I was blessed to have grown up in a house with many books. It was also a blessing to have a mother who nurtured her children’s interests. When she saw her 10-year-old daughter struggling to read The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, she didn’t try to tell me it was too hard. On the contrary, one summer afternoon she excitedly called me into the TV room and told me to get my Shakespeare book. The 1935 version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was playing on public television.  She sat me down and told me to read along, then left me alone and somehow managed to keep all of my little brothers and sisters out of the room for the next few hours. 

That afternoon blew open my “doors of perception” and began my lifelong love of Shakespeare.