Modern American Memoirs

The Best Writers Tell True Stories That Fascinate Not Because They Are True But Because They Are Good Stories. The People In Them Spring To Life: James Mcconkey's Stump-armed Landlord In Court Of Memory, Maxine Hong Kingston's Hilarious Aunt In The Woman Warrior, Geoffrey Wolff's Scoundrel Father In The Duke Of Deception. Their Events Are Vivid: Harry Crews, Playing As A Boy, Falls Into A Vat Of Boiling Water With A Dead Hog. Ralph Ellison Visits A Tenement To Circulate A Petition And Finds Four Coal-shovelers Discussing Grand Opera. Chris Offutt Joins A Circus As A Walrus And Watches A Tattooed Woman Swallow A Fluorescent Light. Zora Neale Hurston, Doing Anthropological Fieldwork, Runs Afoul Of A Knife-toting Jealous Woman In A Florida Juke Joint. Their Worlds Differ: Maureen Howard Practices Elocution; Frank Conroy Practices Yo-yo Tricks. A Young Navajo Herder Meets A Woman On An Arizona Hilltop; Young Cynthia Ozick Stockpiles Issues Of The Writer Magazine In Her Closet In The Bronx. Sixteen-year-old Don Asher Plays The Piano For Strippers Called The Glamazons; Statesman Henry Adams In His Sixties Plays With Magnets On His Desk. From A Childhood / Harry Crews -- From Memoir Of A Modernist's Daughter / Eleanor Munro -- From Wolf Willow / Wallace Stegner -- From Bronx Primitive / Kate Simon -- From Growing Up / Russell Baker -- From Facts Of Life / Maureen Howard -- From The Sacred Journey / Frederick Buechner -- From Fierce Attachments / Vivian Gornick -- From Confessions Of A Knife / Richard Selzer -- From Art And Ardor / Cynthia Ozick -- From A Son Of The Middle Border / Hamlin Garland -- From Stop-time / Frank Conroy -- From The Autobiography Of Malcolm X / Malcolm X -- From The Earth Is Enough / Harry Middleton -- From Clear Pictures / Reynolds Price -- From Black Boy / Richard Wright -- From This Boy's Life / Tobias Wolff -- Shoot The Piano Player / Don Asher -- From Will's Boy / Wright Morris -- From The Woman Warrior / Maxine Hong Kingston -- From Notes Of A Native Son / James Baldwin -- From This Stubborn Soil / William Owens -- From Going To The Territory / Ralph Ellison -- From The Duke Of Deception / Geoffrey Wolff -- From The Same River Twice / Chris Offutt -- From Left Handed / Left Handed -- From Coming Of Age In Mississippi / Anne Moody -- From Court Of Memory / James Mcconkey -- Who Won The West? / William Kittredge -- Replacing Memory / Barry Lopez -- From Dust Tracks On A Road / Zora Neale Hurston -- From Blackberry Winter / Margaret Mead -- From Brothers And Keepers / John Edgar Wideman -- The Star Thrower / Loren Eiseley -- From The Education Of Henry Adams / Henry Adams. Selected And Edited By Annie Dillard And Cort Conley. Includes Bibliographical References.