Grappling with Mark Baker’s last words

Mark Baker was adamant his final memoir should only be published if it met the high literary standards for which he had become renowned. 

Upon being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the Jewish scholar, author and public intellectual worked with urgency as he strove to write his last book while battling immense pain.

Baker died in May last year aged 63, so he never saw the publication of his book A Season of Death, which is out now. His wife Michelle Lesh, says Baker worked hard on the memoir and she would often find him asleep with his laptop open in the middle of the night.

“Any waking moment, his priority was to write,” she says.  

Baker showed her drafts of the book, which details their courtship, the birth of their daughter Melila in 2021and documents in detail his cancer journey. She helped him reconstruct the timeline of events, including medical appointments that he describes in the book. As he neared the end of his project, Baker provided a draft to both Lesh and her stepfather, acclaimed writer Raimond Gaita. 

He only wanted Rai and I to publish it if we thought that it would meet his literary standard, the legacy that he had created,” she told The Jewish Independent.

Lesh says she was touched by the beauty of Baker’s writing. It was clearly worth publishing. Although she described feeling a range of emotions, partly because it featured many intimate details about her life, she let him write it in the way he saw fit.