Mark Fine is launching his new book, “THE SILENCING & THE DEVOTION”, available through AmazonAmazon — worldwide. Targeted for cohorts of Music and Entertainment, Grief, Loss and Resilience, Second-chance Love, Single Parenting and Blended Families. More information is available at the website: http://www.markfinebooks.com
-- Mark Fine, a former record executive who spent a career fighting censorship in the music industry, today released THE SILENCING & THE DEVOTION: Jimi, Janis, Jim. What The Tragic Js’ Silence Taught Him About Music, Loss, and Living (Sage & Street; ISBN 979-8-1827-4035-7), a memoir tracing the 1970s deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison through a career built on defying institutional silence — and into the silence that, decades later, took his wife.
The release lands as the music world marks 56 years since Hendrix's death on September 18, 1970 — the first of three losses that Fine calls his generation's unhealed wound. Fine argues the music industry absorbed the Tragic Js' deaths and changed nothing — a failure of institutional protection he traces from those turntables into his own record-company career, and finally into his own living room.
Fine's credentials are lived, not academic. As a young executive in apartheid South Africa, he defied state suppression laws to carry Bob Marley's music into Black townships, then built a career at PolyGram Records before founding the cause-marketing label Hammer & Lace, pairing music with campaigns for breast cancer research, free speech, the blind, and wildlife conservation — work that earned him Variety's title “Music Executive with 20/20 Vision.” He later wrote the historical novel 'The Zebra Affaire' and co-authored 'Beat of the Defiant' and 'Undercover with Mandela's Spies'. THE SILENCING & THE DEVOTION is his fourth book.
“A widowed friend once asked me how a man loves again without betraying the wife and children he lost,” Fine said. “This book is my answer to him — not a bid to be remembered, but proof that the silence doesn't get the last word.”
The memoir's second half turns personal. When his wife, Cynthia, fell fatally ill, a religious doctrine inside their own home blocked the medical care that might have saved her; Fine fought the belief system and lost. Left a single father, he writes with unsparing honesty about triage, guilt, and the second chance at love that eventually restored his family. The book is offered as a working answer for readers who have tried to save someone they love and failed, raised children through crisis, or wondered whether joy can return without betraying what was lost.
More information on the book can be found here: http://www.markfinebooks.com
The book was written for anyone who has tried to save someone they love — and failed. For anyone carrying grief, guilt, or silence. For anyone raising children through crisis or hoping for a second chance at love. There's also particular excitement about this launch because the reader will DISCOVER how to triage with grace when a loved one cannot be saved. How grief reshapes rather than destroys. How to recognize dangerous doctrine. How to keep children whole through crisis. How second chance love rebuilds a life. How to reclaim one's voice after silencing. How to survive toxic systems while quietly building a future.
THE SILENCING & THE DEVOTION is the story of a man shaped not by the front lines of rock ’n’ roll, but by the silencing of cultural prophets, the collapse of a marriage under doctrinal pressure, and the devotion that kept his children whole after their mother’s death. Readers will likely find a particular interest in Mark Fine grew up in apartheid South Africa, where music was contraband and truth was dangerous.
The deaths of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison — the Tragic Js — became his emotional compass, teaching him that artists are fragile and systems are ruthless. That lesson carried him into a global music career defined not by spectacle, but by advocacy: fighting censorship, supporting breast cancer awareness, championing the blind, and protecting wildlife. But the greatest battle came at home.
When his wife Cynthia fell ill, her religious doctrine silenced her instincts and blocked medical care. Mark fought to save her — and failed. Left a single father, he faced the crisis of keeping his sons whole while navigating grief, guilt, and the collapse of certainty. And then came Erin — the woman who became his second verse, restoring joy, rebuilding family, and proving that love can return after devastation.
Mark Fine has a comprehensive music industry background. Across four decades — Gallo Records, Island Records South Africa, Epic/Portrait at Sony, K Tel, PolyGram — in studios and boardrooms from Johannesburg to Miami, Minneapolis, New York, and Los Angeles.
THE SILENCING & THE DEVOTION is searingly personal, sometimes funny, shamelessly emotional, and unapologetically honest about the music biz.
When asked about the music aspect of the book, Fine said: "Inside are stories of Gene Simmons “saving my marriage,” dodging a tornado near Graceland with the Moody Blues, and being accused of sedition by South African security police for selling Bob Marley in Soweto, and the creation of my benefit driven forward-looking label under PolyGram — championing freedom of speech, wildlife conservation, the blind and partially sighted, and breast cancer awareness, a plague that struck my own home."
Fine has hopes that the book will prove helpful with those suffering familial distress. “A widowed friend once asked me how a man loves again without betraying the wife and children he lost,” Fine said. “This book is my answer to him — not a bid to be remembered, but proof that the silence doesn't get the last word.”
In a recent interview, the author made a point of thanking Author Arcade team for their part in the creation of the book, saying: "They were able partners in manifesting the look and feel of this memoir." The book's cover art was created by Mark Fine with Authors Arcade and THE SILENCING & THE DEVOTION is being released by the Sage & Street imprint.
Those interested in learning more about the book can visit here: http://www.markfinebooks.com
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