First words

Editor Paul Mandelbaum persuaded twenty-two authors to share their childhood writings and their treasured photographs. What he's collected is a fascinating revelation of young creative minds at work, wrestling with early versions of ideas that were to take hold of their writings in later years.

Of course, the young Michael Crichton would describe what goes on in a dissection lab. Of course, Madeleine L'Engle would wonder about space and the meaning of eternity. Margaret Atwood would question conventional female behavior, arguing for the right to smoke cigars. And Stephen King would write a macabre story of slicing and piercing at age nine. -- BOOK JACKET.