First Words

April 15, 2000
Both of these anthologies introduce the early writings of a number of successful writers. Breaking into Print offers short stories--many the first the authors ever published--of 17 authors well known in literary circles (such as Tim O'Brien, Mona Simpson, and Carolyn Ferrell). The stories were originally published in the prestigious Ploughshares literary magazine. Alongside these wonderful stories, editor Henry (cofounder of Ploughshares) has included what he calls "Shoptalk," small excerpts from various sources on writing issues germane to the story at hand. Perhaps even more intriguing are the occasional introductions and comments from the authors themselves on the circumstances surrounding the creation of a particular story, as well as entertaining anecdotes from Henry on how a particular story was "discovered" at Ploughshares. First Words includes authors who are more recognizable to the general public: Rita Dove, Stephen King, John Updike, and 19 others. But the most striking difference between the anthologies is the age of the authors at the time: Here we have Norman Mailer at ten, Ursula Le Guin at four, Michael Crichton at 14. This material, along with photocopies of original handwritten pages and early manuscript revisions, is quite revealing from the standpoint of literary research. Be forewarned, however: many of the selections are high school newspaper articles or childhood fantasy stories and are not the type of reading with which most people would want to curl up. Both books are recommended for all types of libraries.--Angela Weiler, SUNY at Morrisville Lib.

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