About Me

Calvin Schwartz - About Me

BIO

Meet Calvin Barry Schwartz: 6'5" tall, and impossible to miss, literally, which is why sneaking into a scene in Meryl Streep's movie, "One True Thing," was such an achievement. This Jersey guy has nine lives and receipts to prove it: survived a VW rolling over five times at 65 mph (walked away without a scratch), got mysteriously healed of a devastating knee injury walking out of a church in Nazareth (four witnesses), and once lost 100 pounds in 2½ months like he was possessed.

After selling eyeglasses for a billionaire for 25 years, this Newark ex-pharmacist watched "Casablanca" for the 54th time and thought, "I could write something like that." So, he did. Twice.
His second novel, "There's a Tortoise in My Hair: A Journey to Spirit," earned the Kirkus Star and comparisons to Philip Roth, Kurt Vonnegut, and John Irving, transforming a midlife crisis into a deeply personal and darkly humorous meditation on meaning, mortality, and the mysterious forces that guide us through our darkest moments. Not bad for a guy who started his teaching career at Rutgers at 74, when most people are perfecting their golf game. Speaking of Rutgers, Calvin has served on the Advisory Committee of the Women’s Health Institute at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
These days, Calvin practices what he preaches: flexitarian since 1975, zero coronary artery plaque, LDL cholesterol at 45, and sharper than ever. He's conducted seven paranormal investigations (ghosts, orbs, the works), turned down Steven Spielberg twice (still regretting it), almost tried out for the Chicago Bulls in 1976, and hosts a global podcast with 700+ interviews/videos. He recently wrote to Pope Leo XIV about his "inexplicable spirituality" because why not? If anyone could understand it, this Pope could.

Calvin's third book is "Ten Things I Learned from the Billionaire." Spoiler: longevity techniques work. He's living proof.

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First Novel “Vichy Water”

‘’Vichy Water’ Synopsis : Elvin Stone meet in 1960 in a vacant lot as Newark high school students and become lifelong exceptional friends. Exceptional means trust, sharing life and spirituality, pulled from the author's experiences with angelic intervention and clairvoyance. Alex's haunting visions tell of becoming more than friends.

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Elvin attends Rutgers University while Alex studies astronomy and joins a discussion group at Princeton University where he’s groomed to slide into a secret organization and government security clearance. Eventually, Alex lands in the Situation Room of the White House with potentially unsettling news for the President.

Life abruptly changes. Clandestine government meetings, murders, and a plane crash followed. Overcome by change and great loss, Elvin searches self in Sedona, Arizona, Guadalcanal, Montana, Key Largo, Vietnam War Memorials, Guadeloupe, and a Chicago African-American cemetery where Emmett Till is buried. Elvin marries twice, changes career to sales, has an affair with the daughter of a European businessman and when morality is confronted ponders the Virtue of Selfishness. The story twists through the universe, women’s perspectives, racism, tech noir movies, the environment, a college bar, and a Hollywood antique store where a bottle of Vichy Water from 1942 is found.

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