This memoir recounts the early years of the National Writing Project (NWP) in the personal, insightful, and humorous stories that James Gray, its founder, tells. NWP, the country's most successful and enduring professional development organization for teachers of writing, evolved from Gray's idea that successful teachers make the best teachers of teachers. In 1974, Gray and his colleagues convened the first summer institute of the Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP) at the University of California, Berkeley--the first writing project site in the country. In this memoir, Gray looks back on the early years, describing the mentors who influenced his thinking, the mistakes he made and strategies he used to refine the model, and the difficulties he overcame to gain widespread support for the project. Articles include: "Early Consciousness-Raising" (Keith Caldwell); "Learning from Each Other: K through College" (Ellen Hitchcock); "The School-University Connection" (Marjorie Kaiser); "The Teacher as Artist" (Bob Alpert); "Writing Teachers Write" (Kim Stafford); "Teachers as Researchers" (Marian Mohr); "Things Aren't Like They Used To Be" (Jane Juska); "The Summer Institute Back in the Classroom" (Sheridan Blau); "The Project to the Rescue" (Mary Ann Smith); "The Mississippi Story" (Mary Ann Smith); "Networks within the Network" (Anne Dobie); "How the Writing Project Became Inclusive" (Denise Patmon); "Exploring BAWP: An Early Visit to the Summer Institute" (Don Gallehr); and "Recruiting Diversity" (Carol Tateishi). A list of the basic components of the NWP staff development model and program design is appended. (NKA)