Thank you very much. Thank you very much for being here. Im delighted to be in beautiful savannah. I have been asked to speak a little bit about myself, to say what role books have played in my life and how i first became interested in writing. I think the iorta tng i think the important thing to begin with is that i was born 1937 and have seen some important changes in american life. I graduated from Radcliffe College in 1959, which means i had a harvard education. I wish i studied more and enjoyed myself less. After college i had a terrific job as a reporter at life magazine, job i loved even though i was paid less than a man doing the same work. Life is probably where i first thought about writing as a career. The part being born in 1937 was that most young women with a College Degree got interesting if illpaying jobs and then quit to get married. I gave up life because my first husband wished me to. I did not work again for 15 years. Ive been married twice. My first husband was fil