This Day In Literary History
On May 7th, 1812, the legendary English poet Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, London, England. His liberal, intellectual family had a passion for literature; his father, a clerk for the Bank of England, had amassed a collection of around 6,000 books, most of them rare.
Browning wrote his first poetry collection at the age of twelve. Unable find a publisher, he destroyed the manuscript. He attended private schools and quickly developed a fierce hatred of institutionalized education. He was then educated at home by tutors.
An outstanding student, he became fluent in French, Greek, Italian, and Latin by the age of fourteen. At sixteen, he enrolled at University College, London, but left after his first year. In 1845, Browning met the famous English poet Elizabeth Barrett.
Also a literary critic, Elizabeth was one of the very few critics who had given Browning's first poetry collection, Dramatic Lyrics (1842), a good review. A glowing review, in fact. So he wrote to thank her, and they began corresponding frequently.
Six years his senior, Elizabeth's health problems (chronic lung disease) had left her a semi-invalid. She lived in her father's house on Wimpole Street. She finally agreed to let Browning visit her in person, and it was love at first sight for both of them.
The following year, the couple secretly eloped. They fled to Italy, living first in Pisa, then in Florence. They had to elope because Elizabeth's father had forbidden all of his children from marrying under penalty of disinheritance.
Unlike his liberal, intellectual daughter, Edward Barrett, an ignorant, racist conservative, believed that he was most likely the illegitimate son of his plantation owner father and a black slave, and feared that his children, who were white, could produce black offspring.
Three years later, Elizabeth gave birth to her only child, Robert Barrett Browning Jr., known by his childhood nickname, Pen. Robert Browning Sr. loved Italy and was fascinated by its art and literature.
While living in Florence, he worked on the poems that would appear in his first major poetry collection, the two-volume Men and Women (1855). The collection would include classic poems such as Love Among the Ruins and Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.
Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came would inspire American horror master Stephen King to write his classic Dark Tower series of dark fantasy novels featuring the iconic knight errant Roland of Gilead, the Last Gunslinger.
Around this time, while Robert Browning's name was known by the cognoscenti, (he had written plays in verse and dramatic monologues) he remained an obscure poet until 1861, when he returned to England following the death of his wife.
He became part of the London literati and his reputation took off. By 1868, after five years of work, he completed and published The Ring and the Book, an epic blank verse poem comprised of twelve "books." It was based on a real crime that took place in Rome in 1698.
The story, which is narrated by various characters, tells of an impoverished nobleman, Count Guido Franceschini, who is convicted of murdering his wife and her parents. The Count supposedly committed the murders as an act of revenge for his wife's infidelity.
His wife Pompilia was having an affair with a young priest, Father Giuseppe Caponsacchi. Despite the Count's protests of innocence, he is found guilty and sentenced to death. He appeals to Pope Innocent XII to overturn the conviction, but the pontiff denies his request.
Steeped deep in philosophy, psychology, and spiritual insight, The Ring and the Book was rightfully considered a work of genius - a masterpiece of dramatic verse. Browning's best selling work during his lifetime and a huge critical and commercial success, it brought him the renown he'd sought for 40 years.
Browning spent his last years traveling extensively. He continued to write, publishing a series of long poems, then returning to collections of shorter verse. His last major work, Parleyings with Certain People of Importance In Their Day, was published in 1887.
In it, the poet speaks in his own voice as he engages in a series of dialogues with long forgotten figures from the worlds of art, literature, and philosophy. Regarded as a masterpiece today, Parleyings baffled Browning's Victorian readers.
For his last published work, Asolando, Robert Browning returned to traditional form and wrote another collection of short poems. The book was published on the day he died, December 12th, 1889. He was 77 years old.
Quote of the Day
"Ignorance is not innocence, but sin."
- Robert Browning
Vanguard Video
Today's video features a reading of Robert Browning's classic poem, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came. Enjoy!
This Day In Literary History
On May 6th, 1868, the legendary French writer Gaston Leroux was born. He was born in Paris, but grew up on the Normandy coast, where his grandparents owned and operated a ship building business.
As a boy, Leroux loved sailing, swimming, and fishing, but he longed to be a writer. He began by writing poetry for his own amusement and reading voraciously, studying the works of legendary writers such as Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas.
After completing his secondary education, Leroux went to Paris to study law. He became an outstanding student and seemed destined for a successful career as a lawyer, but writing was still his passion.
He was 21 and still at university when he inherited a large sum of money from his father. By the time he turned 23, he had squandered most of it away on wine, gourmet food, women, and gambling.
Gaston Leroux did earn his law degree and began his practice, but he considered the legal profession a dead end job. He began a writing career to supplement his income. First, he became a drama critic for L'Echo de Paris, which had previously published his poems.
He soon switched to reporting and covered criminal trials. His legal expertise was a valuable asset, and the quality of his work earned him positions at more prominent newspapers. He became an investigative reporter.
His exploits, such as disguising himself to sneak into jails to interview prisoners made him famous - one of the earliest celebrity journalists. His name on a magazine article guaranteed sales.
He was given an international beat, and he traveled throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia, either anonymously or in disguise, reporting on wars around the world and other important events. He played a part in exposing the scandal surrounding the anti-Semitic prosecution of Captain Alfred Dreyfuss.
Eventually, Leroux switched from journalism to writing fiction. His first novel, The Seeking of the Morning Treasures, was published in 1903, first as a serialization in Le Matin. Leroux's fictionalized tale of the life and legacy of the legendary bandit Cartouche became a huge sensation.
The critical acclaim continued. In 1907, Leroux published The Mystery of the Yellow Room, the first in a series of detective novels featuring reporter / sleuth Joseph Rouletabille. The success of the novel allowed the author to quit journalism and write full time.
Gaston Leroux didn't write detective fiction exclusively. Fascinated with the dark side of life, he explored his interest in the macabre by writing horror and dark fantasy. His most famous horror novel, an all-time classic work of literature, established him as one of the greatest novelists of his generation.
The Phantom of the Opera (1911) was inspired by Leroux's visit to the Paris Opera House and tour of its cellars. The Gothic horror novel told the story of Christine Daae, a young, aspiring opera singer whose strange music teacher, Erik, she hears but never sees.
Christine believes that Erik is the "Angel of Music" from the folktales told to her by her father, a famous violinist. Erik is really the Phantom of the Opera, the "ghost" who supposedly haunts the Paris Opera House.
The dancers are terrified, and a stagehand ends up murdered. Erik terrorizes everyone who stands in the way of his protege Christine becoming a star. Later, Christine is called upon to replace the lead singer and gives an impressive performance.
One of the concertgoers who hears her sing turns out to be her childhood sweetheart Raoul, who falls in love with her all over again. This outrages her music teacher, Erik. Born physically deformed but musically gifted, he lives in the cellar of the Paris Opera House.
Erik, who hides his disfigured face behind a mask, is also in love with Christine. He captures her and Raoul and locks them in the cellar. Mad with jealous rage, Erik gives Christine an ultimatum: either marry him or he'll blow up the Opera House with explosives, killing everyone - including her, Raoul, and himself...
The Phantom of the Opera would be adapted numerous times as a feature film. The first version, released in 1925, featured legendary silent film star Lon Chaney as Erik. The 1943 and 1962 film versions featured Claude Rains and Herbert Lom as Erik, respectively.
These film adaptations, which were also memorable, made a major change to the story - instead of being born deformed, Erik was disfigured after having acid thrown into his face. A gruesome horror film adaptation, made in 1989, starred horror legend Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund as Erik.
In 1986, Andrew Lloyd Webber adapted The Phantom of the Opera as an acclaimed and hugely successful Broadway musical. It would become one of the longest running musicals in history, surpassing Webber's Cats as the longest running Broadway show of all time.
Unfortunately, Webber's sequel, Love Never Dies (2010), a loose adaptation of Frederick Forsyth's 1999 novel The Phantom of Manhattan, was widely panned by critics and theatergoers. A huge flop on the London and Australian stages, a Broadway production was planned but canceled after all the bad press drove away the show's backers.
Gaston Leroux wrote over two dozen novels, short stories, and a play. He died in 1925 of surgical complications following a urinary tract infection. He was 58 years old.
Quote Of The Day
"Erik is not truly dead. He lives on within the souls of those who choose to listen to the music of the night."
- Gaston Leroux
Vanguard Video
Today's video features a complete reading of Gaston Leroux's classic novel, The Phantom of the Opera. Enjoy!
This Day In Literary History
On May 2nd, 1903, the legendary American writer Dr. Benjamin Spock was born. He was born Benjamin McLane Spock, Jr. in New Haven, Connecticut.
The eldest of six children, Spock helped care for his younger brothers and sisters, which would plant the seeds for his future career as a pediatrician and author. Following in the footsteps of his father, he enrolled at Yale University after graduating high school.
He first studied literature and history, then changed his major and studied medicine. After attending the Yale School of Medicine, he studied at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons.
While at Yale, he became a star athlete on the rowing crew and won a gold medal for rowing (Men's Eights) at the 1924 Summer Olympic Games in Paris. He would graduate from Yale at the top of his class.
Dr. Benjamin Spock was the first pediatrician to study psychoanalysis and incorporate it into his practice, in order to better understand his patients' emotional needs and the psychology of family dynamics. The insights he gained would inspire him to write his classic book, which would be published in 1946.
The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, later shortened to Dr. Spock's Baby & Child Care, was far more than just a doctor's guide to maintaining the good physical health of babies and children.
The 500+ page book was a thorough and revolutionary guide to child rearing, based on the author's experiences as a pediatrician and as a parent of two sons. Dr. Spock's book was a long overdue, stinging rebuke of traditional (conservative) child rearing methods.
For decades before its publication, most pediatricians and child psychologists had advised parents to be very strict with their children and not show them too much affection. A child raised in such a manner, they believed, would grow up to be strong and independent.
In the 1968 edition of his book, Dr. Spock wrote "We need idealistic children" who could deal with the "enormous, frightening problems in our country and in the world." He elaborated further:
We have an overwhelming supply of the most powerful weapons the world has ever known... we are in imminent danger of annihilation... we are interfering arrogantly in the affairs of other nations and arousing worldwide resentment.
He concluded that:
Our only realistic hope... is to bring up our children with a feeling that they are in this world not for their own satisfaction but primarily to serve others.
In the 1960s, Dr. Spock became a political activist for the New Left. He joined the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, aka SANE, in 1962. As the war in Vietnam began to escalate, he became a vocal opponent of the conflict.
Then Attorney General Ramsey Clark charged Spock and four others (William Sloane Coffin, Marcus Raskin, Mitchell Goodman, and Michael Ferber) with conspiracy to counsel, aide, and abet resistance to the draft.
Spock and three of the four other defendants were convicted. Spock was sentenced to two years in prison, but his conviction was thrown out on appeal. In 1967, at the National Conference for New Politics in Chicago, Dr. Spock threw his hat into the political ring.
He was selected to be Martin Luther King, Jr.'s running mate in the 1968 presidential election. Their bid for office fell apart when the conference was broken up by agents provocateurs working for the government.
It wouldn't be Spock's last bid for office; he would become the People's Party candidate for President in the 1972 election. His platform included establishing socialized medicine and legalizing abortion and marijuana.
He also called for an end to the "victimless crime" laws that persecuted homosexuals, a guaranteed minimum income for working families, and the immediate withdrawal of all American troops from foreign countries.
The following year, Spock signed the Writers and Editors War Tax Protest, in which he and others refused to pay taxes to support the Vietnam War. He also published a book called Dr. Spock on Vietnam.
During the author's lifetime, Dr. Spock's Baby & Child Care would be revised and reissued in five more editions, for a total of six. The seventh edition was published posthumously in 2004; his widow and second wife, Mary Morgan, had served as his research assistant and business manager.
When they married in 1976, she was 33 years old and he 73. He credited the restoration of his health and his long life to Mary, as she had introduced him to her health conscious lifestyle, which included yoga, meditation, massage, and a vegetarian diet.
Of vegetarianism, Spock would say:
Children who grow up getting nutrition from plant foods rather than meats have a tremendous health advantage. They are less likely to develop weight problems, diabetes, high blood pressure and some forms of cancer.
The first edition of Dr. Spock's Baby & Child Care sold 500,000 copies in its first six months of publication. To this date, the book has sold over fifty million copies and continues to influence generations of parents. It also continues to court controversy.
In the late 1960s, then Vice President Spiro Agnew blamed Dr. Spock's child rearing books for the creation of the youth counterculture, (he called them the Spock Generation) accusing him of promoting permissiveness and disrespect for authority.
Agnew would resign in disgrace after being charged with evading taxes and accepting bribes, but many conservatives agreed with his assessment of Dr. Spock. In his last book, A Better World for Our Children (1994), Spock addressed this criticism:
The Permissive Label: A couple weeks after my indictment [for 'conspiracy to counsel, aid and abet resistance to the military draft'], I was accused by Reverend Norman Vincent Peale, a well-known New York clergyman and author who supported the Vietnam War, of corrupting an entire generation. In a sermon widely reported in the press, Reverend Peale blamed me for all the lack of patriotism, lack of responsibility, and lack of discipline of the young people who opposed the war.
All these failings, he said, were due to my having told their parents to give them "instant gratification" as babies. I was showered with blame in dozens of editorials and columns from primarily conservative newspapers all over the country heartily agreeing with Peale's assertions. Many parents have since stopped me on the street or in airports to thank me for helping them to raise fine children, and they've often added, "I don't see any instant gratification in Baby and Child Care."
I answer that they're right - I've always advised parents to give their children firm, clear leadership and to ask for cooperation and politeness in return. On the other hand I've also received letters from conservative mothers saying, in effect, "Thank God I've never used your horrible book. That's why my children take baths, wear clean clothes and get good grades in school."
Since I received the first accusation twenty-two years after Baby and Child Care was originally published - and since those who write about how harmful my book is invariably assure me they've never used it - I think it's clear that the hostility is to my politics rather than my pediatric advice. And though I've been denying the accusation for twenty-five years, one of the first questions I get from many reporters and interviewers is, "Doctor Spock, are you still permissive?" You can't catch up with a false accusation.
Two other criticisms of Dr. Spock's Baby & Child Care had nothing to do with politics and weren't really the author's fault because the evidence proving their validity hadn't been discovered yet.
In his book, Dr. Spock had supported circumcision and had encouraged parents to have their babies sleep on their stomachs. For many years, the medical community believed that circumcision was beneficial because the foreskin was prone to infection.
Now the value of the procedure is seriously questioned. In a 1989 article for Redbook magazine, Dr. Spock retracted his position on circumcision, saying, "circumcision of males is traumatic, painful, and of questionable value."
Two years later, while speaking at the International Symposium on Circumcision, (after receiving their Human Rights Award) Spock said, "My own preference, if I had the good fortune to have another son, would be to leave his little penis alone."
Also for many years, the medical community believed that having babies sleep on their stomachs would prevent them from choking if they were to spit up or vomit.
In the 1990s, evidence was discovered proving that babies who sleep on their stomachs have a significantly higher risk of dying from SIDS - Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, AKA crib death.
Some urban legends about Dr. Spock stated that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry named the Enterprise's stoic Vulcan science officer Mr. Spock after him, and that one of Dr. Spock's sons committed suicide. Neither of these urban legends are true.
Roddenberry had never heard of Dr. Benjamin Spock when he chose the name of his beloved character. He simply wanted a one-syllable name for the Vulcan scientist that sounded strong and implied strength.
In the case of the suicide urban legend, it was Dr. Spock's grandson who had committed suicide at the age of 22, after a long battle with schizophrenia. Conservatives still try to exploit this tragedy as a means of debunking Spock's child rearing methods.
Dr. Benjamin Spock died in 1998 at the age of 94. A new English language edition of Dr. Spock's Baby & Child Care aimed at readers in India was released in 2013.
Some of Spock's other memorable books include A Baby's First Year (1954), Caring for Your Disabled Child (1965), Decent and Indecent (1970), Raising Children in a Difficult Time (1974), and Spock on Spock: a Memoir of Growing Up With the Century (1989).
Quote Of The Day
“I really learned it all from mothers.”
- Dr. Benjamin Spock
Vanguard Video
Today's video features an 80-minute interview with the late, great Dr. Benjamin Spock. Enjoy!
This Day In Literary History
On May 1st, 1923, the legendary American writer Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn, New York. As a young boy, he was given a children's edition of The Iliad, Homer's classic epic poem set during the Trojan War. Enthralled by the power of words, he determined to become a writer.
After graduating high school in 1941, Heller worked at various jobs, serving as everything from a blacksmith's apprentice to a filing clerk. The following year, with America now involved in World War II, Heller enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps.
He was sent to the Italian Front, where he flew 60 combat missions as a B-25 bombardier; When the war ended, he took advantage of the G.I. Bill and began his college education, first enrolling at the University of Southern California as an English major.
He would ultimately earn a Master's degree in English and spend a year as a Fulbright scholar at St. Catherine's College, Oxford. From there, Heller served as an English professor, teaching composition at Penn State and creative writing at Yale.
For a time, he worked as an advertising copywriter alongside future bestselling suspense novelist Mary Higgins Clark. He still determined to become a writer, and wrote at home when he wasn't working.
Joseph Heller's first short story, published in 1948, appeared in The Atlantic magazine. In 1955, he published the first chapter of what was originally intended to be a novella called Catch-18 in New World Writing magazine.
The planned work turned out to be novel length. When he was one third finished with the manuscript, Heller decided he would complete it only if he could find an interested publisher. Simon and Schuster bought the work, paying the author a $1500 advance.
He would receive half of it immediately and half when he delivered the finished manuscript. It took him five years to complete his first novel, but the wait was worth it. To avoid confusion with Leon Uris' then new novel Mila 18, Heller changed the title of his novel from Catch-18 to Catch-22.
The novel, published in 1961, would become a classic, and its title would be added to the English lexicon as a term meaning "a problematic situation for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem or by a rule."
Catch-22 uses an experimental third person omniscient narrative to tell the story, describing events from different characters' points of view. The main character, Captain John Yossarian, is a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier stationed at the Italian Front during World War II. He belongs to the fictional 256th squadron.
As Yossarian witnesses the horrors of war, he comes to fear his own commanding officers more than the enemy. The American military leadership is a monstrous, corrupt bureaucracy that operates on dangerously flawed circular logic. The "Catch-22" of the title is their sinister golden rule. Here's how it works:
Yossarian and his men must fly a certain amount of combat missions for their service to be considered complete. The military leadership keeps increasing the number of missions. The added stress is pushing them - especially Yossarian - to the breaking point.
Under military rules, he would be considered insane for willingly flying so many combat missions without regard to his health. Yet, it would be pointless if Yossarian were to make a formal request to be relieved of duty for reasons of severe psychological stress.
Under military rules, he would be considered sane and cleared for duty because he had the presence of mind to make that request. This is what's known as a Catch-22.
Although the novel is set during World War II and satirizes the absurdity of war, Heller actually wrote it as an indictment of McCarthyism - the U.S. government's relentless and mostly illegal persecution of suspected communists and communist sympathizers during the early years of the Cold War.
The first edition hardcover of Catch-22 received mixed reviews and sold only 30,000 copies. When it debuted in paperback, it captured the imagination of a new generation of young people who shared in its antiwar sentiments. The paperback release would sell 10,000,000 copies and bring the novel its rightful recognition as an all time classic work of literature.
In 1970, a feature film version of Catch-22 was released. Although Paramount sunk $17 million into the picture, which was directed by Mike Nichols and featured Alan Arkin as Captain Yossarian, the film was a critical and commercial failure.
Some blame its failure on the fact that it was released at the same time as another, far superior antiwar black comedy called M*A*S*H, but this writer places the blame squarely on Catch-22's awful screenplay, which butchered the novel, changing the story considerably.
It would be thirteen years before Joseph Heller published his second novel. Something Happened (1974) is even more experimental than Catch-22; it's a relentlessly bleak and blistering satire of the American dream.
Middle aged executive Bob Slocum has it all: money, a beautiful wife, three great kids, and a big house. He has achieved the American dream. Unfortunately for Bob, his American dream is a nightmare.
He no longer loves his wife and cheats on her. His children are dysfunctional. He believes that his co-workers are out to get him. He finds no meaning in life and worries that he might be going insane.
In the novel's stream of consciousness narrative, Bob recalls events in his life (in random order) and tries to figure out when and how it all went wrong.
Heller continued to write great novels. Good as Gold (1979), a dark comedy, tells the story of Bruce Gold, a middle aged English professor who is determined to become America's first Jewish Secretary of State.
His ruthless ambition costs him his marriage and alienates him from his children and family - a price he considers steep, yet doesn't mind paying considering the return on the investment.
God Knows (1984) is a scathing, raunchy parody of the Bible, narrated by none other than David, the biblical King of Israel. The novel takes the form of David's deathbed memoirs as he gives a hilariously fractured yet moving account of his life, from cocky kid to warrior hero to King - and typical Jewish father.
Heller would author two memoirs of his own, No Laughing Matter (1986), which chronicled his battle with Guillain-Barré syndrome, and Now and Then (1998), which told of his early life, including his war experiences and determination to become a writer.
In 1994, Heller published Closing Time, a sequel to Catch-22, with an elderly Captain Yossarian up to his old tricks. After the war ended, he became a wealthy, successful corporate executive while remaining fiercely liberal. Now retired, he's a dirty old man obsessed with sex - and death.
Joseph Heller died of a heart attack in 1999 at the age of 76. When legendary writer Kurt Vonnegut heard of his passing, he said, "Oh, God, how terrible. This is a calamity for American literature."
Heller's last novel, Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man, was published in 2000. It told the story of an aged writer struggling to write one last great novel, which could be his magnum opus.
Quote Of The Day
“Mankind is resilient: the atrocities that horrified us a week ago become acceptable tomorrow."
- Joseph Heller
Vanguard Video
Today's video features a rare recording of Joseph Heller giving a lecture at UCLA in 1970. Enjoy!
This Day In Literary History
On April 30th, 1945, the famous American writer Annie Dillard was born. She was born Annie Doak in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The oldest of three daughters, Annie's parents were affluent, but liberal and non-conformist.
They believed in nurturing their children's creativity, curiosity, and sense of humor; as a young girl, Annie took piano and dance lessons, collected rocks and insects, and read voraciously.
Her father taught her about everything from plumbing and economics to Jack Kerouac's classic novel, On The Road (1957). Though her parents weren't churchgoers, Annie attended a local Presbyterian Church and went to a Presbyterian youth camp.
When as a teenager she told her minister she was rejecting her religion because of its hypocrisy, he gave her a collection of books by C.S. Lewis, which changed her mind about Christianity.
After graduating from high school, Annie attended Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia, where she studied literature and creative writing. She married her writing professor, poet R.H.W. Dillard.
By 1968, she earned a Master's degree in English, writing her thesis on Henry David Thoreau's Walden (1854), focusing on Walden Pond as "the central image and focal point for Thoreau's narrative movement between heaven and earth."
Annie Dillard began her writing career by publishing poetry and short stories. In 1971, after recovering from a near-fatal case of pneumonia, she began work on what would be her most famous book.
For eight years, she'd lived near Tinker Creek, a suburban area where she was surrounded by woodlands, creeks, mountains, and many different species of animals. It took her eight months to complete her book.
Cut off from the outside world and having no interest in the events of the time, such as the Watergate scandal, she would sometimes write for up to 15 hours a day. Annie's finished book, published in 1975, won her a Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is a Walden-esque collection of essays about Tinker Creek and its inhabitants. Dillard combines nature studies, philosophy, and spirituality to create a deeply introspective work of nonfiction.
It sold more than 37,000 copies in the first two months of publication and go through eight separate printings the first two years. Dillard was compared to Thoreau, and her book became required reading during the environmentalist movement of the 1970s.
At the time, Annie's spiritual outlook was a combination of elements from various religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Sufism, and Inuit spirituality, much like the transcendentalism of Thoreau and Emerson.
After making a name for herself with Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard moved to the state of Washington and became the writer-in-residence at Western Washington University. She divorced, remarried, and had a daughter named Rosie.
She continued to write and publish both fiction and nonfiction, including a memoir about growing up in Pittsburgh called An American Childhood (1987). For 21 years, she taught in the English department at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
Annie Dillard's most recent book, The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old & New, was published in 2016.
Quote Of The Day
"Your work is to keep cranking the flywheel that turns the gears that spins the belt in the engine of belief that keeps you and your desk in midair."
- Annie Dillard
Vanguard Video Today's video features a reading from Annie Dillard's classic book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Enjoy!
This Day In Literary History
On April 29th, 1933, the legendary American poet, singer, and songwriter Rod McKuen was born in Oakland, California. In 1944, when he was eleven, he ran away from home to escape his violent alcoholic stepfather.
He drifted throughout the West Coast, working at various jobs; he was a logger, a ranch hand, a railroad worker, and even a rodeo cowboy. Despite his lack of formal education, McKuen kept a journal and wrote frequently.
This would lead him to become a poet and writer of song lyrics. He also became a newspaper columnist. During the Korean War, he served his two-year tour of duty as a propaganda scriptwriter. After the war ended, he settled in San Francisco.
His first poetry collection, And Autumn Came, was published in 1954. He was soon reading his poems alongside fellow Beat writers such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Around this time, Rod McKuen began performing as a singer at the Purple Onion.
The Purple Onion was a famous cellar club in San Francisco where legendary comics such as Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Mort Sahl, Phyllis Diller, Richard Pryor, and the Smothers Brothers would also perform.
At first, McKuen performed traditional folk songs, then he began writing and performing his own songs. This led him to win a recording contract with Decca Records, for whom he recorded several pop albums.
He tried to start a career as an actor, and appeared in rock n' roll themed movies such as Rock, Pretty Baby (1956) and Summer Love (1958).
McKuen's acting career failed to take off, so in 1959, he moved to New York City to work as a composer and music conductor for the TV show CBS Workshop. In the early 1960s, he moved to France, where he met many of the country's top songwriters.
He struck up a close friendship with legendary Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel and embarked on a project to translate all of Brel's songs into English. His translation of Brel's song If You Go Away became a pop standard. British singer Scott Walker recorded many of McKuen's translations.
When Canadian singer Terry Jacks recorded McKuen's translation of Brel's classic song Seasons in the Sun, it became a #1 hit. McKuen also translated the works of other prominent French songwriters.
In the late 1960s, McKuen published more collections of poetry including Listen to the Warm (1967), Lonesome Cities (1968), and In Someone's Shadow (1969). He also returned to singing and songwriting.
Working with arranger Anita Kerr and the San Sebastian Strings, he recorded a series of pop albums, including The Sea (1967), The Earth (1967), The Sky (1968), Home to the Sea (1969), For Lovers (1969), and The Soft Sea (1970).
Legendary singer Frank Sinatra, impressed with McKuen's talents, then commissioned an album of his poems and songs, which was released as A Man Alone: The Words and Music of Rod McKuen.
In the 1970s, McKuen tried his hand at classical compositions, writing concertos, suites, symphonies, and chamber pieces for orchestra. He also wrote film scores and collaborated with legendary composers such as Henry Mancini and John Williams. He earned two Academy Award nominations.
He continued publishing great poetry collections, including Caught in the Quiet (1970), Fields of Wonder (1971), Moment to Moment (1972), and Come to Me in Silence (1973).
In 1977, he published a nonfiction book called Finding My Father, which was a chronicle of his search for his biological father. He became an activist, helping to make information about biological parents available to adopted children.
When he embarked on a concert tour of South Africa, which was segregated under the oppressive apartheid regime, McKuen demanded mixed seating for every one of his concerts, or else he wouldn't perform there.
He retired from live performance in 1981. A year later, he was diagnosed with clinical depression, which he would battle for nearly a decade. He continued to write poetry and appeared as a voice actor in movies and TV shows.
Rod McKuen died in January of 2015 at the age of 81. It has been estimated that he wrote over 1,500 songs during his remarkable career, most of them for other singers. All together, his songs account for over 100,000,000 records sold.
Quote Of The Day
"I try not to put messages in my songs. My only message is man's communication with his fellow man. I want to narrow the gap of strangeness and alienation."
- Rod McKuen
Vanguard Video
Today's video features Rod McKuen being interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air in 1978. Enjoy!
This Day In Literary History
On April 25th, 1719, Robinson Crusoe, the classic novel by the legendary English writer Daniel Defoe, was published. Although he wrote other classic novels such as A Journal of the Plague Year and Moll Flanders, Robinson Crusoe would be his most famous book.
This classic adventure novel was inspired by the true story of a shipwrecked Scottish sailor named Alexander Selkirk. It tells the story of the title character, who as a young man, first hears the call of the sea.
Against the wishes of his parents, Robinson Crusoe sets sail on his first ocean voyage. In a prelude to the events to come, Crusoe's first vessel is shipwrecked in a storm. He survives, but still hears the call of the sea.
On his next voyage, his ship is captured by Moroccan pirates. Crusoe is made a slave. After two years of slavery, he manages to escape in a boat.
Rescued by the captain of a Portuguese ship, Crusoe is befriended by the man, who helps him become the owner of a plantation. Years later, Crusoe joins an expedition to procure and transport slaves from Africa.
Once again, Crusoe is shipwrecked. This time, however, he finds himself the sole survivor, marooned on a deserted island in the West Indies. With only the captain's dog and two cats for company, Crusoe names his new home the Island of Despair.
Overcoming his despair, he determines to survive. He gathers arms, tools, and supplies from his ship before it sinks, then stakes out a stretch of land near a cave.
There, Crusoe survives by hunting game, growing barley and rice, and storing fruit for the winter. He also raises goats, adopts a parrot as a pet, and learns to make pottery. Taking solace in his bible, Crusoe is thankful for his survival instead of bemoaning his fate.
Years pass, and Crusoe discovers that the island is not deserted after all. He finds natives and discovers that a cannibal tribe visits the island occasionally to hunt them and take them prisoner.
Crusoe considers killing the cannibals, but changes his mind, realizing that they are so primitive, they don't know what they're doing. A native prisoner of the cannibals escapes, and Crusoe befriends him.
Naming the man Friday, Crusoe teaches him English, converts him to Christianity, and makes him his personal servant. When Crusoe and Friday happen upon another tribe about to partake in a cannibal feast, they kill most of the cannibals and save two of their prisoners.
One of the prisoners is Friday's father, the other is a Spaniard who tells Crusoe that other Spaniards were shipwrecked on the mainland. A plan is made wherein the Spaniard and Friday's father will return with the other Spaniards, then they'll all build a ship and sail to a nearby Spanish port.
Before the Spaniards return, a British ship arrives at the island. Mutineers have taken control of the ship and are planning to abandon the captain on the island. Crusoe helps the captain and his loyal men take back the ship.
In exchange for their help, the captain takes Crusoe and Friday to England. Back home, Crusoe discovers that his family believed he was dead, so his father left him nothing in his will. Crusoe goes to Lisbon to reclaim the wealth he'd accumulated from his plantation.
Afterward, he and Friday return - via land - to England, and in one last adventure, fight scores of starving wolves while crossing the Pyrenees mountains.
For nearly three hundred years, Robinson Crusoe has inspired countless tales of castaways - everything from Johann David Wyss's novel The Swiss Family Robinson (1812) to the classic TV series Gilligan's Island (1964-67), whose theme song's lyrics state, "Like Robinson Crusoe, it's primitive as can be."
The novel has been adapted numerous times for the screen and is rightfully considered one of the all time classic works of English literature.
Quote Of The Day
"I hear much of people's calling out to punish the guilty, but very few are concerned to clear the innocent."
- Daniel Defoe
Vanguard Video
Today's video features a complete reading of Daniel Defoe's classic novel, Robinson Crusoe. Enjoy!
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