My
Writer’s Bookshelf consumes just about every inch of my writing room’s cleverly-extended window sill. While I peck away at my laptop’s
keyboard, wandering and wondering, each book sits there, winking and waving.
Books
on Craft, the Writing Process and Children’s Literature,
books
on Elements of Narrative,books on Storytelling.
How To’s, handbooks, manuals, Dummies Guides,
dictionaries (abridged and unabridged),
my trusty Roget’s.
Smack
dab in the middle of the line-up, though, rests my very favorite writer’s book -
M.B. Goffstein’s A Writer (Harper
& Row, 1984). Its sky-blue book
spine short and slight brilliantly shines as my writer’s North Star.
I came upon it at Florence Shay’s antiquarian bookstore Titles, in Highland Park,
Illinois while out and about on my Writer’s Journey sometime in the late 80’s.
I was figuratively lost, unsure of my path.
Opening this small treasure of a book, I was instantly found.
Everything was okay.
Really and truly.
Days spent daydreaming, imagining, probing my heart…
According to A Writer, that’s what writers do.
A writer
sits on her couch,holding an idea,
until it’s time
to set words
upon paper,
to cut, prune,
plan, and shape them.
Thoughts that open
in her heart,and weather every mood
and change of mind,
she will care for.
Back
then, I was seeding and feeding my own stories as well as my writer self.
Marilyn
Brooke Goffstein’s simplicity in words and lines spoke to the gardener in me.Today I still grow my own stories but I also spend my days seeding and feeding other writers – Young Authors and authors young-at-heart.
Goffstein’s A Writer speaks even more loudly.
But,
don’t take my word for it. See for
yourself!
Come to know this Minnesota-born writer, illustrator, children’s book creator, Parsons School of Design faculty member.
Visit
her website. 
Come to know this Minnesota-born writer, illustrator, children’s book creator, Parsons School of Design faculty member.
Read about her books, including the 1977 Caldecott Honored Fish for Supper.
Be sure to check her Tips for Picture Book Writers and Illustrators.
- Write something you don't know but long to know.
- It is tiresome to read a text that the author hasn't fought for, lost, and by some miracle when all hope is gone, found.
- Do them (your readers) the
honor of reaching for something far beyond you.
Lucky you should you come upon A Writer for sale so it can shine on your Writer’s Bookshelf!
Esther Hershenhorn
P.S.
I
especially love that Goffstein dedicated A
Writer to Charlotte Zolotow, beloved children’s book author and
award-winning Ursula-Nordstrom-trained editor whose Admiring Declines I still treasure
as much as my first edition copy of M.B. Goffstein’s A Writer
10 Comments on My Writer's Bookshelf Favorite: The Small Blue Book That Says It All, last added: 2/5/2013
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Thank you for the gift! I've never heard of the title before. It sounds like a treasure.
Thank you for the gift og the introduction. I look forward to reading it.
I love this book, Esther--one of my favs. Oh, to be so concise!
I just bought the book and look forward to reading it. Thanks for the post!
I never heard of this book, Esther. And our library doesn't have a copy. Guess I'll need to hunt it down elsewhere.
Oh my gosh, Esther, I have that book. It is a true gem. I will have to look for my old friend today.
Oh my gosh, Esther. I love and own this book. I will look for my old friend today.
Oh my gosh, Esther, I have that book. It is a true gem. I will have to look for my old friend today.
Thank you, Esther! Another one of your many gifts. I look forward to reading this lovely book.
Marti, I promise you A WRITER is worth hunting down! :)
Introducing folks to MB Goffstein and particularly this book is akin to paying Kindness forward.