Owen hart a&e biography f scott fitzgerald
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Chapter 3 Books
A Lost Generation of Readers?
In , the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) released a report that it said represented “a national crisis.” What was under such dire peril that it threatened to “impoverish both cultural and civic life,” as NEA Chairman Dana Gioia put it? Reading—or, more aptly put, not reading. According to the report, Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, less than half the population engaged in any literary reading in , a record low since the survey’s beginnings in
The report, which asked respondents whether they had read any literary fiction (novels, short stories, plays, or poetry) over the past year showed especially stark numbers among the youngest adults. Those aged 18–24 saw a rate of decline 55 percent greater than the total adult population. (Books read for school or work weren’t counted in the survey, which was examining Americans’ leisure reading habits.) According to the NEA, the overall 10 percent drop in literary readers represented a loss of 20 million potential readers, most of them young. In , young adults (people aged 18–34) were most likely to engage in literary reading; by , they were the least likely group. Based on this, the report asks, “Are we losing a generation of readers?”
Despite these f
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People/Characters Susan B. Anthony
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