BY KAREN BOSSICK

They grew up hearing tales of the movers and shakers who came to Sun Valley each year to speak at the Sun Valley Writers Conference.

This weekend three generations of the Cassell family took part in the conference.

William and Jeanne Cassell of Ketchum took part, along with daughter Susan Snyder of Chicago; her son Stephen, a technical wiz for Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Cassell’s granddaughter Anna Cassell, a first-year University of Utah medical student from Salt Lake City.

“We all like to read. And I always find it so stimulating going to the conference and hearing an author I haven’t heard before,” said Jeanne Cassell, who gave all the children David Brooks ‘ new book, “The Road to Character.” “And I get so excited when I find a new author or a new book at the conference.”

Reading has always been on the Cassell family’s agenda, thanks in part to Jeanne’s role as an English teacher.

She read “Heidi” and “Nancy Drew” mysteries to Susan, reinforcing the young girl’s confidence that she could be anything she set out to be—even a lady detective.

And Bill Cassell never let the sun set without teaching his children a new vocabulary word of the day.

The grandchildren have inherited the same love of reading.

Susan Snyder brought her book club from Chicago to the conference one year.

“I remember my mother was so inspired by it. I knew it was very cool to have a chance to think about ideas,” she said.

One of those who impressed Snyder this year was former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, who writes profound and wry poetry that’s usually short and punchy and offers a new take on the world.

“I didn’t think I liked poetry but he put poetry in a whole new light,” said Snyder who brought Collins’ new book, “The Rain in Portugal.”  

This was 25-year-old Stephen Snyder’s first year.

“It’s stimulating--a great opportunity to meet authors and realize that they’re real people I can have conversations with,” he said. “I had a great talk with journalist Kati Marton yesterday about the idea of free press.”

“It’s special to talk about books like they do at this conference,” added 24-year-old Anna Cassell, whose father Paul Cassell is a former federal judge-turned law professor. “I found (TV analyst) Jeffrey Toobin very interesting as he talked about the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court doesn’t get as much attention as other branches of our government. And it probably should.

“And, as a medical student, end-of-life issues are very important to me. So it’s interesting to hear the perspective of Dr. Abraham Verghese and Dr. BJ Miller.”

The entire family got an unexpected bonus with A. Scott Berg’s introduction of the new anthology “World War I and America,” augmented by a trio playing music from that era.

It prompted Jeanne Cassell to pull out the family scrapbooks related to her father, who fought in World War I.

“We had conversations outside of the conference that we would not have had if it had not been for the conference,” said Stephen Snyder.

“It was a nice intergenerational moment,” added his mother Susan. “I’d never seen my grandfather’s enlistment papers before. “