My favorite books of my childhood include "Mike Mulligan And His Steamshovel," and "Three Young Rats," which was illustrated by Alexander Calder. I was a big Dr. Seuss fan, and what child wasn't? I was also fascinated as a small child by an art book on "African Folktales And Sculpture" my mother used to show me, along with the photographic classic "The Family Of Man." "The Fireside Book Of Folksongs" was always at the piano, and my mother used to sing out of it to my sister and I. The first novel that really affected me emotionally was Steinbeck's "Of Mice And Men." I read it when I was 13, and cried like a baby. I read Floyd Patterson's autobiography "Victory Over Myself" when I was in the 6th grade, and it sparked a lifelong interest in boxing, as well as being an absorbing and poignant account of his personal struggles while growing up. In the past ten to fifteen years, Stan Hugill's "Shanties From The Seven Seas" has been very influential. A personal account of WWII central Pacific island fighting, "With The Old Breed: At Peleliu And Okinawa" by Eugene Sledge is one of the most harrowing and deeply affecting books I've ever read. "Three lives For Mississippi" by William Bradford Huie, an account of Goodman/Chaney/Schwerner, is one I've read and re-read over the years. "Gandhi: His Relevance For Our Times" which I read when I was 21, started me on my interest in nonviolent action. My life would be less enriched if I'd never read those books.
Chanteyranger