by Annie Dillard

Born Meta Ann Doak in Pittsburgh in 1945 to well-to-do parents, Annie Dillard grew to become America's most famous theologian of nature, a well-known essayist, poet, novelist, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize at the age of thirty. The autobiography of her earliest years, An American Childhood traces Dillard's developing sense of selfhood and independence in her childhood pursuits-baseball, insect- and rockcollecting, drawing, poetry, and exploration-focusing on the roots of the artist who would eventually emerge. Intimately connected with the specific physical setting of Pittsburgh, An American Childhood insists upon the formative power of landscape upon the people who live in it.

Events in History at the Time of the Autobiography

The making of Pittsburgh. An American Childhood is set firmly in Dillard's hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the life and times of that city affected the imaginative life of Annie Dillard so...