Memoir, memorial

That's what happened to Robert Nylen, who died of cancer at 64 in his Ashfield home last December. Nylen was a publishing entrepreneur who was unafraid of risks. In the 1980s he cofounded New England Monthly, an award-winning magazine of often stunning excellence, and in the '90s followed that up by cofounding Beliefnet.com, a prominent spiritual website. Nylen also was an ad manager for U.S. News and World Report, a vice president of Texas Monthly, and a Vietnam veteran who won the Bronze Star.

Part of his personal legacy is a warts-and-all memoir that he finished just before his death, titled "Guts - Combat, Hell-raising, Cancer, Business Start-ups, and Undying Love: One American Guy's Reckless, Lucky Life." The book, just out from Random House, garnered a starred review from Publishers Weekly,

Nylen's sentences are pithy and pointed, always descriptive but never maudlin. Here, for instance, is Nylen on Vietnam: "The longer dismounted grunts stayed in the field, the more likely we were to be shot, booby-trapped, intestinally compromised, and infected." And on publishing: "New England Monthly was wildly successful with media mavens and critics. . . . We were smug, yet diffident. We were anxious, but good copy. We boasted, but made fun of ourselves." And, on dealing with cancer: "Small pleasures give you more joy. Annoyances bother less. You love your family more than possible."

Since Nylen isn't here to promote the book, his many friends and former co-workers are doing it for him. Tonight, prominent authors such as Tracy Kidder, Dan Okrent, Barry Werth, Richard Todd, and Joe Nocera will appear at the Broadside Book-shop, 247 Main St., Northampton, at 7 for a personal tribute and memorial reading.