PBS is
rebroadcasting a Ken Burns series from 2001 about Mark Twain. I watched the first episode which talks about
the influence Samuel Clemens had on American and world literature. A Missouri boy, he grew up in a town with the
right mix to fuel his imagination of the good and the bad, the prosperous and
the poor, the adventurous and the stick-close-to-home. He and his friends spent days, and sometimes
nights, on the Mississippi River, exploring, fishing, sometimes causing
trouble. Later he became a riverboat
pilot and learned the river even better.
He also observed people. When he
wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
he used all of that knowledge and experience to create a story and characters
that is historical and yet timeless in the way it tackles the issues of
friendship, slavery, racism, and loyalty.
The characters are unforgettable and the story never loses its
enjoyment.
As an early and voracious reader, I quickly
learned what kinds of books I like – ones in which something happens. I loved the Nancy Drew books, and any other
mysteries or adventure stories I could find.
Getting enough books was always a challenge. My mother didn’t drive, so visits to the
public library were rare. That meant I
had to depend on the school library – where we were allowed to check out only
one book a week. One book! A week?
I regularly read a book a day which meant I borrowed from my friends,
read my mother’s books, reread my favorites.
One of my sisters recently reminded me that the worst punishment I ever
received was when our parents wouldn’t allow me to read anything other than
textbooks until my grades improved. Oh,
the injustice of it!
I
loved biographies because learning about the lives of real people who had
accomplished things, had great adventures, and overcame hardships taught me
lessons as valuable as Math or English.
This was inspiring to me.
When I was twelve, I read To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee –
and I’ve read it at least four times since then – and much of my view of the
world was transformed. The characters,
the situations, and the challenges all made me realize there was a great deal
to the world about which I had not a clue.
That book showed me that justice isn’t always served, that good people
suffer needlessly, that prejudice is a vile poison, but that the courage and
conviction of one person can make a difference.
I’ve never forgotten what I learned from that book.
How about you? What books have inspired you?
Patricia
Forsythe is the author of many romances, both traditionally and electronically
published. Her newest book, Flirting With The Enemy, set in the quirky
town of Lucky Break, Arizona is available on Amazon.
