Upstairs Matters
This website comes to you from Upstairs Matters, a partnership formed, through the generosity of Martha Crego, by Jane Lahr, Sophia Rosoff and Nicola Bennett to support the principles of Joan Grant’s teachings, ethics and writings and to keep them in public view and awareness.
Nicola Bennett is Joan Grant’s grand-daughter and lives in Scotland and California. As an arts administrator she directed the Cheltenham and Bath literary festivals and organised art exhibitions for the Arts Council of Great Britain. She has published Speaking Volumes – A Brief History of the Cheltenham Festival of Literature and her short stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
Jane Lahr recalled previous lifetimes with Joan Grant and Dr Denys Kelsey’s help, and assisted in finding publishers for Joan’s books in the USA. She has enjoyed a life in publishing for forty years. She is the co-editor of Love: A Celebration in Art & Literature, now in its thirty-eighth year in publication, editor of The Celtic Quest, and author of Searching for Mary Magdalene: A Journey in Art & Literature published in 2006. She works and lives in New York and Stonington, Connecticut. She is a partner in Lahr & Partners, LLC whose mission is to create books of aesthetic and philosophical value.
Sophia Rosoff (1922-2017) was Joan Grant’s greatest friend. She was a classical pianist and teacher who worked with professional musicians, both classical and jazz. She was president of the Abby Whiteside Foundation, which sponsors an annual series of concerts at Carnegie’s Weill Hall, and co-edited Abby Whiteside’s book Mastering the Chopin Etudes. She always said she quoted Joan daily to illustrate important points in her teaching.
Together they edited Joan Grant Speaking from the Heart published in New York and London in 2007 by Overlook/Duckworth.