Annie Dillard example essay topic

A Biography of Annie Dillard by: Nicole Muller Sister Philo mena Murphy Joann Solberg Jennifer Wiese BSM-2-152 Presented to the faculty of Cardinal Stretch University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Business Management July, 2003 ASB 101 B. White, Instructor Annie Dillard was born Meta Ann Doak on April 30th, 1945 to Frank and Pam Lambert Doak of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Both parents had a strong sense of justice, adventure and intellectualism, and raised their three daughters with similar values. Their slightly unconventional parenting style also taught Annie to be creative and to have a good sense of humor. The sisters spent many summers at their grandparents' house on Lake Erie, where Annie could indulge in some of her favorite hobbies - drawing, collecting bugs and rocks, and reading. Her passion for reading began when she was young and throughout her life it was not unusual for her to read 100 books per year.

The Doak family attended Presbyterian Church and Annie went to a fundamentalist summer camp for a few years. In spite of, or perhaps because of, her privileged background and religious upbringing, Annie rebelled when she was an adolescent. She quit her church for a short period, smoked, got into trouble at school, and ended up in the hospital after getting in a car accident while drag racing older boys. Her parents, hoping to calm her down, sent her away to school. They preferred a southern school in the hopes that it would smooth her rough edges, but let Annie make the final decision. Annie chose Hollins College, located close to Roanoke, Virginia.

While there, she studied English, theology, and creative writing. By Christmas 1963, she was engaged to one of her writing instructors at Hollins; she married this professor, Richard H.W. Dillard, on June 5, 1964. During this time, she also received her BA from Hollins College and eventually graduated with a Masters in English in 1968. Many people influenced Annie's life and her writing.

Her love of reading brought her into contact with authors such as Helen Keller, Henry Miller, Thomas Hardy and John Updike (Warner, p 4). Perhaps the most influential authors are Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson and Ralph Waldo Emerson; their style of nature writing captured Annie's imagination and appealed to her spirit. Annie chose Dickinson for her senior thesis, and Thoreau for her master's thesis. Their transcendentalist impact can be seen in her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek with the suggested, symbolic presence of God in all things nature. Through images of light in the cedar trees symbolically representing the divine, she ties together the natural and metaphysical seamlessly (Elliott, p 4).

Annie was also strongly influenced by CS Lewis, whose work was introduced to her by her priest during a spiritual crisis. The priest, through CS Lewis, brought her back to religion, and her continued spirituality is evident in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Annie Dillard has authored such diverse literary contributions as books, short stories, poems, essays, memoirs and a novel. Her first published work was Tickets for a Prayer Wheel, a book of poems. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, published in 1974, became the work she is best known for so far.

She was challenged to write this book because the one that she was reading at the time in 1971 was, as she states, a "particularly bad one". Annie, who started writing by composing journals, produces primarily narrative non-fiction essays, often spending 15 to 16 hours per day writing. She writes about the wonders and beauty of nature and creation, her childhood experiences, and those who had a big impact in her life. Annie Dillard has been praised for many of her books. In 1975 she won the Pulitzer Prize for her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (Elliott p. 1). She quickly realized that the fame that accompanied her success was not her motivation nor was it welcome, so she became a bit of a recluse.

However, she continued to write. In 1994, she was awarded the Milton Prize and the Champion Medal for her contributions to traditions of arts and letters associated with the Catholic religion (Smith p. 1). Annie now works at Wesleyan University in Connecticut as a professor of English and a writer-in-residence. She continues to receive good critical reviews for her books including her most recent, The Living (Smith p. 2). Citations Elliott, S. (1994) The Mysticism of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

Smith, P. (1994) The Eco theology of Annie Dillard: A Study in Ambivalence. Warner, M. (2003) Annie Dillard.