This Day In Writing History On April 30th, 1945, the famous 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 current events such as the Watergate scandal, she would sometimes write for up to 15 hours a day.
Annie's finished book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, was published in 1975. It won her a Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. In this Walden-esque collection of essays about Tinker Creek and its inhabitants, the author combines nature studies, philosophy, and spirituality to create a deeply introspective work of non-fiction. At the time, her spiritual outlook was a combination of elements from various religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Sufism, and even Eskimo spirituality. Years later, she would convert to Catholicism.
After making a name for herself with Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard moved to the state of Washington and became a 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 non-fiction, including a memoir about growing up in Pittsburgh called An American Childhood (1987).
For a while, she taught in the English department at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. She currently lives with her third husband, biographer Robert D. Richardson, and splits her time between Hillsborough, North Carolina and Wythe County, Virginia. Her most recent book, a novel called The Maytrees, was published in 20o7.
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 Annie Dillard speaking at the 150th anniversary celebration of Harper's Magazine in New York City, in May of 2000. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On April 29th, 1933, the legendary poet, singer, and songwriter Rod McKuen was born in Oakland, California. In 1944, when he was eleven years old, he ran away from home to escape his violently abusive 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 began keeping a journal and writing frequently. This led him to become a poet and writer of song lyrics. He took a job as 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 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 would sing folk songs, then he began 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 American 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 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. 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 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 continued publishing memorable 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 non-fiction 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 system of apartheid, McKuen demanded mixed seating for every one of his performances.
Rod McKuen 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. It has been estimated that Rod McKuen has written over 1,500 songs, most of them for other singers. All of McKuen's songs account for over 100,000,000 records sold. As a composer for films, he has collaborated with legendary composers such as Henry Mancini and John Williams, and earned two Academy Award nominations.
Quote Of The Day "Poetry is fact given over to imagery." - Rod McKuen
Vanguard Video Today's video features a two part interview with Rod McKuen on the Patti Gribow show. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On April 28th, 1926, the legendary writer Harper Lee was born. She was born Nelle Harper Lee in Monroeville, Alabama. The youngest of four children, her father Amasa Coleman Lee was a lawyer who served in the Alabama State Legislature from 1926 to 1938. He was a former newspaper editor as well. As a child, Harper Lee was a precocious tomboy and a voracious reader. Her best friend, neighbor, and classmate was the legendary writer Truman Capote.
After graduating from Monroe County High School, Harper Lee enrolled in the Huntingdon College for women, then transferred to the University of Alabama to study law. She wrote for several student newspapers and edited the campus humor magazine, Rammer Jammer. After studying for a year in Oxford, she left college without obtaining a law degree.
In 1950, Harper moved to New York City and took a job as reservation clerk, first for Eastern Airlines, then BOAC. She divided her time between her cold water flat in New York and her family home in Alabama, where she cared for her ailing father. By 1956, determined to become a writer, she began writing stories and found herself an agent. In December of 1956, she received a year's wages and time off from work as a Christmas present. The gift came with a note that said, "You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas."
Harper Lee used her time off to write a novel. Within a year, she completed the first draft of her novel. Working with Tay Hohoff, an editor for J.B. Lippincott & Co., she completed her final draft in the summer of 1959. A year later, in July of 1960, her novel was published. It was called To Kill a Mockingbird. Set in Depression era Alabama, the semi-autobiographical novel is narrated by eight-year-old Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, a precocious tomboy.
Scout lives with her older brother Jeremy "Jem" Finch and their widower father, Atticus Finch, a prominent and liberal attorney. Scout's best friend is Charles Baker "Dill" Harris, who, although small for his age, has a big imagination. When a poor black man named Tom Robinson is falsely accused of raping a white woman, Atticus Finch agrees to defend him. Finch's determination to see justice done and his brilliant, passionate defense of his client serve to inflame the community against him. Once respected and loved, Atticus finds himself the most hated man in town.
As Scout's big brother Jem reaches adolescence, the climate of violent racism and the injustice meted out by a bigoted all-white jury disturbs him greatly. Tom Robinson is convicted of rape despite the truth uncovered by Atticus Finch: when Tom's accuser, the lonely, abused Mayella Ewell, was caught making sexual advances to a black man, she falsely accused him of rape out of fear of her father Bob, a violent racist and alcoholic.
Later, Tom Robinson is shot and killed while trying to escape from prison. (Earlier, Atticus, Scout, Jem, and Dill had prevented a mob from lynching him.) Meanwhile, Bob Ewell, humiliated by Atticus' revelations about his daughter during the trial, vows revenge. He spits in Atticus' face and later attacks his children on their way home from a school Halloween pageant.
Jem defends his little sister and gets his arm broken. Suddenly, someone appears out of the shadows and saves the kids - the evil Bob Ewell is attacked and killed by a strange, silent man who then carries the wounded Jem home. Scout realizes that their hero is Arthur "Boo" Radley, the mysterious town recluse whom the children had thought was a monster.
To Kill a Mockingbird became an overnight sensation - an immediate bestseller that received rave reviews from both readers and critics. The following year, Harper Lee was stunned when her novel won her the Pulitzer Prize. She moved on to her next project, accompanying her childhood friend Truman Capote to Kansas for what they had originally planned to be an article about a small town shocked by the murders of a local farmer and his family. Capote later turned the true story into an acclaimed non-fiction book, In Cold Blood (1966).
In 1962, a feature film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird was released. The highly acclaimed film starred Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and featured an incredible performance by eight-year-old newcomer Mary Badham as Scout. Harper Lee loved the film and called Horton Foote's screenplay "one of the best translations of a book to film ever made." The movie would win Gregory Peck the Best Actor Oscar and Horton Foote the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Peck and Harper Lee would become lifelong friends; his grandson Harper Peck Voll is named after her.
In June of 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson named Harper Lee to the National Council on the Arts. That same year, she experienced one of the first attempts at censoring her novel. A school board in Richmond, Virginia voted to ban To Kill a Mockingbird from classroom study and school libraries, denouncing the novel as "immoral literature." Lee wrote the following response in a letter to the editor of Richmond's largest newspaper:
Recently I have received echoes down this way of the Hanover County School Board’s activities, and what I’ve heard makes me wonder if any of its members can read.
Surely it is plain to the simplest intelligence that “To Kill a Mockingbird” spells out in words of seldom more than two syllables a code of honor and conduct, Christian in its ethic, that is the heritage of all Southerners. To hear that the novel is “immoral” has made me count the years between now and 1984, for I have yet to come across a better example of doublethink.
I feel, however, that the problem is one of illiteracy, not Marxism. Therefore I enclose a small contribution to the Beadle Bumble Fund that I hope will be used to enroll the Hanover County School Board in any first grade of its choice.
Over the years, To Kill a Mockingbird, which is a staple of study for eighth grade English classes, has faced similar attempts by disgruntled would-be censors to remove it from school libraries and classrooms.
Harper Lee originally planned to write another novel, but her manuscript for The Long Goodbye would be filed away unfinished. During the mid 1980s, she began writing a non-fiction book about an Alabama serial killer, but she gave up on that as well. Her writing output since To Kill a Mockingbird has consisted of just a few essays and articles. In 2006, she wrote a letter to legendary talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey, which would be published in O, the Oprah Magazine. In it, she spoke of her childhood love of books and her dedication to the written word. She wrote: "Now, 75 years later, in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books."
In November of 2007, Harper Lee was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush at a ceremony in the White House.
Quote Of The Day "I never expected any sort of success with Mockingbird. I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected." - Harper Lee
Vanguard Video Today's video features a short documentary about Harper Lee. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On April 27th, 1759, the famous Anglo-Irish writer Mary Wollstonecraft was born in London, England. She was born into an upper middle class family. At first, the Wollstonecrafts had a comfortable income, but then Mary's father squandered most of their money away on bad investments. As a result, the family moved frequently to avoid creditors.
Mary Wollstonecraft's father was also a violent alcoholic and often beat his wife in drunken rages. As a teenager, Mary would stand guard outside her mother's door to protect her from her father. She would continue to be a protector, later convincing her sister Eliza to leave her husband. Unfortunately, at the time, divorce was considered disgraceful by society, so even though Eliza was able to escape her husband, her decision to leave him doomed her to a life of poverty and hard work.
Mary would have two close relationships that shaped her early life, philosophy, and writings. The first was with her friend Jane Arden. The two women developed a love of reading and read voraciously. They also attended lectures by Jane's father, a philosopher and scientist. The insecurities of Mary's childhood, being caught in the middle of her parents' volatile marriage, led her to be emotionally possessive of her friend and prone to mood swings and depression.
Mary's next great friend was Fanny Blood. Together, they envisioned living in a female utopia free from the control and influence of men. The economic realities of the day made that dream impossible. So, to support themselves, Mary, Fanny, and Mary's sisters set up a school for girls in Newington Green, which at the time was a community of Dissenters - English Protestants who had broken away from the Church of England.
Not long after the school was in operation, Fanny became engaged. She had been in chronically poor health, so after they were married, Fanny's husband took her on a trip through Europe in the hopes of restoring her health. Unfortunately, after she became pregnant, Fanny's health began to deteriorate. Mary Wollstonecraft nursed her ailing friend, and was devastated when Fanny died. Meanwhile, during her absence, her school failed. These experiences would play a part in her first novel, Mary: A Fiction (1788) which was a fictionalization of her life.
After Fanny Blood's death, Mary took a job as governess for a family in Ireland. She loved the children that were placed in her care, but she hated their mother, so she eventually resigned. This experience resulted in Mary's only children's book, Original Stories from Real Life (1788). After leaving her job as governess, Mary became frustrated by the few options available for a poor but respectable single woman to support herself. She would write about it in her first work of feminist philosophy, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787).
While living in London, Mary fell in love with the artist Henry Fuseli, with whom she had struck up a friendship. Unfortunately, Fuseli was married. When Mary proposed a platonic living arrangement where she would move in with Fuseli and his wife, Mrs. Fuseli was outraged. Henry broke off all ties with Mary. Hurt and humiliated by his total rejection, she decided to travel to Paris. She supported the French Revolution and had written a political pamphlet, Vindication of the Rights of Men (1791), where she attacked the aristocracy and the monarchy, promoting the constitutional republic form of government. It was a scathing retort to an essay by British conservative Edmund Burke where he defended the rule of the monarchy and the aristocracy.
Mary would use her ideas of freedom and equality and civil rights as the backbone of her next work, which would be her most famous book. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) is considered to be one of the first major works of feminist philosophy. In it, Mary proclaimed men and women equal in the eyes of God and called for equal rights for women, including the right to an education and the right to work. She believed that women should neither deny their natural sexual impulses nor allow themselves to be enslaved by them. A woman should be sensible, and sensibility meant do what you will, but harm none - including yourself.
Contrary to popular belief, Mary Wollstonecraft's feminist manifesto was mostly well received when it was published, as the subject of women's rights was a prominent issue at the time - it was even being debated in Parliament. Of course, Mary was loudly derided by staunch conservatives, including conservative women.
When she arrived in Paris in December of 1792, Mary found France in turmoil. King Louis XVI would be guillotined a month later. Nevertheless, she decided to stay and joined in the community of British and American expatriates living in Paris. She met and fell in love with American adventurer Gilbert Imlay. She became pregnant with his child and gave birth in May of 1794, naming her baby daughter after her old and dear friend, Fanny. Unfortunately, Imlay had no intention of becoming a husband and father.
After England declared war on France, British subjects living in France found themselves in danger. Though they weren't married, Imlay registered Mary as his wife to protect her and the baby. Some of her friends, including Thomas Paine, weren't as lucky. Some were arrested and some were even guillotined. Eventually, Imlay left Mary. He promised he would return, but never did.
Mary returned to England in 1795 and found Imlay living in London, but he rejected her. She attempted suicide - most likely by an overdose of laudanum (tincture of opium) - and Imlay saved her life. When her last attempt at winning Imlay back failed, Mary tried to drown herself in the Thames, but a stranger saw her jump into the river and rescued her. Though she had deemed suicide a rational solution to her predicament, she gave up on the idea of killing herself.
Gradually, Mary resumed her writing career and rejoined Joseph Johnson's literary circle, which at the time included novelist and philosopher William Godwin. Their courtship started slowly, but soon blossomed into a passionate love affair. When Mary became pregnant, they decided to marry so that their child would be legitimate. Their marriage would reveal the fact that Mary had never been married to her daughter Fanny's father, Gilbert Imlay. They lost many friends in the ensuing scandal. William Godwin didn't care. No stranger to controversy, he was an outspoken anarchist who had advocated the abolition of marriage in his philosophical treatise, Political Justice (1793).
Mary and William Godwin's marriage would prove to be happy, loving, and stable. Sadly, it would also be tragically cut short. After she gave birth to their child, a daughter she named after herself, Mary contracted a serious infection when the placenta broke apart during the delivery, which was a common occurrence in the 18th century. After enduring several days of agony, Mary Wollstonecraft died in September of 1797 at the age of 38. Her husband was devastated.
Though she wouldn't live to see it, her new baby daughter Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin would grow up to marry legendary poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and become a famous writer like her mother, authoring the legendary horror novel, Frankenstein (1818).
Quote Of The Day "Make women rational creatures and free citizens, and they will quickly become good wives - that is, if men do not neglect the duties of husbands and fathers." - Mary Wollstonecraft
Vanguard Video Today's video features a short documentary on the reception of Mary Wollstonecraft's feminist philosophy in early post-Revolution America. Enjoy!
Internet Writing Workshop members continue to find publishing success in all venues. Congratulations to our latest crew!
Jody
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Florence Cardinal
My article "The Pillar Procedure for Snoring and Sleep Apnea," is posted at Health Central.
Sue Ellis
"Faces in Odd Places" is an essay I wrote for a Practice exercise. Thanks so much, Practice, for helping with this one. Looks like a lot of changes at Wild Violet, including some ongoing contests. Check it out!
Rebecca Gaffron
My prose poem "Letter to Odysseus" appears in the latest issue of Birmingham Arts Journal. Many thanks to Sue, Alice and Wayne for introducing me to this wonderful publication.
The 2d Edition of one of my hiking books has gone into its second printing, and is now carried at several of the Costco Warehouse stores in my region. In addition, I'll be doing a series of booksignings over the next few weeks at those stores.
Gary Presley
Every time I attempt to write a piece of fiction, it begins strangely and ends oddly. But the editor at Camroc Press Review seems to like it...
Sharde L. Richardson
My piece, "The Final Salute," was accepted by The Birmingham Arts Journal for their upcoming issue. It will be available to read through pdf from the website on the 22nd. I can't thank the folks in P-prose enough for their help.
Catherine Robinson
My regular column is up at The Tampa Tribune about my breast biopsy and other fun observations.
My latest column at Creative Loafing, about the importance of having children...or not, also is up.
Rebeca Schiller
This is a bit premature, but I'll be writing book reviews for Dan's Papers twice a month, starting in May. Dan's Papers is a regional publication based the Hamptons. Its reach is primarily Long Island, New York City and the boroughs.
Pat St. Pierre
My poem, "Words Find Themselves on Paper," has been published under Poetric Expressions in The Writer's Haven Magazette Online.
My short story "Bravery When It's Needed" has been published in the Feb/March issue of My Light Magazine (for children).
Wayne Scheer
My story, "Aging Gracefully," has been accepted at Bartleby-Snopes for their May edition.
Apollo's Lyre has accepted, "Magic," a humor piece I wrote for Practice. They plan to publish it in their June issue.
My story, "Choosing to Live," has been accepted by Skyline Magazine. Skyline is a print publication. The story was reviewed in Fiction.
Barbara Weitbrecht
My self-published Kindle book, "Ten Dragons: a chapbook" is now live on Amazon.
Five of the ten stories in the book were originally posted and critiqued on the "Practice" list. For those of you who remember, they're the tales about Sir William, the wyrm slayer. Thank you for the insight and assistance.
Joanna M. Weston
My abecedarian, "Zoned out," is in the print edition of The Feathertale Review #6, p. 31. I'm just sorry not everyone gets to read it!
Virginia Winters
My story, "Freddie's Athabaska," has been published in The Other Herald. Thanks to all who critiqued it several months ago.
Give me five. Prepared by: Ruth Douillette Reposted on: April 25, 2010 ------------------------- Exercise: Choose a person and focus on his or her hands. In no more than 400 words, write a short story, scene, or poem that shows readers something important about the person whose hands are described. ------------------------- Sometimes it is the small things that give writers the greatest opportunity to highlight something unique about a particular character. For this exercise the "small thing" will be hands. Choose someone and focus on his or her hands. The appearance of the hands and what they do can show readers a lot about a person.
Note how the hands look: professionally manicured with fire red nails, ragged fingernails, bitten to the quick, shaky hands with prominent veins . . .
Note what are the hands are doing: smoothing hair off the forehead of a child, dealing cards, arranging a vase of flowers . . .
Think of a simile or metaphor that relates to the hands: they quivered like a tiny bird trapped in a corner.
Consider adding a character who speaks to the "hand person" or asks a question. Does the conversation distract the person from what he is doing with his hands? How do the movements of the hands change? ------------------------- Exercise: Choose a person and focus on his or her hands. In no more than 400 words, write a short story, scene, or poem that shows readers something important about the person whose hands are described. ------------------------- Critique by noting how effectively the descriptions and metaphor were combined to create a story or scene. Did you get a sense of the personality of the character whose hands were described?
These exercises were written by IWW members and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its members. You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that you found them at the Internet Writing Workshop.
This Day In Writing History On April 23rd, 1564, the legendary English playwright and poet William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. Though no attendance records have survived, scholars believed that Shakespeare began his formal education at the King's New School in Stratford.
In 1582, at the age of eighteen, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, who was eight years his senior and pregnant with his daughter, Susanna. Two years later, the couple would have twins - son Hamnet and daughter Juliet. Hamnet would die of unknown causes at the age of eleven, devastating Shakespeare and affecting his writing.
There are few if any historical traces of Shakespeare's life between 1585 (when the twins were born) and 1592, when he appeared on the scene (no pun intended) as an actor and playwright. As a young actor, Shakespeare belonged to a company of players known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men. They would become the leading theatrical troupe in London.
In 1603, when James I became king following the death of Queen Elizabeth, he awarded Shakespeare's company a royal patent. The company changed its name to the King's Men. They had already built their own theater - the Globe - on the banks of the Thames. They later took over the Blackfriars indoor theater.
Shakespeare acted in his own plays as well as in the works of others, but he eventually stopped acting and devoted himself to play writing. When he acted in his own plays, he preferred to play the roles of kings. He made a tradition of playing the ghost of Prince Hamlet's murdered father in his productions of Hamlet.
Beginning in 1594, Shakespeare's plays were published in quarto editions (magazine sized volumes) and became bestsellers. His first recorded plays were Richard III and the three parts of Henry VI. These plays were part of his histories. He was also known for his classic comedies and tragedies. His comedies included such masterpieces as A Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Taming of the Shrew. His tragedies - the plays he was most famous for - included such masterworks as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, and Julius Caesar.
Shakespeare was also famous as a poet. Of course, the lines in his plays were poetry - literally, as they were written in blank verse - but as a poet, he was famous for his narrative poems and his sonnets. His narrative poems included epic works such as Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His sonnets were numbered, from 1 to 154. They addressed three different characters, which scholars have labeled The Fair Youth, The Dark Lady, and The Rival Poet.
In his Fair Youth sonnets, Shakespeare addresses the young man in loving and romantic language, which has led some scholars to speculate that the author was bisexual. The Dark Lady sonnets were supposedly addressed to the author's mistress, and the Rival Poet was most likely one of his contemporaries such as Christopher Marlowe or George Chapman.
Although Shakespeare's sonnets were first published in 1609 and have been republished ever since, evidence suggests that Shakespeare never intended for them to be published. He intended to share them privately with his friends.
By 1607, Shakespeare wrote few plays. The last known work attributed to him appeared in 1613. He died on April 23rd, 1616 - his 52nd birthday. Although he had achieved fame and fortune during his lifetime, it wouldn't be until over a century after his death that he would become world renowned as the greatest dramatist of all time. In the 18th century, scholarly works on Shakespeare and his writings by such famous academics as Samuel Johnson and Edmond Malone brought attention to Shakespeare's genius.
In the 19th century, Shakespeare was enshrined as England's national poet. He was championed throughout Europe by legendary writers such as Voltaire, Goethe, Stendhal, and Victor Hugo. As the Eastern world opened itself up to the West, Shakespeare became an ambassador of Western culture. To this day, his works remain hugely popular throughout Asia.
The timeless themes of Shakespeare's plays make them adaptable throughout the modern world. In 1957, the legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa released his classic film Throne of Blood - an adaptation of Macbeth set in feudal Japan. A more recent American film adaptation sets Shakespeare's classic tragedy in modern corporate America.
As Prince Hamlet once said, the play's the thing.
Quote Of The Day "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts..." - William Shakespeare, from his classic play, As You Like It.
Vanguard Video Today's video features a clip from a performance of Shakespeare's Macbeth, starring Nicol Williamson. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On April 22nd, 1960, To Bedlam and Part Way Back, the first poetry collection by Anne Sexton, was published. Throughout her whole life, Sexton, a former model, suffered from severe mental illness. After her second mental breakdown in 1955, she began seeing a therapist, Dr. Martin Orne, who diagnosed her with a condition now known as bipolar disorder.
It was Dr. Orne who suggested that Anne Sexton take up writing poetry. She decided to attend a poetry workshop, but was so nervous about it that she had a friend accompany her to the first session. The workshop was led by John Holmes - the poet, not the porn star. It unlocked a talent Anne never knew she had. All of a sudden, her poems were being published in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and The Saturday Review.
She later attended Boston University, studying with Robert Lowell, alongside soon-to-be famous poets such as Sylvia Plath and George Starbuck. The Pulitzer Prize winning poet W.D. Snodgrass became Anne's literary mentor. When her first poetry collection was published in 1960, it established her as one of the finest confessional poets of her generation.
Anne Sexton's third poetry collection, Live or Die (1968), won her a Pulitzer Prize. Around this time, she became a counterculture celebrity. She would perform live readings accompanied by a jazz-rock group. The ensemble billed itself as "Anne Sexton and Her Kind." The name of her band, "Her Kind," is also the title of one of her most famous poems, which appeared in her first poetry collection. It was the signature piece of her performances: I have gone out, a possessed witch, haunting the black air, braver at night; dreaming evil, I have done my hitch over the plain houses, light by light: lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind. A woman like that is not a woman, quite. I have been her kind.
I have found the warm caves in the woods, filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves, closets, silks, innumerable goods; fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves: whining, rearranging the disaligned. A woman like that is misunderstood. I have been her kind.
I have ridden in your cart, driver, waved my nude arms at villages going by, learning the last bright routes, survivor where your flames still bite my thigh and my ribs crack where your wheels wind. A woman like that is not ashamed to die. I have been her kind.
Unfortunately, while Anne's fame and fortunes grew, her mental illness grew worse. She committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning (she locked herself in her garage and started her car with the windows open) at the age of 45. During her short life, Anne Sexton wrote over a dozen poetry collections and a play. She also co-wrote four children's books with her friend, Maxine Kumin.
After Anne's death, her troubled life would be the subject of controversy when her former therapist, Dr. Orne, gave biographer Diane Middlebrook audiotapes of his therapy sessions with Anne. Middlebrook's biography - published with the approval of Anne's daughter Linda - revealed many troubling details, including the fact that Anne had been sexually abused by her mother.
Her mother and some relatives vehemently denied that any abuse took place and accused her therapist of planting false memories during their hypnotherapy sessions. Other relatives, including Anne's daughter Linda, confirmed that Anne had been abused by her mother. The biography is still hotly debated to this day, as is the issue of whether doctor-patient confidentiality should remain in effect after the patient dies.
Quote Of The Day "The beautiful feeling after writing a poem is on the whole better even than after sex, and that's saying a lot." - Anne Sexton
Vanguard Video Today's video features rare documentary footage of Anne Sexton reading her poems. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On April 21st, 1894, Arms and the Man, the famous play by legendary Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, opened at the Playhouse Theatre in London.
Arms and the Man (the title comes from the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid) was set during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War. The play's heroine is a Bulgarian girl, Raina Petkoff. Her fiance is Sergius Saranoff, a war hero whom she idolizes.
One night, Captain Bluntschli, a Swiss mercenary soldier in the Serbian army, bursts in through Raina's bedroom window. After threatening her, Bluntschli begs Raina to hide him. She complies, though she thinks he's a coward - especially when he tells her that he is armed with chocolates instead of bullets.
After the battle dies down, Raina and her mother sneak Bluntschli out of the house, disguising him in a housecoat. The war ends and Sergius returns to Raina - and flirts with her servant girl Louka. Raina finds the man she once idolized to be tiresome and foolhardy. Then, Bluntschli unexpectedly returns to give Raina back the housecoat.
Raina comes to realize that Bluntschli respects her as a woman, where Sergius does not. She tells Bluntschli that she left a picture of herself in a pocket of the housecoat for him, with the inscription "To my chocolate-cream soldier." Unfortunately, Bluntschli never found it.
Later, Bluntschli receives word that his father has died and he has inherited considerable wealth. Louka then tells Sergius that Bluntschli was the man whom Raina protected - and is in love with. Sergius challenges Bluntschli to a duel, but the men avoid fighting when Sergius and Raina break off their engagement amicably. To Raina's father's horror, Sergius proposes to Louka.
Meanwhile, Bluntschli is now a wealthy businessman, but Raina, recognizing the shallowness of her romantic ideals and her ex-fiance's values, tells him that she would rather have her poor chocolate-cream soldier instead of a wealthy businessman. He convinces her that he's still the same person. The play ends with Raina proclaiming her love for Bluntschli, who then proclaims to everyone that he will marry Raina when he returns in two weeks.
The opening performance of Arms and the Man received a standing ovation - and loud boos from one lone heckler, to whom George Bernard Shaw quipped, "My dear fellow, I quite agree with you, but what are we two against so many?" When a group of Bulgarian students complained about Shaw using their country's military history as a vehicle for satirizing the absurdities of war, the playwright made the following apology:
"I greatly regret that my play, Arms and the Man, has wounded the susceptibilities of Bulgarian students in Berlin and Vienna. But I ask them to remember that it is the business of the writer of comedy to wound the susceptibilities of his audience... when the Bulgarian students, with my friendly assistance, have developed a sense of humor, there will be no more trouble."
Quote Of The Day "Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads." - George Bernard Shaw
Vanguard Video Today's video features a clip from a live performance of George Bernard Shaw's famous play, Arms and the Man. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On April 20th, 1953, the famous British novelist Sebastian Faulks was born in Newbury, England. His father Peter Faulks was a lawyer and decorated World War 2 veteran who became a judge. His maternal grandfather was a decorated veteran of World War 1.
Sebastian Faulks would not follow in the family tradition and become a lawyer or a judge. His first ambition was to be a taxi driver. Then, at the age of fifteen, he read George Orwell and determined to become a novelist. He first attended Wellington College, then studied English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he would later be elected as an honorary fellow.
After university, Faulks took a teaching job at the Dwight-Franklin International School. He also took up journalism, becoming a features writer for the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph. Later, he would be recruited as Literary Editor by The Independent, then become Deputy Editor of its Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday. He would also write columns for The Guardian and The Evening Standard.
Sebastian Faulks' first published novel was released in 1984. It was titled A Trick of the Light. Had it not been published, Faulks claimed he would have given up on writing, as two previous novels had been rejected. While A Trick of the Light wasn't hugely successful, it did get the author noticed. His next novel, The Girl at the Lion d'Or, made his name as a writer.
The first in a trilogy of novels - the French Trilogy - The Girl at the Lion d'Or was set in 1930s France. It told the story of Anne Louvert, a French girl left orphaned and homeless when her legal guardian - a Nazi sympathizer - moves to America, deserting his right wing comrades and abandoning Anne after she refuses to be his mistress. Anne finds work at the village inn, The Lion d'Or, where she meets Charles Hartmann, a kind, sensitive, wealthy older Jewish man.
Hartmann is a decorated veteran of the First World War, where Anne's father was executed for mutiny, an event that drove her mother to suicide. Although Hartmann is married, he and Anne fall in love and have a passionate affair. When Hartmann ends the affair, Anne is devastated but refuses to commit suicide like her mother did. Instead, she courageously faces the dark days ahead, as the rise of Nazism threatens France.
The second novel in Sebastian Faulks' French Trilogy, Birdsong (1993), proved to be a huge commercial success, selling three million copies. Ten years after its publication, it would be ranked at #13 on the BBC's "Big Read" list of Britain's 200 best loved novels. Birdsong told the story of Stephen Wraysford, a young Englishman living in France just before the outbreak of World War 1, as his granddaughter Elizabeth researches his experiences during the Great War.
The third volume of the French Trilogy, Charlotte Gray, was published in 1998. The tale of a young Scotswoman's involvement with the French Resistance during World War 2 was adapted as an acclaimed feature film in 2001, starring Cate Blanchett in the title role.
Faulks' 2001 novel On Green Dolphin Street was a Cold War drama set in the 1950s. The main character, Mary van der Linden, is the wife of a British diplomat stationed in Washington. Her husband Charlie is a talented and effective diplomat, but he's also a self-loathing alcoholic suffering from existential angst. When Mary meets American journalist Frank Renzo at a party, he becomes attracted to her. They have an affair, which troubles Mary deeply, as she still loves her husband. She finds herself torn between both men.
Faulks continued to write great novels. In 2007, he was commissioned by the trustees of the Ian Fleming estate to write an official James Bond novel. The result, Devil May Care, was published in 2008 to commemorate the centennial anniversary of Fleming's birth. Set in the 1960s, the novel pitted the legendary British secret agent against the evil Dr. Gorner, a manufacturer of legitimate pharmaceuticals who plans to flood Europe with cheap narcotics and launch a terrorist attack against the Soviet Union, the retaliation for which would devastate the UK.
Sebastian Faulks' latest novel, A Week in December, was published in 2009. He has also written several works of non-fiction. He remains one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom.
Quote Of The Day "If you have only one life, you can't altogether ignore the question: are you enjoying it?" - Sebastian Faulks
Vanguard Video Today's video features Sebastian Faulks being interviewed by David Frost in 2008 about his James Bond novel, Devil May Care. Enjoy!
Borrowed Words Originated by: Alice Folkart Reposted on: April 18, 2010
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Exercise: Create a story in 400 words or fewer that begins with an opening line "borrowed" from something you have read--novel, short story, poetry, travel guide, cookbook.
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Imagine how many different stories might spring from the following opening lines:
"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." (Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf)
"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow." (To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee)
"I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other." (Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen)
"We lived at 2029 Lafontaine, the last house on the west side of the street from 178th to 179th, a row of five-story tenements that ended in a hat factory." (Bronx Primitive - Kate Simon )
Of course you needn't use any of these. You are free to choose from the whole world of literature. Just let us know at the top of your Sub where your opening line comes from and who wrote it. That information will not be considered part of your word count.
See where the vehicle of someone else's voice and vision might take you.
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Exercise: Create a story in 400 words or fewer that begins with an opening line "borrowed" from something you have read--novel, short story, poetry, travel guide, cookbook.
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When critiquing, if the quote is a familiar one, consider what kind of leap the writer has made and how well it works. Is it interesting, new, radical, or does it echo the voice and intentions of the original author and work? Is that good, or not so good? If the work and/or the author are new to you, discuss how well the writer has used the springboard of another's voice and idea to stretch his own voice. Have fun.
These exercises were written by IWW members and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its members. You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that you found them at the Internet Writing Workshop.
This Day In Writing History On April 16th, 1962, The Golden Notebook, the famous novel by Nobel Prize winning British writer Doris Lessing, was published. The novel was hailed as a seminal early work of feminist literature. That wasn't what the author intended, though the book does have feminist themes. The Oxford Companion to English Literature described it as "inner space fiction." A better description would be experimental existentialist fiction.
The Golden Notebook uses a fragmented, stream-0f-consciousness narrative to tell the story of Anna Wulf, a middle aged writer and single mother who has come apart - literally and metaphorically. She keeps four notebooks, each one representing a part of her personality.
In her black notebook, Anna records her experiences in Africa, where she helped fight the colonial oppression of black Africans. In her red notebook, she records her idealism, specifically her political idealism, as she first becomes a passionate young communist, then changes over time into a sober realist, disillusioned by the crimes of the Stalin regime and the realization that communism can't create a better world as she had thought. Her yellow notebook contains her novel, which is a fictionalized version of her life. Her blue notebook is her personal diary, where she records the actual events in her life.
The narrative is comprised of alternating fragments from each of her four notebooks, which reflects her chaotic state of mind. Fearing that she might go insane, Anna tries to weave together the threads of her four notebooks and create one complete Golden Notebook. In doing so, she embarks on a harrowing journey in search of her true self, confronting her anxieties and the painful truths behind her personal crises.
The Golden Notebook is a classic existentialist novel written in a post-modernist style.
Quote Of The Day "With a library, you are free, not confined by temporary political climates. It is the most democratic of institutions because no one - but no one at all - can tell you what to read and when and how." - Doris Lessing
Vanguard Video Today's video features an excerpt from a 1987 BBC Radio interview with Doris Lessing. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On April 15th, 1755, Samuel Johnson's legendary reference book, A Dictionary of the English Language was published. It wasn't the first English language dictionary published, nor would it be the last. It was one of the most memorable dictionaries ever published, because it was written by Samuel Johnson - a British poet, essayist, literary critic, biographer, and lexicographer described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history."
Most dictionaries of the time were found to be unsatisfactory at best, so in 1746, a group of London booksellers commissioned Samuel Johnson to write a dictionary for £1,575 - the equivalent of £230,o00 in today's money. Johnson claimed that he could complete the work in three years, but it took him nearly nine years to finish his dictionary.
It took Johnson a whole year just to draft a plan for the design of his dictionary. The plan received the support of statesman Lord Philip Stanhope, the 4th Earl of Sandwich. After the dictionary was published, Stanhope wrote an anonymous essay endorsing the work, complaining that the English language lacked structure. Johnson didn't like the tone of the essay and felt that Stanhope hadn't done enough to fulfill his obligations as patron of the dictionary.
The first edition of A Dictionary of the English Language was published in a ponderously large sized volume, (18" tall by 20" wide) on the finest quality paper available, making it incredibly expensive to print and affordable only by nobility and royalty. Johnson called this volume "Vasta mole superbus." - "Proud in its great bulk."
Johnson's dictionary contained the definitions of 42,773 words (only a few more words would be added in its revised editions) and was innovative in its use of literary quotations used to illustrate the meanings of words. The dictionary contained some 114,000 quotations by authors such as Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden.
In addition to the quotations, Johnson's dictionary was the first to use humor in its definitions of words. A famous example is Johnson's definition of the word oats as "a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people." The legendary American writer Ambrose Bierce would employ similar humor in his classic, scathing work of satire, The Devil's Dictionary (1911).
A Dictionary of the English Language was a huge hit in England, receiving rave reviews and becoming famous throughout Europe. In America, however, it was poorly received, especially by an American lexicographer named Noah Webster, who argued that British English should no longer be the American standard because "the taste of [Britain's] writers is already corrupted, and her language is on the decline." Webster would later write a famous dictionary of his own - a dictionary of American English.
In England, Samuel Johnson's dictionary would be viewed as the preeminent English dictionary until the Oxford English Dictionary was completed and published in 1884. It earned Johnson a £300 pension from King George III and a legacy that continues to this day.
Quote Of The Day "Books, like friends, should be few and well-chosen." - Samuel Johnson
Vanguard Video Today's video features an episode of the Learning English series that takes a look at Samuel Johnson and his dictionary. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On April 14th, 1939, The Grapes of Wrath, the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by the legendary American novelist John Steinbeck, was published. Steinbeck had previously scored a literary triumph with his acclaimed and controversial novella, Of Mice and Men. The Grapes of Wrath would also court controversy.
The Grapes of Wrath (the title comes from a line in the song The Battle Hymn of the Republic) told the story of the Joads, a poor family of Oklahoma sharecroppers who, driven from their home by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, go to California hoping to improve their fortunes. Instead, they encounter more hardship.
The novel opens with son Tom Joad being paroled after serving time in prison for manslaughter. On his way home, he meets Jim Casy, an ex-preacher he once knew. Casy, who shares the same initials as Jesus Christ, (and later proves himself a Christ figure) lost his faith after having affairs with his congregants and realizing that religion can provide no real answers or solace for the difficulties that people are experiencing in the Depression.
Tom and Casy go to Tom's uncle's house, where Tom finds his family loading their truck with their possessions. Their crops were destroyed in the Dust Bowl and their farm has been repossessed, so the Joads have decided to go to California after an advertisement convinces them that the Golden State holds the key to prosperity. Leaving Oklahoma would violate Tom's parole, but he believes that it's a risk worth taking.
The Joads head out on Route 66, and soon realize that their prospects in California may not be as good as they thought. The road is full of other families making the same journey and the makeshift camps in which they live. The Joads hear many stories of hardship from people who have been to California, but they feel they have no choice but to continue their journey.
When they finally arrive in California, the Joads find no hope of making a decent living. There's an oversupply of labor and no rights for workers, thanks to a collusion of big corporate farmers. Smaller farmers are suffering from a collapse in prices.
The Joads find hope at Weedpatch Camp, a clean camp operated by the Resettlement Administration, one of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal agencies. Since the camp is a federal facility, the poor migrant workers are protected there from the sadistic California state deputies who had been constantly harassing and brutalizing them in an attempt to drive them out of the state. Unfortunately, there's not enough money and space at Weedpatch to care for all the needy.
The novel reaches its apex when the Joads end up working (unknowingly) as strike breakers at a peach orchard. A strike turns violent and Tom Joad's friend Jim Casy is murdered. Tom witnesses the crime and kills the attacker to avenge his friend's death. Now a fugitive, Tom says goodbye to his mother and flees, vowing that wherever the road takes him, he'll act as a defender of the oppressed.
The publication of The Grapes of Wrath in 1939 was described as "a phenomenon on the scale of a national event. It was publicly banned and burned by citizens, it was debated on national radio hook-ups; but above all, it was read." Loved by most and denounced as communist propaganda by some, The Grapes of Wrath would become one of the most thoroughly discussed and studied novels of the twentieth century.
Though author John Steinbeck had been accused of exaggerating the camp conditions to make a political point, he had actually underplayed conditions that he knew had been much worse than what he'd described in his novel. He did this to avoid being labeled a propagandist, but he was denounced as a communist nonetheless.
In 1940, the legendary filmmaker John Ford directed a feature film adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath, starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad and John Carradine as Jim Casy. Though the ending of the film differs greatly from the novel, it's still rightfully considered to be of the greatest films ever made. It won big at the Academy Awards, taking the Oscars for Best Actor (Fonda), Best Director (Ford), Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The legendary American folksinger Woody Guthrie was a big fan of the film. After he saw it, he wrote a song summarizing the plot for people who couldn't afford to see the movie. The result, Guthrie's classic song Tom Joad, turned out to be so long that it had to be broken into two parts.
In 1962, John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for literature. The prize committee cited The Grapes of Wrath as one of their main reasons for giving Steinbeck the award.
Quote Of The Day "The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true." - John Steinbeck
Vanguard Video Today's video features the theatrical trailer for the classic 1940 feature film adaptation of John Steinbeck's legendary novel, The Grapes of Wrath. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On April 13th, 1909, the famous writer Eudora Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi. Her parents were schoolteachers. They didn't come from the Deep South; her father moved to Mississippi hoping to improve his fortunes, as a schoolteacher's salary was meager in those days. He tried his hand at bookkeeping and worked his way up, eventually becoming the President of his insurance company.
Eudora Welty and her two brothers grew up in a happy, close-knit family. Her parents' favorite evening pastime was reading books aloud to each other. The Weltys were a liberal, intellectual upper-middle class family living in the fiercely conservative, racially troubled Deep South, an experience that would have a profound effect on Eudora and her writings.
After completing her education in the Jackson public schools, Eudora Welty enrolled at the Mississippi State College for Women, then transferred to the University of Wisconsin, where she earned her Bachelor's degree in liberal arts. She had always dreamed of becoming a writer, but it was the Great Depression, and her father discouraged her from writing because he didn't believe she could make a decent living as a writer.
In 1921, when she was twelve years old, Eudora had entered an advertising jingle writing contest held by the Mackie Pine Oil company and won the $25 grand prize, so her father encouraged her to take up a career in advertising. So, she enrolled at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business in New York City. It was 1930, and the Harlem Renaissance was in full swing. Eudora and her friends danced to jazz at black nightclubs and went to black theaters to see plays and musicals. Her love of the theater led her to see plays and musicals throughout New York City, both on and off Broadway.
When her father died in 1931, Eudora returned to Jackson. She found a job as a journalist, copywriter, and photographer for the WPA (Works Program Administration), which helped writers find work during the Depression. Her work as a photographer took her on assignments throughout Mississippi, experiences she would use as fodder for her short stories. Her first published story Death of a Traveling Salesman appeared in the literary magazine Manuscript in June of 1936. Within a couple of years, her stories would be published by respected national publications such as the Atlantic Monthly and the Southern Review.
In 1941, Eudora's first book was published. It was a short story collection titled A Curtain of Green. It received rave reviews. Her next collection, The Wide Net and Other Stories (1943) received mixed reviews. She spent the next few years developing her skill and style, the results of which - her third short story collection, The Golden Apples (1949) - established her as a master of the form. In 1954, she won the William Dean Howells Medal of the Academy of Arts and Letters for her novella, A Ponder Heart.
For the next fifteen years, from 1955-1970, Eudora's writing output slowed to nearly a grinding halt, as she became occupied with teaching, traveling, and lecturing. She also nursed her mother through a long, fatal illness. Tragedy would continue to befall her, as she lost both of her brothers. She did find time to work on her first novel, Losing Battles, which would be published in 1970. Far from a comeback novel, it received mixed reviews. But her next novel would win her the Pulitzer Prize.
The Optimist's Daughter (1972) tells the story of Laurel Hand, a widow who leaves her home in Chicago and goes to New Orleans to care for her aging father, Judge Clint McKelva, whose health is deteriorating following complications from an eye operation. Laurel had been estranged from her father since he remarried after her mother died. Judge McKelva's new wife, Fay, turned out to be younger than his daughter Laurel, who is his only child.
When she's not caring for her father and reading Dickens to him, Laurel rediscovers New Orleans, the city she grew up in, and finds love and friendship in her community. Meanwhile, her stepmother Fay's antagonistic personality is the polar opposite of the warmhearted people of New Orleans. She's an outsider from Texas, and she shows her true colors as her husband's health fails. After she throws a violent fit in the hospital, Judge McKelva dies from the shock of her outburst.
Later, Laurel is stunned when Fay's mother, siblings, and other relatives show up to attend her husband's funeral - Fay always claimed to have no family. Eventually, Laurel confronts Fay about her lie, but finds that she can feel only pity for the lonely, sullen Fay, who decides to go back to Texas with her family. Laurel spends a few more days in her father's house, remembering her parents and the life she once had. She gains a new understanding of life and what influences it the most - family and friends. Mostly, she comes to understand herself.
Eudora followed her Pulitzer Prize winning novel with The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty (1980), which renewed interest in her short fiction and brought her more praise. In the 1980s, Eudora lectured at Harvard and published several works of non-fiction, including an autobiography, One Writer's Beginnings. She retired in the early 1990s. Around this time, American software designer Steve Dorner named his new, breakthrough Internet e-mail client software after her. He was inspired by her famous short story, Why I Live at the P.O.
Eudora Welty's last published book was Country Churchyards (2000), which contained excerpts from her writings, a collection of her photographs, and essays by other writers on her work. Two months after it was published, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. She died in July of 2001 at the age of 92.
Quote Of The Day "Beware of a man with manners." - Eudora Welty
Vanguard Video Today's video features an interview with Eudora Welty. Enjoy!
Gifts (Ver. 2) Prepared by: Ruth Douillette Revised and posted on: 11 April 2010
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Exercise: In 400 words or less, write a scene that shows the character receiving a life-changing gift and makes clear the nature of the change.
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Write a scene that shows how receiving a particular gift has changed a character's life. The gift may be a long awaited store-bought present, a surprise homemade gift, breakfast in bed, a compliment, some advice, or any other form of gift you choose.
Show how the character perceives the gift and why it has an impact on his or her life, for better or worse. You might show what the character gained or lost from getting this gift. Maybe relationships changed, or the importance of something came to light. Did the character grow in any way or learn something after receiving this gift?
"The Gift of the Magi," a short story by O. Henry, gives us a wonderful example of what two characters learned after giving and receiving gifts: (http://tinyurl.com/cygfe).
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Exercise: In 400 words or less, write a scene that shows the character receiving a life-changing gift and makes clear the nature of the change.
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Critique by commenting on the change in the character based on the gift. Is it a realistic change? Critique other aspects of the writing as well.
These exercises were written by IWW members and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its members. You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that you found them at the Internet Writing Workshop.
I had encouraging emails this morning, too. The Shine Journal has accepted a short story begun at Practice, lengthened and honed at Fiction. Thanks so much to everyone who critiqued.
The Shine Journal also accepted a poem, "A Lesson in Fire," about my dad. Both are to appear in July.
My story, "The Reunion" is now up at Weirdyear, and "The Journey Home" is posted on Daily Love as well.
Catherine Robinson
My bi-weekly column in the Tribune seems to be going well. They don't run every column online, not sure why...but they did this week. It's called "5 People You Meet on the Way to a Biopsy."
I was also offered a bi-weekly column in Creative Loafing's print edition starting May 12th. It will be a column devoted to wacky parenting stories. Think Erma Bombeck with sarcasm and curse words, kind of like my website.
Thanks to everyone here for their continued help -- you teach me more than you know!
Anita Saran
Here's our very own Jonjo's/Jackie's review of my book, Circe, up at Sherry Gloag's The Heart of Romance. I think this one's my favourite of the three I've got till now. It makes much of the humour -- just as it should.
Wayne Scheer
My story, "Cosmic Joke," written for Practice, is up at Weird Year.
My story, "An Orderly Life," has been accepted at ken*again for its summer issue. This started as a flash in Practice and developed into a longer story, critiqued in Fiction. So I have a lot of people to thank for this publication.
Jack Shakely
My book review of Laura Buyer's When I Went West appears in the April issue of the Western Writers of America magazine, Roundup. Unfortunately the WWA magazine isn't on the Internet yet, so if you are not a subscriber, this yahoo is the sound of one hand clapping (must be a cowboy thing).
This Day In Writing History On April 9th, 1821, the legendary French poet Charles Baudelaire was born in Paris, France. His father Francois was a civil servant and amateur artist 34 years older than his wife, Baudelaire's mother Caroline. He died when Charles was six years old. The following year, Caroline remarried. The young Baudelaire hated his stepfather Jacques Aupick, who was a lieutenant colonel in the army and a fierce disciplinarian at home.
Baudelaire was sent to boarding school in Lyon. Recalling his boyhood, he said, "I was a precocious dandy." As such, he was greatly disliked by most of his classmates. One of his few friends at school would later say of the then 14-year-old Baudelaire, "He was much more refined and distinguished than any of our fellow pupils... [we] shared tastes and sympathies, the precocious love of fine works of literature."
While attending the Lycee Louis-le-Grand - the famous and demanding secondary school in Paris - Baudelaire's academic performance was erratic. Sometimes he was extremely diligent in his studies, while at other times, he was prone to periods of idleness. He graduated in 1839 at the age of eighteen. At that time, he was described as "an exalted character, sometimes full of mysticism, and sometimes full of immorality and cynicism, which were excessive, but only verbal."
Baudelaire told his brother that "I don't feel I have a vocation for anything." His stepfather wanted him to pursue a career in law or diplomacy. Instead, he decided to become a writer. He spent the next two years living a bohemian life and socializing with other writers and artists. He frequented prostitutes, and as a result, visited a pharmacist who specialized in the treatment of venereal disease. He took one prostitute, a girl named Sara, as his live-in lover.
In order to keep him under control, Baudelaire's stepfather kept him on a strict allowance, which he often spent immediately, most of it on clothes. When the money ran out, he bought on credit and ran up debts. His stepfather decided to send him to Calcutta, to be supervised by an ex-naval captain. The arduous experience failed to dissuade Baudelaire from pursuing a literary career and failed to change his laid-back nature. So, the captain let him go home to France.
Baudelaire did gain something from his year of travels - strong impressions of the sea, the sailing life, and exotic ports of call, all of which would have an effect on his poetry. Back in Paris, he began his literary career by reading his poems in taverns. At the age of 21, he inherited over 100,000 francs and several parcels of land. He squandered most of his new found wealth, and his family obtained a decree placing the rest of his assets in trust. Around this time, he met Jeanne Duval, the illegitimate daughter of a prostitute. Their love affair would be the longest relationship he would have in his short life. His mother thought she was a "Black Venus" who "tortured [my son] in every way" and drained him of his money.
By 1845, at the age of 24, Baudelaire was broke and eating on credit. He began writing the poems that would appear in his first poetry collection, Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) which would be published twelve years later. His first published work was an art review titled "Salon of 1845." He gained a reputation as a passionate and well-informed art critic. Unfortunately, his debts were rising and his future was doubtful, so he attempted suicide by stabbing himself. He lost his nerve and ended up with a superficial wound.
Baudelaire wrote to his mother, begging her to visit him, but she ignored his pleas, under orders from his stepfather. After being homeless for a time, he resolved to improve his situation. He continued his work as an art critic. In 1846, he published a novella, La Fanfarlo. Being fluent in English since childhood, he earned extra money as a translator. He translated English language works of literature into French - including some of his favorite works, such as Matthew Lewis' notorious and classic Gothic novel The Monk and the writings of Edgar Allan Poe.
In 1857, Baudelaire's stepfather died. Although he had been disinherited, he did gain something from Jacques Aupick's death - he reconciled with his mother, to whom he had become estranged. As a boy, he had been very close to her, but he never forgave her for marrying Jacques Aupick. It was a good year for Baudelaire. Not only did he reconcile with his mother, his first and most famous poetry collection was finally published. It had taken him twelve years to complete, as he had been sidetracked by indolence, emotional distress, and physical illness.
Les Fleurs du Mal established Baudelaire as one of the greatest French poets of all time. Some of the poems in it were previously published in the Revue des Deux Mondes (Review of Two Worlds) magazine. Sex and death were the main themes of the poems collected in Les Fleurs du Mal, which touched on taboo subjects such as lesbianism. Critics demanded that the author be prosecuted for obscenity for some poems, while at the same time highly praising the other poems in his collection. In a letter to his mother, Baudelaire addressed the outcry over the alleged obscenity in his poems:
"You know that I have always considered that literature and the arts pursue an aim independent of morality. Beauty of conception and style is enough for me. But this book, whose title (Fleurs du Mal) says everything, is clad, as you will see, in a cold and sinister beauty. It was created with rage and patience. Besides, the proof of its positive worth is in all the ill that they speak of it. The book enrages people. Moreover, since I was terrified myself of the horror that I should inspire, I cut out a third from the proofs. They deny me everything, the spirit of invention and even the knowledge of the French language. I don't care a rap about all these imbeciles, and I know that this book, with its virtues and its faults, will make its way in the memory of the lettered public, beside the best poems of V. Hugo, Th. Gautier and even Byron."
Baudelaire, his publisher, and the book printer had all been charged with obscenity. None were imprisoned - they were fined instead. Baudelaire's fine was 300 francs. The French literati condemned the author's conviction and offered him their support. Legendary novelist Victor Hugo wrote to Baudelaire, telling him "Your Fleurs du Mal shine and dazzle like stars... I applaud your vigorous spirit with all my might."
As a result of the obscenity conviction, Fleurs du Mal was republished in a censored version with six poems deleted. These poems would be published uncensored in Belgium as Les Epaves (The Wrecks) in 1866. In 1949 - nearly a hundred years after its first publication - the original, unexpurgated version of Fleurs du Mal would finally be republished in France.
Baudelaire continued to write. In addition to his own works, he translated more English works into French, including Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater (1821). Baudelaire wrote a book about his own experiences with opium and hashish, titled Les Paradis Artificiels (Artificial Paradises), which was published in 1860. He believed that these substances could help mankind create an ideal world.
In 1861, Baudelaire's publisher went bankrupt. At the time, he had been living a peaceful and productive life with his mother in the seaside town of Honfleur. The stress and poverty of his earlier life, along with his chronic illnesses and use of laudanum (tincture of opium) had taken a toll on his health. Just as he was starting to recover his health, his publisher's bankruptcy added new stress to his life, as once again he faced the prospect of poverty.
In 1864, Baudelaire went to Belgium, hoping to have his works published there and to give lectures. In addition to his on and off relationship with Jeanne Duval, he took actress Marie Daubrun and courtesan Apollonie Sabatier as his lovers. None of his relationships blossomed into true love. Unsatisfied in his personal life and fearful of poverty, Baudelaire smoked opium and drank to excess. In 1866, he suffered a massive stroke that left him half-paralyzed. For the remainder of his life, he lived in sanitariums in Brussels and Paris.
Charles Baudelaire died in August of 1867 at the age of 46. Many of his unpublished works were published posthumously, and his previously published works were republished. The proceeds enabled his mother to pay off his substantial debts. She found comfort in his fame, saying "I see that my son, for all his faults, has his place in literature."
Quote Of The Day "Always be a poet, even in prose." - Charles Baudelaire
Vanguard Video Today's video features a reading of Charles Baudelaire's classic poem Les Litanies de Satan (The Litanies of Satan), from his famous poetry collection, Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil). The poem is read in French with English, French, and Spanish subtitles provided. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On April 8th, 1950, For Esmè - with Love and Squalor, the famous short story by legendary American writer J.D. Salinger, was published in The New Yorker. The story, set during World War 2, was based in part on the author's own experiences in the conflict.
The narrator is an American ex-soldier who refers to himself only as Staff Sergeant X. The story opens with X receiving an invitation to a wedding in England. Though he wants to go, he can't because his mother-in-law is coming to visit at that time. So, he decides to make "a few revealing notes about the bride as I knew her almost six years ago."
We flash back to Devon, England, circa 1944, where X is stationed along with some 60 other American soldiers as part of a secret three-week training program for an upcoming invasion - the D-Day invasion of Normandy.
On his last day of training, after packing his bags, X takes a final walk through Devon and ends up at a church where a "children's-choir practice" is taking place. He finds himself entranced by the singing of one particular child - a thirteen-year-old girl “with straight ash-blond hair of ear-lobe length, an exquisite forehead, and blasé eyes that, I thought, might very possibly have counted the house.” Hers is the “sweetest-sounding” voice, but she seems “bored with her own singing ability.”
X leaves the church. Later, he goes to a tea room, where he orders tea and cinnamon toast. The girl he'd seen singing at the church enters the room, along with a little boy and "an efficient looking woman." They sit a few tables down from him.
When the girl notices X staring at her, she gets up and walks over to him. She is surprised to see him at the tea room, because she "thought all Americans despised tea." X asks her if she'd like to join him, and she accepts the invitation. As they engage in a conversation, the girl, whose name is Esmè, surprises X with her precociousness when she asks him if he goes “to that secret Intelligence school on the hill.” She also asks him if he's married.
Esmè describes herself as "a terribly cold person" and says that she's teaching herself to be more compassionate. She and her little brother Charles live with their aunt. Her father was a solider, killed in action in North Africa. Charles comes over to join Esmè and X. When Esmè asks what X's job was before he became a soldier, he tells her that he'd like to consider himself a professional writer, but he has yet to be published, which he blames on American editors.
When X notices the "enormous-faced, chronographic-looking wristwatch" that Esmè is wearing, he asks if it belonged to her father. She says that it did and “I’d be extremely flattered if you’d write a story exclusively for me sometime.” She prefers stories about squalor. Before she leaves, Esmè offers to write letters to X, adding that "I write extremely articulate letters." He tells her that he'd love it if she wrote to him, and gives her his contact information.
The story flashes forward to V-E Day in 1945, as X tells his tale of personal squalor. He suffered a nervous breakdown from combat stress and is currently living in a "civilian home" for shell-shocked soldiers in Bavaria. (Which is what happened to J.D. Salinger after his own wartime experience.) X suffers from psychosomatic symptoms such as facial ticks and a badly shaking hand. He's gaunt, he can't sleep, and his friend Corporal Z says that he "looks like a corpse."
Instead of partaking in the festivities taking place in town, X stays in his room and turns his attention to a pile of unopened letters by his writing table. Nauseous and trembling, X opens a letter. It's from Esmè. She apologizes for not writing sooner and asks if X is well, obviously worried about him. She also asks if he would write her back as soon as possible.
Enclosed in Esmè's letter is a note from her little brother Charles and a present - her father's wristwatch. X sits there for a while, contemplating the letter and the present, then "suddenly, almost ecstatically" feels sleepy - something he hasn't experienced in a long, long time.
For Esmè - with Love and Squalor was a huge hit. It would be included in Salinger's 1953 short story collection, Nine Stories. That year, the legendary British actor Sir Laurence Olivier asked Salinger for permission to adapt For Esmè - with Love and Squalor as a BBC radio play. Salinger turned him down. When another one of his short stories, Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, was adapted as a Hollywood feature film, the result was a critical and commercial failure that had little to do with the story upon which it was based.
An irate Salinger vowed that no more adaptations of his works would be made - a vow he kept until he died in January of 2010 at the age of 91 - despite Hollywood's dogged determination to adapt his celebrated novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951) as a feature film.
Quote Of The Day "I don't suppose a writing man ever really gets rid of his crocus-yellow neckties. Sooner or later, I think, they show up in his prose, and there isn't a hell of a lot he can do about it." - J.D. Salinger
Vanguard Video Today's video features a memorial tribute to J.D. Salinger that aired on PBS News Hour around the time of his death in January, 2010. Enjoy!
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