The short piece of code below works fine as long as I declare variables in classes to be "public:" But I thought the functions which use these variables, since they are declared within the class, should have access to these variables without a public declaration.

As I say, code runs fine with the two "public:" declarations, but once removed, the variables are no longer "seen" by the functions.

Any suggestions, explanation, etc.?

Thanks in advance.

#include <iostream.h>
char newline;

class poet
{
class poet_name
{
public: //if removed, variable no longer visible
char lastname[20];
}name;

class poet_books
{
public: //if removed, variables no longer visible
double books;
double career_years;
}books;

public:
void data_input(void);
void data_output(void);
};

void poet::data_input()
{
cout << "Enter poet's last name: ";
cin >> name.lastname;
cin.get(newline);

cout << "Enter number of books published: ";
cin >> books.books;
cout << "Enter number of years in writing career: ";
cin >> books.career_years;
cout << "\n\n";
}

void poet::data_output()
{
cout << name.lastname << endl;
cout << "Production rate: 1 book every "
<< books.books / books.career_years << "years" <<endl;
}

void main()
{
poet writer_corp;
writer_corp.data_input();
writer_corp.data_output();
return;
}