Sentence:  Then epistolatory me <WSD>was</WSD> a foreign correspondent dispatching exciting cables and communiques , full of dash and wit and glamor , quoting from the books I read , imitating the grand styles of the authors recommended by a teacher in whose special , after school class I was enrolled . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)