The Memoir and the Memoirist: Reading and Writing Personal Narrative

Memoirs

 Memoirs This list is meant to reveal the variety and the originality of the form. Memoirs discussed in the text, whether at length or briefly, are noted with an *. Before : Important Precursors 1. Anaïs Nin. The Diary of Anaïs Nin. 1931–74. Edited by Gunther Stuhlmann. 7 vols. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1966–80. 2. George Orwell. Down and Out in Paris and London. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1933. 3. Henry Miller. Tropic of Cancer. Paris: Obelisk Press, 1934; New York: Grove Press, 1961. 4. *F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Crack-Up. 1936. New York: New Directions, 1956. 5. *Virginia Woolf. “A Sketch.” 1939/40. In Moments of Being. 2nd ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985. 6. *Anne Frank. The Diary of a Young Girl. 1942–44. First published (in Dutch) 1947. First American edition 1952. New York: Doubleday, 1995. 7. Richard Wright. Black Boy. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1945. 8. Primo Levi. Survival in Auschwitz. 1947. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. 9. *John Gunther. Death Be Not Proud: A Memoir. New York: Harper & Row, 1949. larson.100-212 4/26/07 11:47 AM Page 199 10. *Alfred Kazin. A Walker in the City. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1951. 11. *Mary McCarthy. Memories of a Catholic Girlhood. New York: Harcourt, Brace,, 1957. 12. Elie Wiesel. Night. 1958. New York: Hill & Wang, 1960. 13. Carl Jung. Memories, Dreams, Reflections. New York: Random House, 1963. 14. Frank Conroy. Stop-Time. New York: Viking, 1967. 15. Willie Morris. North Toward Home. Boston: Houghton Mifflin , 1967. 16. Anne Moody. Coming of Age in Mississippi. New York: Dell, 1968. 17. J. R. Ackerley. My Father and Myself. New York: CowardMcCann , 1969. 18. *Maya Angelou. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House, 1970. 19. *Maxine Hong Kingston. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976. 20. Geoffrey Wolff. The Duke of Deception: Memories of My Father . New York: Random House, 1979. 21. Wright Morris. Will’s Boy: A Memoir. New York: Harper & Row, 1981. 22. Susan Allen Toth. Blooming: A Small-Town Girlhood. Boston: Little, Brown, 1981. 23. Russell Baker. Growing Up. New York: Congdon & Weed, 1982. 24. James McConkey. Court of Memory. New York: E. P. Dutton , 1983. 25. Eudora Welty. OneWriter’s Beginnings. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984. After  26. *Sylvia Fraser. My Father’s House. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1987.  Memoirs larson.100-212 4/26/07 11:47 AM Page 200 27. *Vivian Gornick. Fierce Attachments: A Memoir. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987. 28. *Annie Dillard. An American Childhood. New York: Harper & Row, 1987. 29. Annie Ernaux. A Woman’s Story. 1988. Translated by Tanya Leslie. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1991. 30. *Tobias Wolff. This Boy’s Life: A Memoir. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1988. 31. *Jill Ker Conway. The Road from Coorain. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. 32. John Updike. Self-Consciousness: Memoirs. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. 33. Reynolds Price. Clear Pictures: First Loves, First Guides. New York: Atheneum, 1989. 34. *Richard Rhodes. A Hole in the World: An American Boyhood . New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990. 35. *William Styron. Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness. New York: Random House, 1990. 36. *Natalie Kusz. Road Song: A Memoir. New York: HarperCollins , 1990. 37. *Bernard Cooper. Maps to Anywhere. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1990. 38. Andrew H. Malcolm. Someday: The Story of a Mother and Her Son. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991. 39. Elizabeth Swados. The Four of Us: A Family Memoir. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1991. 40. *Deborah Digges, Fugitive Spring: Coming of Age in the ’s and ’s. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991. 41. Phillip Roth. Patrimony: A True Story. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991. 42. *Annie Ernaux. Simple Passion. 1991. Translated by Tanya Leslie. New York: Ballantine, 1993. 43. Richard Selzer. Down from Troy: A Doctor Comes of Age. New York: William Morrow, 1992. Memoirs  larson.100-212 4/26/07 11:47 AM Page 201 44. Paul Monette. Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992. 45. *Anatole Broyard. Intoxicated by My Illness. New York: Clarkson Potter, 1992. 46. *Beverly Lowry. Crossed Over: A Murder, A Memoir. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. 47. Christopher Hudson. Spring Street Summer: The Search for a Lost Paradise. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. 48. Chris Orfutt. The Same River Twice: A Memoir. New...