"To be born, as I was, on April First imposes a certain responsibility on you to Be Someone. At nine I was convinced that being a writer was the easiest way to accomplish this goal. My first novel was entitled 'Flame, Chief of Herd and Track.' The second novel was completed in Latin class, and had I written 'Eleutheria the Dancing Slave Girl' in Latin, I might have come off better in my teacher's eyes."¹

"If I were asked to choose which influence was the most important in my life, I'd have to answer that it was my parents. Neither fit the patterns of style and behavior in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s for our middle-class status.

"My dad was a Harvard graduate with an M.A. in city planning and management; in 1938, he received his doctorate. He also maintained his Reserve Army status as...