The Longest Trek
by Grace Lee Whitney with Jim Denney"This is a Star Trek book which will transform people's lives."
--Leonard Nimoy
The Longest Trek
by Grace Lee Whitney with Jim Denney"This is a Star Trek book which will transform people's lives."
--Leonard Nimoy
Writer Jim Denney tells how
The Longest Trek came to be written:I'll never forget my first meeting with actress Grace Lee Whitney.
I grew up watching Star Trek's Yeoman Janice Rand on TV. I well remembered her as the object of Captain Kirk's unspoken love and of Charlie X's scary adolescent attraction. I also remembered Grace from her role as the murderous jilted lover in "Controlled Experiment" (opposite Caroll O'Connor and Barry Morse) on TV's The Outer Limits. So I was already a Grace Lee Whitney fan when I approached her about the possibility of putting the story of her life into a book. She said she would like to do a book--and we agreed to meet at her beautiful home near Yosemite National Park.
She showed me scrapbooks and photos of her career, from her early days singing with big bands (including a stint on The Edgar Bergen-Charlie McCarthy Show on radio, where she sang the jingle as the "Miss Chicken-of-the-Sea" mermaid) on through her film career opposite stars like Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, and Shirley Maclaine, and up to her role on Star Trek: The Original Series and in several Star Trek movies.
Then she made some tea for us both, and we sat down and she told me the story of her life. My jaw was on the floor for the rest of the afternoon.
She told me about her first drink and losing her virginity at age 13; about driving a car down Grand River Avenue in Detroit at age 14--she was drunk, a man stepped in front of the car, she ran him down and never knew if she killed him or not, because she didn't stop or look back.
She told me about being an opening act singer for Billie Holliday--and watching Billie, who later died of a heroin addiction--tie off and inject herself in the filthy restroom in the back of a Chicago nightclub.
She told me about being sexually assaulted by a Desilu executive during her first season on Star Trek--and then being tossed off the show. And she told me how that event in her career tipped her into years of drinking that took her all the way to the depths of Skid Row, where she was sitting on a curb and drinking out of a bottle in a paper sack.
Most important of all, she told me about the change that came over her life that enabled her to beat her addictions and to make peace with her turbulent and painful past. It is the most shocking, moving, and powerful story I have ever heard, and it was the privilege of my writing career to help Grace put her story in book form.
It took Grace and me a couple of years to hammer out this book, The Longest Trek. It was a constant balancing act, trying to tell her story honestly, but without crossing the line into becoming lurid. She is very candid about her drinking and drug abuse, her sex addiction, and the many people she hurt before her life was transformed by recovery and a relationship with God. She was also adamant about the fact that, while she had to be honest about her life, she did not want to drag anyone else's reputation through the gutter--not even the people who had abused her, not even the studio executive who sexually assaulted her. Grace is a class act.
Of the forty-odd books I have been associated with, I am proudest of this one by far. In addition to being an uncompromisingly honest self-portrayal by a talented and accomplished actress, The Longest Trek is an important show business memoir, revealing behind-the-scenes truths about the movie and TV industry in general, and Star Trek in particular--stories that have never been told before in the many Trek books that have already gone before.
Best of all, Grace has become a good friend to me and to our family. In the short time since The Longest Trek was published, Grace has shared with me story after story of people she has met, people whose lives have been changed by their encounter with her powerful story in this book. I challenge anyone to read her gripping story and not be changed. Knowing Grace and working with her on this book has certainly impacted my life in a powerful way.
As Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek's Mr. Spock) wrote in his foreword to The Longest Trek:
"I call her Amazing Grace. She rejects that name and denies that she is amazing, but I insist, because she is. There have been countless books written about Star Trek -- many, maybe too many, by those who were actively involved. I've done two myself. But ... none has written as personal, moving, and powerful a one as Grace has written.
"If you think this is simply another book of Star Trek anecdotes and inside jokes, take a deep breath and plunge in. This is a Star Trek book which will transform people's lives. It will give insight into a human condition and guidance to many in need. It is a blessing to all of us that she has put this life of hers to such generous use.
"My thanks to Grace--always amazing."
The Longest Trek is available in two editions:
The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy
(trade paper edition -- publisher's list price $14.95)The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy
(signed and numbered limited edition hardcover --
only 1,000 copies ever printed, available for $45)
Order personally signed photos, an autographed book, or some of Grace's recorded music. This is Grace's own site, and everything you order from her site comes directly from Grace Lee Whitney herself. Check it out at www.graceleewhitney.tf (the "tf" stands for "Trek Fan"!).
