Synopses & Reviews
Chapter 1. "A Childhood (Harry Crews)
Chapter 2. "Memoir of a Modernist's Daughter (Eleanor Munro)
Chapter 3. "Wolf Willow (Wallace Stegner)
Chapter 4. "Bronx Primitive (Kate Simon)
Chapter 5. "Growing Up (Russell Baker)
Chapter 6. "Facts of Life (Maureen Howard)
Chapter 7. "The Sacred Journey (Frederick Buechner)
Chapter 8. "Fierce Attachments (Vivian Gornick)
Chapter 9. "Confessions of a Knife (Richard Selzer)
Chapter 10. "Art and Ardor (Cynthia Ozick)
Chapter 11. "A Son of the Middle Border (Hamlin Garland)
Chapter 12. "Stop-Time (Frank Conroy)
Chapter 13. "The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Malcolm X)
Chapter 14. "The Earth Is Enough (Harry Middleton)
Chapter 15. "Clear Pictures (Reynolds Price)
Chapter 16. "Black Boy (Richard Wright)
Chapter 17. "This Boy's Life (Tobias Wolff)
Chapter 18. "Shoot the Piano Player (Don Asher)
Chapter 19. "Wills Boy (Wright Morris)
Chapter 20. "The Woman Warrior (Maxine Hong Kingston)
Chapter 21. "Notes of a Native Son (James Baldwin)
Chapter 22. "This Stubborn Soil (William Owens)
Chapter 23. "Going to the Territory (Ralph Ellison)
Chapter 24. "The Duke of Deception (Geoffrey Wolff)
Chapter 25. "The Same River Twice (Chris Offutt)
Chapter 26. "Left Handed, Left Handed
Chapter 27. "Coming of Age in Mississippi (Anne Moody)
Chapter 28. "Court of Memory (James McConkey)
Chapter 29. "Who Owns the West? (William Kittredge)
Chapter 30. "Replacing Memory (Barry Lopez)
Chapter 31. "Dust Tracks on a Road (Zora Neale Hurston)
Chapter 32. "Blackberry Winter (Margaret Mead)
Chapter 33. "Brothers and Keepers (John Edgar Wideman)
Chapter34. "The Star Thrower (Loren Eiseley)
Chapter 35. "The Education of Henry Adams (Henry Adams)
Synopsis
In Modern American Memoirs, two very discerning writers and readers have selected samples from 35 of the finest memoirs written in this century, including contributions by such diverse writers as Margaret Mead, Malcolm X, Maxine Hong Kingston, Loren Eisely, and Zora Neale Hurston. Chosen for their value as excellent examples of the art of biography as well as for their superb writing, the excerpts present a broad range of American life, and offer vivid insight into the real-life events that shaped their authors. Here, readers can learn about the time when Harry Crews, playing as a boy, fell into a vat of boiling water with a dead hog; Chris Offutt joined the circus and watched a tattooed woman swallow a fluorescent light; and Frank Conroy practiced yo-yo tricks.
Synopsis
Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Dillard and Cort Conley present a rich collection of excerpts drawn from the memoirs of 35 extraordinary 20th-century American writers, including contributions by such diverse writers as Margaret Mead, Malcolm X, Maxine Hong Kingston, Loren Eiseley, and Zora Neale Hurston. The selections are chosen for their value as examples of the art of biography as well as for their superb writing.
--New York Newsday
Synopsis
In] this anthology of well-chosen excerpts by a satisfyingly diverse group of writers....the truth of their lives shines from every beautifully, often courageously composed page.-- Booklist
"Packed with superb writing." -- New York Newsday
Modern American Memoirs is a sampling from 35 quintessential 20th century memoirs, including contributions from Margaret Mead, Malcolm X, Maxine Hong Kingston, Loren Eisely, and Zora Neale Hurston. Supremely written and excellent examples of the art of biography, these excerpts present a beautifully wide range of American life.
About the Author
Annie Dillard is the author of ten books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winner Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, as well as An American Childhood, The Living, and Mornings Like This. She is a member of the Academy of Arts and Letters and has received fellowship grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Born in 1945 in Pittsburgh, Dillard attended Hollins College in Virginia. After living for five years in the Pacific Northwest, she returned to the East Coast, where she lives with her family.