AN APPLE FOR MY TEACHER: Twelve Authors Tell About Teachers Who Made The Difference

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 30, 1987

A well-intentioned but predictable collection of essays in which a dozen writers, most of them from the South, pay tribute to teachers whose early encouragement apparently sparked the authors' interest in writing and led to careers that are, to a greater or lesser degree, successful and fulfilling. The major problem Rubin faced in his role as editor here was to select colleagues whose experiences were sufficiently dissimilar to lend variety and tension to the proceedings. Unfortunately, he seems to have been unable to achieve this, and an air of repetitiousness hangs over the work. Also, since most of the contributors were raised and educated in a fairly restricted geographic area of the country, their reminiscences display a certain parochialism that limits their general appeal. This volume will probably prove immensely popular with devotees and friends of the writers included but be of less interest to readers farther afield. Perhaps the best-known author represented here is Alfred Kazin, and his, not surprisingly, is one of the more satisfying essays. Recalling his years at the College of the City of New York, Kazin tells of a by-now somewhat overly familiar 1930's college world of immigrants' children, socialist unrest and a budding Jewish-American intelligentsia. He uses his material, however, as background for a pair of moving portraits of one Bird Stair, little-known today, and Mark Van Doren, whose name is still familiar and revered. By contrasting these men and their methods of instruction, Kazin comments not only on them but on the art of teaching itself. In a particularly effective closing paragraph, Kazin writes, "". . .thanks to you all, teachers dread and teachers dear, thank you all! I am what you have made me. God alone may be able to forgive you."" Among the other authors represented here are Elizabeth Spencer, John Eisenhower, Nancy Hale and John Barth. Taken individually, their offerings are often sensitive and heartfelt. It is in putting them into such a cheek-by-jowl format that editor Rubin has done them (and the reader) a disservice. The work is illustrated with 47 photographs of both the authors (then and now) and their teachers.

Pub Date: April 30, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Algonquin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1987

Categories: NONFICTION