The famed writer and poet Gertrude Stein once said, ”Growing has no connection with audience. Audience has no connection with identity.” Stein’s claim, it seems, is that our true identity is embedded deep within each of us and develops over the years in its own inexorable way. Sometimes this journey is relatively smooth. Alas, sometimes it’s not, as we hear in this encore essay by Alex Myers.
Before moving to a teaching position in New Hampshire, Alex Myers taught English at St. George’s School in Middletown. His first novel, Revolutionary, tells the story of Deborah Samson, who disguised herself as a man.