Amherst Reads About the Author

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Name:
Stephen Grant

Current Home:
Arlington, Virginia

Place of Birth:
Boston

Education:
Doctor of Education - University of Massachusetts, 1972 (International Education)
Master of Arts - Middlebury College Graduate School in Paris, 1964 (French)
Bachelor of Arts - Amherst College, 1963 (French)

Why did you choose to come to Amherst?
I was a legacy: grandfather, great uncle, uncles, father, cousin.

Most memorable or most influential professor:
Reginald French. I took both French and Italian courses with Reg; those two subjects became my majors. Reading the Inferno in the original under his guidance was a treat. For years I would first go to have a cup of tea with Reg whenever I returned to campus. I was fascinated that he had become one of the country’s leading experts on pewter as a money-making sideline to his teaching career.

Most memorable or most influential class :
Freshman English. My decent professor, Armour Craig, did not tear us up or apart. He helped us in clarity of expression. Frequent short writing assignments, I found, had pedagogical value.

Awards and Prizes:

• Member of Honor, Historical Museum of Gorée, Senegal (2012)
• Pilgrim Award, City Hall, Gorée, Senegal (2012)
• Folger Shakespeare Library Fellowship (2007)
• Athenaeum Cultural Association, San Salvador, El Salvador certificate of recognition for cultural contributions to the national patrimony (2000)

Favorite Book:
The Titan by Ron Chernow

Favorite Author:
Paul Theroux. I was first attracted to Theroux’s writing by commonalities: eastern Massachusetts origins, Peace Corps assignment to sub-Saharan Africa, substantial foreign travel. Taking his books to read on a trip may not have sharpened my observational skills, but at least made me more attuned to who the people around me were and what they said.

Tips for aspiring writers?
Keep meticulous research notes so that you have to return to your sources as infrequently as possible. Try to plan the release of your book to coincide with some significant date (an anniversary, before Christmas/Hanukah)

Tell us a bit about your path to becoming an author:. I always liked to write. My father (Amherst College 1930) was editor of The Student, then worked 42 years in book publishing. He encouraged me to write. All my five books were published well after his demise in 1978. I chose international development work (with the U. S. Agency for International Development –USAID) as a career. I managed to produce three books on vintage picture postcards while in Guinea, Indonesia, and El Salvador, and then two biographies after leaving the Foreign Service.