October 21, 1932. Born in the Jiangsu Province of China in the city of Qing Jiang. "If I tell you that I was born in China of Southern Presbyterian missionary parents, I have already given away the three chief clues to my tribal memory.

"Let me start at the end and work backward through the description. Missionary parents. I have discovered as I have gone out into the world that most people do not regard missionary work as a respectable occupation. AndI'm sure that many of us 'mish kids' would argue whether having been born one was a plus or a minus for the living of this life. There is no way to escape a certain peculiarity of personality....

"The most basic and most lasting gift of this parentage was a total identification with the children of Israel. The stories of the Bible were read to us, not to make...