PREFACE

I HAVE BEEN ASKED which of my books is my favorite. It is a question I cannot answer, for each has been joyful in special (perhaps quirky) ways. To favor one out of the collection has the distasteful appearance to me of demeaning the others. Yet I have never wavered in my opinion on which book has been my most cherished writing experience: it is this one, carrying the title The Year the Lights Came On, published originally in 1976 by Houghton Mifflin Company of Boston.

The reason is simple. It was the first, and being the first, it carries the wonder of discovery. It was also inspired by my childhood, during that post–World War II period when progress in America was signaled in great part by the arrival of electricity to rural communities. Such novels are called coming-of-age stories. Writers resort to writing them because it is the one topic they best understand, factually and intuitively.

Still, in 1976, I had only a smidgen of knowledge about the writing of a novel, yet I did realize the life expectancy of a book was not much greater than an eyeblink. Thus, it has astounded and pleased me that The Year the Lights Came On has remained in print and has found its way into schools via summer reading lists or as supplementary study in history classes and still satisfies the avocational reader with fond memories of the innocence of his or her own childhood.

That is why I chose to rework the book for its new issue by the University of Georgia Press. If it had survived the rigors of time, it deserved a “new and improved” edition. (If such a claim can be made for products ranging from dish detergent to headache tablets, then reworked books ought to enjoy the same proclamation.)

What it means is this: The Year the Lights Came On has been struck with the editor’s pen, making it appropriate for any age group—from elementary school readers to senior citizens. (I want to emphasize that the characters, the narrative, and the heart of the novel remain the same. I have only tightened some of the writing, weeded out some extraneous exclamation marks, removed one or two superfluous scenes, and added a few lines of dialogue here and there to better round out the story.)

I hope readers who are familiar with the original version will not think of this as a compromise. I don’t. I consider it a new adventure—one, I hope, that will continue to please readers for many years to come.