A literary girl...

I have been reading a short story by Mark Helprin that Elsa recommended to me. The other night as I picked up the book to read, I happened to notice the signature on the title page. It says:

For Elsa A+ Johnson- Mark Helprin

The story here goes back to a class which Mark Helprin was teaching at Hillsdale when Elsa was an English/flute performance major there. Each student had to write a short story and turn it in before the class started, and part of the class included Mr. Helprin going through those stories and commenting for the class. He began his first day of class saying none of them should count on making a living at story writing-- or at least most of them shouldn't. He went on to say there was one exceptionally good story, and that author might think about writing for a living. It was, of course, our Elsa!
It was fun to be reminded of that story when I saw the inscription in the book. And it will be sad to leave Ben and Elsa in Indiana when we head home tomorrow.