"Memory and Destiny, the Life of Glenn Janss" reaches from the Golden Age of Hollywood to the ski slopes of Sun Valley, Idaho and into the boardrooms of major conservation organizations. This is a story of love and redemption, extravagance and loss; about overcoming personal challenges to make the world a better place through philanthropy.
A childhood spent in opulence and top grades in philosophy at Wellesley College cannot cure the terrors of dysfunction that stem from living with an alcoholic mother. Hollywood stars shopped at her grandfather's store Bullock's Wilshire and Bing Crosby sang at family barbecues, but there was trouble at home. Glenn Janss' fateful first marriage to a race boat driver and his hyped-up Malibu adventures leads to divorce and a return to art history studies, adventures in Europe and Asia and art collecting with a clandestine lover and art historian.
Glenn Janss' American Realism collection established the Boise Art Museum. Following her seminal work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art she founded the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, served on the Idaho Centennial Commission and established the Idaho Heritage Trust.
This is a story of spiritual searching that leads from the New Age movement to the Institute for Noetic Sciences and cutting-edge research that was ahead of its time. It culminates with an inside look into The Nature Conservancy when the nonprofit was becoming a global organization. It includes the author's travels in search of artistic treasures, pristine landscapes worthy of protection, and philosophical and spiritual ideas on the frontiers of science.
The book is well-suited for those interested in the history of Bullock's Wilshire, Sun Valley Resort and the Janss' family. This is a revealing memoir that will provide inspiration to women and men looking to improve the lives of others and avoid the pitfalls of relationships that stem from competition rather than compassion, blind loyalty rather than emotional freedom.
The story includes interviews with Mariel Hemingway, Julie Wrigley, Cecil Andrus, Lynne Twist, Harry Rinker and Jim Dutcher, to name a few, and features many other friends and associates, and local heroes and personalities in the Sun valley are and Los Angeles. reaching from her childhood as an heiress of the Bullock's Wilshire retail empire of Los Angeles to her donation of a major art collection that established the Boise Art Museum. Published on the 50th anniversary of the Sun Valley Museum of Art, originally established as the Sun Valley Center for the Arts and Humanities.
