When the Century Was Young: A Writer's Notebook

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In this graceful memoir, Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee , offers quiet, warmhearted anecdotes about his youth in the South and his early evolution as a writer. Born in 1908, he was five when his family moved to Stephens, Ala. It was a quiet town, but by the time Brown was 12, the discovery of oil had turned Stephens into a haven for flimflam artists whom he learned to ape. His schoolteacher grandmother, however, so pricked his taste for print, that young Dee scraped together $25 to buy a hand printing press. Almost inevitably, it seems, he began to write, selling his first adventure story at 17. He learned journalism at a small-town Arkansas paper a year later, and, after acquiring his passion for the West from his favorite professor at Arkansas State Teachers College, he wrote his first western in 1942. The memoir ends in the '50s, thereby missing Brown's mature writing career, which is mentioned only in an epilogue. Photos not seen by PW. (Sept.)

Library Journal

Brown, the acclaimed author of Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow (Audio Reviews, LJ 1/92) and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (Audio Reviews, LJ 1/93), gives the listener a wealth of personal reminiscences about growing up in Arkansas in the 1920s. These excerpts from his first autobiographical work convey the excitement of the oil boom in a sleepy village through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy; describe a good landing of a Curtiss Jenny airplane (the ``heroes'' walked away); recall the former value of a dollar; and much more. Later episodes touch on the author's pursuit of a career as a printer and fledgling journalist. Throughout, one is reminded of simpler, more rugged times when a journey of 20 miles was an adventure by train, car, or foot. Brown's reading gives the listener an interesting and humorous personal overview of those times. Recommended for general collections.-- Cliff Glaviano, Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., Ohio

Alice Joyce

The respected, even revered writer of "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" records the innocence of life in early-twentieth-century small-town America as he conjures up memories of his childhood in Arkansas. Brown's memoir is rich with reminiscences reflecting the writer's warm nature and generous spirit. From his earliest recollections--the excitement of purchasing his first hardbound book--there is vivid evidence of the future author's calling. As he traces his development as a writer, the many anecdotes describing his years of study and early professional life as a librarian are suffused with an appealing candor and enthusiasm. For Brown's fans, this journal may well be the next best thing to having a fireside chat with the man himself.