(Updated July 4th, 2012)

For most of us, writing means writing alone. How exceptionally lucky Pulitzer Prize-winning historians Will and Ariel Durant were, then, to have labored together for more than forty years to produce their eleven-volume Story of Civilization. Recently we asked Red Roomers to blog about their favorite book written by partners in writing as well as in love.  

Two posts especially stood out:

• Member Len Boswell's future wife "thrust (Maj Sjӧvall and Per Wahlӧӧ's) Roseanna into my hands in 1975 with the admonition, 'Read this if you want to understand why I read mysteries instead of those artsy-fartsy books you’re so fond of.'" Find out why this mystery-writing duo has meant so much to Boswell and his wife in his post "The Story of a Crime."
• In talking about North to the Orient in her post "Anne and Charles Together", member Mary Walsh imagines a hilarious dinner-table conversation between Anne Morrow and Charles Lindbergh, who co-wrote the book about their pioneering flights over the polar route.

Two recent sad passages inspired this blog challenge. First, we learned that Kathi Kamen Goldmark had succumbed to cancer on May 24th. Kathi was known to everyone on Red Room and in the wider world as a multitalented author, musician, and community-builder. She was a wonderful friend to literally hundreds of Red Room authors. Kathi and her husband Sam Barry took their years of experience in publishing and co-wrote 2010’s Write That Book Already!: The Tough Love You Need to Get Published Now! Barry Epstein is just getting started on Red Room. He wrote us just a couple of weeks ago to say that his dear wife Darls had lived just long enough to see the final proofs of Usher’s Harbour, the novel it had been their dream to publish together and which was just released. Our hearts go out to Sam and Barry, and we’re so proud to showcase these couples’ work this week, which a Len and Mary will receive.

I hope you'll read all the posts in this week's blog challenge and comment on your favorites. All past blog topics are listed here. Thanks as always for blogging!

–Huntington W. Sharp, Senior Editor, Red Room