Notes For July 30th, 2010

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 30th, 1818, the legendary British poet and novelist Emily Brontë was born in West Yorkshire, England. Her sisters Charlotte (author of the classic novel Jane Eyre) and Anne were also poets and novelists, and her brother Patrick Branwell Brontë was a poet and painter. Their father was a poor Irish clergyman, but he did have an impressive collection of classic literature.

Emily and her siblings educated themselves by reading all their father's books. As children, they created imaginary worlds and filled notebooks with stories about them. Emily attended Miss Patchett's Ladies Academy at Law Hill School near Halifax, then later, a private school in Brussels.

When Emily's sister Charlotte discovered her talent as a poet, they decided to collaborate on a book of poetry, along with sister Anne. Due to the prejudice against women writers in the Victorian era, the Brontë sisters published their poetry under pseudonyms. Emily became Ellis Bell, Charlotte became Currer Bell, and Anne was Acton Bell. Their first book, published in 1846, was titled Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell.

The following year, Emily Brontë published her famous novel, Wuthering Heights, as Ellis Bell. Originally published in two volumes, (Anne Brontë later wrote a third volume called Agnes Grey) Wuthering Heights told the story of the intensely passionate, yet ultimately doomed love affair between childhood sweethearts Heathcliff and Catherine, soul mates who are ultimately separated by cruelty and snobbery, their unresolved emotions threatening to destroy them.

When it was first published, Wuthering Heights received mixed reviews due to its stark and brutal depictions of mental and physical cruelty. It has since been recognized as one of the great classics of English literature, and rightfully so. Unfortunately, Emily Brontë would never write another novel. After her brother died of tuberculosis, Emily contracted the disease herself, the result of a cold she caught during his funeral. She died in December of 1848, at the age of thirty. Her sister Anne died of tuberculosis the following year.

After Emily Brontë's death, her sister Charlotte edited her two volumes of Wuthering Heights into a standalone novel, and republished it under Emily's real name. Five years later, Charlotte also died young of tuberculosis, or so her death certificate stated. Some biographers have claimed that she actually died of either typhus or dehydration and malnutrition from excessive vomiting brought on by severe morning sickness.

Although Emily Brontë's life was tragically cut short, her literary legacy lives on. Wuthering Heights continues to inspire readers to this day, and has been adapted numerous times for the stage, screen, radio, and television.

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Quote Of The Day

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"Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves." - Emily Brontë

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a reading of Emily Brontë's classic poem, Remembrance - read by an animated photograph of Emily herself! Enjoy!

Notes For July 29th, 2010

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 29th, 1965, the famous writer Chang-Rae Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea. When he was three years old, Lee's father moved the family to the United States so he could finish his training and become a psychiatrist. The family moved first to Pittsburgh, then to New York.

As a young Korean-American boy, Chang-Rae Lee struggled to learn English. His parents only spoke to him and his older sister Eunei in Korean, so they could learn to speak English without a Korean accent. In his mind, Chang-Rae found himself trapped between two very different languages. He didn't speak at all when he entered kindergarten. But by the time he was ten years old, he had become fluent in both languages and served as a translator for his mother, who had even more difficulty learning English.

Chang-Rae Lee's experiences as the son of Korean immigrants would shape his future writing career. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy, an exclusive East Coast prep school, then went to Yale. Instead of following the path of most children of Korean immigrants and study medicine or law, Lee majored in English. During college, he began writing fiction.

After graduating, he became an equities analyst for Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, a Wall Street investment bank, while writing part-time. He found his job unfulfilling, so, taking a cue from his old friend and prep school roommate, novelist Brooks Hansen, he quit to become a writer. His unpublished early novel, Agnew Belittlehead, won him a scholarship and entrance to the creative writing program at the University of Oregon. After graduating in 1993, he was hired as an assistant writing professor by the University. That same year, he married his wife, Michelle Branca. She bore him two daughters.

In 1995, Chang-Rae Lee's first novel, Native Speaker, was published. In Lee's offbeat tale, Henry Park is a young Korean-American man who suffers from identity issues, alienation, and an inability to grieve for his seven-year-old son, who was accidentally killed by his white playmates in a freak mishap. The novel opens with Park's wife, who is also white, leaving him.

In an intriguing twist, Henry Park works as an operative for a shadowy detective agency whose clients hire it to dig up dirt on people. His psychological problems begin to affect his job, so he seeks therapy. Henry suffers from alienation because he was unable to fit in with either his parents' Korean culture or mainstream American culture. As he struggles to find himself, he asks his employers for a second chance and is assigned to infiltrate the campaign of John Kwang, a popular Korean-American politician and candidate for mayor of New York City - a task made difficult by the fact that Kwang reminds Henry of his father.

Native Speaker earned Chang-Rae Lee both the prestigious PEN / Hemingway Award and the distinction of being the first Korean-American novelist ever published by a major American press. His second novel, A Gesture Life, also dealt with identity and immigrant issues. It told the story of Doc Hata, a Korean who served in the Japanese Army during World War 2. As a child, he had been adopted by a wealthy Japanese couple. As a soldier, Hata falls in love with a Korean woman, who, like over 200,000 others, was forced to become a "comfort woman" for Japanese soldiers.

After the war, Hata moves to America. A successful businessman, he fits in with his neighbors, but he is unable to connect emotionally with anyone. He suffers from a crisis of identity and is always at odds with his rebellious, mixed-race adopted daughter, Sunny. He adopted her when she was seven. Now a pregnant teenager, Hata forces her to have an abortion, hoping to save her from the failure that his life has become.

Lee's third novel, Aloft, was published in 2o04. His most recent novel, The Surrendered, was released in March of 2010. The gut wrenching antiwar novel follows three war ravaged characters: June Han, a young girl who loses her family during the Korean War, Hector Brennan, the psychologically damaged American soldier who brought June to an orphanage, and Sylvie Tanner, the wife of the orphanage's minster, who, as a young girl, witnessed the murder of her parents at the hands of Japanese soldiers in Manchuria.

Chang-Rae Lee still teaches creative writing.

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Quote Of The Day

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"The truth, finally, is who can tell it." - Chang-Rae Lee

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features an interview with Chang-Rae Lee, who discusses his latest novel, The Surrendered. Enjoy!

Notes For July 28th, 2010

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 28th, 1932, the famous children's novelist Natalie Babbitt was born. She was born Natalie Zane in Dayton, Ohio, but the family moved around frequently. Growing up during the Great Depression, Natalie enjoyed reading fairy tales, folklore, and books about mythology.

When she discovered an illustrated copy of Lewis Carroll's classic Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Natalie determined to become a children's book illustrator when she grew up. Her mother, an amateur landscape and portrait painter, encouraged her. She gave Natalie art lessons and made sure she always had enough paper, colored pencils, and paints.

Natalie Babbitt studied art at the Laurel School for Girls in Cleveland and at Smith College. After graduation, she married Samuel Babbitt and bore him three children. She spent the next ten years as a stay-at-home mom, though when her husband became the president of Kirkland College in New York, she performed all the duties of a college president's wife, including attending various functions.

In the late 1960s, Natalie and her husband collaborated on a children's book called The Forty-Ninth Magician. Samuel wrote the story and Natalie drew the illustrations. The book, published in 1966, was successful. Unfortunately, Samuel's work left him little time to write, so further books were out of the question. Natalie's sister asked her to draw the illustrations for a comic novel she'd written, but that panned out due to her constant rewrites, which required Natalie to keep drawing new pictures.

Frustrated, Natalie Babbitt decided to write her own books. Her first solo effort, Dick Foote and the Shark, was published in 1967. With her enchanting fairy tales, she made a name for herself as one of the best children's writers of all time. She also has a gift for humor and satire. In 1974, Natalie published The Devil's Storybook, a collection of humorous Saki-esque short stories featuring the Devil as the main character.

The Devil's Storybook has nothing to do with religion. Instead, it presents the Devil as a comic character. As Jean Stafford, book critic for the New Yorker magazine, noted: "This Devil is not dire; he is a scheming practical joker and comes to earth often when he is restless, to play tricks on clergymen, goodwives, poets, and pretty girls." Natalie Babbitt's ferocious wit, combined with her hilarious illustrations, made The Devil's Storybook a favorite of both children and adults. In 1987, Babbitt published a sequel, The Devil's Other Storybook.

Natalie Babbitt is, of course, best known for her fairy tales and fantasy stories. In 1975, she published Tuck Everlasting, a novel that most of her fans (including me) consider to be her best work. Set in 1881, the novel tells the story of Winnie Foster, a bored and lonely 10-year-old girl stifled by her wealthy, overprotective parents. She escapes from them by exploring the forest near her home. One day, she finds a mysterious family, the Tucks, (mother Mae Tuck, her husband, and their two sons) living in the middle of the woods.

The Tucks have a secret, which Winnie discovers: they are immortal - the result of drinking water from a hidden, magical spring. Winnie befriends the Tuck family and promises to keep their secret. She grows close to their younger son, 17-year-old Jesse Tuck, and thinks that it must be wonderful to live forever. But she soon realizes that immortality is more of a curse than a gift. The Tucks live a lonely, isolated existence, trying to prevent their secret from being revealed, for then everyone would want to be immortal, and the world would become a terrible place.

When Mae Tuck kills a man to save Winnie, she's sent to prison, but Winnie helps her escape. The Tucks flee, taking their secret with them - except for some magic spring water which Jesse Tuck gave to Winnie. Will she drink it when she turns seventeen so she can marry him and live forever?

Tuck Everlasting was adapted twice as a feature film, first in 1981 - a rarely seen, independently made gem that really captured the essence of Natalie Babbitt's novel - then again in 2002. The 2002 version was a Disney film - a horrible adaptation that turned Babbitt's great novel into a sappy teen romance - despite the fact that Winnie Foster is only ten years old in the book. The movie was panned by critics and film goers alike.

In 1977, Natalie Babbitt published The Eyes of the Amaryllis, a haunting tale of the supernatural. It's summertime, and 11-year-old Geneva "Jenny" Reade has been sent to stay with her grandmother for a while and help the old woman, who has broken her leg. Jenny's grandmother believes that her husband, who went missing at sea thirty years ago, will soon send her a sign of his love.

Jenny doesn't believe her - until she meets the ghost of a drowned man named Seward. Seward is tasked with returning to the sea anything of value that may wash up on shore. When Jenny finds an object of value that washed up, her grandmother believes that it's a sign from her husband. But Seward warns them that the sea wants it back - and will take it back by force if necessary.

The Eyes of the Amaryllis was adapted as a feature film in 1982 - an excellent, independently made film that wonderfully adapts Natalie Babbitt's novel to the screen. It features a memorable performance by 11-year-old Martha Byrne as Jenny Reade. A year later, she would star in the science fiction classic, Anna to the Infinite Power - another indie gem.

Natalie Babbitt has written seventeen children's books. Her latest, Jack Plank Tells Tales, was published in 2007. In addition to writing, she also serves as a board member of the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance.

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Quote Of The Day

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"Don't be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life. You don't have to live forever, you just have to live." - Natalie Babbitt

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features the original theatrical trailer for the 2002 feature film adaptation of Natalie Babbitt's classic novel, Tuck Everlasting. It's a poor adaptation, but this trailer was all I could find, and it does give you some idea of what the book is about. Enjoy!

Notes For July 27th, 2010

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 27th, 1916, the famous American writer and literary critic Elizabeth Hardwick was born in Lexington, Kentucky. She was eighth in a family of eleven children. Her father ran a plumbing and heating business. Although he and his wife brought up their children in a strict Protestant household, they also held leftist views, and Elizabeth inherited their deep compassion for the poor.

In 1939, Elizabeth moved to New York City to do graduate work at Columbia university. Two years later, she dropped out to become a freelance writer. As a literary critic, she reviewed books for highbrow publications such as the Partisan Review, whose editor, Philip Rahv, became her lover for a brief time. She would later describe her life in Manhattan as being comprised of "love and alcohol and clothes on the floor." She embraced the bohemian lifestyle of writing, free love, and jazz nightclubs.

Elizabeth Hardwick's first novel, The Ghostly Lover, was published in 1945. A year later, she attended a party given by poet Robert Lowell and his wife at their Greenwich Village apartment. Elizabeth and Robert would meet again at Yaddo, a famous retreat for writers in upstate New York. By this time, Robert had completed his messy divorce from his wife Jean Stafford, a hardened alcoholic who had given up her writing talent to spend more time with the bottle.

Elizabeth and Robert dated for a couple of years, then married in 1949. The marriage would prove to be both long and tempestuous. Robert was mentally ill; during their honeymoon, he had to be committed following a severe manic-depressive episode. At the hospital, he received shock treatment. After he recovered and was released, he and Elizabeth traveled to Europe, where Robert took a job as a teacher in Salzburg.

Robert Lowell's struggle with mental illness continued. In addition to manic depression, he suffered from psychotic episodes. While teaching in Salzburg, he engaged in an affair with one of his students - an affair that existed only in his mind. He had another breakdown, received treatment, and was released. It would be a recurring pattern for him. Elizabeth Hardwick struggled to keep her marriage together. When her husband engaged in real life affairs with other women, she forgave the casual flings.

Meanwhile, in 1956, (at the age of 40) Elizabeth gave birth to their only child, a daughter named Harriet. She continued with her writing career. In 1955, her second novel, The Simple Truth, was published. Four years later, in 1959, she published her famous essay, The Decline of Book Reviewing, in Harper's Magazine. It was a scathing critique of the book reviews currently being published in American periodicals - including The New York Times Book Review. Though she and her husband had parted and reunited several times, by 1961, the marriage finally seemed solid and stable.

In 1963, Elizabeth Hardwick, along with her friends Jason Epstein, Barbara Epstein, and Robert B. Silvers, founded the legendary literary magazine, The New York Review of Books. For many years, she served as editorial adviser and creative consultant, and also published numerous essays in the magazine. Her last, published in 2oo3, was about Nathanael West, the legendary author of the classic novels Miss Lonelyhearts (1933) and The Day of the Locust (1939) whose brilliant writing career and young life were cut short by a car accident.

Elizabeth Hartwick's 21-year marriage finally came to an end in 1970, when instead of a casual fling, her husband fell in love with another woman - novelist Lady Caroline Blackwood. By 1972, Elizabeth and Robert Lowell divorced, and he married Caroline. Elizabeth returned to her writing career. When she wasn't working or writing for The New York Review of Books, she worked on her third novel, Sleepless Nights, which would be published in 1979.

In addition to her novels and short fiction, Elizabeth published several non-fiction books, including a biography of Herman Melville and a true crime book about the Caryl Chessman case, which was one of several cases that led the Supreme Court to ban capital punishment as unconstitutional in 1972. Chessman, a career criminal, had been convicted of being the "Red Light Bandit," a serial robber who sometimes raped his female victims after robbing them.

Chessman was sentenced to death because a law on California's books (passed as a result of the Lindbergh baby case) made kidnapping with bodily harm a capital offense. Acting as his own attorney, Chessman appealed his conviction vigorously, claiming that it was due to mistaken identity. He won eight stays of execution. On his ninth date of execution, the governor's office called the prison with another order to stay it, but the call came in too late - Chessman was already in the gas chamber, choking to death.

Elizabeth Hardwick's account of the Chessman case was included in the Library of America's 200-year retrospective of American true crime writing. She died in 2007 at the age of 91.

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Quote Of The Day

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"The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination." - Elizabeth Hardwick

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a panel discussion of how three great writers - Elizabeth Hardwick, Henry James, and Edith Wharton - chronicled life in New York City in their short fiction. Enjoy!

Notes For July 23rd, 2010

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 23rd, 1888, the legendary American mystery writer Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago, Illinois. When he was seven years old, Chandler's Irish mother moved the family to England after they were abandoned by his father, a civil engineer and drunkard who worked for an American railway company.

In England, Chandler's uncle, an affluent lawyer, supported the family. Chandler received his education first at a local school in Upper Norwood, then at Dulwich College, London - the same public college where P.G. Wodehouse and C.S. Forester learned to write. After graduation, instead of attending university, Chandler traveled through Europe, spending time in Paris and Munich.

Raymond Chandler became a naturalized British citizen so he could take a civil examination, where he would receive the third highest grade ever earned. Chandler then took an Admiralty job which lasted just over a year. He began his writing career as a poet, and published his first poem during this time. Chandler came to dislike the civil service. Despite his family's objections, he quit and became a reporter for the Daily Express and the Bristol Western Gazette newspapers. He was unsuccessful as a journalist, but did publish some reviews and continued writing poetry.

With a loan from his uncle, Chandler returned to the U.S. and settled in Los Angeles, where he earned a meager living doing menial jobs, including stringing tennis rackets and picking fruit. Finally, he took a correspondence course in bookkeeping, which he completed ahead of schedule. It enabled him to find decent, steady employment. When the U.S. entered World War 1 in 1917, Chandler enlisted in the CEF (Canadian Expeditionary Force). In France, he fought in the trenches with the Gordon Highlanders, an infantry regiment in the British Army. By the end of the war, he was undergoing training to be a pilot for the RAF.

After the armistice that ended the war was signed, Chandler returned to Los Angeles. His mother moved in with him. He soon fell in love with Cissy Pascal, a married woman 18 years his senior. Cissy ended her marriage in an amicable divorce, but Chandler's mother didn't approve of their relationship and would not allow them to marry. He had to support both women financially for the next four years. Chandler's mother died in September 1923. Five months later, in February 1924, he married Cissy.

By 1932, Raymond Chandler had become a highly paid vice president for the Dabney Oil syndicate. It would only last a year, as Chandler's battles with alcoholism and depression took their toll and resulted in his firing. But he got his life back together and decided to try making a living as a writer. He taught himself how to write pulp fiction, and in 1933, his first short story, Blackmailers Don't Shoot, was published in Black Mask magazine. He continued write and publish stories regularly in pulp fiction magazines for several years.

In 1939, Raymond Chandler's first novel, The Big Sleep, was published. It became a huge success, and introduced the world to Chandler's most famous recurring character - a hard-boiled detective by the name of Philip Marlowe. While Marlowe was a tough guy, he was quite different than most hard-boiled detectives. He was intelligent (college educated) and complex, tough as nails yet sentimental at times, and somewhat fluent in Spanish. He had few friends and a passion for both classical music and the game of chess. If he suspected that a prospective client's job was unethical, he would refuse to take the case. Chandler's writing style was hard-boiled and fast moving, with clever and lyrical metaphors: "The minutes went by on tiptoe, with their fingers to their lips." This distinctive style would be referred to as "Chandleresque."

In The Big Sleep, (the title is a euphemism for death) Philip Marlowe is hired by elderly, wheelchair-bound millionaire General Sternwood. The case seems simple and straightforward: Marlowe must track down a blackmailer who claims that he's owed gambling debts accrued by Sternwood's unstable daughter, Carmen. Marlowe soon realizes that nothing about the case is as it seems; people surrounding Carmen and the blackmailer start turning up dead, and Marlowe becomes ensnared in a grim, sordid web of murder, madness, and the illegal stag film business.

Chandler's debut novel was a huge success. In 1946, it would be adapted as a feature film starring Humphrey Bogart. Though the novel had to be sanitized considerably for the screen as per Production Code requirements, the movie version of The Big Sleep is still considered an all-time classic film, and rightfully so.

Before the movie was made, Chandler's success as a novelist earned him a job as a Hollywood screenwriter. In 1944, he and Billy Wilder wrote the screenplay for the suspense film classic Double Indemnity - an adaptation of James M. Cain's novel. In 1946, he wrote an original screenplay for a noir thriller called The Blue Dahlia, which starred Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake. In 1951, Chandler co-wrote the screenplay for the Alfred Hitchcock classic Strangers On A Train - an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel whose story Chandler found implausible.

Raymond Chandler continued to write more classic Philip Marlowe novels, including Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Lady In The Lake (1943) and The Long Goodbye (1954), which won him an Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1955. After he completed The Long Goodbye, Chandler's wife Cissy died following a long illness. Her death shattered him, and he plunged into a new battle with his old demons, drink and depression. He attempted suicide in 1955. After recovering in England, Chandler returned to California. He died three years later at the age of 70 from heart and kidney failure.

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Quote Of The Day

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"I have a sense of exile from thought, a nostalgia of the quiet room and balanced mind. I am a writer, and there comes a time when that which I write has to belong to me, has to be written alone and in silence, with no one looking over my shoulder, no one telling me a better way to write it. It doesn't have to be great writing, it doesn't even have to be terribly good. It just has to be mine." - Raymond Chandler

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a rare 30-minute BBC Radio interview with Raymond Chandler - conducted by Ian Fleming! Enjoy!

Notes For July 22nd, 2010

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 22nd, 1936, the famous novelist Tom Robbins was born in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Both his grandfathers were Southern Baptist preachers. The family moved to Virginia in 1947. At the age of 16, Robbins studied journalism at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, but he dropped out of college when his fraternity expelled him for disciplinary problems.

In 1954, Robbins was drafted into the military. He enlisted in the Air Force and served a two year tour of duty in Korea as a meteorologist. After his discharge, he returned to civilian life, settling in Richmond, Virginia. He became part of the local art scene and hung out with his fellow painters. In 1957, Robbins enrolled in art school at Richmond Professional Institute, now known as Virginia Commonwealth University. While there, he became the editor of the campus newspaper and worked as a copy editor for the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper.

After art school, Tom Robbins spent a year hitchhiking his way around the country. He settled in New York City and became a poet. In 1961, he moved to San Francisco, then a year later, he moved to Seattle to get a Master's degree at the University Of Washington's School of Far Eastern Studies. Over the next five years, Robbins worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, first as a sports reporter, then as an arts reviewer. In 1966, he wrote a column for Seattle Magazine and hosted a radio show on KRAB-FM, a non-commercial station in Seattle. The following year, Robbins went to a concert by legendary rock band The Doors, which was a life-changing experience for him. It was a major factor in his decision to move to La Conner, Washington, and write his first book.

Tom Robbins' first novel, Another Roadside Attraction, was published in 1971. It introduced his trademark writing style - a non-linear narrative filled with offbeat humor and scathing satire. It told the story of John Paul Ziller and his wife Amanda - a hippie guru - who open a combination hot dog stand and zoo called Captain Kendrick's Memorial Hot Dog Wildlife Preserve. Other weird characters in the novel are a baboon named Mon Cul, a well educated fellow called Marx Marvelous, and L. Westminster "Plucky" Purcell, a football great and part time drug dealer who accidentally uncovers a secret order of monks who work as assassins for the Vatican. Plucky also uncovers a shocking secret dating back to the beginning of Christianity.

His next novel, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues (1976) featured a main character, Sissy Henshaw, who was born with an unusual birth defect - enormously large thumbs, which she uses to hitchhike around the country. In her travels, Sissy meets and becomes a model for the Countess, a lesbian feminine hygiene product tycoon. The Countess introduces Sissy to her future husband, a Mohawk Indian named Julian Gitche. Sissy also meets sexually open cowgirl Bonanza Jellybean, and an escapee from a U.S. government Japanese internment camp with the erroneous nickname "The Chink."

In 1993, director Gus Van Sant - a friend of Tom Robbins - adapted Even Cowgirls Get The Blues as a feature film starring Uma Thurman as Sissy Henshaw, John Hurt as the Countess, Rain Phoenix as Bonanza Jellybean, Keanu Reeves as Julian Gitche, and Pat Morita as The Chink.

Tom Robbins has written ten novels so far, including memorable works such as Still Life with Woodpecker (1980) and Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas (1994). His latest novel, B is for Beer, was published in April of 2009.

B is for Beer is classic Robbins. Dubbed "a children's book for grown-ups" and "a grown-up book for children," it's presented in the form of a children's novel. It tells the story of six-year-old Gracie Perkel, who is fascinated by beer, her father's favorite beverage, which she describes as "the stuff that's yellow and looks like pee-pee."

Gracie turns to her favorite uncle, beer-guzzling hippie Uncle Moe, for help. He leads her on a quest to find out all there is to know about beer, then leaves her in the lurch, running off with a woman - a podiatrist he's fallen in love with. Undaunted, Gracie drinks her first beer, throws up, passes out, and is visited by the Beer Fairy, who teaches her all about the history and production of beer.

In a recent interview, Tom Robbins claimed that he wrote B is for Beer as a satirical ode to the brewed beverage. "Kids are constantly exposed to beer," he said. "it's everywhere; yet, aside from wagging a warning finger and growling - true enough as it goes - 'beer is for grownups,' how many parents actually engage their youngsters on the subject? As a topic for detailed family discussion, it's generally as taboo as sex."

As for his next novel, Robbins said, "I've decided to take advantage of outsourcing. My next novel will be written by a couple of guys in Bangalore."

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Quote Of The Day

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"There is a similarity between juggling and composing on the typewriter. The trick is, when you spill something, make it look like a part of the act." - Tom Robbins

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features Tom Robbins discussing his most recent novel, B is for Beer, at a book signing at Barnes & Noble. Enjoy!

Notes For July 21st, 2010

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 21st, 1899, the legendary American writer Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois - a suburb of Chicago. His father, Clarence Edmonds "Doc Ed" Hemingway, was a country doctor. His mother Grace was an aspiring opera singer who earned money giving voice and music lessons. She was a domineering and fiercely religious woman who shared the beliefs of the strict, fundamentalist Protestant population of Oak Park, which Ernest Hemingway described as having "wide lawns and narrow minds."

As a boy, Hemingway adopted his father's hobbies of hunting, fishing, and camping in the woods and lakes of Northern Michigan, where his family owned a summer home. They often vacationed there, and the young Hemingway's experiences instilled in him a passion for both outdoor adventure and living in remote areas.

In high school, Hemingway excelled in both sports (he boxed and played football) and academics, displaying exceptional talent in his English classes. His first literary experience was writing for both the school newspaper and yearbook. In his senior year, he became the editor of the newspaper. He sometimes wrote under the pseudonym Ring Lardner, Jr. as a tribute to his literary hero, Ring Lardner.

After graduating high school, Hemingway decided not to go to college. Instead, he began his writing career as a cub reporter for the Kansas City Star. Six months later, against his father's wishes, he left the job to join the Army and fight in World War 1. He failed his physical due to vision problems, so he joined the Red Cross Ambulance Corps instead. On his way to the Italian front, he stopped in Paris, which was being bombarded by German artillery. He tried to get as close to the combat zone as possible.

When he arrived in Italy, Hemingway witnessed first hand the horrors of war. After an ammunition factory near Milan exploded, he had to pick up the human remains. He wrote about the experience in his first short story, A Natural History Of The Dead. It left him badly shaken. In July of 1918, Hemingway's career as an ambulance driver ended when he was badly wounded while delivering supplies to soldiers. Shrapnel from an Austrian trench mortar shell lodged in his legs, and machine gun fire badly injured his knee.

While recovering in a Milan hospital, he fell in love with Agnes von Kurowski, an American nurse six years his senior. They planned to return to America together, but when the time came, Agnes jilted Hemingway and ran off with an Italian officer. This painful betrayal left a mark on his psyche, and was reflected in his classic novel A Farewell To Arms (1929). After the war, he returned briefly to Oak Park before leaving for Toronto, Ontario, where he lived in an apartment on Bathurst Street, now known as The Hemingway.

Ernest Hemingway resumed his journalism career, landing a job as a reporter for the Toronto Star newspaper. He met and married his first wife, Hadley Richardson. She hated their cramped apartment, so they moved to Paris, where Hemingway covered the Greco-Turkish War for the Toronto Star. In this obscure yet important war, he witnessed the horrific burning of Smyrna, which he mentioned in a few of his short stories. While living in Paris, he met Gertrude Stein, who became his mentor and introduced him to the American expatriate community of writers and artists who lived around the Montparnasse Quarter. This community came to be known as the Lost Generation, a term Stein coined from a comment made by her mechanic.

In 1923, after enjoying great success as a foreign correspondent, Hemingway returned to Toronto, where he began writing fiction under the pseudonym Peter Jackson. His first child was born - a son named John but known as Jack. Hemingway asked Gertrude Stein to be his son's godmother. Around this time, Hemingway had a falling out with his editor, who believed he had been spoiled by his overseas assignments. He deliberately gave Hemingway mundane assignments. A bitter Hemingway angrily resigned from the Toronto Star in December of 1923. His resignation must have been either ignored or rescinded, as Hemingway continued to write for the newspaper - albeit sporadically.

In 1925, Ernest Hemingway's first book was published. It was a short story collection called In Our Time. It featured four Nick Adams stories. The book's title, which came from the English Book of Common Prayer, was suggested to Hemingway by Ezra Pound. The 1930 reprint of the book included the piece On The Quai At Smyrna as an introduction. It was based on Hemingway's experiences covering the Greco-Turkish War. The same year his book was published, Hemingway met writer F. Scott Fitzgerald at the Dingo Bar in Paris. Just two weeks before, Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby was published.

Hemingway and Fiztgerald became close friends. They spent a lot of time together talking, drinking, and exchanging manuscripts. Impressed with Hemingway's writing talent, Fitzgerald did a lot to advance his career. Unfortunately, Fitzgerald's wife Zelda took an immediate dislike to Hemingway. The feeling was mutual.

Zelda and her husband were having marital problems at the time. She blamed the decline of their sex life on Hemingway, whom she called a "fairy" and accused of having a homosexual affair with Fitzgerald. There is no evidence that the two men had an affair or that they were gay or bisexual. Zelda was both a heavy drinker and a schizophrenic, and would later be institutionalized. To get back at her for attacking his masculinity, Fitzgerald slept with a female prostitute and flaunted the affair. The conflict between Hemingway and Zelda ended his friendship with Fitzgerald and created lifelong animosity between the two writers.

Hemingway and his wife Hadley divorced in 1927. He later married Pauline Pfeiffer, a devout Catholic from Arkansas who was an occasional fashion reporter, writing for Vanity Fair and Vogue. Hemingway converted to Catholicism and continued to write. Tragedy struck the following year when his father, in poor health and with financial troubles, committed suicide by shooting himself with an old Civil War pistol. Hemingway returned to Oak Park to arrange the funeral, and angered the Protestant community by voicing the Catholic view that all suicides go to Hell. Not long afterward, Harry Crosby - an old friend of Hemingway's from his Paris days and the founder of Black Sun Press - also committed suicide.

A year later in 1929, Hemingway published his classic novel, A Farewell To Arms. It was an autobiographical novel based on Hemingway's experiences in World War 1. In it, Frederic Henry, an American soldier, is wounded in Italy and recovers in a Milan hospital. There, he meets a British nurse, Catherine Barkley, and falls in love with her. By the time he has recovered, she is three months pregnant. They are separated by the war, then reunited later. They flee to Switzerland by rowboat where, after a long and painful labor, Catherine gives birth to a stillborn baby, then bleeds to death. The novel would later be adapted for the stage and screen.

Ernest Hemingway wrote ten novels, most of them all-time classics. He also wrote ten short story collections, several non-fiction books, and two plays. His famous 1952 novella The Old Man And The Sea -written while Hemingway was living in Cuba - was his favorite, and with good reason. His previous novel, Across The River And Into The Trees (1950) was savaged by critics. They said that Hemingway was washed up as writer - he had become a parody of himself. The Old Man And The Sea proved his brilliance.

Hemingway's thrilling tale of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman far out in the Gulf Stream, struggling to reel in a giant marlin, won him tremendous praise by critics, who compared his novella with Melville's Moby Dick and Faulkner's The Bear. The Old Man And The Sea also won Hemingway the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1983, when I was thirteen, my eighth grade English teacher assigned the class to read this amazing novella. I loved it and became a big Hemingway fan. I still am.

In July of 1961, just three weeks before his 62nd birthday, after suffering from health problems and mental illness, Ernest Hemingway committed suicide with his hunting rifle. Ironically, even though he had previously voiced the Catholic belief that all suicides go to Hell, the Catholic Church ruled that Hemingway was not responsible for his suicide due to mental illness. He was therefore allowed to be buried in a Catholic cemetery.

Hemingway's father and two of his siblings had also committed suicide, and years later, his granddaughter, actress Margaux Hemingway, would take her life. Some believe that the disease haemochromatosis ran in Hemingway's father's family. It's a genetic disease that causes an excessive level of iron in the blood - which not only results in damage to the pancreas, but also causes instability in the cerebrum, resulting in depression and mental illness.

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Quote Of The Day

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"The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof shit detector. This is the writer's radar, and all great writers have had it." - Ernest Hemingway

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video is a biographical presentation about Ernest Hemingway. Enjoy!

Notes For July 20th, 2010

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 20th, 1304, the legendary Italian poet, philosopher, and scholar Petrarch was born. He was born Francesco Petrarca in Arezzo, Italy. Petrarch's father was in the legal profession, so he demanded that his sons study law as well. Petrarch spent seven years in law school, but he considered it a waste of time - his main interests were writing and Latin literature and he hated the legal system, which he considered to be the art of selling justice.

After the death of their parents, Petrarch and his brother Gherardo went back to Avignon, where they spent most of their early years. To support himself, Petrarch worked in clerical offices. This gave him time to write. He became friends with the legendary writer Boccaccio and corresponded with him frequently. Petrarch also completed his first major work, Africa - an epic poem written in Latin that told the story of the great Roman general, Scipio Africanus.

Petrarch's epic poem made him a celebrity throughout Europe. He became a priest and continued his work as a scholar and writer. He wrote mostly in Latin, but his most famous collection of poems, Il Canzoniere, (The Songbook) was written in Italian. This work contained over 300 sonnets, a form his name would always be associated with. Though he is sometimes mistakenly credited as being the inventor of the sonnet, he was not. He did, however, invent the particular rhyme scheme for the form that came to be known as the Petrarchan sonnet.

The sonnets in Petrarch's book were inspired by a mysterious young woman known only as Laura. When Petrarch was 24 years old, after he had left the priesthood, he first saw Laura in church on Good Friday. It was love at first sight for Petrarch, but alas, Laura was a married noblewoman who could not return his affection. Despite her nobility, Laura was a sweet-natured and humble girl, which endeared her to Petrarch.

Unable to realize his love for Laura, Petrarch wrote over 300 sonnets secretly professing his unrequited love for her. They are among the greatest love poems ever written. Not much is known to history about Laura. Some scholars believe that she may have been Laura de Noves, wife of Count Hugues de Sade - an ancestor of the Marquis de Sade. When she died in 1348, Petrarch was wracked with grief. The legendary composer Franz Liszt would set three of Petrarch's sonnets to music for voice in his work Tre Sonnetti Di Petrarca, and later transcribe them for solo piano in his suite Annees De Pelerinage.

In 1341, Petrarch was crowned the first poet laureate of Rome since antiquity. He traveled all over Europe as an ambassador. During his travels, he collected old, crumbling Latin manuscripts and became a leader in the movement to recover and restore the manuscripts of ancient Roman and Greek writers. He advised Leontius Pilatus in his translation of a Homer manuscript acquired from Boccaccio, but was greatly displeased with the result. In 1345, Petrarch himself discovered a previously unknown collection of Cicero's letters, the Ad Atticum.

During the Italian Renaissance, Petrarch was a highly regarded philosopher. He is credited with founding the Humanist movement and describing the ignorant times that preceded the Renaissance as the "Dark Ages." But he will always be known as one of the greatest writers and poets of all time. During his lifetime, he wrote poetry collections, essays, numerous scholarly works, and a large volume of correspondence. He brought the sonnet to prominence long before the birth of Shakespeare, and his love poems were magnificent. One of his most beloved sonnets is Sonnet #140:

She ruled in beauty o'er this heart of mine,
A noble lady in a humble home,
And now her time for heavenly bliss has come,
'Tis I am mortal proved, and she divine.
The soul that all its blessings must resign,
And love whose light no more on earth finds room,
Might rend the rocks with pity for their doom,
Yet none their sorrows can in words enshrine;
They weep within my heart; and ears are deaf
Save mine alone, and I am crushed with care,
And naught remains to me save mournful breath.
Assuredly but dust and shade we are,
Assuredly desire is blind and brief,
Assuredly its hope but ends in death.

Petrarch died in July of 1374, just before his 70th birthday.

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Quote Of The Day

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"There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen. Other pleasures fail us or wound, us while they charm, but the pen we take up rejoicing and lay down with satisfaction, for it has the power to advantage not only its lord and master, but many others as well, even though they be far away- sometimes, indeed, though they be not born for thousands of years to come. I believe I speak but the strict truth when I claim that as there is none among earthly delights more noble than literature, so there is none so lasting, none gentler, or more faithful; there is none which accompanies its possessor through the vicissitudes of life at so small a cost of effort or anxiety." - Petrarch

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features tenor Antonio Giuliano singing Franz Liszt's Tre Sonnetti Di Petrarca at a tribute to Pavarotti, accompanied by Kathryn Lewis on piano. Enjoy!

This Week's Practice Exercise

Not So Free-for-All
Prepared by: Grace Skibicki
Posted on: Sunday, 18 July 2010
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Exercise: Choose from one of the past workshop exercises and follow the instructions precisely, including word count. Give our readers a brief description of the exercise you're working on, and copy and paste the Web address of that exercise into your submission.

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Many of the past free-for-all exercises have allowed members to alter the requirements of the exercise they choose, or to make up an exercise for themselves. The rule this time is more strict--pick an exercise that's been posted and do it as if it were this week's exercise for the whole group. In other words, meet the requirements for the exercise you choose, whatever they may be.

A list of exercises by topic is available on the IWW website:

http://www.internetwritingworkshop.org/pwarchive/topics.shtml

You can give your readers the location of the exercise you do by copying the address from the browser bar at the top of the exercise page.

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Exercise: Choose from one of the past workshop exercises and follow the instructions precisely, including word count. Give our readers a brief description of the exercise you're working on, and copy and paste the Web address of that exercise into your submission.
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Critiquing suggestions:

Has the writer met the requirements of the chosen exercise? If so, point out areas that support this. If not, why not? Offer suggestions as to how the exercise requirements could be met, perhaps a bit of tweaking here,a bit of additional material there.

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.

Notes For July 16th, 2010

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 16th, 1951, writer J.D. Salinger's celebrated novel, The Catcher In The Rye, was published. It would prove to be not only one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, but also one of the most controversial and challenged novels of all time.

Salinger's poignant coming-of-age story opens with teenage student Holden Caulfield being expelled from Pencey Prep, his boarding school in Pennsylvania. Holden is an angry young man. Highly intelligent but mentally disturbed, he believes that his fellow students and his teachers are all a bunch of phonies. After an altercation with his roommate, Holden packs up and leaves school in the middle of the night.

He takes a train back to New York City, but doesn't want to go home to his parents, so he checks into the shabby Edmont Hotel instead. There, he dances with some tourist girls, has a clumsy encounter with a prostitute, and is beaten by her pimp when he refuses to pay her more than the agreed upon amount.

Holden spends the next two days wandering around the city, drunk and lonely. He sneaks into his parents' apartment while they're out so he can visit his precocious ten-year-old little sister Phoebe - the only family member that he can communicate with. He shares with her a fantasy (based on a misinterpretation of Robert Burns' Comin' Through The Rye) where he watches over children playing in a rye field near the edge of a cliff. He must make sure that they don't wander too close to the edge; he must become a "catcher in the rye" and protect them from falling off the cliff.

After leaving his parents' apartment, Holden visits his old English teacher, Mr. Antolini, who offers him a place to sleep and gives him a speech about life - while guzzling highballs. He compliments Holden's good looks. Later that night, Holden is awakened to find Mr. Antolini stroking his head in a "flitty" way. Holden describes this as "something perverty." Mr. Antolini's marriage may be a sham to conceal his true nature.

When Holden tells Phoebe that he plans to move out West, she wants to go with him. He refuses to take her, which upsets her greatly, so he tells her that he won't move. The book ends with Holden taking Phoebe to the Central Park Zoo. He watches with melancholy joy while she rides the carousel. He alludes to possible future events, including "getting sick" - being committed to and living in a mental hospital, and attending another school in September.

That's just a bare outline of The Catcher In The Rye. You must read it for yourself. It truly is one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. It's also one of the most controversial. The American Library Association (ALA) has listed it as the 13th most challenged book from 1990-2000 and one of the ten most challenged books of 2005. The complaints range from profanity - including words such as goddamn and fuck - to blasphemy.

Opponents of the book have also complained about the undermining of family values, Holden Caulfield being a poor role model who promotes rebellion, smoking, drinking, lying, and promiscuity. In 1989, Shelley Keller-Gage, a high school teacher in Boron, California, was fired after some disgruntled parents complained about her placement of The Catcher In The Rye on her assigned reading list. She was later reinstated.

Throughout his life, J.D. Salinger rebuffed attempts at adapting his classic novel for the stage and screen. When his short story Uncle Wiggily In Connecticut was adapted as a film called My Foolish Heart, great liberties were taken with the story. The film, which Salinger hated, turned out to be a critical and commercial failure. He vowed that no more of his works would be adapted. In 1961, Salinger denied film and stage director Elia Kazan permission to turn The Catcher In The Rye into a Broadway play.

Acclaimed filmmakers from Billy Wilder to Steven Spielberg to Harvey Weinstein expressed great interest in directing a feature film adaptation of The Catcher In The Rye. Many famous actors, from Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson to Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio, have expressed great interest in playing Holden Caulfield. John Cusack once said that after he turned 21, he regretted that he had become too old to play Holden.

Ever since J.D. Salinger died in January of 2010 at the age of 91, speculation has run rampant that a feature film adaptation of The Catcher In The Rye will finally be made. Until then, everyone should read the novel, which is one of the all-time classic works of literature.

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Quote Of The Day

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“An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's.” - J.D. Salinger

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a reading from J.D. Salinger's classic novel, The Catcher In The Rye - performed by actor Jason Alexander! Enjoy!

Notes For July 15th, 2010

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 15th, 1779, the famous poet Clement Moore was born in New York City. His father, Benjamin Moore, was a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and also served as the president of Columbia College.

Clement Moore later graduated from Columbia College, earning his Bachelor's and Master's degrees there. In 1821, he was made a professor of biblical studies at the General Theological Seminary in New York City - a position he would hold for almost 30 years. For 10 years, he served as a board member of the New York Institute for the Blind, now known as the New York Institute for Special Education. He was also a prominent abolitionist.

Moore's writing career was modest. He only published two books during his lifetime. One of them was a non-fiction work - a Hebrew and English lexicon published in 1809. The other was a poetry collection, published in 1844. One of Moore's poems would become a classic - a cherished holiday classic that continues to be read every year during the Christmas season. Its original title was A Visit From St. Nicholas, but it's best known as Twas The Night Before Christmas, which is also the first line of the poem.

Twas The Night Before Christmas was first published anonymously in the Sentinel, a newspaper based in Troy, New York, on December 23rd, 1823. Moore originally took no credit for writing the poem because he wanted to be known for his serious and scholarly works, not for authoring a whimsical Christmas poem.

The poem tells the story of a man awakened by strange noises late one Christmas Eve. While his wife and children sleep, he investigates the noises and witnesses the arrival of St. Nicholas - Santa Claus - who has come to deliver presents, riding a sleigh pulled by eight flying reindeer. The poem defined the character of Santa Claus as we know him today - his physical description, the names of his reindeer, his tradition of delivering presents on Christmas Eve, and other characteristics.

One thing I always found interesting was Moore's description of Santa Claus as "chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf" with a long white beard. This may have come from ancient Egyptian mythology, as the ancient Egyptian god Bes was a Santa-like character. It was believed that on December 25th, the mother goddess Isis gave birth to Horus, the savior of Egypt. Bes, the Elf King, (depicted as a jolly, fat little elf with a long white beard) was a favorite of Isis, much loved by the goddess. He was the guardian of children and women in childbirth. Every year on December 25th, Bes would honor the birth of Horus by bringing toys and trinkets to all good children.

Twas The Night Before Christmas continues to be read every year during the Christmas season. The poem has become a cultural icon, influencing music, movies, and television, where it has been both parodied and paid tribute. In 1974, the famous animators Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass, producers of many classic, beloved animated TV Christmas specials, including Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman, produced an animated Christmas special loosely based on Clement Moore's classic poem. Featuring the voices of Joel Grey and George Gobel, Twas The Night Before Christmas is still shown on TV at Christmastime and is also available on DVD.

Clement Moore died in 1863 at the age of 83.

The complete text of Twas The Night Before Christmas can be found here.

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Quote Of The Day

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"True poetry is itself a magic spell which is a key to the ineffable." - Aleister Crowley

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a rare 1946 short film adaptation of Twas The Night Before Christmas. Enjoy!

Notes For July 14th, 2010

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 14th, 1902, the famous Polish-Jewish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer was born. He was born in Leoncin, Poland. His older brother, Israel Joshua Singer, and his older sister, Esther Kreitman, also became writers. Their father was a Hasidic rabbi, and their mother's father and brothers were also rabbis.

When Isaac Bashevis Singer was ten years old, his brother Israel gave him a copy of Dostoevsky's classic novel, Crime and Punishment, despite the fact that their strict, orthodox father forbade them from reading non-religious books. Isaac loved the novel. Later, as a teenager in Bilgoraj, he would study Yiddish translations of works by Leo Tolstoy, Guy de Maupassant, Anton Chekhov, and other authors. He read all sorts of novels, plays, and poetry collections.

Singer later entered a rabbinical seminary, but came to hate the school and the prospect of becoming a rabbi. He returned to his parents for a time, then went back to Bilgoraj and tried to earn some money as a Hebrew tutor. In 1923, his brother Israel arranged for him to move to Warsaw and become a proofreader for the Literarische Bleter, for whom he would later become an editor.

In his twenties, taking a cue from his brother who had done the same, Isaac Bashevis Singer rejected his religion and broke ties with his parents. He became part of Warsaw's Bohemian scene, spending time with many of his fellow non-religious writers and artists. Singer's first published short story won a literary contest and established him as an up-and-coming talent.

Singer's primary language was Yiddish. He wrote in Yiddish, and Yiddish folktales were a major influence on his writing. His first novel, Satan In Goray, was published in a serialized format in Globus, a literary magazine co-founded in 1935 by Singer and his lifelong friend, Yiddish poet Aaron Zeitlin. Singer's historical novel was set in 17th century Poland, in the village of Goraj. It was based on the true story of how a third of Poland's Jews were exterminated in a Cossack uprising. It also told of the effect of Shabbatai Zvi, a rabbi turned false prophet and cult leader, on the Jewish population.

A prominent vegetarian, Singer's dietary philosophy would be reflected in his writings. His short story The Slaughterer dealt with the anguish of a man trying to reconcile his compassion for animals with his job as a slaughterer. Singer often said that he became a vegetarian for reasons of health - the health of animals. "In relation to [animals]," he wrote in The Letter Writer, "all people are Nazis; for the animals, it is an eternal Treblinka."

Although he had rejected his religion as a young man, Isaac Bashevis Singer's writing is often steeped deep in Judaism. His novels and short stories often depicted Jewish characters struggling with their religion. Their struggles sometimes become quite violent, resulting in death or insanity. His most popular novel, Yentl The Yeshiva Boy, was adapted in 1975 as an equally popular movie (which Singer absolutely hated) starring Barbra Streisand in the lead role. Yentl is a young girl constantly at odds with her rabbi father over the traditions of their religion, always debating theology with him - something females aren't supposed to do.

After her father dies, Yentl cuts her hair and disguises herself as a boy named Anshel so she can enter a yeshiva and study the Talmud. Her true identity is discovered by her study partner, Avigdor. In his novel, Singer modeled the character of Yentl after his older sister, Esther. Though she was an intellectually gifted child, due to the misogynistic beliefs and traditions of her father's orthodox religion, as a young girl, Esther was confined to a life of drudgery, doing menial household chores while her brothers received an education.

Esther had dreamed of becoming a writer, but her status as a woman in a strict Hasidic Jewish family crushed that dream. She was even forced into an arranged marriage, a fate she accepted grudgingly. The marriage ended in divorce. Later in life, she finally did educate herself and make her dream come true, publishing one novel and a collection of short stories.

Her brother, Isaac Bashevis Singer, wrote over 18 novels and numerous short story collections. In 19878, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Singer died in 1991 at the age of 88, after suffering a series of strokes.

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Quote Of The Day

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"We must believe in free will - we have no choice." - Isaac Bashevis Singer

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video is a clip from the 1987 PBS TV documentary, Isaac In America: A Journey With Isaac Bashevis Singer. Enjoy!

Notes For July 13th, 2010

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This Day In Writing History

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On July 13th, 1798, legendary British poet William Wordsworth wrote his classic poem Tintern Abbey. He had just returned from a visit to Wales, accompanied by his sister Dorothy. While on a four-day walking tour of the Welsh countryside, they visited Tintern Abbey, a ruined church that was the first Cistercian monastery in Wales, and only the second in the United Kingdom.

Wordsworth composed the poem in his head while on the four-day walking tour, using a singsong method he had developed called "booing and hawing." That was quite a feat, considering the length and quality of the poem. As soon as he got back home to Bristol, he wrote the poem down. The day after that, he brought it to the printers.

The poem Tintern Abbey first appeared in the book Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, which Wordsworth co-wrote with his friend, poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Published later in 1798, it included Coleridge's classic poem, Rime Of The Ancient Mariner. The first edition sold out within two years. The second edition of the book included a preface article on Romantic poetry.

Tintern Abbey, (its full title is Lines Written A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey) a long blank verse poem that read more like prose, dealt with the fundamental themes of Romantic poetry, including communion with nature, which has a restorative power. The poem also deals with memory, specifically childhood memory and how it affects us as adults. These themes were hugely important in Wordsworth's work.

The complete text of the poem can be found here.

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Quote Of The Day

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"What is a Poet? He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind; a man pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as manifested in the goings-on of the Universe, and habitually impelled to create them where he does not find them." - William Wordsworth

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a complete reading of William Wordsworth's classic poem, Tintern Abbey. Enjoy!

IWW Members' Publishing Successes

It's been a busier than usual month at the Internet Writing Workshop, where members continue to write away their days to a number of publishing successes. 

Congratulations to all our members on these latest successes!

Jody

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Amanda Borenstadt

My story, "Let Sleeping Werewolves Lie," is in July's Lightning Flash Magazine, Issue 2.

Thanks to the people on the practice list who helped me with this story a while back.

Anita Saran

My flash piece, "The Mysterious Dr Ramsey," is in a print and e-anthology at 6 Sentences. Our Jeanette Cheezum is in the book, too. It was a lovely visual and title prompt and the anthology includes some fabulous pieces. Such talent!

Barry Basden

The June issue of Four and Twenty includes my little poem, "Second Thoughts on Intimacy."

In Between Altered States has published "Let's Face the Music," starring Carly, our very own little yellow Lab.

My poem, "Adrift on a Black Sea," is up on Opium Poetry.

Foundling Review has published my flash story, W.P.A.

Thanks to everyone who helped make it better, especially Wayne, who cautioned, less is more.

Florence Cardinal

My article, "Insomnia and Your Heath" is up at Health Central.

Also up at Health Central: "Alternatives to Sleeping Pills" and "Total Sleep Deprivation and the Brain."

Jan Bridgeford-Smith

My article, "America's Might On Display," was just published in the current issue of The History Channel Magazine. Thank you, Practice list members, for all you've taught me about writing!

Jason Warden

My story "Assimilation," which was first seen on the fiction list, has been selected for the "From the Darkside" Charity Anthology which will benefit the Letters and Light organization which helps promotes literacy in children and adults.

The anthology is slated to come out July 9th on Amazon and Smashwords for $4.99 as an e-book in all formats. Depending on its success, there may be a follow up print edition. I have more information about it on my blog.

I received several critiques on it and many that were helpful, so thanks to all of you.

Joanna M. Weston

I've signed the contract for my middle reader, Frame and the McGuire, with TradeWind Books of Vancouver, B.C.

I'm one happy camper, and many thanks to the Writing listers who critted a very early draft.

My poem, "On the tracks," is up at Gloom Cupboard.

Jody Ewing

Staff from Des Moines' WHO-TV Channel 13 recently came to my home to conduct interviews with my mother and me regarding my stepfather's unsolved homicide, as well as discuss other Iowa cold cases for a series of stories to air during July's sweeps.

On Thursday, July 1, WHO-TV's Aaron Brilbeck reported on the first in the series -- the 5-year-anniversary of the disappearance and murder of 5-year-old Evelyn Miller.

On Thursday, July 8, Aaron reported on the unsolved disappearance of Des Moines Register paperboy Eugene Martin, 13, who went missing on August 12, 1984.

WHO-TV will feature the 3rd in the series on Thursday, July 15, and then on Thursday, July 22, Aaron Brilbeck will conclude the sweeps with his in-depth feature on my stepfather, Earl Thelander.

In preparation for WHO-TV's "teasers" that are advertising Earl's upcoming story throughout July, I rewrote and greatly expanded -- switching for the first time in a case summary from third-person to first-person narrative -- Earl's case summary, "A Nation's First," for the Iowa Cold Cases website. A large part of the rewrite/addition involved defining/explaining a number of Iowa codes affecting Earl's case and how they all interlinked to create a case of murder in the first degree.

Loretta Russell

This article in Mountain Echo was 30 years in the making and I am proud of my husband for being the one to bring it about with his boss.

Margaret A. Frey

Barry Basden has seen fit to publish one of my on-going flash pieces, "The Eight Day Men," in Camroc Press Review.

Thanks to Barry and the folks at Prose Poetry and the Practice board.

Mark Budman

Mid-American Review took my review of Sudden Fiction Latino anthology. It will appear in the Fall.

Mel Jacob

My latest book reviews are up at SFrevu.com and Gumshoe Review.

At SFrevu.com:

The Apex Book of World SF by Lavie Tidhar -- Features writers of speculative fiction from outside the U.S. Some have been published in the U.S., while others have appeared primarily in their countries of origin. The stories are mixed, but generally dark in tone and some verge on horror.

The Hounds of Avalon (Dark Age, Book 3) by Mark Chadbournm -- The concluding volume of the trilogy The Dark Age, The Hounds of Avalon, draws characters from all the books in both the Age of Misrule and this trilogy. Mark Chadbourn delivers an exciting climax. The five Brothers and Sisters of Dragons struggle against the forces of evil, and fight the Void in its relentless march to destroy all living things.

The Unit by Terry DeHart -- A family of father, mother, daughter and son struggle to find safety in a world gone mad. Major cities lost, anarchy, and roving gangs create a post apocalyptic environment. Avoiding death and finding a place of safety propel the family on a journey without a certain destination.

At Gumshoereview.com:

The Drowning River: A Mystery in Florence by Christobel Kent -- Readers who like a leisurely read and a tour of Florence, Italy will find both in Christobel Kent's new mystery, The Drowning River. An elderly man walks into the river Arno and drowns. A young English girl named Ronnie disappears without a word to her friends. These events eventually become crimes as Sandro Celleni, a disgraced former police officer and now a private investigator, answers the plea of the man's widow to solve his apparent suicide.

The Magician's Accomplice: A Commander Jana Matinova Investigation by Michael Genelin -- The third Jana Matinova mystery has her traveling to The Hague to serve in Europol. A police commander in Bratislava, she is devastated by the death of her lover, Peter Saris, a prosecutor in the attorney general's office. Peter had been investigating corruption cases. She is forbidden to investigate his death.

Mona Leeson Vanek

I have now 59 published "Advice From The Pros" articles at the Writer Insider Tips blog.

My courtesy of sending e-mails to let web owners know I've linked them (and asking if they can link me) resulted two valuable links so far: The International Food Wine and Travel Writers Association (IFWTWA) linked my Travel Writing article on their website, and Traveler Writers Exchange linked my "Access The World And Write Your Way To $$$" on their site under their Travel Writers Resources.

Roger Poppen

My story "On the Origins of Springtime" appears in the microfiction section of this month's Long Story Short.

Thanks to folks in Practice-w who commented on it.

Sue Ellis

My poem is up in the July issue of The Shine Journal.

I also have a book review of Song of the Crow by Layne Maheu up this month at The Internet Review of Books. I think you'll be able to tell how much I liked it. Thanks to Ruth for her input on this, for knowing which word I mean.

Tom Mahony

My story, "Twenty Bucks" is up at The Legendary.

Wayne Scheer

One of my favorite old stories, "Renewal," is up at Everyday Fiction. I don't know how many times I've revised this story, but I'd still like to take it back and rewrite the opening sentence.

My story, "An Orderly Life," is up at Ken*Again.

"Nature Lessons," a piece I began at Practice a long time ago, is up at Poor Mojo's Almanac.

A story I wrote for Practice recently, "The Photograph," is up at Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette.

My nonfiction essay, "Magic," is up at Apollo's Lyre. Thanks again to Practice.

My story, "A Good Woman," written with the Practice group, has been accepted at Everyday Fiction.

My story, "Christmas at the Post Office," has been accepted for an anthology of Christmas stories, titled The Christmas Spirit, to be published by St. Martin's Press.

I also just sold a flash, "Good Memories," to Golden Visions Magazine. This one is for their online magazine. I already sold a longer story, "Cloning Clark," to their print magazine. These stories are slated for their October issue.

Finally, a new publication, Referential Magazine, has accepted my story, "The Love Song of Langley Moran." This magazine's gimmick is to publish poems, stories and photographs that refer to other works of art. My story refers to T.S. Eliot's poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." It's scheduled for publication sometime in the future.

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