Writers and Their Teachers

Description

By turns reflective, entertaining and moving, this book reveals how some of the most influential and best loved writers of our time were shaped by their inspirational teachers. Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee, Margaret Drabble, Stephen Greenblatt, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Andrew Motion, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina and Paul Theroux are among the twenty contributors of original essays to this landmark volume celebrating masters of the teaching profession. What makes a good teacher? What lights the writer’s creative fire? How can the teacher shape the writer? This book answers these questions and more, describing the powerful influence of mentors at an impressionable time of life, portraying the heart-warming transition from pupil to friend, and exploring the lasting impact that truly great teachers can have on their students. To have teachers who care, and to have such notable writers capture their spirit, is ample reason to read Dale Salwak’s elegant celebration of the ‘noble profession’ and the world-renowned writers that it helped to hone. Cover Halftitle page Title page Copyright page Dedication CONTENTS NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS PREFACE PART ONE School 1 Teachers We Remember: Gerrit Gouws J. M. Coetzee NOTES 2 Mabel Morrill Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina 3 Learning Curve Catherine Aird 4 A Way with Words Michael Scammell 5 Peter Way Andrew Motion 6 My Grandfather and My Other Teachers Ng˜ug˜ı wa Thiong’o 7 Il Miglior Fabbro George Howe Colt PART TWO College 8 The Perilous Balance of Marvin Eisenberg Jeffrey Meyers NOTE 9 W. Edward Brown: Many Years of Mentoring Jay Parini 10 David Milch and the Strategies of Indirection in Fiction William Logan PART THREE Graduate School and After 11 My Doktorvater: Alvin Kernan Stephen Greenblatt 12 A Far Cry from Oxbridge Margaret Drabble 13 The Right Words Carl Rollyson 14 Remembering Allen Mandelbaum Paul Mariani 15 Sketch of a Professor: Roger Gilliatt Michael J. Aminoff 16 How Lucky I Was . . . Ann Thwaite 17 J. P. Stern: The Professor from Prague Daniel Johnson 18 George Steiner: Enchantment and Dissent Robert Boyers 19 Class Struggle: Donald Davie at Stanford Dana Gioia 20 V. S. Naipaul, the Drill Sergeant Paul Theroux INDEX