First Words: Earliest Writing from Favorite Contemporary Authors

by Paul Mandelbaum (Editor), Margaret Atwood, Roy Blount Jr.

Most kid write stories. A few of them grow up to be successful authors. Before Stephen King created Carrie , he created Jhonathan, at age nine. And before there was Rabbit Angstrom, there was Manuel Citarro, detective in John Updike's hard-boiled mystery, written at fourteen. Before Jurassic Park , there was young Michael Crichton's story about the mysteriously wounded man lying unattended in the street. Editor Paul Mandelbaum persuaded our most popular American authors to share their childhood writings and their treasured photographs. What he's gathered is a fascinating, delightful collection of writing and early snapshots that reveal young minds at work, wrestling with early versions of ideas that were to take hold of their writings in later years. Of course, the young Madeline L'Engle would wonder about space and the meaning of eternity. Of course, Margaret Atwood would question conventional female behavior, arguing for the right to smoke cigars. First Words is an inspiration to budding writers and enthusiastic teachers, and a revelation for readers everywhere.

Genres: Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Ruth Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the time being I'm only reading Stephen King's contribution to this book.

Jhonathan and the Witches.

King wrote this in 1956 at the age of 9 for his Aunt Gert who used to pay him a quarter per story.

You can read it here:

http://algonquin.com/blog/stephen-kin...

[Virginia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this several years ago and left it sitting out to remind me to get a few of the books mentioned that I hadn't read. Now I'm putting it on a book shelve and it will probably never be touched again (sigh).

[Virginia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the early writing was really quite interesting, and some read more like a rough draft. I would have liked more of the writers's own commentary on the pieces they submitted.

[Mary Kinietz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting comments from the editor showing the threads of early thoughts in later writing.

[Shelba Pittman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved reading the first works by some of my favorite authors. Asimov's story was my favorite. Inspired me to write a quick story for my brother and sister for their birthdays.

[Sammy McGregor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book. It was fun to see what some of the authors that I know were writing as kids. I didn't know quite a few, but I still had a good time reading their early work.

[Richard Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection of juvenilia by 22 contemporary authors. (See "Description" for list of authors.). Everyone has to start sometime. For most of these authors, it was in their teens; for others, as early as four to ten. Many entries are from diaries while others are from things as diverse as high school newspapers/yearbooks or writing competitions. Average length is four to eight pages. A favorite is William Styron's satirized version of well-known poems. On the other hand are Paul Bowle's diary entries written in newspaper headline format. Choppy and hard to read. Overall, a nice break from non-fiction.

[Drew Weatherton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a compilation of stories and poems written by now-famous authors when they were young. I was only interested in the stories by Michael Crichton (four) and Stephen King (one). I found the stories to be interesting, as well as editors' comments and references to the authors' future works.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This might be an interesting read for someone who is trying to become a writer.

[Lorene Shyba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well curated collection of quirky, mostly immature writings by people who thankfully grew up to write well.

[Brad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really loved the concept of this book, but it didn't live up to my expectations.