A famous author, a young reader, and a life-changing correspondence.

MENDELSOHN

The American Boy
BY DANIEL MENDELSOHN
One spring day in 1976, when I was fifteen years old and couldn’t keep my secret any longer, I went into the bedroom I shared with my older brother, sat down at the little oak desk we did our homework on, and began an anguished letter to a total stranger who lived on the other side of the world. More...