Fred Mustard Stewart Books

A multigenerational saga of the Collingwoods, a California dynasty both blessed and cursed by the fortune it does everything to win and keep.

Dr. Herbert Mentius, a character in The Methuselah Enzyme, asserts that death is "not natural at all" but rather an "avoidable mistake." This novel is one of many by Fred Mustard Stewart, who passed away at 75 without experiencing the DNA modifications he envisioned. Stewart, known for his intercontinental sagas, consistently produced lengthy works, diverging from his initial aspiration to be a concert pianist, which inspired his first novel, The Mephisto Waltz. Born in Anderson, IN, he was the son of a banker and attended prestigious schools, studying history at Princeton and piano at Juilliard. By the 1960s, realizing his limitations as a pianist, he turned to writing after marrying literary agent Joan Richardson in 1967, achieving immediate success with his debut. In The Methuselah Enzyme, Stewart displays wit, though it lacks the depth of Henry James. His later work, Six Weeks, tells the story of a married man running for a Democratic Senate seat, who becomes infatuated with a cold-cream heiress, influenced by her ailing daughter. While not on par with Nabokov, it surpasses the 1982 film adaptation featuring Dudley Moore and Mary Tyler Moore.