Learning to be a Leatherman

This book started out as a coming-of-age story focused on a voyage the author took “across the pond”, when he was 17 years old. Arranged by his father, this trip was meant to teach him how to tan leather and, by design or inadvertently, how to spread his wings. Over the course of writing it, the author developed a clear, conversational voice. In the process, he also came to terms with his relationship with his father and the world of work his dad carved out for him. It’s a bittersweet yet ultimately uplifting memoir, full of warmth and love, for his father, the business his grandfather founded, and everyone in the writer’s family, most of all, his wife Chloe.

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Dear Reader,

Before you start leafing through the pages of my book, I’d like to share with you some of the remarks friends of mine made after reading it. I’ve chosen this group of individuals to give me their feedback with a hypothesis that their differing perspectives would generate an interesting array of comments and because I could trust them to be candid. I was not disappointed.

“Learning to be a Leatherman” is a very personal, intimate look into my humanity and what I’ve experienced. My life has been blessed with family, friendships and relationships that have greatly enriched it. It has also been studded with challenges, some that strengthened me and my resolve, others that weakened and almost defeated me. It is for my family and these friends that I have taken this walk down memory lane, telling some of my life’s more interesting stories. I hope you enjoy hearing them and comparing them with your own.

With best regards

Rod Correll