"Writers welcome a literary president-elect" is an interesting piece on Obama's connection with America's writers and literary set (a.k.a. the literary elite ;o). It was written by Hillel Italie, an AP National Writer.
An excerpt:
NEW YORK – Last winter, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison received a phone call from Sen. Barack Obama, then the underdog to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Obama had contacted Morrison to ask for her support. But before they got into politics, the author and the candidate had a little chat about literature.
"He began to talk to me about one of the books I had written, `Song of Solomon,' and how it had meant a lot to him," Morrison said in a postelection interview from her office at Princeton University, where for years she has taught creative writing.
"And I had read his first book ('Dreams From My Father'). I was astonished by his ability to write, to think, to reflect, to learn and turn a good phrase. I was very impressed. This was not a normal political biography."
For Morrison and others, the election of Obama matters not because he will be the first black president or because the vast majority of writers usually vote for Democrats. Writers welcome Obama as a peer, a thinker, a man of words — his own words.
I recommend the article, attainable by the link in the first sentence.
An excerpt:
NEW YORK – Last winter, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison received a phone call from Sen. Barack Obama, then the underdog to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Obama had contacted Morrison to ask for her support. But before they got into politics, the author and the candidate had a little chat about literature.
"He began to talk to me about one of the books I had written, `Song of Solomon,' and how it had meant a lot to him," Morrison said in a postelection interview from her office at Princeton University, where for years she has taught creative writing.
"And I had read his first book ('Dreams From My Father'). I was astonished by his ability to write, to think, to reflect, to learn and turn a good phrase. I was very impressed. This was not a normal political biography."
For Morrison and others, the election of Obama matters not because he will be the first black president or because the vast majority of writers usually vote for Democrats. Writers welcome Obama as a peer, a thinker, a man of words — his own words.
I recommend the article, attainable by the link in the first sentence.
This June 8, 2007 file photo shows Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison pauses during a Radcliffe Day annual luncheon in Cambridge, Mass. For Morrison and others, the election of Obama matters not only because he will be the first black president or because the vast majority of writers usually vote for Democrats. Writers welcome Obama as a peer, a thinker, a man of words, his own words.(AP Photo/Lisa Poole, FILE)
No comments:
Post a Comment