Originally published in The Dyslexic Reader, Issue 3 Copyright (c) 1999-year DDAI. Dyslexic Authors: In Their Own Words Why feature dyslexic writers? Dyslexic children are often encouraged to look to successful adults as role-models. Certainly, it is inspiring to know that top athletes such as Magic Johnson and Bruce Jenner, or top box-office draws such as Harrison Ford and Whoppi Goldberg succeeded despite their childhood learning disabilities. But dyslexic writers have made a special mark. They are not merely individuals who have tapped into their other gifts. Instead, they have done the unthinkable and have excelled in the arena where everyone told them they would fail. Some overcame their limitations, and some worked around them – but in every case, they became experts in the craft of creating art with the written word. Here’s a look at some of the world’s greatest writers, and what they had to say about their own journey to success.
Writers of Literature for Adults
William Butler Yeats
Att design: insert photo here with title and poem on reshetted box
The Balloon of the Mind
By W.B. Yeats, 1919
HANDS, do what you’re bid;
Bring the balloon of the mind
That bellies and drags in the wind
Into its narrow shed.
William Butler Yeats is one of the greatest poets of all time. In 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation.” His poetry reveals that he was a master of language, yet he could not spell, his handwriting was illegible and he could not read his own work aloud without frequent mispronunciations and hesitations. As a young child, Yeats was educated at home. In his autobiography, he wrote:
“Because I Had found it hard to attend to anything less interesting than my thoughts, I was difficult to teach. Several of my uncles and aunts had tried to teach me to read, and because they could not, and because I was much older than children who read easily, had come to think, as I have learnt since, that I had not all my faculties … My father (one Sunday) said if I would not go to church, he would teach me to read … He was an angry and impatient teacher and flung the reading-book at my head, and next Sunday, I decided to go to church. My father had, however, got interested in teaching me, and only shifted the lesson to a week-day ‘til he had conquered my wandering mind.’
As he grew older, he was sent to school. Of this experience, he wrote: “I was unfitted for school work, and though I would often work well for weeks together, I had to give the whole evening to one lesson if I was to know it. My thoughts wee a great excitement, but when I tried to do anything with them, it was like trying to pack a balloon in a shed in a high wind. I was always near the bottom of my class, and always making excuses that but added to my timidity …” Agatha Christie
Att design: insert photo here.
Agatha Christie may be the best-selling and most widely published author of all time. Her mystery novels have been published in 104 languages, and have sold in more than 2 billion copies. Her play, The Mousetrap, was one of the most successful ad long-running plays in English theater history. Agatha Christie learned to read and write at home and never attended a school. She was a secretive and inwardly directed child who preferred imaginary friend to real life playmates. As an adult, she was severely agoraphobic, terrified of crowds, speaking in public, and extremely reluctant to be photographed or give an interview. Considered to be the “slow one” of her family, she once explained, “Writing and spelling were always terribly difficult for me. My letters wee without originality. I was … and extraordinary bad speller and have remained so until this day.” Fannie Flagg Fannie Flagg is an accomplished actress who wrote the novel, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, which was nominated of the Pulitzer Prize. She also wrote the screenplay for the movie based on the book. She describes herself as follows: “I am dyslexic and have A.D.D.; therefore, I am extremely limited. I write on a typewriter. I am hopelessly disorganized. My room looks like an invasion has taken place. I write in the morning and for at least four or five hours a day, if not more … never less.”
Children’s Authors
Hans Christian Andersen
Att design: insert photo here.
Best known for his fairy tales, including, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid, and Thumbelina, this 19th century Danish author was also a novelist and playwright. Andersen had a lifelong inability to spell and to write his native language accurately, and a habit of dictating his stories to a scribe. He went to school only at intervals and spent most of his time imagining stories rather than reading lessons. He could memorize easily and learned some of his lessons by listening to a neighborhood boy who was in the habit of studying aloud. He memorized and recited plays to anyone who would listen and imitated ballet dancers, acrobats, or mimes. He described his school days as follows: “The life I led during these days still comes back to me in bad dreams. Once again I sit in a fever on the school bench. I cannot answer, I dare not, the angry eyes stare at me, laughter and gibes echo around me. Those were hard and bitter times.” Avi Avi is the author of Newberry Honor Books, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Nothing but the Truth: A Documentary Novel. Avi was a shy child who loved to read and play games of imagination. But he suffered from dysgraphia, which made it difficult for him to write. His teachers told him that his writing didn’t make any sense, and when he got into high school, he failed all his courses. He says: “Since writing was important to my family, friends, and school, it was important to me. I wanted to prove that I could write. But it took years before I had a book published … I think you become a writer when you stop writing for yourself or your teachers and start thing about readers.” Patricia Polacco
Att design: insert photo here with book review on reshetted boxes
BOOK REVIEW
by Elise Bergerson (age 14)
Thank You Mr. Falker
By Patricia Polacco
You may have heard of the world
famous author, Patricia Polacco.
She has won many awards and is
now out with a new book,
Thank You Mr. Falker.
This is a wonderful book for
children; and its inspiring plot
about a young Patricia overcoming
struggles with dyslexia with help
from a teacher makes this book
worth its price.
Children’s author and illustrator, Patricia Polacco has written and illustrated dozens of children’s picture books. Some of our favorites are Pink and Say, Rechenka’s Eggs, Thunder Cake and Mrs. Katz and Tush. She says, “When I was a student in elementary school, I wasn’t a very good student. I had a terrible time with reading and math. As a matter of fact, I did not learn how to read until I was almost 14 years old. Can you imagine what it was like to see all my friends do so well in school and I wasn’t! I thought I was dumb. I didn’t like school because there was this boy that always teased me and made me feel even dumber … I felt trapped in a boy that wouldn’t do what everybody else could do …” “I did not start writing children’s books until I was 41 years old. Painting and sculpture has always been a part of my life even before I started illustrating my books. The books were quite a surprise, really. Mind you, I came from a family of incredible storytellers. My mother’s people were from Ukraine and Russia … my father’s people were from Ireland. When you are raised on hearing … not seeing them, you become very good at telling stories yourself. So at the age of 41, I started putting stories that I told down on paper and did drawings to help illustrate them … I guess the rest is history.” Patricia Polacco’s latest book, Thank You Mr. Falker, is an autobiographical account of her early school difficulties, and is written as a tribute to the one teacher who encouraged her and arranged tutoring for her reading problems. She says, “To this day, I remember the first day that words on a page had meaning to me … Mr. Falker had reached into the most lonely darkness and pulled me into right sunlight and sat me on a shooting star. I shall never forget him.” ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Quotations of some authors were found in: Eileen Simpson, Reversals (Noonday Press 1979, 1991) Quotations of Hans Christian Anderson, Agatha Christie, Thomas West, In the Mind’s Eye (Prometheus, 1997) Quotation from Avi’s website at: http://www.avi-writer.com/ Patricia Polacco’s statements taken from her web site at: http://.patriciapolacco.com Click to listen highlighted text! Originally published in The Dyslexic Reader, Issue 3 Copyright (c) 1999-year DDAI. Dyslexic Authors: In Their Own Words Why feature dyslexic writers? Dyslexic children are often encouraged to look to successful adults as role-models. Certainly, it is inspiring to know that top athletes such as Magic Johnson and Bruce Jenner, or top box-office draws such as Harrison Ford and Whoppi Goldberg succeeded despite their childhood learning disabilities. But dyslexic writers have made a special mark. They are not merely individuals who have tapped into their other gifts. Instead, they have done the unthinkable and have excelled in the arena where everyone told them they would fail. Some overcame their limitations, and some worked around them – but in every case, they became experts in the craft of creating art with the written word. Here’s a look at some of the world’s greatest writers, and what they had to say about their own journey to success. Writers of Literature for Adults William Butler Yeats Att design: insert photo here with title and poem on reshetted box The Balloon of the Mind By W.B. Yeats, 1919 HANDS, do what you’re bid; Bring the balloon of the mind That bellies and drags in the wind Into its narrow shed. William Butler Yeats is one of the greatest poets of all time. In 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation.” His poetry reveals that he was a master of language, yet he could not spell, his handwriting was illegible and he could not read his own work aloud without frequent mispronunciations and hesitations. As a young child, Yeats was educated at home. In his autobiography, he wrote: “Because I Had found it hard to attend to anything less interesting than my thoughts, I was difficult to teach. Several of my uncles and aunts had tried to teach me to read, and because they could not, and because I was much older than children who read easily, had come to think, as I have learnt since, that I had not all my faculties … My father (one Sunday) said if I would not go to church, he would teach me to read … He was an angry and impatient teacher and flung the reading-book at my head, and next Sunday, I decided to go to church. My father had, however, got interested in teaching me, and only shifted the lesson to a week-day ‘til he had conquered my wandering mind.’ As he grew older, he was sent to school. Of this experience, he wrote: “I was unfitted for school work, and though I would often work well for weeks together, I had to give the whole evening to one lesson if I was to know it. My thoughts wee a great excitement, but when I tried to do anything with them, it was like trying to pack a balloon in a shed in a high wind. I was always near the bottom of my class, and always making excuses that but added to my timidity …” Agatha Christie Att design: insert photo here. Agatha Christie may be the best-selling and most widely published author of all time. Her mystery novels have been published in 104 languages, and have sold in more than 2 billion copies. Her play, The Mousetrap, was one of the most successful ad long-running plays in English theater history. Agatha Christie learned to read and write at home and never attended a school. She was a secretive and inwardly directed child who preferred imaginary friend to real life playmates. As an adult, she was severely agoraphobic, terrified of crowds, speaking in public, and extremely reluctant to be photographed or give an interview. Considered to be the “slow one” of her family, she once explained, “Writing and spelling were always terribly difficult for me. My letters wee without originality. I was … and extraordinary bad speller and have remained so until this day.” Fannie Flagg Fannie Flagg is an accomplished actress who wrote the novel, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, which was nominated of the Pulitzer Prize. She also wrote the screenplay for the movie based on the book. She describes herself as follows: “I am dyslexic and have A.D.D.; therefore, I am extremely limited. I write on a typewriter. I am hopelessly disorganized. My room looks like an invasion has taken place. I write in the morning and for at least four or five hours a day, if not more … never less.” Children’s Authors Hans Christian Andersen Att design: insert photo here. Best known for his fairy tales, including, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid, and Thumbelina, this 19th century Danish author was also a novelist and playwright. Andersen had a lifelong inability to spell and to write his native language accurately, and a habit of dictating his stories to a scribe. He went to school only at intervals and spent most of his time imagining stories rather than reading lessons. He could memorize easily and learned some of his lessons by listening to a neighborhood boy who was in the habit of studying aloud. He memorized and recited plays to anyone who would listen and imitated ballet dancers, acrobats, or mimes. He described his school days as follows: “The life I led during these days still comes back to me in bad dreams. Once again I sit in a fever on the school bench. I cannot answer, I dare not, the angry eyes stare at me, laughter and gibes echo around me. Those were hard and bitter times.” Avi Avi is the author of Newberry Honor Books, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Nothing but the Truth: A Documentary Novel. Avi was a shy child who loved to read and play games of imagination. But he suffered from dysgraphia, which made it difficult for him to write. His teachers told him that his writing didn’t make any sense, and when he got into high school, he failed all his courses. He says: “Since writing was important to my family, friends, and school, it was important to me. I wanted to prove that I could write. But it took years before I had a book published … I think you become a writer when you stop writing for yourself or your teachers and start thing about readers.” Patricia Polacco Att design: insert photo here with book review on reshetted boxes BOOK REVIEW by Elise Bergerson (age 14) Thank You Mr. Falker By Patricia Polacco You may have heard of the world famous author, Patricia Polacco. She has won many awards and is now out with a new book, Thank You Mr. Falker. This is a wonderful book for children; and its inspiring plot about a young Patricia overcoming struggles with dyslexia with help from a teacher makes this book worth its price. Children’s author and illustrator, Patricia Polacco has written and illustrated dozens of children’s picture books. Some of our favorites are Pink and Say, Rechenka’s Eggs, Thunder Cake and Mrs. Katz and Tush. She says, “When I was a student in elementary school, I wasn’t a very good student. I had a terrible time with reading and math. As a matter of fact, I did not learn how to read until I was almost 14 years old. Can you imagine what it was like to see all my friends do so well in school and I wasn’t! I thought I was dumb. I didn’t like school because there was this boy that always teased me and made me feel even dumber … I felt trapped in a boy that wouldn’t do what everybody else could do …” “I did not start writing children’s books until I was 41 years old. Painting and sculpture has always been a part of my life even before I started illustrating my books. The books were quite a surprise, really. Mind you, I came from a family of incredible storytellers. My mother’s people were from Ukraine and Russia … my father’s people were from Ireland. When you are raised on hearing … not seeing them, you become very good at telling stories yourself. So at the age of 41, I started putting stories that I told down on paper and did drawings to help illustrate them … I guess the rest is history.” Patricia Polacco’s latest book, Thank You Mr. Falker, is an autobiographical account of her early school difficulties, and is written as a tribute to the one teacher who encouraged her and arranged tutoring for her reading problems. She says, “To this day, I remember the first day that words on a page had meaning to me … Mr. Falker had reached into the most lonely darkness and pulled me into right sunlight and sat me on a shooting star. I shall never forget him.” ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Quotations of some authors were found in: Eileen Simpson, Reversals (Noonday Press 1979, 1991) Quotations of Hans Christian Anderson, Agatha Christie, Thomas West, In the Mind’s Eye (Prometheus, 1997) Quotation from Avi’s website at: http://www.avi-writer.com/ Patricia Polacco’s statements taken from her web site at: http://.patriciapolacco.com Powered By GSpeech