Writing Fills Her Bookshelf

“There is little premium in poetry in a world that thinks of Pound and Whitman as a weight and a sampler, not an Ezra, a Walt, or a thing of beauty, a joy forever.”   – Anna Quindlen

Born in Philadelphia on this date in 1952, Anna Quindlen started writing in high school and has never stopped, jumping right onto the New York Times staff at age 18 as a copy girl and working her way through college at the paper.  After college she spent some time at the New York Post before returning to the Times where she became only the third woman in Times’ history to write a regular column on the Op-Ed Page.

Her column, "Public and Private," won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992. Other columns included "About New York" and "Life in the 30s." In 1995, she left the paper to devote herself to becoming a novelist – another excellent career move as she has now written five best-sellers, including three –  One True Thing, Black and Blue and Blessings –  made into movies.   

                                  Quindlen's body of work includes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, self-help and children's books. Thinking Out Loud, a collection of her "Public and Private" columns, also was a best-seller.

“I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves,”  Quindlen said.

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