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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Wallace Stevens dictate to his secretary?

2. What happened in Bridgeport, Connecticut one morning in April, 1987?

3. How long does it generally take to write a book?

4. What ended the chess game for Dillard in Chapter 2?

5. Which author would walk through the hills for seven or eight hours on end without a hint of fatigue?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Dillard glanced in the daylight at one of the stacks of books she regularly touched to feel her way at night, what surprised her?

2. Why did the inchworm in Dillard's story keep asking itself, "What! No further"?

3. When the cab driver in New York sang songs with Dillard, why did he sing one dull song twice?

4. Why is 'the path' of the line of writing, as described in Chapter 1 by Dillard, not to be considered the actual work?

5. In Chapter 1, what does Dillard say she thinks of as the usual reasons for an author getting stuck in a book?

6. When Dillard was working in the library at night, how did she find her way around in the dark?

7. What, outside Dillard's library window, proved to cause the most distraction to her work?

8. How does Dillard describe the way in which a writer might start the process of writing a book?

9. Why did a ritual slaughterer bid goodbye to his wife and children every morning as if it were his last, in Chapter 1?

10. What analogy does Dillard use to explain how a book leads its writer on?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What was it about the fanaticism of Dillard's twenties that shocked her when she was writing this book? Why did she fear that it would? Describe ways noted throughout the book that exhibit Dillard's fanaticism. Is fanaticism an appropriate label for Dillard? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Which of the metaphors in Chapter 1 likens Dillard to an explorer searching out new realms without really understanding the meaning of it all as yet? Does this metaphor work? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter 4, Dillard's Smith-Corona typewriter erupted in smoke and flames during an earthquake. What does the Beckett quote at the beginning of the chapter tell us about Dillard's personality or character? What could the fired-up typewriter be a metaphor for? Why?

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