Teens - Biography, Women's Biography, United States Studies, US & Canadian Literary Biography, Literary Figures - Women's Biography
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Overview
A book that instantly captured the hearts of readers across the country, An American Childhood is Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard's poignant, vivid memoir of growing up in Pittsburgh in the 1950s.
Synopsis
A book that instantly captured the hearts of readers across the country, An American Childhood is Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard's poignant, vivid memoir of growing up in Pittsburgh in the 1950s.
Newark Star-Ledger
[An American Childhood] combines the child's sense of wonder with the adult's intelligence and is written in some of the finest prose that exists in contemporary America. It is a special sort of memoir that is entirely successful. . . This new book is [Annie Dillard's] best, a joyous ode to her own happy childhood.
Editorials
New York Times
A remarkable work...an exceptionally interesting account.Los Angeles Times
Loving and lyrical, nostalgic without being wistful, this is a book about the capacity for joy.Newark Star-Ledger
[An American Childhood] combines the child's sense of wonder with the adult's intelligence and is written in some of the finest prose that exists in contemporary America. It is a special sort of memoir that is entirely successful...This new book is [Annie Dillard's] best, a joyous ode to her own happy childhood.Philadelphia Inquirer
The reader who can't find something to whoop about is not alive. An American Childhood is perhaps the best American autobiography since Russell Baker's Growing Up.Boston Globe
By turns wry, provocative and sometimes breathtaking...This is a work marked by exquisite insight.St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Every paragraph Dillard writes is full of information, presenting the mundane with inventive freshness and offering exotic surprises as dessert...[Annie Dillard] is one of nature's prize wonders herself—an example of sentient homo sapiens pushing the limits of the creative imagination. She deserves our close attentions.Charlotte Observer
An American Childhood shimmers with the same rich detail, the same keen and often wry observations as her first book [Pilgrim at Tinker Creek].Chicago Sun-Times
A vivid and thoughtful evocation of particular personal experiences that have an exuberantly timeless appeal.Chicago Tribune
An American Childhood does all this so consummately with Annie Dillard's `50s childhood in Pittsburgh that it more than takes the reader's breath away. It consumes you as you consume it, so that, when you have put down this book, you're a different person, one who has virtually experiences another childhood.Philadelphia Inquirer
The reader who can't find something to whoop about is not alive. An American Childhood is perhaps the best American autobiography since Russell Baker's Growing Up.Chicago Sun-Times
A vivid and thoughtful evocation of particular personal experiences that have an exuberantly timeless appeal.Boston Globe
By turns wry, provocative and sometimes breathtaking…This is a work marked by exquisite insight.Charlotte Observer
An American Childhood shimmers with the same rich detail, the same keen and often wry observations as her first book [Pilgrim at Tinker Creek].Newark Star-Ledger
[An American Childhood] combines the child's sense of wonder with the adult's intelligence and is written in some of the finest prose that exists in contemporary America. It is a special sort of memoir that is entirely successful…This new book is [Annie Dillard's] best, a joyous ode to her own happy childhood.Los Angeles Times
Loving and lyrical, nostalgic without being wistful, this is a book about the capacity for joy.Chicago Tribune
An American Childhood…more than takes the reader's breath away. It consumes you as you consume it, so that, when you have put down this book, you're a different person, one who has virtually experienced another childhood.San Francisco Chronicle
A charming and delightful reminiscence that helps cement Annie Dillard's reputation as one of our major writers.St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Every paragraph Dillard writes is full of information, presenting the mundane with inventive freshness and offering exotic surprises as desser…[Annie Dillard] is one of nature's prize wonders herself—an example of sentient homo sapiens pushing the limits of the creative imagination. She deserves our close attention.New York Times
A remarkable work. . . an exceptionally interesting account.Newark Star-Ledger
[An American Childhood] combines the child's sense of wonder with the adult's intelligence and is written in some of the finest prose that exists in contemporary America. It is a special sort of memoir that is entirely successful. . . This new book is [Annie Dillard's] best, a joyous ode to her own happy childhood.Philadelphia Inquirer
The reader who can't find something to whoop about is not alive. An American Childhood is perhaps the best American autobiography since Russell Baker's Growing Up.Boston Globe
By turns wry, provocative and sometimes breathtaking. . . This is a work marked by exquisite insight.St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Every paragraph Dillard writes is full of information, presenting the mundane with inventive freshness and offering exotic surprises as dessert. . . [Annie Dillard] is one of nature's prize wonders herself—an example of sentient homo sapiens pushing the limits of the creative imagination. She deserves our close attentions.Charlotte Observer
An American Childhood shimmers with the same rich detail, the same keen and often wry observations as her first book [Pilgrim at Tinker Creek].Chicago Sun-Times
A vivid and thoughtful evocation of particular personal experiences that have an exuberantly timeless appeal.Chicago Tribune
An American Childhood does all this so consummately with Annie Dillard's `50s childhood in Pittsburgh that it more than takes the reader's breath away. It consumes you as you consume it, so that, when you have put down this book, you're a different person, one who has virtually experiences another childhood.Book Details
Published
September 1, 1988
Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers
Pages
272
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780060915186