#Career

Dorothy Harrison

My mother, Dorothy Harrison, was born Dorothy Hale in 1940, and for most of her life she was the steady one in the family. She worked part-time at the town library for almost forty years, shelving books and running story hour for the local kids, and she married my father in 1960 after what she always described as an unremarkable, drama-free courtship. This photo is from a studio downtown in 1972 -- she hated sitting for it, said the stool was uncomfortable and the light was too harsh, and you can see it in how stiff her smile is. Compared to Dad, her twenties and thirties were genuinely calm. No debt, no layoffs, just a quiet, predictable life most families in our county would have envied.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" or simply "the Bard". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.