By the time I was 12 or 13, I was writing my own stories and poems. Seeing that I was serious, my parents bought me a typewriter, an old Royal that in memory seems as big as an upright piano. It took real strength to depress those keys.
Richmond, May 6, 1836 – Novel Excerpt
The bride, though, catches his arm. “There will be dancing tonight after we clear away lunch! There’s a fiddler coming, an old man, tall as a scarecrow, he fought in the Revolutionary War! And a blind boy who toodles on a clarinet and a girl -- a girl! -- who taps and scratches on a drum. I saw them once, at the market, playing for pennies. And Eddy invited them to come and play for our wedding, later, when we dance. They seem very poor, and we’re going to give them supper too.”