I want to throw a starving man a turkey
Tomorrow’s the birthday of poet and novelist Louise Erdrich born in Little Falls,Minnesota (1954). She’s best known for her series of four books that follow three generations of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota during the twentieth century. She grew up on the plains of North Dakota. Her father was of German descent and her mother was a Chippewa Indian. They encouraged her writing right from the beginning: Her father gave her a nickel for every story she wrote, and her mother wove together strips of construction paper to make book covers for them. Erdrich later said,”At an early age, I felt myself to be a published author earning substantial royalties.”
It’s also the birthday of novelist Harry Crews born in Bacon County,
Georgia (1935). He’s the author of many novels, including The Gypsy’s Curse (1977), Body (1990), and Celebration (1997). He grew up on a series of farms in one of the poorest parts of Georgia. He said the only reason he knew that there was a world outside of rural Georgia was through books. When he was 17 he volunteered for the Marines. He went off to fight in Korea, and it was there that he got his real education, reading whatever books he could get his hands on. He later said, “When I got to my first duty station and walked into the base library, it was like throwing a starving man a turkey. I did my time in the Corps with a book always at hand.”
That’s why I want to be a librarian.
(Apologies to WRITER’S ALMANAC.)