Twice-Told Children's Tales: The Influence of Childhood Reading on Writers for Adults (Children's Literature and Culture)

"It is only in childhood that books have any deep influence on our lives"--Graham Greene "The luminous books of our childhood will remain the luminous books of our lives."--Joyce Carol Oates Writers, as they often attest, are deeply influenced by their childhood reading. Salman Rushdie, for example, has said that The Wizard of Oz "made a writer of me." Twice-Told Tales is a collection of essays on the way the works of adult writers have been influenced by their childhood reading. This fascinating volume includes theoretical essays on Salman Rushdie and the Oz books, "Beauty and the Beast" retold as Jane Eyre, the childhood reading of Jorge Luis Borges, and the remnants of nursery rhymes in Sylvia Plath's poetry. It is supplemented with a number of brief commentaries on children's books by major creative writers, including Maxine Hong Kingston and Maxine Kumin. Twice-told Children's Tales Combines Scholarly Essays On The Childhood Reading Of Writers For Adults With Specially Commissioned Essays And Anecdotes On Childhood Reading By Major Children's Book Authors, Novelists, And Poets. This Collection Demonstrates How Literary Works Once So Important To A Child Can Be Used By The Adult Writer To Create Something New Yet Old, To Use The Tradition To Become Part Of The Tradition, As T. S. Eliot Says, To Create Something Recognizable But Transformed.--book Jacket. A Child's-eye Reading Of Mark Twain / Madison Smartt Bell -- Borges And Georgie : Childhood Reading, Adult Writing, And The Shape Of The Latin American Fantastic / Kimberly A. Nance -- A Lonely Impulse Of Delight : One Reader's Childhood / Dana Gioia -- All The Stuff / Antonya Nelson -- Taking Flight : A Retrospect On Booking Passage / Ira Sadoff -- Bad Habits / Lee K. Abbott -- A Writer On The Yellow Brick Road : Salman Rushdie's Ozian Inspirations / Justyna Deszcz-tryhubczak -- The Pudding, The Witch, And The Titan / Sabina Murray -- Fantastic Fellow-travelers / X.j. Kennedy -- Grains Of Truth In The Wildest Fable : Beauty And The Beast Retold As Jane Eyre / Christine Butterworth-mcdermott -- Pictures First / Barry Unsworth -- Essential And Eternal / Penelope Lively -- Silver Chief / John Mcphee -- Higgledy Piggledy, Gobbledygoo : The Rotted Residue Of Nursery Rhyme In Sylvia Plath's Poetry / Luanne Castle -- Corrupting Children / W.d. Snodgrass -- Cuentos / Rudolfo Anaya -- Ineradicable Echoes / Charles Wright -- Wonders Wild And New : Lewis Carroll's Alice Books And Postmodern Women Writers / Carolyn Sigler -- Dreamhouse Revisited / Alison Habens -- Mapping The Soupsweet Land : King Solomon's Mines In Graham Greene's The Heart Of The Matter / Hope Howell Hodgkins -- Sheba's Breasts / D.m. Thomas -- E. Nesbit And Primrose Cumming / Maxine Kumin -- Punch Reads Aunt Judy : Kipling, Ewing, And The Uses Of Children's Literature / Judith A. Plotz -- Three Men In A Boat / Andrei Codrescu -- Cowboys And Poets / C.k. Williams -- Transmutations Of Folktale And School Story In A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man / Jacqueline L. Gmuca -- Dear Jade Snow / Maxine Hong Kingston -- From The Salty Unconscious Of The Sea / Sandra Alcosser. Edited By Betty Greenway. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company