Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Elizabeth D. Samet received her BA from Harvard and her PhD in English literature from Yale. She is the author of Willing Obedience: Citizens, Soldiers, and the Progress of Consent in America, 17761898 and Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point. Samet has been an English professor at West Point for over ten years.
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Is it possible to be a good writer without being a good reader?
I don't believe so. Many good writers start out as good readers; others I know
have had to work hard to become better readers. At some stage in almost every
writer's quest to improve reading becomes a central pursuit.
Have you ever belonged to a reading group?
I have never belonged to a reading group per se, but for as long as I can
remember I have been involved in more or less formal communities of readers--at
home and at school. At first it was my mother, who constantly read books with
and to me. Now my reading community consists largely of students and former
students, whose insights enrich my perspective on new and familiar books.
What book(s) are you reading now or planning to read?
I usually have several books going at once. Just now the list includes
The Letters of Noël Coward, edited by Barry Day; Félix Fénéon's Novels in
Three Lines; Jonathan Spence's new history, Return to Dragon Mountain:
Memories of a Late Ming Man; and, yet again, Charles Dickens's Great
Expectations.
If you were stuck on a deserted island and could only bring one book with you
to read, what would it be and why?
The ...
Everywhere I go, I am asked if I think the university stifles writers...
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
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