Annie Dillard
A coming-of-age memoir, An American Childhood (1987) is a child’s reflection of growing up in Pittsburgh in the ‘50s, with the nostalgia of apparently innocent times within the family and neighbourhood community, coupled with the government-imposed fears of atomic-bomb fallout, the Cold War, and the insidious divisions created by Joseph McCarthy.
More by Annie Dillard
The Maytrees. 2007. [Fiction]
For the Time Being. 1999. [Narrative nonfiction]
Modern American Memoirs. 1996. [An anthology edited by Annie Dillard and Cort Conley]
Mornings Like This. 1995. [Poetry]
The Annie Dillard Reader. 1994. [Selections]
The Living. 1992. [Fiction]
The Writing Life. 1989. [Narrative nonfiction, revised in 1998]
Encounters with Chinese Writers. 1984. [Journalistic writings]
Living by Fiction. 1982. [Literary theory]
Holy the Firm. 1977. [Narrative nonfiction]
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. 1974. [Narrative nonfiction]
Tickets for a Prayer Wheel. 1974. [Poetry]
About Annie Dillard
Official Web Site
Unofficial Web Site
Articles
Bowman, David. “Nature Girl,” Salon Brilliant Careers, 1999.
Cantwell, Mary, “A Pilgrim’s Progress,” The New York Times on the Web, April 26, 1992.
Interviews
Langstaff, Peggy, “When the West Was New: Annie Dillard’s ‘The Living,” BookPage, April, 1992.
Rose, Daniel Asa. “In Conversation…with Annie Dillard,” The Washington Post, June 24, 2007.
Suh, Grace, “Ideas Are Tough, Irony Is Easy”
@Herald, October 4, 1996.
Discussion Guides for An American Childhood
Constant Reader.com
The Story Circle Network, Austin Chapter
Awards for An American Chlldhood
National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography/Autobiography, finalist, 1987.
Reviews of An American Childhood
Matherne, Bobby. [Review]
A Reader’s Journal, Vol. 2, 2002.
Perrin, Noel, “Her Inexhaustable Mind,” The New York Times on the Web, September 27, 1987.
Small, Evelyn, presenter
The Washington Post Book Club, August 1, 2004.
Natural History
With the discovery of Ann Morgan’s Field Book of Ponds and Streams: An Introduction to the Life in Fresh Water, Dillard became very interested in exploring her community for evidence of natural history.
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History [Dillard spent a lot of time here, drawing and learning.]
Gould, Stephen Jay. Reflections in Natural History series. 1977-2000.
Lawson, Mary. Crow Lake. 2002. [Dillard did not know where to find a pond in Pittsburgh; in Lawson’s Crow Lake, there is a wonderful pond teeming with life, as the protagonist discovers under her brother’s tutelage.]
Rowell, Galen. North America the Beautiful. 2006.
Sargent, William. Writing Naturally: A Memoir. 2006.
The ‘50s
Dillard describes the social mores of Pittsburgh during the fifties, particularly with reference to the roles of women in post-war America. She especially admired certain women who stepped out of their prescribed roles.
The American Dream: The 50’s (Time-Life Books. Our American Century series). 1997.
Dreishpoon, Douglas and Alan Trachtenberg. The Tumultuous Fifties: A View from the New York Times Photo Archives. 2001.
Harvey, Brett. The Fifties: A Women’s Oral History. 1993.
Munro, Alice. Lives of Girls and Women. 1971. [Fiction]
How Women in the 50s were depicted in film and television—a film studies course:
Pittsburgh’s History
Dillard begins her story with Pittsburgh’s story, going as far back in time as the first survey of the point where the two rivers meet, a survey conducted by George Washington.
Goran, Lester. Tales from the Irish Club: A Collection of Short Stories. 1996. [Pittsburgh in the first half of the twentieth century.]
Graham, Laurie. Singing the City: The Bonds of Home in an Industrial Landscape. 1998.
Lorant, Stefan. Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City. 1964.
O’Meara, Walter. Guns at the Forks. 1979.
Standiford, Les. Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Transformed America. 2005.
Books Dillard Refers to in Her Memoir (most of which she read)
Because Dillard was such an avid reader, and because books were so important to her for opening up her world (cf. article below), we decided to list all the titles she refers to.
[An extrapolation from An American Childhood of Dillard’s thoughts on the subject of books and reading]
Children’s Titles
Gipson, Fred. Old Yeller
Sidney, Margaret. The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
Terhune, Albert Payson. Lad, a Dog
Nonfiction
Nature/Science
Carson, Rachel. The Edge of the Sea
De Kruif, Paul. The Microbe Hunters
Morgan, Ann Haven. Field Book of Ponds and Streams: an Introduction to the Life in Fresh Water
Pough, Frederick H. A Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden
Other Nonfiction
Adams, Henry. The Education of Henry Adams
Augustine, Saint. Confessions
Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams
Hersey, John. Hiroshima
Korzybski, Alfred. General Semantics
Lawson, Ted. W. Thirty Seconds over Tokyo
Murphy, Audie. To Hell and Back
Nicolaides, Kimon. The Natural Way to Draw
Packard, Vance. The Hidden Persuaders
Packard, Vance. The Status Seekers
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Confessions
Starkie, Enid. Arthur Rimbaud
Twain, Mark. The Innocents Abroad
Twain, Mark. Life on the Mississippi
Other Mentions
Books by Henry Miller, Helen Keller, Thomas Hardy, John Updike, Ralph Waldo Emerson
Poetry by Li Po, Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon
Magazines: Mud, Life, Look, Time
Fiction
Beach, Edward L. Run Silent, Run Deep
Boulle, Pierre. The Bridge over the River Kwai
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White
Conrad, Joseph. Lord Jim
Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe
Dickens, Charles. The Pickwick Papers
Dumas, Alexandre. The Count of Monte Cristo
Dumas, Alexandre. The Three Musketeers
Eliot, George. The Mill on the Floss
Hall, James and Charles Nordhoff. The Bounty Trilogy
Hardy, Thomas. Jude the Obscure
Hersey, John. The Wall
Johnson, Samuel. The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abissinia
Johnston, Mary. Sweet Rocket
Jones, James. From Here to Eternity
Jones, James. Some Came Running
Joyce, James. Ulysses
Kerouac, Jack. On the Road
Lederer, William J. and Eugene Burdick. The Ugly American
Mailer, Norman. The Naked and the Dead
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick
Michener, James. Tales of the South Pacific
Miller, Walter M., Jr. A Canticle for Leibowitz
Mitchell, Margaret. Gone with the Wind
Selinko, Annemarie. Désirée
Shaw, Irwin. The Young Lions
Shute, Nevil. On the Beach
Stevenson, R. L. Kidnapped
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels
Uris, Leon. Exodus
Uris, Leon. Mila 18
Wolfe, Thomas. Look Homeward Angel
Wouk, Herman. The Caine Mutiny
Wright, Richard. Native Son
(Created with the help of the Oshawa Workshop participants. All Web sites accessed June, 2007.
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