‘Pancho Villa’ Collaborators To Visit Library

Don and Darlene Jackson were married for 47 years at the time of Mr Jackson’s death in 2006. The couple, who moved into Newtown in 1969, had pets through the course of their marriage, often with cats and dogs sharing the space where the Jacksons also raised their children, Dale and Amy.

An award-winning journalist and author, Mr Jackson’s published works that tended to be on the serious side. His first big story was a cover article for Life Magazine about Lee Harvey Oswald following the assassination of President Kennedy.

Having written for Time-Life Books and various magazines before finishing his career as a contract writer for Smithsonian Magazine, a new collection edited and just released by his widow offers a look at the lighthearted side of Mr Jackson’s personality.

The Secret Adventures of Pancho Villa: Poems and Memories of Other Beloved Pets (Trafford Publishing, paperback, 36 pages, $20) is a collection of Mr Jackson’s pet-themed writings. Coordinated by Mrs Jackson a few years after her husband’s death in February 2006, the book offers fiction (Don’s take on a fantasy life lived by the book’s title character, the couple’s first cat), nonfiction (a touching essay about their collie, Holly Golightly), and seven poems honoring cats.

Mrs Jackson enlisted Koren Harpaz to illustrate the book. Now a junior at New Milford High School and planning to attend art school following graduation, Mr Harpaz was 13 when he was approached to create illustrations of cats in various lifestyles.

The book also features color reproductions of Jackson family pets, including a special one of Mr Jackson seated at his desk. His manual typewriter is on the desk in front of him and Dugan, the couple’s frisky red tabby of 17 years and an inspiration for many of Mr Jackson’s poems, is seated on the desk next to the typewriter.

Mrs Jackson and Mr Harpaz will be at C.H. Booth Library on Saturday, January 28, from 1:30 until 3 pm. Copies of the book will be available for purchase ($20 each), and they will be available to meet readers and animal lovers of all ages. The program will be in the lower community room of the library, at 25 Main Street.

Reservations are not needed, but additional information is available by calling 203-426-4533.