“What interests me is trying to catch the reflection of the human being on the page. I'm interested in how ordinary people live their lives.” – Tracy Kidder
Born in November 1945, New York native John “Tracy” Kidder is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of nonfiction focusing on – as he says –
the lives of “everyday people.”
Kidder has
explored a wide range of topics through his books, ranging from The Soul of a New Machine (about a breakthrough development of a computer)
to House (a "biography" of a couple having their first house
built) to Among Schoolchildren (reflecting on U.S. education through the
lives of 20 children and their
teacher). His Old Friends was a
poignant study of a pair of elderly men in a nursing home.
Considered a literary
journalist because of the strong story line and
personal voice in his writing,
he wrote in a 1994 essay for The Atlantic
that "In fiction, believability may have nothing to do with reality or
even plausibility. It has everything to do with those things in nonfiction. I
think that the nonfiction writer's fundamental job is to make what is true
believable."
“Things were here before you and will be here
after you're gone. The geographic features, especially, give you a sense of
your own place in the world and in time.”
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