Notes For April 29th, 2011

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This Day In Writing History

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On April 29th, 1933, the legendary American 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 also became a newspaper columnist. During the Korean War, he served his two-year tour of duty as a propaganda scriptwriter. After the war ended, he settled in San Francisco. His first poetry collection, And Autumn Came, was published in 1954. He was soon reading his poems alongside fellow Beat writers such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.

Around this time, Rod McKuen began performing as a singer at the Purple Onion, the 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.

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Quote Of The Day

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"Poetry is fact given over to imagery." - Rod McKuen

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a two part interview with Rod McKuen on the Patti Gribow show. Enjoy!

Notes For April 28th, 2011

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This Day In Writing History

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On April 28th, 1926, the famous American 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 injured 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.

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Quote Of The Day

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"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

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features an episode of Duke University's DukeReads TV series, with Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird the subject of discussion. Enjoy!

IWW Members' Publishing Successes

Congratulations to our Internet Writing Workshop members for the latest round of publication successes. Keep up the great work!

Jody

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Barry Basden

MuDJoB has published three tiny pieces.

Thanks to everybody who helped with any of these hint fictions.

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Kate DeAmour

My very short story, "April 15th," is up at OneFortyFiction.com.

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Ruth Douillette

I recently had a review published in the Internet Review of Books. Seven Wonders of the Universe... is a fun and informative read, which includes a section on tectonic plates that makes you realize just how fragile Earth's crust is, and also explains why earthquakes actually benefit the planet, which I mention briefly in the review.

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Alice Folkart

The poetry journal Four and Twenty has included my very short poem, "Where's He Been?" in its April double issue celebrating National Poetry Month.

Each poem has its own page. Mine is the 8th after the two-page table of contents.

Hope you have time to take a look at the issue. Lots of good work.

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Linda Gamble

Hope to bring a smile on tax day. My poem "Clowning Around at the IRS" is online at The Camel Saloon.

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Mel Jacob

Haven't signed a contract yet, but I got an offer on my short story, "The Corpulent Chiroptean." This is first place I sent it. My thanks to the Lovestory folks.

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Tom Mahony

My micro piece, "Neckbeard," is up at Johnny America.

My essay, "Cutting Edge of Retro" is up at LabLit.

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Dr. Minette Mans

My 2010 non-fiction book, "Living in Worlds of Music" (Springer), has a really nice review at the International Journal of Education & the Arts.

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Jacquelynn Rasmenia Massoud

The Cynic Online Magazine has published my story, "Evan Fading."

This one went through the fiction list a while ago under the title, "Choices We Dare Not See." Thanks to everyone on the list for the critiques and especially for suggesting that I look for another title.

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Lorri McDole

My very short story, "Wolfe on the Lam," is up on the One Forty Fiction site, right on the heels of Gary's story published there yesterday.

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Pauline Micciche

I tried a two-sentence story, and "Recovery" is now up at Two Sentence Stories. It is listed under my fiction-writing name, P. F. Palm.

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Elaine Moore

Foliate Oak Literary Journal has accepted my poem, "Antiquity," for their May issue.

Three Line Poetry has accepted two of my tiny little poems for their next edition.

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Sarah Morgan

My very short poem, "The Migrants," is live at Four and Twenty. I share the honor with IWW writers Alice Folkart and Elaine Moore. Mine is listed under my writing name, S.C. Morgan.

As Alice said, each poem has its own page. Mine resides at the number 25 -- five squared.

My review of T.C. Boyle's latest book, When the Killing's Done, is live at the Internet Review of Books.

Thanks to everyone on the nonfiction list who critted this one for me; you gave it legs and made it stronger. And thanks to those wonderful editors over at IRB. You rock!

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Gary Presley

Someone here recently mentioned One Forty Fiction, and after visiting the site I saw this week's theme is "The Tax Man." My contribution, "Who Needs Halliburton," is now up.

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Judith Kelly Quaempts

The story scheduled for May has been published early at Cynic magazine. I'm in good company; fellow IWW member, Jacki, has a story there, too.

Thanks to the fiction list for all the good crits.

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Adrienne Ross

My essay "Roadkill" is up at Tiny Lights' Flash in the Pan #24.

Flash in the Pan publishes 500-word essays on a quarterly basis.

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Loretta Russell

I received news that one of the articles I wrote for the Mountain Echo newspaper -- regarding the retrial of the woman accused of murdering her husband -- won second place in the California Newspaper Publishers Association for general news in a weekly publication.

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Bob Sanchez

The Internet Review of Books got a nice mention in the North Palouse Washington e-Newscast for a review written by
the IWW's own Ruth Douillette. Thanks, Mona Vanek!

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Anita Saran

Solstice Publishing has just published my novella, "The Choosing."

The Editor in Chief sent me a mail today about the book, which is also on Amazon.

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Wayne Scheer

My flash, "Tuesdays with Mimsey," will be published in a future issue of Rusty Typer. Thanks to the Practice group for help with this one.

Fiction 365 accepted my story, "Three Generations," which recently made the rounds at Fiction under a different title.  Thanks to all of you for your help.

Fiction365 pays $10 and responds in about two weeks with specific comments.

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Murray Snow

I am pleased (beyond belief) to announce that my novel On Guard For Thee has been released in ebook and paperback through Fastpencil Publishing.

Some of you may remember this story under the project's previous title, "Honor Lost, Honor Bound," which was critiqued on this list a couple years ago.

Thank you to all who helped with this story.

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Pat St. Pierre

A three line poem of mine has been published by Three Line Poetry. Go to website, then go to free issues and click on issue 2. They have an online and print copy.

The Front Porch Review features one of my photos in its April issue. Go to Visual Arts and you'll find my name with the photo "Welcome."

Pond Ripples just accepted two of my "very" short poems. They will be included in the May issue.

Also, one of my photos of my grandson won the cute contest of the online Funny Photo Contest with a small monetary prize. Now it's off to the semi-finals in September.

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Jason Warden

I recently interviewed S. G. Browne, author of Breathers and Fated, for The ShadowCast Audio Anthology. He gave some enlightening answers as to how he goes about the process of writing a book.

I'd also like to add that we recently made the switch and are now a Paying Market!

Notes For April 27th, 2011

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This Day In Writing History

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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, 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 Blood. 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 classic horror novel, Frankenstein (1818).

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Quote Of The Day

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"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

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a short documentary on the reception of Mary Wollstonecraft's feminist philosophy in early post-Revolution America. Enjoy!

Notes For April 26th, 2011

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This Day In Writing History

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On April 26th, 1914, the famous American writer Bernard Malamud was born in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants. He had a younger brother named Eugene.

In 1932, Malamud graduated from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. He worked as a teacher-in-training before enrolling at City College of New York on a government loan. From there, he attended Columbia University.

After completing his education, Malamud taught high school English, mostly to adult night school students. He later taught freshman composition at Oregon State University. Although he had earned a Master's degree in literature at Columbia, Oregon State would not allow him to teach literature because he lacked a Ph.D.

In 1942, Malamud met an Italian Catholic girl named Ann De Chiara. They fell in love and married, despite the strong opposition of their respective parents. They had a happy marriage. Ann bore him two children (Paul and Janna) and served as his typist and editor.

Bernard Malamud completed his first novel in 1948. Published four years later, the book would prove to be his most popular novel. The Natural, inspired by the life of a real baseball player, (Chicago Cubs shortstop Billy Jurges) takes a haunting look at the dark side of America's national pastime.

The novel opens with 19-year-old pitching phenom Roy Hobbs en route to Chicago for a tryout with the Cubs. On the train with Hobbs are his manager Sam, sportswriter Max Mercy, superstar slugger Walter "The Whammer" Whambold, and a beautiful, mysterious woman called Harriet Bird.

When the train stops at a carnival, The Whammer challenges Hobbs to strike him out. The equally arrogant Hobbs accepts the challenge - and strikes The Whammer out, humiliating him. Harriet Bird comes on to Hobbs and later invites him to her hotel room. What he doesn't know is that she's a homicidal maniac determined to kill the best player in the game. The Whammer was her original target. When the womanizing Hobbs goes to Harriet's room, she shoots him.

The novel flashes forward 15 years. Roy Hobbs, now in his mid-thirties and past his prime as a player, has just been signed as the new right fielder for the New York Knights, a slumping National League team. As the new player on the team, Hobbs is subjected to mean spirited practical jokes by his teammates, including the theft of his favorite bat, Wonderboy.

Hobbs gets a chance to reclaim his past glory when team manager Pop Fisher chooses him to pinch hit instead of slumping slugger Bump Bailey. On his first at-bat, Hobbs smacks a triple. A few days later, Bump Bailey, now an outfielder, is killed when he crashes into the outfield wall trying to catch a fly ball.

Sportswriter Max Mercy, who had known Hobbs as a young pitching phenom, arrives and tries to get Hobbs to talk about his troubled past. Mercy even offers him five thousand dollars for the story, but Hobbs tells him that "all the public is entitled to is my best game of baseball." When the arrogant Hobbs fails to persuade the Knights' ruthless co-owner Judge Banner to grant him a raise, Mercy writes about it in his column, resulting in a fan uprising.

Hobbs falls into a slump, then breaks out of it and plays brilliantly, leading his team to a 17-game winning streak. With the Knights one game away from winning the National League pennant, Hobbs goes to a party, binges on food, and collapses. He wakes up in a hospital bed, and the doctor tells him that he must retire after the league championship game if he wants to live.

Judge Banner had been offering Hobbs increasing amounts of money to throw the championship game because he wants to fire Pop Fisher as manager. Now, with the prospect of early retirement and no way to support the family he wants to build with love interest Memo Paris, Hobbs makes Banner an offer: he'll throw the game for $35,000. Although his conscience troubles him, it can't save him from self-destruction.

The Natural was adapted as a feature film in 1984, starring Robert Redford in the title role. Mostly panned by critics, including Roger Ebert, who denounced it as "idolatry on behalf of Robert Redford," as a novel adaptation, the film is a travesty. With a completely different ending, it sacrifices Malamud's dark, mythological story of one man's downfall at the hands of his own hubris in favor of a typical Hollywood happy ending. And yet, the film remains one of the most popular sports movies of all time. Surprisingly, Malamud himself liked it. The film's producers later claimed that it was never meant to be a literal adaptation of the novel.

While his first novel made his name as a writer, Bernard Malamud's fourth novel, The Fixer (1968) won him both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Inspired by both the author's own experiences with anti-Semitism and a true story of anti-Semitic persecution in Tzarist Russia, the novel tells the tale of Yakov Bok, a Jewish fixer (handyman) living and working in Kiev - without the proper papers.

When a Christian boy is murdered during Passover, the police assume that the killer is a Jew. This is what's known as blood libel - the hateful false accusation that Jews murder Christian children as part of their religious practices and celebrations. Yakov Bok is soon rounded up for questioning. When asked about his political views, he claims to be apolitical. Although there is no evidence against him, because he's an undocumented Jew, Bok becomes the prime suspect. He's arrested on suspicion of murder, jailed indefinitely without being charged, and denied counsel or visitors.

As he spends many months in jail, Bok contemplates his entire sad life in particular and human nature in general. Despite his fate, he finds himself growing spiritually, and is at last able to forgive his wife, who had left him just before the opening of the novel. The novel ends with Bok finally being charged and brought to trial. In the last scene, as he's being taken to court, Bok has an imaginary conversation with the Tzar, whom he rebukes as the ruler of the most oppressive and backward regime in Europe. Bok famously concludes that "there is no such thing as an apolitical man, especially a Jew."

The Fixer was adapted as an acclaimed feature film in 1968, starring Alan Bates as Yakov Bok and directed by John Frankenheimer, working from a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo. Bates' excellent performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Though he wrote seven novels, Malamud was also known as a master of the short story. He published several collections of short stories, including The Magic Barrel (1958) and Pictures of Fidelman (1969). His classic short story Man in the Drawer (1969) won him the O. Henry Award. Flannery O'Connor once said of him, "I have discovered a short-story writer who is better than any of them, including myself." In 1988, the PEN/Malamud Award was established in the author's memory. The award recognizes excellence in the short story.

Bernard Malamud died in 1986 at the age of 71.

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Quote Of The Day

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“A writer is a spectator, looking at everything with a highly critical eye.” - Bernard Malamud

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a clip from the acclaimed 1968 feature film adaptation of Bernard Malamud's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Fixer. Enjoy!

Notes For April 22nd, 2011

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This Day In Writing History

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On April 22nd, 1960, To Bedlam and Part Way Back, the first poetry collection by the famous American poet Anne Sexton, was published. Throughout her short 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.

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Quote Of The Day

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"The beautiful feeling after writing a poem is on the whole better even than after sex, and that's saying a lot." - Anne Sexton

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features rare documentary footage of Anne Sexton reading her poems. Enjoy!

Notes For April 21st, 2011

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This Day In Writing History

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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."

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Quote Of The Day

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"Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads." - George Bernard Shaw

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a clip from a live performance of George Bernard Shaw's famous play, Arms and the Man. Enjoy!

Notes For April 20th, 2011

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This Day In Writing History

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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. His newest book, Faulks on Fiction: The Secret Life of the Novel, is due for release this year. He has also written several works of non-fiction. He remains one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom.

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Quote Of The Day

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"If you have only one life, you can't altogether ignore the question: are you enjoying it?" - Sebastian Faulks

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features Sebastian Faulks being interviewed by David Frost in 2008 about his James Bond novel, Devil May Care. Enjoy!

Notes For April 19th, 2011

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This Day In Writing History

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On April 19th, 1824, the legendary English poet Lord Byron died in Aetolia-Acarnania, Greece, at the age of 36. He had been born George Gordon Byron in Dover, England, in January of 1788. During his short life, Byron established himself as one of the greatest English Romantic poets of all time. He was also a master of dramatic verse. His epic poems, such as The Corsair (1813), The Siege of Corinth (1816), and the unfinished Don Juan (1819-1824), are among his most memorable works.

In life, Byron's proved to be as romantic and flamboyant as his poetry. He was brilliant, most likely bipolar, and an agnostic. Although a nobleman himself, he had little use for the British aristocracy and even less use for the monarchy. He once gave a stirring speech before Parliament condemning the Church of England (the official clerical body of the British Empire) for its intolerance of other faiths.

An outspoken liberal and libertine, Byron's intellect, literary talent, charisma, flamboyance, excesses, and scandals made him a huge celebrity - a rock star of his time. Openly bisexual, though he preferred women, Byron criticized the persecution of homosexuals by British law, and the pro-Christian legal system's discrimination against atheists. His best friend, the legendary poet Percy Shelley, was denied custody of his children because he didn't believe in God.

Of his many female lovers, Lord Byron's most notorious relationship was with the married Lady Caroline Lamb, who had famously described him as "mad, bad and dangerous to know" - yet it was she who went mad after Byron ended their relationship. Refusing to take no for an answer, she began stalking him, both privately and publicly, resulting in a huge scandal.

It wouldn't be the only scandal to plague Byron. He was also accused of homosexuality (considered both a disgrace and a crime in 19th century England) and having an incestuous affair with his older half-sister Augusta Leigh, resulting in her pregnancy. While Byron was openly bisexual, the idea that he had an affair with his half-sister, to whom he was very close, is highly debatable.

When he wasn't writing poetry, Lord Byron dedicated himself to political causes. In 1809, he took a seat in Parliament's House of Lords, which he used to strongly advocate for social reform. He opposed capital punishment and laws that compromised one's civil liberties and / or encroached on the private lives of British subjects.

An animal lover, Byron kept many exotic pets, including a fox, an eagle, a crocodile, and an Egyptian crane. He kept a bear as a pet while studying at Trinity College, Cambridge, in response to the college's prohibition of keeping dogs as pets. He publicly suggested that the bear should apply for a fellowship at Trinity. Byron's favorite pet was a dog - a Newfoundland called Boatswain. When the dog contracted rabies, Byron nursed him until he died, unafraid of contracting the disease himself. Afterward, Byron wrote a poem of eulogy for Boatswain called Epitaph to a Dog (1808).

By 1816, embittered and plagued with scandal, (thanks to Lady Caroline Lamb's public smear campaign) Byron left England and lived throughout Europe, mostly in Italy and Greece, until his death in 1824. A year earlier, Byron had left his home in Genoa to join the famous Greek statesman Alexandros Mavrokordatos in his fight for Greece's independence from the Ottoman Empire.

It would not be Byron's first voyage to Greece or his first conflict with the Ottoman Empire. Byron had visited Athens several years earlier, interested in both Greek culture and the country's acceptance of homosexuality. While staying there, he met a handsome French boy named Nicolo Giraud who became his friend, traveling companion, and lover.

While living in Venice in 1816, Byron became acquainted with a Mechitarist (Armenian Catholic) priest who introduced him to Armenian culture. Fascinated, Byron attended lectures on Armenian history and learned the Armenian language. He would help introduce Armenian culture to Western Europe and publicly support Armenia's struggle for independence against the Ottoman Empire. Since the Armenians were largely Christian, the Muslim Ottomans oppressed them ruthlessly.

So, in August of 1823, when Byron learned of Greece's struggle against the Ottomans, he set sail for Kefalonia in the Ionian Islands. His first mission was to help rebuild the Greek naval fleet, and he spent £4000 of his own money (the equivalent of £72,000 in today's money) to prepare the fleet for war. By December, he joined Alexandros Mavrokordatos, to whom the Greek military was loyal, in Messolonghi.

After he and Mavrokordatos supervised the training of the troops, Byron was given command of a regiment. The plan was to attack the Turkish-held fortress of Lepanto, located at the mouth of the Gulf of Corinth. Before the fleet could set sail for Lepanto, Byron fell ill. Although the bloodletting treatment (at the time, it was thought that draining a patient of small quantities of blood would speed up the healing process) weakened him further, he began to recover. By April, he caught a nasty cold which was aggravated by more bloodletting.

Lord Byron lapsed into a violent fever and died on April 19th. He was 36 years old. It is believed that Byron contracted sepsis (blood poisoning) as the result of bloodletting treatments performed with unsterilized medical instruments. After he died, Greece's national poet, Dionysios Solomos, wrote a poem in his honor called To the Death of Lord Byron. His body was embalmed, his heart and lungs were removed, and the rest of his remains were sent to England.

The fate of Byron's heart and lungs is unclear. An urn containing the ashes of both organs was supposedly lost when the city of Messolonghi was sacked by the Ottomans in 1825. Some believe that the urn only contained the ashes of Byron's lungs, and that his heart is still in Messolonghi. To this day, he is considered a national hero in Greece. It has been said that had he lived and led his men to victory against the Ottomans, he might have become the King of Greece, but that's highly unlikely.

When news of Lord Byron's death reached England, people were shocked and saddened despite the scandals that had plagued him in life. Huge crowds came to pay their respects as he lay in state in London. Byron was denied a Christian burial at Westminster Abbey for reason of "questionable morality." He would later be buried at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Hucknall, Nottingham. At her request, Ada Lovelace, the love child he never knew, was buried next to him. Ada became famous in her own right for her collaboration with Charles Babbage on the analytical engine, a precursor to the computer.

After his burial, Byron's friends raised a thousand pounds for a statue of him to be made by legendary Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen - an admirer of Byron's. The statue would languish in storage for ten years, as most British institutions refused to host it on their premises. Finally, his alma mater, Trinity College, Cambridge, agreed to place the statue in its library.

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Quote Of The Day

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"Those who will not reason are bigots, those who cannot are fools, and those who dare not are slaves." - Lord Byron

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a reading of Lord Byron's classic poem, Darkness. Enjoy!

Notes For April 15th, 2011

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This Day In Writing History

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On April 15th, 1755, A Dictionary of the English Language, the classic reference book by legendary British writer Samuel Johnson, was published. It wasn't the first English language dictionary published, nor would it be the last. However, it was one of the most memorable dictionaries ever published, as it was written by Samuel Johnson - the British poet, essayist, literary critic, biographer, and lexicographer considered to be "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 and 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 masterpiece of scathing 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.

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Quote Of The Day

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"Books, like friends, should be few and well-chosen." - Samuel Johnson

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features an episode of the Learning English series that takes a look at Samuel Johnson and his dictionary. Enjoy!

Notes For April 14th, 2011

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This Day In Writing History

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On April 14th, 1939, The Grapes of Wrath, the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by the legendary American writer 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 storms, 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 by the dust storms 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 policemen 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 brilliance of The Grapes of Wrath as one of their main reasons for giving Steinbeck the award.

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Quote Of The Day

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"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

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Vanguard Video

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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!

Notes For April 13th, 2011

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This Day In Writing History

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On April 13th, 1909, the famous American 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. 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.

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Quote Of The Day

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"Beware of a man with manners." - Eudora Welty

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features an interview with Eudora Welty. Enjoy!

Notes For April 12th, 2011

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This Day In Writing History

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On April 12th, 1916, the famous American children's book writer Beverly Cleary was born. She was born Beverly Atlee Bunn in McMinnville, Oregon. Her parents were farmers. She had no brothers or sisters. When she was six years old, her parents gave up farming and moved to Portland, Oregon.

As a little girl, Beverly loved books and reading, but when she entered first grade in Portland, she hated both her nasty teacher and the dreadful primers she was required to read in class. After spending the first six years of her life on a farm, city living took a toll on her health, which also affected her reading skills and classwork.

In the second grade, Beverly's new teacher and the school librarian, both of whom she loved, helped her get her schoolwork up to par and rekindled her love of reading. The librarian encouraged her love of learning and natural curiosity, helping her to find good books on subjects that interested her.

At the age of eighteen, Beverly began her college education at Chaffey College in Ontario, California. She would later attend the University of California at Berkley and the University of Washington in Seattle, earning degrees in English and library science. While studying at Chaffey, she worked as a substitute librarian.

It wasn't easy paying for a college education during the Great Depression; while studying at the University of Washington, she worked through the university's cooperative education program. While doing so, she met her future husband, Clarence Cleary. They had to elope because Clarence's Presbyterian parents were opposed to their son marrying a Catholic girl. They married anyway, and she bore him a twin son and daughter, Malcolm and Marrienne. Clarence's parents would always disapprove of his marriage to Beverly.

After graduating from the University of Washington, Beverly Cleary became a full time librarian in Yakima, Washington. Her favorite part of the job was interacting with the many children who came to borrow books. The children often complained that there were few books written about modern children like them. Knowing that many children's books at that time were either old-fashioned, dated, or unrealistic, Beverly sympathized with the kids. She decided to try writing her own children's books.

Beverly Cleary's first children's book, Henry Huggins, was published in 1950. The novella introduced the protagonist, Henry Huggins, and his friends, who live on Klickitat Street in Portland, Oregon. In his first book, Henry meets and adopts a skinny stray dog whom he calls Ribsy. Boy and dog become the best of friends and get involved in adventures and mischief.

Henry Huggins became a huge hit with children, and critics loved the book as well, calling Henry a "modern Tom Sawyer." Beverly Cleary would write a series of Henry Huggins books, which would introduce other popular characters. In the second book, Henry and Beezus, we get to know Henry's best friend, Beatrice "Beezus" Quimby. She hates her nickname, Beezus, which was given to her by her little sister, who as a toddler was unable to say Beatrice.

Beezus' spunky, impish little sister, Ramona, originally a minor character in the Henry Huggins series, would go on to become Beverly Cleary's most popular character and the star of her own series of books. The first book, Beezus and Ramona, was published in 1955. In this classic book, the precocious, irrepressible 4-year-old Ramona Quimby displays her talent for mischief as she annoys her sister, throws a party for her friends without her mother's permission, and ruins two birthday cakes.

Other memorable Ramona books include Ramona the Pest (1968), Ramona the Brave (1975), Ramona and Her Father (1977), Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (1981), and Ramona Forever (1984). Fifteen years later, in 1999, Beverly Cleary came out of retirement at the age of 83 and published her last entry in the series, Ramona's World. It would also be her last published book to date.

Ramona's World finds the now preteen Ramona awaiting her tenth birthday. Her older sister Beezus, now 15, has started high school and is becoming a mature young woman, which irks Ramona. Meanwhile, Ramona finds herself playing a more active role in looking after her baby sister, Roberta. As the novella progresses, Ramona deals with her own increasing maturity, as her longtime feud with her nemesis, the snobbish Susan, comes to an end, and her relationship with her old pal Danny, whom she nicknamed Yard Ape, may be off to a new beginning, as they have an obvious crush on each other.

In 1988, the Ramona books were adapted as a ten-episode TV series for Canadian public television. The brief yet memorable series featured an outstanding performance by a then unknown child actress named Sarah Polley as Ramona. The series would be picked up by American public television and released on video.

Over twenty years later, in July of 2010, Disney's Walden Media division released a feature film adaptation of Beezus and Ramona. Titled Ramona and Beezus, the movie actually incorporates plot elements from three different Ramona books: Beezus and Ramona, Ramona Forever, and Ramona's World. Nevertheless, it received mostly good reviews, thanks to the winning performance of Joey King as Ramona. A sequel is planned.

In addition to her series novels, Beverly Cleary has written many fine standalone children's novels. Her 1983 novel, Dear Mr. Henshaw, won her the 1984 Newbery Medal. In this heart wrenching novel, second grader Leigh Botts is struggling to deal with his parents' divorce, his troubled relationship with his father, his loneliness, and other issues.

One day, as part of a class assignment, Leigh writes a letter to his favorite author, Boyd Henshaw. He and the writer become pen pals and close friends. Henshaw encourages Leigh to keep a diary of his thoughts and feelings. The narrative then switches from letters to diary entries as Leigh chronicles his life. Dear Mr. Henshaw was followed by a sequel, Strider (1991), in which Leigh and his friend Barry find a stray dog on the beach whom they name Strider. They decide to adopt Strider and share custody of him the way that most divorced couples share custody of their children.

Beverly Cleary, now 95 years old, lives in Carmel, California. She continues to attract new generations of fans and inspire new generations of children's book writers.

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Quote Of The Day

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"Quite often somebody will say, 'In what year do your books take place?' and the only answer I can give is 'In childhood.'" - Beverly Cleary

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a 2010 interview with Beverly Cleary (then 94 years old) discussing Ramona and Beezus, the upcoming feature film adaptation of her most popular children's book series. Enjoy!

IWW Members' Publishing Successes

Internet Writing Workshop members continue to break through into the publishing world and find success in all venues.

Congratulations to all for your latest batch of bylines, with special kudos going out to member Bill Backstrom, who just celebrated his first acceptance and publication.

Jody
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Bill Backstrom

My micro fiction, "A Short Walk," is in the April edition of A Long Story Short. This is my first acceptance and I am thrilled.

Thanks to the workshop and everyone who critted it when I first tested this story. And thanks to everyone who told me to "just hang in there."


Barry Basden

Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal,  has published "A Pallbearer for Aunt Madge" --partly truth and partly fiction.

Thanks to those who helped with it, especially Wayne Scheer for his idea about a better ending.

I'm terrible with prompts, but Negative Suck will publish in its May issue an old piece I reworked.

Should you wish to try, you have until April 20.

The California Writers Club's April issue of In Focus has reprinted two short pieces. Thanks to editor Kathy Highcove for the searing illustration she found for "Saved."

Click on the latest PDF and scroll down to page 12.


Jeannette de Beauvoir

My geocaching book is now available as an ebook. Download a sample for free!


Mark Budman

My article in the local press is here.


Peg Frey

I get to join Jacki R. with a yahoo for the April issue of Foliate Oak with my flash, "The Art of Resistance."

Thanks once again to everyone who made crits and comments, members of Practice-w and Prose-P. Always makes a difference!


Dawn Goldsmith

A piece I wrote a few years ago has found a new home at The Writer. The check arrived today and the piece will appear in the June 2011 issue.

I'm also writing on a fairly regular basis for The Quilter and still reviewing books each month for Clarion.


Mel Jacob

I have the following book reviews up at SFREVu.com:

The Dragon's Path (The Dagger and the Coin) by Daniel Abraham

Skeleton Crew by Cameron Haley

Equations of Life (Samuil Petrovitch) by Simon Morden

The following book reviews are up at Gumshoereview.com:

Murder at the Villa Byzantine: An Antonia Darcy and Major Payne Investigation by R.T. Raichev

Shadows of a Down East Summer: An Antique Print Mystery by Lea Wait

Stolen Lives: A Jade de Jong Investigation Set in South Africa by Jassy Mackenzie


Elaine Moore

My little story, "Daddy's Girl," is up at 50 Word Stories.

Foliate Oak Literary Journal informs me that my poem, "Imaginary Friend," will appear in their print anthology in May.

My new flash fiction story, "Acceptance," will appear in the June edition of Appollo's Lyre. This has been a great week!

Four and Twenty informs me they've accepted my short-form poem, "Hidden" for their April edition.

My poem, "Writer" is up at The Camel Saloon.

My photo of Cannon Beach, Oregon, and my flash piece, "Transcendence" appear today in the special Bella edition of The Camel Saloon. I'm between half and three quarters down, if you visit the link.


Mona Leeson Vanek

John Mark Ockerbloom, Editor, The Online Books Page, told me my books, Behind These Mountains, vols. 1, 2 & 3 (print books) are already listed in the Library of Congress and in dozens of library catalogs, and that no doubt the digitized revised versions soon will be. Tonight John will publish the listing on The Online Books web site, which reaches one million listings! I feel honored.

When the newspaper serving this region folded a year or so ago the area was left without a public "voice." Frustrated because "word of mouth" excludes so many from knowing what's going on, I took action and created a blog to fill the void. Whether it will become what I envision remains to be see. However, The North Palouse Washington e-Newscast went live April 8, 2011. My goal is to provide a venue for local news.


Pauline Micciche

My short story "Communion" has been accepted for publication in Fiction 365. I do not know yet when it will be published. It's my first paying market.

My flash story "Suprise" has been accepted for publication in Negative Suck.


Sarah Morgan

I am pleased to announce that Four and Twenty has accepted my piece "The Migrants" for their April edition, dedicated to National Poetry Month.

I will share the pages with IWW's Elaine Moore, so I'm in good company.


Roger Poppen

My flash piece, "The Deal," is up at the Cynic Online Magazine.

Thanks to folks on Practice who critted this.


Judith Quaempts

The Cynic has accepted my short story, "His Brother's Keeper," for its May issue.


Jacquelynn Rasmenia Massoud

My flash piece, "Rotting Daisy," has been published in the April issue of Foliate Oak and is now online.

Thank you to everyone in practice as well as the fiction list who critiqued this one.


Adrienne Ross Scanlan

"Nisqually Fish Fling" won Third Prize in the 2011 Tiny Light's Annual Essay Contest.  "Nisqually Fish Fling" is (or will be) one of the chapters in my (nearly finished) book, Turning Homeward: Restoring Nature in the Urban Wild.

For information about the contest and a list of all 2011 winners, visit the above website.


Bob Sanchez

iUniverse is featuring my first novel, When Pigs Fly, in its bookstore for the month of April.


Anita Saran

I'm sure you will love my friend Minoo's blog: Life Strategies for those with their hands tied behind their backs. She writes impeccable English and her blogs are always interesting and profound. We spent 20 years together as best friends before she moved to California with her baby. Do check out my piece, "Fresh Perspective on Pets" (she asked me to guest blog) and her excellent posts. She was a great copywriter and in fact my Copy Chief for some time.


Wayne Scheer

My story, "Prairie Flower," has been bought by Fiction 365.

Fiction 365 is unique, not just because they pay, but because the author responds promptly, usually within two weeks, and with specific reasons why he liked or didn't like a story.

My flash, "Upon Reflection," has been accepted at Stanley the Whale. The editor estimates my story will be up late  May to early June.  "Upon Reflection" began as a Practice exercise, so thanks go to the group.

A nonfiction account of my stupidity, "My Left Foot," (an original title, eh?) is up at Eric's Hysterics.

This piece was originally written with Practice, so my thanks go to them.


Pat St. Pierre

A short poem was accepted by Three Line Poetry.

My poem, "The Green Shuttered Cape," is listed as a finalist for the Mattia 14 International Poetry Contest. They usually receive around 1000 poems.

Thanks to everyone for their critiques.

The Camel Saloon has just published a tribute to one of Russ' favorite poets who passed away last year:  Bella Akhmadulina. Today is her birthday. The work was from various women artists around the world.

Please take a minute to read the issue. I'm priveledged to be in such company with my poem, "The Unpredictable Sea" (toward the end of issue).


Celestine Stoltenberg

My review of Paul Farber's Mixing Races is up on the Internet Review of Books. Many thanks to the non-fiction group for their great input. Also thanks to the editors who are really great to work with.