And not only that, she's a very dear friend.
Marguerite Young is the author of two books
of poetry, Prismatic Ground and Moderate Fable.
She also published in 1945, a nonfiction work,
Angel in the Forest, a Fairy Tale of Two Utopias.
Her prose and poetry has appeared
in numerous periodicals, including Poetry, the New
Republic and Kenyon Review.
In 1945, Ms. Young began writing a poetic novel
about the most fascinating person she had ever known.
17 years later, she delivered to Charles Scribner's Sons
a monumental 3,449 pages of typed script.
In last September, they published Miss MacIntosh,
My Darling.
Miss MacIntosh has sold over 40,000 copies,
at a price of 10.95, which is something.
Since poetic novels are not in fashion just now,
and since this book is of such unprecedented length,
Ms. Young has found herself the center
of vast literary and critical furor.
I hope she'll tell us something about that tonight.
One eminent critic has said of Miss McIntosh,
this is the book from which poets
will crib their images for the next 1,000 years,
and I firmly believe it.
William Goyen in the New York Times,
said it was a work of stunning magnitude and beauty.
I'm not going to say anything more about the book,
I'll let Ms. Young talk about it and read
her poetry and her prose.
Ms. Young comes to us from New York City,
where she is currently on leave from Fordham University
and is also currently teaching a class at the New
School of Social research.
She was born and raised in Indiana,
and holds a degrees from Indiana University
and the University of Chicago.
She has also attended Butler University
and the University of Iowa.
She has taught at a number of universities, including
Iowa, University of Indiana, Columbia and Fairleigh
Dickinson.
When asked why her novel was so different from and so
much longer than other novels written recently,
Ms. Young said something which I think
characterizes her very well.
She said, because I have world enough and time.
And so it gives me a great deal of pleasure
to present to you a woman who has world enough and time, Ms.
Marguerite Young.
[APPLAUSE]