Anita Shreve's path to becoming a bestselling American author started with a childhood visit to a library.

On Thursday, Shreve recalled growing up in “a house with no books in it” at a fundraising dinner that benefited the Wareham Free Library.

In her hometown of Dedham ­– where she and Friends of the Wareham Library President Priscilla Porter grew up together – Shreve discovered the library. The librarian, who was “pretty formidable . . . gray hair pulled back in a bun,” directed her to a dusty corner with two shelves of children’s books.

“I really believe that, had that not happened to me, I would not be a writer,” Shreve said. “I am a fan of libraries everywhere. I think they are the most democratic institutions we have in this country.”

Shreve spoke briefly at the Kittansett Club Thursday evening. Earlier in the day, she addressed a crowd of about 100 people at the Wareham Free Library.

Shreve, who mostly writes historical fiction, spoke about her experiences as a budding writer, sharing anecdotes with her audience in a conversation with former NPR host and Onset resident, Naomi Arenberg.

“My father said … when I graduated from college, I could be anything I want, but I had to have a teaching certificate. This was on the off-chance I did not get married,” recalled Shreve, who said writing as a career was taboo in her family. “I remember writing poems in my closet, with the door shut.”

Speaking of her newest novel, “Stella Bain”, which takes place during World War I, Shreve said the research she had done for the piece was the deepest she had yet gone.

“What I wanted to do was really create what it was like in the battlefield for a volunteer nurse in France under shelling during World War I,” Shreve said, referring to the experience of her book’s title character, who has amnesia. “To be caught in those circumstances – it led to shell shock.”

Shreve shared tidbits of writerly wisdom with her audience, some of whom mentioned they were aspiring writers. One of her biggest pieces of advice was to do thorough and careful research, especially when writing historical fiction.

“I don’t want somebody on page thirty suddenly throwing the book across the room, because I made a really egregious mistake,” Shreve said. “If you do that, the reader doesn’t trust you all the way through the rest of the book. You have to be careful.”

Shreve also echoed famous New England transcendentalist author Ralph Waldo Emerson, regarding her feelings on writing.

“It’s actually a selfish endeavor, writing,” Shreve said. “You write for yourself. … You can’t think about anything [else]. You’re in a room, in your own brick universe inside your head, and you’re composing sentences.”

Attendee Susan Iwanisziw of Wareham said Shreve’s talk had piqued her interest in the book, even though she had only read two of Shreve’s novels before coming to the talk.

Iwanisziw said she has rarely come across a fiction writer of Shreve’s caliber.

“Women’s literary fiction since Virginia Woolf has never really done anything for me, but I think she’s really, really good,” said Iwanisziw, who mentioned she also likes writer Margaret Atwood’s work. “Margaret Atwood’s the jump between Virginia Woolf and Anita Shreve.”