Writing about Your Life: A Journey Into the Past [Hardcover]

William Knowlton Zinsser (Author, Other Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1569244685 | ISBN-13: 978-1569244685 | Publication Date: May 2004

This highly original book by William Zinsser, author of the classic guide On Writing Well, tells you how to write about the people and places and events in your life that have been important to you—whether you’re writing a memoir, a family history or just a recollection of experiences you’d like to preserve or more fully understand. His method is to take you on a memoir of his own: 13 chapters in which he recalls dramatic, amusing and often inspiring moments in his long and unusually varied life as a writer, editor, teacher and traveler.

It’s a journey full of surprising turns. William Zinsser recalls his school days and influential teachers, his army days in North Africa and Italy, his newspaper days with the legendary the New York Herald Tribune, his teaching days at Yale, his role in a Woody Allen movie, his years as a baseball addict and his late-in-life career playing jazz piano. He also recalls a lifetime of exotic travels through Africa, Asia and the South Seas, evoking a gallery of memorable people—a dance teacher in Bali, a French explorer in Tahiti, a Vietnamese poet in Hanoi—whose stories moved him with their power.

Along the way in these memoirs William Zinsser pauses to explain the technical decisions he made as he wrote them. They are the same decisions you’ll have to make as you write about your own life: matters of selection, condensation, focus, attitude, voice and tone.

Written with elegance, warmth and humor, Writing About Your Life gives you the tools to organize and recover your past and the confidence to believe in your life narrative. It also gives you permission—through the example of a life enriched by change and risk—to make bold life choices of your own.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Zinsser, author of a classic guide for nonfiction authors, On Writing Well, looks back on his own years of professional writing, glossing selections from his past articles with advice for would-be memoirists. He begins with impressionistic sketches of his WWII experiences as a young army private in North Africa and Italy. Next he details his 13-year career at the New York Herald Tribune, where he wrote drama and movie features. He draws humorously and self-effacingly on his impromptu role as an extra for Woody Allen in Stardust Memories. With quietly witty insights into academic life, Zinsser charts years spent teaching at Yale while writing freelance for magazines such as Look. An account of his service as an editor at the Book-of-the-Month Club includes a history of that venerable institution. Finally Zinsser brings us up-to-date with his recent rebirth as a public pianist. To follow one's heart is Zinsser's most enduring piece of advice. In writing he recommends dwelling on "small, self-contained incidents" and making use of anecdotes and vivid memories. When discussing capturing places in print, he comments usefully on the changing trends of the travel genre (increased political correctness). Zinsser is warmly appreciative of other well-known memoirists and their organizational methods, admiring in particular Thoreau, Frank McCourt, Mary Karr and Annie Dillard. While his frank, affirmative and encouraging style will help anyone embarking on writing their own life story, his book will be especially useful to those of his own generation.
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Review

This book, full of charm and ingenuity, cannot fail to delight and instruct the would-be writer of personal narrative. -- Vivian Gornick, author of The Situation and the Story

This is a book of pure pleasure.... The reader goes right inside the writing process. -- Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing Down the Bones

William Zinsser weaves his teaching narrative and his life in a wonderful way. You learn without knowing it. -- Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes and 'Tis

[William Zinsser's] deceptively simple style at first conceals but ultimately reveals a master craftsman...in the midst of his journey. -- Thomas Fleming, novelist and historian

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Marlowe & Company (May 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569244685
• ISBN-13: 978-1569244685
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #895,484 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William Zinsser, a writer, editor, and teacher, is a fourth-generation New Yorker, born in 1922. His 18 books, which range in subject from music to baseball to American travel, include several widely read books about writing.

On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, first published in 1976, has sold almost 1.5 million copies to three generations of writers, editors, journalists, teachers and students.

Writing to Learn which uses examples of good writing in science, medicine and technology to demonstrate that writing is a powerful component of learning in every subject.

Writing Places, a memoir recalling the enjoyment and gratitude the places where William Zinsser has done his writing and his teaching and the unusual people he encountered on that life journey.

Mr. Zinsser began his career in 1946 at the New York Herald Tribune, where he was a writer, editor, and critic. In 1959 he left to become a freelance writer and has since written regularly for leading magazines. From 1968 to 1972 he was a columnist for Life. During the 1970s he was at Yale, where, besides teaching nonfiction writing and humor writing, he was master of Branford College. In 1979 he returned to New York and was a senior editor at the Book-of-the-Month Club until 1987, when he went back to freelance writing. He teaches at the New School and at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is an adviser on writing to schools, colleges, and other organizations. He holds honorary degrees from Wesleyan University, Rollins College, and the University of Southern Indian and is a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library.

William Zinsser's other books include Mitchell & Ruff, a profile of jazz musicians Dwike Mitchell and Willie Ruff; American Places, a pilgrimage to 16 iconic American sites; Spring Training, about the spring training camp of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1988; and Easy to Remember: The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs; and he is the Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir. A jazz pianist and songwriter, he wrote a musical revue, What's the Point, which was performed off Broadway in 2003.

Mr. Zinsser lives in his home town with his wife, the educator and historian Caroline Zinsser. They have two children, Amy Zinsser, a business executive, and John Zinsser, a painter and teacher.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Master Teacher, February 16, 2005

By 

Edward A. Joseph (Yonkers, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Writing about Your Life: A Journey Into the Past (Hardcover)

In Writing About Your Life: A Journey into the Past, William Zinsser uses the main technique of the master teacher: he demonstrates what he is trying to teach.

In the first of a series of mini-memoirs from his own life Zinsser tells the story of a phone message left on his answering machine from a woman who has a question about a paint primer that Zinsser's father had manufactured years before. In referring to an article he wrote about the message and the phone call that followed, the author shows how the work dealt with a number of themes: fathers and sons, family expectations, and filial duty, among others.

He tells us that he did not start out to write about these themes, but that they naturally evolved from the message and the phone conversation that followed. He then connects this to the two main premises of the book:

1. "Beware of deciding in advance how your memoir or family history will be organized and what it will say."

2. "Write about small self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory."

Zinsser uses this technique throughout the book; he shares an incident from his past, and then emphasizes a particular point about memoir writing.

Besides the teaching aspects of the book, another strength is the writing maxims sprinkled throughout. Some examples:

"Go with what interests and amuses you. Trust the process, and the product will take care of itself."

"Too short is always better than too long."

"All writers are embarked on a quest of some kind, and you're entitled to go on yours."

"Look for the human connection as you make your journey. Connect us to the people who connected with you."

"All writing is talking to someone else on paper. Talk like yourself."

In addition to helpful maxims, Writing About Your Life: A Journey into the Past reflects Zinseer's articles of faith (as stated in his signature work, On Writing Well) about what good nonfiction writing exhibits: humanity, clarity, simplicity, and vitality.

With so many books available on this topic why choose Writing About Your Life? Because William Zinseer is a master teacher. Reading Writing About Your Life (and On Writing Well) would be an excellent preparation for anyone thinking about writing a memoir.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What better way to learn to write memoir?, April 25, 2009

By 

Mike Donovan (Middle America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Writing About Your Life: A Journey into the Past (Paperback)

There was criticism in the reviews here at Amazon from someone who thought this was "nothing but a book of introspection." (I couldn't disagree more.) Yet, in the same review she said, "You learn to write from imitating good writing." Well, there is no better way that I know of, to learn about memoir writing than by reading a well-written memoir - with writing at its core! These essays from Zinsser form Exhibit A that well-written memoir is simply about telling your story with good, spare writing. He stresses that one must "get it down." That doesn't mean you must sit down and write your full-blown story, but write your story as the memories come - just get it down; no need to think you must sit and write it ALL right away. These essays are beautifully written and are perfect examples of what quality memoir writing is all about. He teaches by showing, and Zinsser is a master at telling stories that work his own memories in while weaving a basic course in How To Write.

If you're interested in writing your story, whether in long-form or in essay form that captures the essence of a life, this book is a must-read.

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Zinsser Does It Again!, June 4, 2004

By 

"autelitano" (Delray Beach, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Writing about Your Life: A Journey Into the Past (Hardcover)

I've always been a big fan of William Zinsser's books. As a professional biographer/memoirist, however, this one truly hits home. It's not only a perfect example of WHAT to do, but HOW to do it as well. For anyone aspiring to be a professional biographer, or if you're just interested in writing your own biography, all I can say is GET THIS BOOK! -- and get it NOW!