave Claremont, they never truly leave Claremont. It’s true for me, that’s why I called my first book Claremont Boy. I always identify myself as being from Claremont.”
For his second book, “Time for Everything: My Curious Life” Steinfield has aimed his focus at his many years of law practice. His law career began with his education, when he attended Brown University, and graduated from the Harvard Law School. Words of wisdom from his father were a big push towards this career path. “When I was young, my father told me I should become a lawyer because when you become a lawyer, anytime you feel like it, you can hang your jacket on the back of the door and go fishing,” he laughed while retelling. “I didn’t do that for the longest time, but I eventually took his advice.”
According to Steinfield, he only ever wanted to be a trial lawyer, with the biggest thing he enjoys about this practice being the camaraderie. “One thing about being a trial lawyer is that you get to meet a lot of people, and you form a sort of band of brothers,” he stated. He said that it has taught him the importance of civility.
Although he did not want to write about the law when he first started writing columns, he dove in headfirst. Beginning in 2015, Steinfield started writing law columns for papers such as the Keene Sentinel and Concord Monitor, among others.
Some of these pieces have ended up in his new book. “The book has two parts, as it is a continuation of Claremont Boy,” said Steinfield. “All the Claremont Boy columns are called ‘looking back’, while the second part of the book is called ‘Thinking About the Law’.” He says that these pieces are many of his law columns, but with added footnotes that aim to make the novel as up to date as possible, while giving him space to express new opinions. “The one thing about writing columns about the law, is that you have to get it right,” he stated.
Steinfield, who lived in the Boston area for nearly 50 years, moved back to Keene in 2014. There, he has begun teaching senior citizens constitutional law at Keene State. He stated, “Teaching people who are retired, and are more or less my age, is a very fulfilling thing to do.”
“Time for Everything: My Curious Life” is out now, wherever you find books, although Steinfield does stress the importance of supporting local bookstores. He will be doing this as well, on September 10th at 1 PM, when he will hold a book reading at Violet’s Book Exchange in Claremont.
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