Strictly from the imagination

 

“Writingis a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemiesof the writer. He must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is tosustain and complete an undertaking.”— Jessamyn West

Mary“Jessamyn” West, born on this date in 1902, was an American author of both shortstories and novels.   Although shaped by herimagination, her works are loosely based on tales told to her by her mother andgrandmother about a Quaker farm life that she herself never experienced. 
 Two of her popular 21 novels -- The Friendly Persuasion and its sequel Except forMe and Thee -- also were made into very successful movies.
                          West set nearly all of her stories in Indiana, a state in whichshe did not live and seldom visited, spending her own adult life in California.   
 "I write about Indiana because knowing littleabout it, I can create it from the images I’ve learned from my grandmother’s (and mother's) stories," she noted.   "The past is really almost asmuch a work of the imagination as is the future.”