The Power of a Personal Tale MEMOIRS CAPTURE READERS

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CALL it the Year of the Memoir - a season of self-disclosure, a celebration of the first-person-singular, a time when readers and writers are turning what Walt Whitman called a "song of myself" into a hot literary genre.

This spring, publishers' lists feature a record number of memoirs - at least 40 by one industry count. Add other first-person voices - autobiographies, diaries, letters - and the number nearly quadruples.

At the same time, colleges are reporting burgeoning interest in courses on reading and writing memoirs. And adult-education classes on the subject are attracting neophyte writers eager to record their own experiences. "A good memoir tells a …