In our graduate classroom discussion of whether a writer needs to be an avid reader or not, the opinion was almost unanimous. Yes, we agreed, a writer should read as much as physically possible, not only to learn about life in general but to enhance her ability to write. What better way to know the world than by traveling through images created by words?
Author David McCullough says, “I want to give people words that will make them see.”
McCullough, according to Marie Arana in The Writing Life: Writers on How They think and Work, has a passion for painting. “His prose is detailed, textured, visual,” Arana says. Interestingly, McCullough states that for about six years, while writing his biography of John Adams, he “largely abandoned reading anything written in our own day.” What McCullough did read, however, was everything he could get his hands on that John Adams read, as well as what Adams wrote.
I can’t imagine giving up my own reading list for another’s favorite titles. But I guess it is a wonderful way to get to know someone from past generations. Apparently John and Abigail Adams’ reading list included everything from Cicero’s Orations, to Greek and Latin classics, to English literature and everything in between. So McCullough did not take time off from reading. He merely shifted from what he would routinely read for pleasure (current authors) to what John Adams read in his time. And what an education on Adams’ life that must have been!
For me, reading McCullough’s essay, “Climbing into Another Head,” makes me want to run – not walk – straight out to buy John Adams, the biography. The classic titles from Adams’ reading list that McCullough mentions in the essay reflect no less than a huge education in world history.
Getting back to our discussion of writers and the importance of reading…in this little essay McCullough has made me see that I want to learn more about John Adams, his life, his world, and his time. Thank you, Mr. McCullough for the visuals. I am looking forward to the read!
