Avon ad executive finds a refuge in writing
by
Nancy Thompson, Connecticut Life
Chris Knopf is the chairman and executive
creative director of one of the most successful advertising
and marketing agencies in the country. He’s a master
woodworker who knows his way around a workshop as well as a
boardroom. He occasionally picks up a bass guitar and jams
with his old college rock band.
And in his spare time, he’s written “The Last Refuge,” a
murder mystery that’s been called “arresting” by
Publishers Weekly and received a “notable” designation
by Book Sense and a star from the American Library Association.
“I’m really a writer by trade. It’s what I’ve always
done, my life’s work,” said Mr. Knopf, who wrote advertising copy
for Avon-based Mintz & Hoke before rising through the ranks and eventually
buying the company. “I grew up in a family of avid readers, and I sort
of grew up in that milieu. It was assumed that I’d write. I became a
commercial copywriter because I liked to write.”
In high school, he was the kind of student who would opt for
the essay test instead of multiple choice, because he knew writing
was one of his great strengths.
He majored in English at Dickinson College in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and earned a master’s degree in contemporary writing in
London through a program sponsored by Antioch College.
“I’ve been writing fiction for my
own amusement my entire life,” he
said. “I’ve been writing books my whole adult life;
I finally suckered someone into publishing one.”
Mr. Knopf started a novel while he was a graduate
student in London and after it was completed turned it over to
Mary Jack Wald, a New York literary agent whom he calls “my guardian
angel.” Ms. Wald liked the book but thought it wasn’t
quite ready for publication, so he quit his copywriting job with
the Charles Palm Agency to work on it.
His career as a full-time novelist ended in 1980
when his son was born. “I had to go back to work,” Mr.
Knopf said. “I
never finished the book. It was a thriller, time-sensitive, and
the world changed.”
Years later he wrote another book and sent it
to Ms. Wald, who again said she liked it but wanted more work
done. “Then
I bought the agency with my wife, so that screwed that up,” he
said with a wry smile.
Mr. Knopf was working hard at the agency with
his wife, Mary Farrell, and not giving a lot of thought to writing
that book or any other.
That changed when Ms. Wald called about three
years ago. “Did
you ever finish that book?” he recalled her asking. His
first response was, “No. I’ve been busy.” Then
he thought about what he had just said.
“We have millions of people in America looking
for an agent and here I have one who’s calling me. I felt
really stupid. It inspired me to rewrite it with the same characters
but a different plot.”
With Ms. Wald’s help, “The Last Refuge” found
a home at Permanent Press, a small independent publishing house
in Sag Harbor, Long Island.
“It’s a boutique publisher, one of
the few remaining small publishers who find worthwhile literate
fiction writers,” Mr. Knopf said. “I
had some interest from other publishers, but Mary Jack felt better
going with a smaller publisher. They really liked the book. This
was so unusual. For a first-time novelist, the odds of getting
an agent are about the same as standing in your yard and getting
hit by a meteor. Getting published is even harder.”
For publisher Martin Shepard, it was an easy decision. “It
was just a no-brainer,” he said. “Chris is a phenomenal
writer, a wonderful gentleman, and a master cabinetmaker with
varied talents and great knowledge. And he’s the best dialogue
writer since Elmore Leonard, the most praised writer of mysteries
and a master of dialogue.”
Ms. Wald also praised Mr. Knopf as an author and
as a person. “He’s
an author I could praise and praise. He is extraordinary,” she
said. “He’s extremely talented, modest, gracious
and thoughtful. A great guy with great talent and one that everyone
who works with him appreciates. He also has a delightful sense
of humor.”
The book, subtitled “A Tale of Money and Murder in the
Hamptons,” tells the story of Sam Acquillo, a 50-something
engineer who moves to his family’s cottage in the Hamptons
after punching some executives in the boardroom, losing his job
and being divorced. It’s hard to tell if his best friend
is a mutt named Eddie or his ever-present glass of vodka. Without
giving too much away, Sam discovered his elderly neighbor dead
in her bathtub and gets embroiled in a murder investigation in
which he uses his skills as an engineer to figure out more than
his so-called friends and neighbors would like.
Writing about the east end of Long Island was easy for Mr. Knopf,
who has a vacation home not far from the setting for the book.
He bought land in Southampton in the early 1990s, during the
real estate bust. “I couldn’t have bought it two
years later,” he said, adding that it’s a different
world there. He lives five minutes from the Mintz & Hoke
offices in Avon but often takes a 20-minute drive around the
Farmington Valley to get there in the morning simply because
he likes the area so much. “I feel like I live in two of
the most beautiful places on earth,” he said.
The book, which is available online through Amazon.com
and Barnes and Noble as well as in several area bookstores, has
received favorable initial reviews. In addition to the Book Sense
and ALA honors, “The Last Refuge” has been called “a
nail-biting story with a Byronic anti-hero” (Sag Harbor
Express) and praised for its “snappy dialogue and colorful,
oddball characters” (Publishers Weekly). In addition, Kirkus
Reviews said, “Knopf turns a mean sentence.”
The New York Times recently praised Mr. Knopf’s “spare,
emotionally eloquent style” and said the book’s characters “are
such original oddballs and their conversation so bracing that
you want to kick off your shoes and spend some time on the porch
with them, just taking in the view and enjoying the talk.”
The hype, along with the book signings and other activities that
come with publishing a first novel, has surprised Mr. Knopf.
“I didn’t expect this,” he said. “I
was so happy to get this published that I figured anything else
was okay.”
In addition to being the chairman of Mintz & Hoke Communications
Group, with its 55 employees and $65 million in billings, Mr.
Knopf is still working in his home workshop and is planning to
get together with his old college band during the summer. He’s
also writing another Sam Acquillo novel, due out next year and
tentatively titled “Two-Time.” And despite their
responsibilities here, he and Ms. Farrell, who is the chief corporate
office at Mintz & Hoke, still head to the Hamptons whenever
they can. It will continue to be a relaxing escape as long as
they don’t find any dead neighbors in bathtubs.
CTL
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