Jerry Morse suggested that we add this to our website, a 2015 article about Miss Shaughnessy that is posted at:
http://theworcesterjournal.com/2015/04/03/2015324anna-shaughnessy-maker-of-writers/
There were other novelists not mentioned in the article that were influenced by Miss Shaughnessy. Noah Gordon (Noah Mandell’s cousin) had at least 5 novels published. The first was published during our senior year at Classical. If you know of others, please notify benbachrach@gmail.com.
Anna Shaughnessy, Maker of Writers
by Edmund Schofield
Worcester Journal Editor’s Note: As a rule, we don’t publish work by older, established writers, but we make an exception with this piece by the late Edmund Schofield since it tells the story of an English teacher who had the rare ability both to instruct and inspire. Anna Shaugnessy mentored young writers who went on to great success–Stanley Kunitz, MIlton Meltzer, Charles Olson, and Nicholas Gage. Every young writer should be lucky enough to come across an Anna Shaughnessy.
We learned about this piece through Joan Gage, who featured it in her blog, A Rolling Crone. We are grateful to be able to publish this edited version of the essay in the Journal.
There is a further twist to the tale. Schofield’s original essay described three writers mentored by Miss Shaugnessy, and only at the last minute did he discover that Nicholas Gage, Joan’s husband and an accomplished author whose books include “Eleni,” which was made into a successful movie of the same name, and “A Place For Us,” had also been a student of hers. Gage’s thoughts on his old high school teacher are in a postscript to the essay.
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