A Comfortable Boy: A Memoir

(Mercer University Press) In this memoir Sam Pickering, who became a celebrity after being portrayed as teacher John Keating in the Dead Poets’ Society , depicts his childhood lived in the South. Covering his life through his eighth grade year, the story focuses on family, growing up, and Pickering’s journey to finding himself. Roaming Tennessee and Virginia, meandering farm and school, he recalls a happy boyhood and expresses gratitude for being born into a certain place at a certain time among people “whom it was impossible not to love.” Born and raised in Nashville, Tenn., Pickering has taught English for decades and spent the last 30 years at the University of Connecticut. He is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and has written more than 20 books.