Larry in the Square at Oxford; Photo by Hubert Worley
Larry Brown wrote a most earnest essay on his aspirations to be a writer. I am not sure if it has been published before, but Sonny Brewer has included in his new book, Don’t Quit Your Day Job: Aspiring Authors and the Day Jobs They Quit.
Reading Larry Brown’s essay, I got all teary eyed and it reminded me of why I love to read so much. The essay should be read in its entirety in one sitting, but enjoy this excerpt from a much loved writer whose impact on southern literature will not be forgotten.
“It took me a long time to understand what literature was, and why it was so hard to write, and what it could do to you once you understood it. For me, very simply it meant that I could meet people on the page who were as real as the people I knew in my life. They were real people, as far as I was concerned, not just characters. Even though they were only words on paper , they were as real to me as my wife and children. And when I saw that, it was like a curtain fell away from my eyes. I saw that the greatest rewards could be had from the printed page came from literature, and that to be able to write it was the highest form of writing.”
“All of my work comes out of Mississippi, out of the dirt roads and the woods and the fields I drive my truck by. The people who live in this land are the people I’ve known best throughout my life, and together with the country we live in, they form a vast well that will never run dry.” (57)
Editor Sonny Brewer will have a signing and reading for Don’t Quit Your Day Job on Wednesday, December 1st.
Click here to read an excerpt from Pat Conroy. And here to read one from John Grisham.
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