Quotes from Jessamyn West - American Author

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Jessamyn West born in Jennings County, Indiana was a prolific American author. [Any relation to me is unknown. - JGW] I do not remember how I got her name and her many quotes, but I liked several of the quotes and then found her biography and learned that she was an incredible person and writer! She was born 18 July 1902 & died 23 February 1984 in Napa, Calif.; daughter of Eldo Ray (a citrus farmer) and Grace Anna (Milhous) West; married Harry Maxwell McPherson (a school superintendent) 16 August 1923. She was related to Richard Milhous Nixon through her mother's family, and she became a close and lifelong friend of his, sometimes even traveling with the presidential entourage. The late Jessamyn West was a prolific and varied writer whose works include fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenplays, and even an opera libretto. She is remembered, however, for her numerous short stories that plumb rural American life without sentiment or oversimplicity. Much of West's fiction reflects her involvement with the Society of Friends (Quakers), the religion of her ancestors who farmed in southern Indiana. Her popular story collections The Friendly Persuasion and Except for Me and Thee: A Companion to "The Friendly Persuasion" recreate Quaker lives in a nineteenth century farming community; these and her tales of adolescence, Cress Delahanty and The State of Stony Lonesome, remain her best known works. From: http://www.jessamyn.com/jessamyn/jessbio.html

"Jessamyn West." BrainyQuote.com. Xplore Inc, 2011. 24 November. 2011. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jessamyn_west_2.html

From Jessamyn's quotes, although "Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures." many of my genealogical associates (including me), family & friends often tend to subscribe to this quote: "We want the facts to fit the preconceptions. When they don't it is easier to ignore the facts than to change the preconceptions." However in genealogical research, "The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future." A very nice thought for us family historians is to remember: "Faithfulness to the past can be a kind of death above ground. Writing of the past is a resurrection; the past then lives in your words and you are free." One lesson that I have learned in life is that "Teaching is the royal road to learning." The following two quotes seem to have universal truth: "Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely necessary." and "Nothing is so dear as what you're about to leave."

- Compiled by JGWest