Teacher of Our Town: Lillian Secrest Buie

Like nearly every high school English teacher in America, Lillian Buie taught Thornton Wilder's play "Our Town" and tried to open her students' eyes to the ways that literature resembles life, and that life resembles literature. Now, in this collection of essays compiled and edited by her son Jim from letters, journals, and short stories, North Carolina's English Teacher of the Year for 1979 looks back on her own life, finding similarities to "Our Town." Union County, N.C. where she grew up, and Scotland County, N.C., where she lived in the same house for 60 years, provided windows on the world and into the human condition. Her words are enriched by excerpts from dozens of letters from former students, friends and relatives, recalling specific memories and the influence of this "teacher of our town" on their lives.