May 14, 2008
Born today: Hal Borland, nature author, Sterling, Colo., 1900;
Richard Brickner, author, New York City, 1933;
Richard Kostelanetz, poet, composer, artist, New York City, 1940;
Mary Morris, novelist, travel writer, Chicago, 1947;
David Byrne, musician, artist, Dumbarton, Scotland, 1952.
Died: August Strindberg, playwright, novelist, short-story writer, essayist, Stockholm, Sweden, 1912;
H(enry) Rider Haggard, novelist, London, 1925;
David Belasco, actor, playwright, New York City, 1931;
Jean Rhys, novelist,
Exeter, Devon, 1979;
Karl Shapiro, poet, critic, New York City, 2000.
Quote for the Day: "I'm kind of fascinated by this global culture mixing with local culture and producing something that's neither." —
David Byrne, who was born today in 1952
This day in literature
1928: Sinclair Lewis marries journalist Dorothy Thompson in a civil ceremony in London. They would have a son, Michael Lewis, and divorce in 1942.
1945: The New Republic publishes Dylan Thomas' poem
"A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London."
1956: Angus Wilson publishes "Anglo-Saxon Attitudes," one of his most popular novels. The 1992 mini-series, with a 16-year-old Kate Winslet in a minor role,
had a profound effect on her career.
May 13, 2008
Born today: John Ballantyne, publisher, literary agent, Roxburghshire, Scotland, 1774;
Alphonse Daudet, novelist, short-story writer, Nimes, France, 1840;
Arthur Sullivan, composer, conducter, Lambeth, London, 1842;
Daphne du Maurier, novelist, short-story writer, playwright, memoirist, London, 1907;
Clive Barnes, author, TV presenter, London, 1927;
Bruce Chatwin, travel writer, Sheffield, Yorkshire, 1940;
Rachel Ingalls, novelist, Boston, 1940;
Armistead Maupin, journalist, novelist, Washington, D.C., 1944.
Died: Sholem Aleichem (ps. Sholem Yakov Rabinowitz), Yiddish humorist, editor, playwright, novelist, short-story writer, New York City, 1916;
Thomas James Wise, bibliophile, literary forger, Hampstead, England, 1937;
Richard Ellmann, biographer, literary scholar, essayist, critic, Oxford, 1987;
Laurie Lee, poet, memoirist, novelist, Slad, Gloucestershire, 1997;
R(asipuram) K(rishnaswami) Narayan, novelist, short-story writer, Chennai, India, 2001.
Quote for the Day: Extract from a letter by traveler and writer Bruce Chatwin (born today, 1940), describing the Patagonian region:
"You would think from the fact that the landscape is so uniform and the occupation (sheep-farming) also, that the people would be correspondingly dull. But I have sun "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" in Welsh in a remote chapel on Christmas Day, have eaten lemon curd tartlets with an old Scot who has never been to Scotland but has made his own bagpipes and wears the kilt to dinner. I have stayed with a Swiss ex-diva who married a Swedish trucker who lives in the remotest of all Patagonian valleys, decorating her house with murals of the lake of Geneva. I have dined with a man who knew Butch Cassidy and other members of the Black Jack Gang . . . . There is a fantastic amount of stuff for a book — from the Anarchist (Yes, Bakunin-inspired) Rebellion of 1920, to the hunting of the Black Jack Gang, Cassidy etc., the temporary kingdom of Patagonia, the lost city of the Caesars, the travels of Musters, the hunting of Indians, etc. Everything I need. . . ." Such was the origins of his best-selling book
"In Patagonia"
.
(Letter quoted from "Bruce Chatwin" by Nicholas Shakespeare)
This day in literature
1906: Willa Cather joins McClure's Magazine as an editor. She would spend six years at the muckracking magazine, leaving after the publication of her first novel, "Alexander's Bridge."
1973: Stephen King's Independence Day. It was on Mother's Day that he received the call that the paperback rights to "Carrie" went for $400,000. His half — back in those days, authors received half the rights money that the hardcover publishing house sold — is worth more than $900,000 in purchasing power in 2008.
May 12, 2008
Born today: Edward Lear, nonsense verse writer, poet, painter, Highgate, England, 1812;
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, poet, painter, London, 1828;
Leslie Charteris, mystery author, Singapore, 1907;
Howard K. Smith, journalist, Ferriday, La., 1914;
Farley Mowat, nature writer, Belleville, Ontario, 1921;
Andrey Voznesensky, poet, Moscow, U.S.S.R., 1933;
Rosellen Brown, novelist, Philadelphia, 1939.
Died: John Dryden, poet, playwright, literary critic, London, 1700;
Amy Lowell, poet, Brookline, Mass., 1925;
Arthur Quiller-Couch, critic, editor, Fowey, Cornwall, 1944;
John Masefield, poet, near Abingdon, Berkshire, 1967;
Nelly Sachs, poet, playwright, Stockholm, Sweden, 1970;
Simon Raven, novelist, playwright, journalist, London, 2001.
Quote for the Day: "I am Goya / of the bare field, by the enemy's beak gouged / till the craters of my eyes gape, / I am grief, / I am the tongue / of war, the embers of cities / on the snows of the year 1941 / I am hunger."
— Andrei Voznesensky, Russian poet, who was born today in 1933
This Day in Literature
1738: Samuel Johnson's first significant work,
"London," is published. This satire, based on a work by the Latin poet Juvenal, introduced the 28-year-old Johnson to the London literary scene, in part because the work was unsigned. James Boswell, who later befriended Johnson wrote in his biography of the great man that Every body was delighted with it; and there being no name to it, the first buz of the literary circle was, 'here is an unknown poet, greater even than Pope.' And it is recorded in the Gentleman's Magazine of that year, that it 'got to the second edition in the course of a week.' "
May 11, 2008
Born today: Karl Friedrich Hieronymous Munchhausen, storyteller, Bodenwerder, Hanover, 1720;
Isaac D'Israeli, critical essayist, novelist, politician, Enfield, Middlesex, 1766;
Jiddu Krishnamurti (ps. Andhra Pradesh), religious philosopher, essayist, Madanapalle, India, 1895;
Mari Sandoz, biographer, novelist, Sandoz Post Office, Sheridan Co., Neb., 1896;
Camilo Jose Cela, novelist, short-story writer, poet, author, Iria Flavia, Spain, 1916;
Mort Sahl, comic, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1927;
Stanley Elkin, novelist, short-story writer, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1930;
Rogers Whitaker, author, editor, New York City, 1981.
Died: Henry Martyn Robert, Robert's Rules of Order author, Hornell, N.Y., 1923;
Sait Faik Abasiyanik, short-story writer, Istanbul, Turkey, 1954;
Chester Gould, cartoonist, Woodstock, Ill., 1985;
Douglas Adams, mostly harmless novelist, humorist, Santa Barbara, Calif., 2001.
Quote for the Day: "Religion is the frozen thought of men out of which they build temples."
— Jiddu Krishnamurti, who was born today in 1895
May 10, 2008
Born today: John Sinclair, financial, agricultural author, Thurso Castle, Scotland, 1754;
Anna Brownell Jameson, prose non-fiction, diarist, Dublin, 1794;
Benito Perez Galdos, novelist, Las Palmas, Grand Canary Island, 1843;
Karl Barth, theologian, essayist, Basil, Switzerland, 1886;
Ariel Durant, historian, Prosurov, Russia, 1898;
T(homas) Berry Brazleton, self-help author, Waco, Tex., 1918;
Barbara Taylor Bradford, romance writer, Leeds, England, 1933;
Arthur Kopit, playwright, New York City, 1937;
John Scalzi, author, Los Angeles, Calif., 1969.
Died: Henry Morton Stanley (ps. John Rowlands), journalist, explorer, author, London, 1904;
William Dean Howells, memoirist, biographer, essayist, playwright, New York City, 1920;
Edward L. Stratemeyer, publisher, Newark, N.J., 1930;
John Fletcher, poet, critic, Little Rock, Ark., 1950;
Peter Weiss, playwright, novelist, Stockholm, Sweden, 1982;
Walker Percy, novelist, Covington, La., 1990;
Shel Silverstein, children's writer, Key West, Fla., 1999.
Quote for the Day: "Here's a quick rule of thumb: Don't annoy science-fiction writers. These are people who destroy entire planets before lunch. Think of what they'll do to
you."
— John Scalzi, who was born today in 1969
May 09, 2008
Out of curiousity, I picked up some thrillers that are coming out this month or next month and flipped through them during lunch. I'm an eclectic reader. Though I tend to favor mysteries, I can get into pretty much any genre if the story is good.
But these I set aside after reading the first chapter, by which I mean "read a few pages then skim the rest." It's unfair to assume that the rest of the book was bad, or even that the first chapter was bad. They didn't hook me. Or, rather, they used the wrong bait.
Three of the four used violence to get the ball rolling.
Book #1: Old man is tortured by drowning and kicks to the ribs to reveal some secret.
Book #2: Chapter headlined "Two years before." Couple on their honeymoon, all lovey-dovey. Guy leaves the room, hears a bang, comes back in, bride dead on the floor.
Book #3: Hitman argues with a wimp who's got a gun while a sniper across the street takes a bead on them.
Book #4 was different: Man and a woman sneak into a San Francisco building just after an earthquake. They have five minutes before the building is sealed because of a gas leak, so they take the time to go up to the top floor and on a balcony ledge, enact a public mortification involving nudity, a riding crop and a camera, before they're interrupted by a TV news helicopter. Apparently, it involves getting into some kind of secret club.
Like I said, I didn't give the books much of a chance, so it does boil down to "just not my taste." But is it a good idea to begin a thriller with a violent scene? Is it effective? It engages that animal center of our brain, but it doesn't snag the intellect. It does the opposite to me. It encourages me to close the book, because a) I don't care about the characters; b) there's nothing about the scene that engages me; and c) I've seen this so many fricken times before.
When I was done ranting about this over lunch, my wife said, "Wait there a moment." She came back with a book. "Read the first chapter and tell me what you think."
When the first check came in, Josh Redmonth, who was then twenty-seven, had no idea what it was for. The issuer name printed on the check was United States Agent, with an address of K Street NE, Washington, DC 04040, and the account was with Inter-Merchant Bank, also of Washington. The amount of the check was one thousand dollars.
I'll spare you the rest (unless you want to read it. It's from
"Money for Nothing" by Donald E. Westlake.) But I read the rest of the chapter and wanted to read more.
Here's another lead that snagged me:
Marianne nursed her third shot of Cuervo, marveling at her endless capacity to destroy any good in her pathetic life, when the man next to her shouted, "Listen up, sweetcakes: Creationism and evolution are totally compatible."
That snagged me on two levels: the woman who recognizes her life is fouled up and she's the cause of it, and the drunks argument about creationism. I wanted to read more about both. Oh, and it's the opening paragraph from Harlan Coben's
"Hold Tight.
So I suppose the lesson from this is that there's more than one way to skin a cat, but if you want to catch me, don't do it in the first chapter.
Today's Speedlinks
Look Back in Animation: Edward Champion interviews animator Ralph Bakshi. Like a good cook, DrMabuse uses some of the interview
at another website, and he'll release another part at sometime on
The Bat Segundo Show, and the rest here (
Interview with Ralph Bakshi). Did you know Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light™ worked for Bakshi? Ralph praises the artist, but has this to say
He can sell anything. He opened up galleries. He's building a city now. He's raised hundreds of millions of dollars. He owns half of California. So I have nothing against Kinkade. He's funny. He is like Elmer Gantry. He's 's a great painter. But he likes to make money. And he does. He doesn't like the stuff he's painting.
He'll get no argument from me with regards to his light paintings, but my wife and I visited a craft store that had a Kinkade gallery inside, and I was blown away by his other works,
such as these cityscapes.
I love this conversation Lee Goldberg had to his driver in New York City, in which he was offered
a "Chinese sandwich." No, it doesn't leave you hungry for more within an hour. In fact, it kinda reminds me of a certain Monty Python script involving
"a Chinese watch."
Warning, Political Material Ahead: Powerline has been one of my "must-read" blogs because they're pretty temperate and even-handed. They sit comfortably on the conservative side of the spectrum, but they don't seem to toss the red-meat so much as show you the part of the cow it's cut from. For example, even though they didn't like Obama's
deal with the Teamsters, they're honest enough to recognize when
he's an effective speaker. And whether they're talking about
polar bears and global warming, or
Jimmy Carter's blind support for Hamas, they show you the links or facts that underlie their arguments. If you disagree with them, you have to come up the facts that support it, and that can only be a good thing.
Remembering Douglas Adams: Did I use this already? I probably did, so I'll be brief. Neil Gaiman
on Douglas Adams. Bonus:
the best advice from a writer he's ever received. It's from Harlan Ellison, and it works.
Finally, what happens when you spend £14,000 on a logo that looks obscene:
OGC unveils new logo to red faces
Born today: James M. Barrie, playwright, novelist, Kirriemuir, Scotland, 1860;
Jose Ortega y Gasset, philosopher, Madrid, Spain, 1883;
Eleanor Estes, children's author, West Haven, Conn., 1906;
Richard Adams, novelist, Newbury, Berkshire, 1920;
Mona Van Duyn, poet, Waterloo, Iowa, 1921;
Alan Bennett, playwright, screen writer, Leeds, England, 1934;
Charles Simic, poet, Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1938;
Joy Harjo, American Indian poet, Tulsa, Okla., 1951.
Died: Friedrich von Schiller, poet, playwright, literary theorist, Weimar, Saxe-Weimar, 1805;
Harold Gray, cartoonist, LaJolla, Calif., 1968;
James Jones, novelist, Southampton, N.Y., 1977;
Nelson Algren, novelist, Sag Harbor, N.Y., 1981.
Quote for the Day: "Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have."
— Alan Bennett, who was born today in 1934
This day in literature
1754: The first newspaper cartoon appears in an American newspaper. The drawing in the Pennsylvania Gazette shows a divided snake under the legend "Join or die."
1864: Being a Civil War buff, I must note this. On this day, Union General John Sedgwick is killed at the Battle of Spotsylvania. When a soldier asked him to stay down, mindful of Confederate fire, he replied, "They couldn't hit an elephant from that distance." His words were cut short by a sniper's head shot.
1918: Lytton Strachey's "Eminent Victorians" is published. This collection of essays on four heroes of the Victorian Age — Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Arnold and General Gordon is — considered a landmark among biographies. Strachey used wit and psychology to examine his subjects and expose what he saw as the hypocrisy of Victorian morality.
As an example of Strachey's technique, consider this paragraph from his profile of schoolmaster Thomas Arnold:
At his death, his published works, composed during such intervals as he could spare from the management of a great public school, filled, besides a large number of pamphlets and articles, no less than seventeen volumes. It was no wonder that Carlyle, after a visit to Rugby, should have characterised Dr. Arnold as a man of 'unhasting, unresting diligence'.
Mrs. Arnold, too, no doubt agreed with Carlyle. During the first eight years of their married life, she bore him six children; and four more were to follow.
Strachey was also a notable conscientious objector during World War I. It's alleged that, during an examination by a tribunal to decide his case, in an attempt to rouse his patriotic ferver, Strechey was asked "What would you do if you saw a German soldier attempting to rape your sister?" The homosexual Strachey replied: "I should try and interpose my own body."
1933: In towns and cities across Germany, university students gather to sing Nazi songs and anthems and burn more than 25,000 books, including works by Sigmund Freud (Jewish), Jack London (socialist), Albert Einstein (Jewish), Thomas Mann (anti-dictator), and Helen Keller (author of "How I Became A Socialist"). Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels praised the students: "As a young person, to already have the courage to face the pitiless glare, to overcome the fear of death, and to regain respect for death — this is the task of this young generation." Within a few years, they will fulfill German poet Heinrich Heine's prediction that, "Where books are burned, human beings are destined to be burned too."
1950: An article by L. Ron Hubbard called "Dianetics: A New Science of the Mind" is published in the May issue of Astounding Science Fiction. Its basic thesis, which Isaac Rabi described in a review of the book the next year in Scientific American as "man is intrinsically good, has a perfect memory for every event of his life, and is a good deal more intelligent than he appears to be," laid the foundation for Scientology. Rabi, who won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1944, was not impressed with Hubbard's theory: "The huge sale of the book to date is distressing evidence of the frustrated ambitions, hopes, ideals, anxieties and worries of the many persons who through it have sought succor."
May 08, 2008
Born today: Edward Gibbon, historian, Putney-on-Thames, Surrey, 1737;
Jean-Henri Dunant, author, philanthropist, Red Cross founder, Geneva, Switzerland, 1828;
Thomas Costain, historical novelist, Brantford, Ontario, Canada, 1885;
Edmund Wilson, journalist, critic, poet, author, Red Bank, N.J., 1895;
Sloan Wilson, novelist, Norwalk, Conn., 1920;
David Attenborough, broadcaster, author, London, 1926;
Gary Snyder, poet, San Francisco, 1930;
Thomas Pynchon, novelist, Glen Cove, N.Y., 1937;
Peter Benchley, novelist, New York, 1940;
Beth Henley, playwright, Jackson, Miss., 1952.
Died: John Stuart Mill, philosopher, Avignon, France;
Gustave Flaubert, novelist, author, Croisset, France, 1880;
Helena Blavatsky, theosophist, spiritualist, London, 1891;
Oswald Spengler, propagandist, philosopher, Munich, Germany, 1936;
Elmer Rice, playwright, Southampton, Hampshire, 1967;
John Fante, novelist, Malibu, Calif., 1983;
Lila Bell Acheson, Reader's Digest co-founder, Mount Kisco, N.Y., 1984;
Theodore Sturgeon (ps. Edward Hamilton Waldo), sci-fi author, Eugene, Ore., 1985;
Robert Heinlein, sci-fi novelist, short-story writer, essayist, Carmel, Calif., 1988.
Quote for the Day: ""If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers."
— Thomas Pynchon, from "Gravity's Rainbow."
This day in literature
1777: Richard Sheridan's "The School for Scandal" opens at the Drury Lane Theatre in London. The play was an immediate hit and established in society its 25-year-old dramatist. Ironically, considering that the play is considered a classic, Sheridan loathed the theater and wrote only for the money.
1899: The attempt to create an Irish national theater gets off to a shaky start when boos and catcalls mar the debut of W.B. Yeats' "The Countess Cathleen." Inspired by Irish folklore, the play tells the story of demons who bought the souls of starving Irish peasants and the saintly noblewoman who sacrifices herself to save them.
But before opening night, a political rival of Yeats had circulated "Souls for Gold," a pamphlet attacking "The Countess Cathleen." Yeats' play, the accusation went, libeled the people of Ireland for not only suggesting that they would sell their souls for food, but that the soul of one countess was worth the same as all of the peasants. Not only that, but the countess is saved from eternal damnation in the end because "God looks on the intention, not the deed," which contradicts church teaching.
Yeats and his patron, Lady Augusta Gregory, tried to stem the controversy by submitting the play to two churchmen. They found nothing objectionable, but that didn't stop Catholic students from flooding the theater to protest this perceived insult to their faith. By the end of the evening, police officers lined the gallery to protect the actors, who, most of them being English, wondered what all the ruckus was all about.
But the controversy faded, and the quest for a permanent national theater succeeded in 1904, when the Irish National Theatre Company was formed at the Abbey Theatre.
May 07, 2008
Born today: David Hume, philosopher, historian, Edinburgh, 1711;
Robert Browning, poet, London, 1812;
Rabindranath Tagore, poet, short-story writer, playwright, essayist, painter, Calcutta, India, 1861;
Archibald MacLeish, poet, playwright, public official, Glencoe, Ill., 1892;
Jenny Joseph, poet, author, Birmingham, England, 1932;
Clarence Cason, essayist, professor, Tuscaloosa, Ala., 1935;
Peter Carey, novelist, short-story writer, Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia, 1943;
Tim Russert, talk-show moderator, Buffalo, N.Y., 1950.
Died: Henry Peter Brougham, jurist, orator, Cannes, France, 1868;
Elbert Hubbard, editor, publisher, essayist, Lusitania sinking, 1915.
Excerpt: When I am an old woman I shall wear purple / With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
— Jenny Joseph
Quote for the Day: "I was raised to feel that doing nothing was a sin. I had to learn to do nothing."
— Jenny Joseph, who was born today in 1932
This day in literature
1932: William Faulkner arrives in Culver City, Calif., as an MGM contract writer, earning $500 a week for six weeks of work. He makes an impression on his bosses early on by leaving for a week. Later, he explained that "When they took me into a projection room and kept assuring me that it was all going to be very, very easy, I got flustered."
In between drinking bouts and writing, Faulkner also found time for an affair with producer-director Howard Hawks' secretary, Meta Carpenter. The unhappily married Faulkner became obsessed with "my heart, my jasmine garden, my April and May cunt; my white one, my blonde morning, winged, my sweetly dividing, my honey-cloyed, my sweet-assed gal." But the affair came to an end after he refused to divorce his wife.
For the next two decades, Faulkner would return to Hollywood, making money on screenplays that he couldn't make with his novels, but he never loved California. "I don't like this damn place any better than I ever did. That is one comfort: at least I can't be any sicker tomorrow for Mississippi than I was yesterday."
May 06, 2008
Born today: Sigmund Freud, psychiatrist, Freiberg, Moravia, 1856;
Gaston Leroux, novelist, Paris, 1868;
Inoue Yasushi, novelist, Asahikawa, Japan, 1909;
Randall Jarrell, poet, Nashville, Tenn., 1914;
Ariel Dorfman, novelist, playwright, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1942
Died: Henry David Thoreau, essayist, poet, philosopher, Concord, Mass., 1862;
L(yman) Frank Baum, children's author, journalist, Hollywood, Calif., 1919;
Ai Qing, poet, Beijing, 1996.
Quote for the Day: "A good poet is someone who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightning five or six times."
— Randall Jarrell, who was born today in 1914
This day in literature
1880: Mary Ann Evans, better known as George Eliot, marries John Walter Cross, her longtime friend. He is 40, she is 61. She had lived with George Henry Lewes for 24 years, until his death in 1878. But her second chance at happiness was short-lived; she will die seven months later of kidney disease.
1940: “The Grapes of Wrath” wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Both the book and its author, John Steinbeck, have roamed all over American literature. His books have been best-sellers and slammed for its preachiness. “The Grapes of Wrath” was banned by several school boards and burned twice in Steinbeck’s hometown of Salinas, Calif. And when Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in 1962, The New York Times editorialized, “Without detracting in the least from Mr. Steinbeck's accomplishments, we think it interesting that the laurel was not awarded to a writer ...whose significance, influence and sheer body of work had already made a more profound impression on the literature of our age."
1993: “Going Postal” enters the language when, on the same day, two disgruntled postal workers open fire at their place of business. One in Dana Point, Calif., killed a former coworker and injured another, while in Dearborn, Michigan, one was killed and two were wounded. Wikipedia credits the St. Petersburg Times newspaper with publishing the earliest citation of the phrase, reporting on Dec. 17, 1993:
"The symposium was sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service, which has seen so many outbursts that in some circles excessive stress is known as "going postal." Thirty-five people have been killed in 11 post office shootings since 1983." Some USPS workers do not approve of the term "going postal" and have made attempts to stop people from using the saying. Others feel it has earned its place appropriately.
May 05, 2008
Born today: Soren Kierkegaard, philosopher, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1813;
Karl Marx, philosopher, essayist, historian, journalist, Trier, Germany, 1818;
Harry Flashman, soldier, rake, memoirist, Ashby, Leicestershire, 1822;
Nelly Bly (ps. Elizabeth Cochran), journalist, Cochran's Mills, Penn., 1867;
Christopher Morley, author, playwright, poet, critic, Haverford, Penn., 1890;
James Beard, food writer, Portland, Ore., 1903;
Carlos Baker, biographer, teacher, critic, Biddeford, Maine, 1909;
Richard H. Rovere, journalist, Jersey City, N.J., 1915;
Michael Palin, actor, travel writer, novelist, Sheffield, Yorkshire, 1943;
Kinsey Millhone, detective, memoirist, Santa Teresa, Calif., 1950.
Died: Bret Harte, poet, novelist, London, 1902;
Edgar Lee Masters, poet, Philadelphia, 1950;
James Branch Cabell, novelist, essayist, poet, Richmond, Va., 1958;
Carter Brown (ps. Allen G. Yates), mystery novelist, Sydney, Australia, 1985;
Irving Howe, literary scholar, critic, essayist, New York City, 1993;
Clifton Keith Hillegass, Cliff's Notes creator, Lincoln, Neb., 2001.
Quote for the Day: "Hegel says somewhere that all great events and personalities in world history reappear in one fashion or another. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce."
— Karl Marx, who was born today in 1818. Today is also the birthday of two literary memoirists: Harry Flashman and Kinsey Millhone.
This Day in Literature
1816 — John Keats’ first poem, “To Solitude”, is published in The Examiner. The magazine’s editor, Leigh Hunt, had befriended the young poet and saw in him the promise that led him to write in his “To John Keats”: “I see you even now, Young Keats, a flowering laurel on your brow.” But Keats’ first volume of poems appeared the next year to dismal sales. It wasn’t until his second volume appeared in 1820 that Keats’ talent was recognized. By that time, however, he was ill with tuberculosis, and in 1821, would die in Italy.
Although Keats had asked that his tombstone be inscribed, “Here lies one whose name was writ in water”, his friend decided instead that, if you’re going to go, go big, and ordered up this: "This Grave contains all that was Mortal of a YOUNG ENGLISH POET Who on his Death Bed, in the Malicious Power of his Enemies, Desired these Words to be engraved on his Tomb Stone 'Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water'"
Everybody's an editor.
May 04, 2008
Born today: Horace Mann, educator, Franklin, Mass., 1796;
Thomas Kinsella, poet, Dublin, 1928;
Amos Oz (ps. Amos Klausner), novelist, short-story writer, essayist, Jerusalem, 1939;
Robin Cook, novelist, surgeon, New York City, 1940;
George F. Will, columnist, author, Champaign, Ill., 1941;
Graham Swift, novelist, London, 1949;
David Guterson, novelist, Seattle, Wash., 1956.
Died: William McGuffey, educator, Charlottesville, Va., 1873;
Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective, Reichenbach Falls, Switzerland, 1871;
Edith Nesbit, novelist, poet, children's author, New Romney, Kent, 1924;
William Rose Benet, critical, essayist, New York City, 1950;
Jane Bowles, short-story writer, novelist, Malaga, Spain, 1973;
Richard Bissell, author, playwright, Dubuque, Iowa, 1977;
Paul Boles, short-story writer, novelist, Atlanta, Ga., 1984.
Quote for the Day: "Lost, yesterday, somewhere between Sunrise and Sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever."
— Horace Mann, from "Lost, Two Golden Hours." Mann was born today in 1796.
