Life Writing

by Horner, Winifred Bryan

• ISBN13: 9780130792372
• ISBN10: 0130792373
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-12-10
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

In readings that move from personal diaries and personal letters through autobiography and biography that assumes a public readership, and finally to the essay, the reader is led through an ever-widening audience. Starting with pieces that draw entirely on the writer's life to biography requiring research into another person's life, the reader moves from subjective to objective experience and finally to the essay that attempts to put that experience into a larger context. The selections are followed by "Musings" which suggest features of the writing that the reader might imitate and recommendations for writing. "Connections" presents ways in which individual pieces might be paired with others to make interesting comparisons and to generate other writing ideas.A range of familiar and unfamiliar selections are organized from the subjective to the objective and become increasingly difficult. They present a wide range of writing styles to allow readers to become comfortable with many styles. In addition, these selections represent a variety of cultures and historical periods to give readers an appreciation of other cultures and a sense of history.A valuable book for any reader who wishes to improve their writing skills by reading a variety of selections by a range of writers.

Table of Contents

Preface	iii
Introduction	1	(2)
Connections	3	(6)
Journals and Diaries: Keeping a Daily Record	9	(62)
On Keeping a Notebook	14	(6)
Joan Didion
A Voyage of Discovery	20	(7)
Christopher Columbus
My House in the Woods	27	(7)
Henry David Thoreau
Diary of a Civil War Soldier	34	(5)
W. P. Winans
The Mormon Migration	39	(4)
Priscilla Merriman Evans
Passing Thoughts	43	(4)
Sherwood Anderson
The Bombing of London	47	(6)
Virginia Woolf
A Visit with Jody	53	(3)
May Sarton
Down the River with Thoreau	56	(9)
Edward Abbey
The Diary of a Young Girl	65	(6)
Anne Frank
Letters: Communicating with Another	71	(76)
On Inoculation with Smallpox	76	(4)
Voltaire
Earl of Chesterfield, Letters to His Son	80	(9)
Philip Dormer Stanhope
The Emancipation Proclamation	89	(6)
Abraham Lincoln
A Trip on Horseback	95	(9)
Elinore Rupert Stewart
Chhatarpur, Central India	104	(8)
E. M. Forster
Letter from Africa	112	(5)
Isak Dinesen
Walden	117	(7)
E. B. White
Letter from Birmingham Jail	124	(15)
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Between Sisters: An E-Mail Exchange	139	(8)
Denise Stodola
Sandy Rubinstein
Autobiography: Composing the Self	147	(66)
Confessions of an English Opium Eater	151	(6)
Thomas De Quincey
An Early Woman Doctor	157	(5)
Bethenia Owens-Adair
An Indian Woman Looks Back	162	(5)
Sarah Winnemucca
Looking Things Over	167	(5)
Zora Neale Hurston
Books Are My Alma Mater	172	(5)
Malcolm X
Where I Come From Is Like This	177	(7)
Paula Gunn Allen
The Beast in the Jungle	184	(8)
Arthur Ashe
A Public Language	192	(9)
Richard Rodriguez
Arrival in Vietnam	201	(6)
Tim O'Brien
Talking Back	207	(6)
Bell Hooks
Biography: Writing a Life	213	(62)
Black Elk: The Butchering at Wounded Knee	217	(8)
John Neihardt
The Delany Sisters: Jim Crow Laws	225	(6)
Sarah
Elizabeth Delany with
Amy Hill Hearth
Richard Hickock: In Cold Blood	231	(7)
Truman Capote
Gloria Steinem: The Transforming Interlude	238	(7)
Carolyn G. Heilbrun
Leonard Bernstein: Beginnings for a Musical Genius	245	(5)
Joan Peyser
No Name Woman: My Aunt	250	(5)
Maxine Hong Kingston
Zora Neale Hurston: Before Her Time	255	(4)
Alice Walker
Daniel Boone: The Rescue	259	(6)
John Mack Faragher
Dian Fossey: Among the Great Apes	265	(6)
Sy Montgomery
Stevie Wonder: Music Is His Life	271	(4)
Giles Smith
The Essay: Reflecting on The World	275	(66)
Once More to the Lake	279	(7)
E. B. White
A Hanging	286	(5)
George Orwell
The Brown Wasps	291	(7)
Loren Eiseley
Lincoln Up Close	298	(7)
Gore Vidal
A Mask on the Face of Death	305	(12)
Richard Selzer
On Going Home	317	(4)
Joan Didion
The Fixed	321	(6)
Annie Dillard
Straightening Our Hair	327	(8)
Bell Hooks
Mother Tongue	335	(6)
Amy Tan
Credits	341	(2)
Index of Authors and Titles	343