From Library Journal
Annie Dillard and publisher Cort Conley have collected excerpts from the memoirs of 35 20th-century American authors. The selections represent the best in autobiographical writing published between 1917 and 1992. Included are nine women and 26 men, both black and white, some better known than others, all distinguished writers and wonderful storytellers. Chris Offutt's "The Same River Twice" tells about the author's stint working in the circus; Anne Moody's "Coming of Age in Mississippi" describes her participation in the 1963 Woolworth sit-in. The editors precede each entry with a biographical and contextual note. There's an opening essay on the art of the memoirist and an afterword listing additional classics in the genre. This rich collection serves as an introduction to the nation's best modern writers and a primer on the American experience. Highly recommended for all libraries.?Carol A. McAllister, Coll. of William and Mary Lib., Williamsburg, Va.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
In her introduction to this anthology of well-chosen excerpts from memoirs by a satisfyingly diverse group of writers, Dillard muses on the many forms memoirs take. The author is free to interpret his or her life in any way he or she chooses. Memoirists are shrewd editorialists, leaving out entire facets of their lives--husbands, wives, siblings, bad habits, boring everydayness, outrageous behavior--anything that doesn't conform to the image they want to project. Many memoirs focus sharply on the author's childhood, that time in every life when even the most ordinary things loom menacingly or magically large. Some memoirs resemble fiction, others have the pleasing momentum of essays. Dillard and Conley have selected vibrant examples of all these approaches, showcasing the work of a distinctive and, in some cases, unexpected group of writers, including Wallace Stegner, Kate Simon, Maureen Howard, Frank Conroy, Richard Selzer, Harry Crews, Loren Eiseley, James Baldwin, Margaret Mead, and Maxine Hong Kingston. Whatever tinkering these writers may have done with the facts of their past, they've done nothing to conceal the truth of their lives which shines from every beautifully, often courageously composed page. Donna Seaman


--Booklist
"[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."


--New York Newsday
"Packed with superb writing."


Book Description
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.


From the Publisher
Compiled by Annie Dillard and publisher Cort Conley, this astonishing collection of excerpts drawn from extraordinary 20th century American memoirs delights, surprises, and enriches.


About the Author
Annie Dillard is the acclaimed author of nine books, including Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, An American Childhood, and The Living. She lives in Middletown, CT.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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 THE CRITICS

Library Journal