Modern American Memoirs

An excellent sampling of earlier memoirs. Admittedly a bit dated only because the folks that were focused on were all from the 20th century, a time now fading away, along with the Baby Boom generation and our collective experiences. For me it was an important find as it introduced me to a number of memoirists that I had not come across previously. These authors and their works are a part of the basis for the modern memoir form, and are a bit more formal but often still experimental in their time. I hope that makes sense to whoever is reading this.

Each chapter of this book is from a different memoir by American writers, curated by Annie Dillard and Curt Conley. I read to help me choose a couple of memoirs to put on my reading list and because I was so pleased to have the recommendations of Annie Dillard, an outstanding memoir writer herself. Almost every chapter was vividly written and drew me into the writer's experience despite the fact that each was only a short portion of a longer work. I'm putting Zora Neale Hurston and Margaret Mead onto my reading list, as I found their chapters particularly compelling.

Good selection of readings, and useful for discussion of the memoir and autobiographical forms. There's not much else I can say about it, as the readings are quite diverse and varied.