The Elephants Teach
Creative Writing Since 1880
- Contents
- Review Quotes

Foreword by Jacques Barzun
Preface
Introduction
2. The Founding of English Composition
3. The Problem of Writing in a Practical Age
4. An Index of Adagios
5. The Sudden Adoption of Creative Work
6. Criticism Takes Command
7. The Elephant Machine
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Index
“The Elephants Teach is an astonishing piece of work. . . . Under the author’s magic it becomes the story of a great part of our culture since the turn of the century.” – from the Foreword by Jacques Barzun
“In clear prose and careful scholarship, David Myers . . . tells the story of how what was supposed to free English literature from the trap of academic disciplines became itself an academic discipline.”<First Things>
“Myers is thorough, his writing is clear, and the history he has to tell will be to most, if not all, current teachers of creative writing little short of a revelation. . . . This is a book all teachers of creative writing should read.”<History of Education Quarterly>
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