Social Influences on the Writing of Marion Dane Bauer and Katherine Paterson: Writing As a Social Act (Mellen Studies in Sociology)

This study examines books and papers these well-known authors of children's books have donated to the University of Minnesota's Kerlan Collection. They include correspondence with friends, editors and readers, and notes and drafts of essays and lectures. It examines the social influences, and describes the paradigm shift from a model of writing as a solo process to one that sees writing an highly social in nature. Its description of the social nature of Bauer's and Paterson's writing provides a timely model and important and well-documented implications for the teaching of writing.