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This is an honest, telling memoir from veteran Irish actor Frank Kelly, best known for his role as Father Jack Hackett on the hit comedy series Father Ted.

EPIGRAPH: In the history of the world, a whole story has never been told. --Meghan Daum I chose the epigraph above because no matter how thoroughly and completely I try to communicate with my readers through my poems, inevitably the "whole story" doesn't get told. Not only would others involved in the poems have their own takes on the episodes, my own take is limited to my perceptions at the moment when I wrote the poem and then submitted it for publication. Even now as I look back on some of my early work, I see how I would write from a different perspective if I were to write about the same episode now. So, the epigraph is neither a boast nor a complaint. It's a statement of fact. The subjects of most of my poems are drawn from the incidents and episodes of my life. The poems are arranged in five sections chronologically according to the period of my life they refer to. The sections are labelled according to where I was living at the time. Thus, Pennsylvania where I grew up and went to college, Kansas where I went to graduate school, Long Island I where I moved after I'd completed my course work and got a full-time teaching position, Manhattan where I lived in the 1980s, and finally Long Island II which I moved back to in 1991 and where I reside today.

These poems were culled from my writings of the past thirty years. Sorting through them, I noticed that many were about my childhood; I decided this would be the theme for a book. Getting Above Myself was my first title: it meant three things to me: a childhood notion of the greatest crime one could commit, an ironic take on that idea and finally, the perspective needed for me to see clearly the events I was writing about. This seemed too complicated to convey in just a title. Next I thought of Growing Up plain, straightforward, but also imprecise. I am neither social worker nor psychologist. What I have to share is my personal experience. So, Growing Up Me. The thirty-eight poems in this book cover a period from my birth through high school. They are arranged chronologically by subject and cover such topics as education, family dynamics, the church, and my growing awareness that I was gay.

Frank Kelly has lived an extraordinary life that covers most of the 20th century. His spirit of optimism has touched the lives of countless people. He has been a science fiction writer, a reporter, a citizen soldier, a speech writer for President Truman, an assistant to the Senate Majority Leader, a vice president of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, and a founder and senior vice president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. In his tenth decade of life he continues to be a fount of new and innovative ideas. He believes that humanity has a great future if we can put aside our differences and grasp the essential miracle of life. His life and spirit inspire confidence that a better, more peaceful world is possible. Kissing Joy as it Flies - Living in Eternity's Sunrise is a reflection of Frank's life, and a small collection of his writings.

Successful Hollywood television star Nathan Prentiss finds himself caring for his five-year-old grandson after his only child Cassandra succumbs to a drug overdose. Determined not to raise the boy on the Left Coast, Nathan, accompanied by close friend and bodyguard Doug Ratske, moves back to Addison, a small town in upstate New York where he was born and raised. He is determined that his grandson Natty will be raised with small town values; however, Nathans fame often gets in the way of small town life. Soon he meets Olivia, the girl he left behind and old feelings are rekindled.

Attempting to deconstruct America's joyless obsession with sobriety, The Modern Drunkard offers today's befuddled drinkers a comprehensive and instructive manual on the delights of alcohol culture, how to be a good drunk, how to drink, and how to do it well. Through articles, anecdotes, cartoons, and illustrations pulled from our long and happy history of drinking alcohol, Frank Kelly Rich campaigns to revive the lost art of tippling and taps a deep vein of boozy lore and legend through the ages, uncovering etiquette and expertise from some of history's greatest guzzlers.

The nation’s longest-serving attorney general tells the story of a life that spanned two centuries and a career that helped transform consumer protection and public interest law. After several years as a small-town lawyer in Alpena, Frank J. Kelley was unexpectedly appointed Michigan’s attorney general at the end of 1961. He never suspected that he would continue to serve until 1999, a national record. During that time, he worked with everyone from John and Bobby Kennedy to Bill Clinton and jump-started the careers of dozens of politicians and public figures, including U.S. Senator Carl Levin and Governors James Blanchard and Jennifer Granholm. In The People’s Lawyer: The Life and Times of Frank J. Kelley, the Nation’s Longest-Serving Attorney General, Kelley and co-author Jack Lessenberry reflect on the personal and professional journey of the so-called godfather of the Michigan Democratic Party during his incredible life and thirty-seven years in office. The People’s Lawyerchronicles Kelley’s early life as the son of second-generation Irish immigrants, whose father, Frank E. Kelley, started out as a Detroit saloon keeper and became a respected Democratic Party leader. Kelley tells of becoming the first of his family to go to college and law school, his early days as a lawyer in northern Michigan, and how he transformed the office of attorney general as an active crusader for the people. Among other accomplishments, Kelley describes establishing the first Office of Consumer Protection in the country, taking on Michigan’s public utility companies, helping to end racially restrictive real estate practices, and helping to initiate the multibillion-dollar Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement in 1998. Kelley frames his work against a backdrop of the social and political upheaval of his times, including the 1967 Detroit riots, the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. All those interested in American history and legal history will enjoy this highly readable, entertaining account of Kelley’s life of public service.