When the Century Was Young [Paperback]

Dee Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1994

The author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee describes his life from his first job as a delivery boy and his adolescent career in mail-order fraud, to his stint in journalism and his participation in World War II. Reprint.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this graceful memoir, Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee , offers quiet, warmhearted anecdotes about his youth in the South and his early evolution as a writer. Born in 1908, he was five when his family moved to Stephens, Ala. It was a quiet town, but by the time Brown was 12, the discovery of oil had turned Stephens into a haven for flimflam artists whom he learned to ape. His schoolteacher grandmother, however, so pricked his taste for print, that young Dee scraped together $25 to buy a hand printing press. Almost inevitably, it seems, he began to write, selling his first adventure story at 17. He learned journalism at a small-town Arkansas paper a year later, and, after acquiring his passion for the West from his favorite professor at Arkansas State Teachers College, he wrote his first western in 1942. The memoir ends in the '50s, thereby missing Brown's mature writing career, which is mentioned only in an epilogue. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Brown, the acclaimed author of Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow (Audio Reviews, LJ 1/92) and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (Audio Reviews, LJ 1/93), gives the listener a wealth of personal reminiscences about growing up in Arkansas in the 1920s. These excerpts from his first autobiographical work convey the excitement of the oil boom in a sleepy village through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy; describe a good landing of a Curtiss Jenny airplane (the "heroes" walked away); recall the former value of a dollar; and much more. Later episodes touch on the author's pursuit of a career as a printer and fledgling journalist. Throughout, one is reminded of simpler, more rugged times when a journey of 20 miles was an adventure by train, car, or foot. Brown's reading gives the listener an interesting and humorous personal overview of those times. Recommended for general collections.
- Cliff Glaviano, Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Perennial (September 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060975792
• ISBN-13: 978-0060975791
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,577,871 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars you are right there with Dee Brown, August 1, 2008

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amania "bingereader" - See all my reviews

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This review is from: When the Century Was Young (Hardcover)

Halloween hijinks and catching rides on the train going thru town (planning to get off at the next stop)getting thru the snafus of army life and finally reaching one's ambition-Agricultural School librarian at the University of Illinois. Then he began to gather together the materials for his famous book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. This is a wonderful first person true-to-life story of growing up in the early part of the last century-not so long ago, actually. This a short,varied,to-the-point narrative that I recommend to most anyone.I found a paperback in my collection that I had never read until now and liked it so well that I just bought a nice hardback copy.