I am Genevieve Rinzler, Jonathan’s wife, and I wanted to reach out to Jonathan’s readers, some of whom have heard that he is experiencing health issues.
This past summer, Jonathan had been feeling particularly exhausted; he was losing his appetite and consequently quite a lot of weight. Near the end of August, he was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer.
As you can imagine, or may know from personal experience, it has been quite an emotional and scary journey for our daughters, our respective families, our close friends and myself. We didn’t think it was fair to burden Jonathan’s readers with such a dire diagnosis but, at the same time, it didn’t feel quite right not to talk about it. Finally it was Jonathan’s dear friend Brandon Alinger who suggested to us that extending the circle of people in the know to all of JWR’s readers was the right thing to do.
Jonathan’s condition is serious and still precarious, but he has improved since the August health assessment. As of November 15th, he has already received 4 rounds of chemotherapy. We are confident that he is in good hands with the medical team at Kaiser and UCSF.
There are more details on the Caring Bridge site, where my brother-in-law Ben Rinzler — who has suddenly been promoted to scribe, chauffeur, and assistant to the wife/nurse (many hats and no pay!) — has been posting almost daily updates. The site is going to be open to all.
I want to thank you all for the love that you have expressed over the years to JWR by letting him know how much you enjoyed his books. For those who want to reach out, be certain that Jonathan will be uplifted to hear from you.
For those who want to help I’ll share this:
JWR’s writings about the creative process of movie-making has brought him a lot of joy. But All Up is even closer to his heart, a book about the genesis of the space age. It’s written as fiction, but it’s largely based on true stories, delivered in an exciting read. It’s the “making-of” book for the most outstanding scientific accomplishment of the last century.
All Up is the story of how an unlikely web of horrible wars, crazy research, epic failures, fabulous means, and the dreamers—always the dreamers—all came together, over half a century, to allow humanity to break the bondage of gravity and travel beyond our planet.
Our present century has its own visionaries who are going to help humans land on another planet — to make the dream of the giants who preceded them happen. If our current progress is the manifestation of past generations’ collective dreams and desires, then its genesis matters to us. We would be wise to learn about it, to be sure that we take part in the next phase of this dream…
So at this point, you should all know where I am going with this:
If you want to help and have something fun to read, for yourself or as a gift to a friend/loved one, I suggest purchasing All Up!
Younger folks will hopefully be inspired to live their life with a deeper understanding about how our species is often propelled toward great positive change while in the midst of chaos and uncertainty.
And older people who remember watching the moon landing will be surprised to read about the series of coincidences and seemingly unrelated events that contributed to the birth of the Space Age. JWR connects the dots and molds history into a thrilling new tale!
Finally, personally, I loved the book!
Thank you so much for your support for all of these years.
- Geneviève
Caring Bridge site:
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jonathanrinzler