Rick Bylina's book, One Promise Too Many, is now available in paperback on CreateSpace and Amazon.
Busting buttons. A Matter of Faith is now available on Smashwords and will soon be available on Amazon and other fine book outlets. TV Guide Synopsis: Does Faith Moreno's romantic pursuit of a young priest help Detective Stark bring a murderer to justice or just mark Faith as the next victim?
~~~
Lynne Hinkey
Marina Melee is now available as an e-book! Thanks to Rick and Bob for their guidance and suggestions for "electrifying" it. It's available for purchase and download to a variety of reader types at www.smashwords.com, and should be available through amazon, barnesandnoble.com, applestore, etc. later this week.
For those who still prefer a book to read, you can purchase the paperback version from the publisher at www.casperianbooks.com, or online at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
Not So Free-For-All Prepared by: Grace Skibicki
Posted on: Sunday, 28 August 2011
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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:
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.
This Day In Writing History
On August 26th, 1904, the famous British novelist, poet, and playwright Christopher Isherwood was born in High Lane, Cheshire, England. His father was a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army, and moved the family often to wherever he was stationed. He was killed in action during World War 1. Afterward, Christopher Isherwood and his mother lived in London and Wyberslegh.
Isherwood attended St. Edmund's prep school in Surrey, where he met W.H. Auden, a future poet, playwright, and essayist who would later become Isherwood's protege and close friend. After St. Edmund's, Isherwood attended Repton School, where he met writer Edward Upward, who would become a lifelong friend. Isherwood and Upward collaborated on a short story collection, The Mortmere Stories. Although famous in literary circles, only one of the stories would be published during Isherwood's lifetime. The whole collection of stories was published posthumously in 1994.
Later in 1925, Isherwood was reunited with W.H. Auden. He became Auden's literary mentor and occasional lover. Auden introduced him to writer Sir Stephen Spender, whom he would later spend time with in Berlin. Isherwood's first novel, All The Conspirators, was published in 1928. It was about a young man, Philip, who longs to escape the office where he works, but is torn between pleasing his oppressive, domineering mother and living out his dream of becoming an artist. Philip's only ally is his sister, Joan.
Around the time his first novel was published, Isherwood studied medicine at King's College, London, but dropped out in six months to join W.H. Auden in Berlin. Having rejected his upper class roots and being openly gay at a time when homosexuality was frowned upon in his native England, Isherwood came to love Berlin, which, before the rise of Hitler and Nazism, was known as one of Europe's most cultured and liberal cities. He took advantage of the sexual freedom in Berlin and indulged in his passion for handsome young men. He met one, Heinz, who became his first great love.
Isherwood's second novel, The Memorial, was published in 1932. It was another tale of conflict between mother and son, based on Isherwood's family history. While writing his third novel, Mr. Norris Changes Trains (1935), Isherwood worked as a tutor. When Hitler came to power in Germany, Isherwood left Berlin and traveled around Europe, living in cities such as Sintra, Portugal, and Copenhagen, Denmark. Around this time, he collaborated on three plays with W.H. Auden: The Dog Beneath The Skin (1935), The Ascent Of F6 (1936), and On The Frontier (1939).
In 1939, Isherwood published one of his masterpieces, a collection of short stories and novellas called The Berlin Stories. Inspired by Isherwood's time living in Berlin and his experiences with its sexual underground, the book's stories would be adapted as a play called I Am A Camera and a popular, Tony Award winning Broadway musical, Cabaret, which would be adapted as an acclaimed feature film in 1972 starring Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey. The city of Berlin would erect a plaque in Isherwood's memory on the house in Schoneberg, Berlin, where he had lived.
In 1939, after visiting New York City on their way back to England, Isherwood and Auden decided to emigrate to the United States. This decision, made just months before England declared war on Germany, officially beginning World War 2, was seen as a kind of betrayal by the patriotic crowd in England. Isherwood stayed in New York with Auden for a few months, then moved to Hollywood, California.
In Hollywood, he met mystic and historian Gerald Heard, who introduced him to Swami Prabhavananda and his Vedantic brand of Hindu spirituality and philosophy. Isherwood joined a group of mystic explorers that included writer Aldous Huxley and philosopher Bertrand Russell. He embraced Vedanta and, working with the Swami, translated Hindu scriptures, wrote Vedanta essays, and the biography Ramakrishna and His Disciples. He also wrote Vedanta themed novels and plays.
In 1946, Isherwood became a naturalized American citizen. This made him eligible for the draft, however, he had already established himself as a conscientious objector. Throughout the late 40s and early 50s, Isherwood spent most of his time with his Vedanta writings. On Valentine's Day, 1953, while spending time on the beach with friends, the 48-year-old Isherwood was introduced to an 18-year-old aspiring artist named Don Bachardy. Despite a 30-year age difference and being interrupted by affairs and separations, Bachardy and Isherwood would remain partners until Isherwood's death.
During the early months of their relationship, (which would be chronicled in the acclaimed 2008 documentary Chris & Don: A Love Story) Isherwood finally completed The World In The Evening (1954), a novel he'd been working on for a few years. Bachardy typed up the manuscript. When he wasn't writing, Isherwood taught creative writing at California State University, Los Angeles.
In 1962, Isherwood's novel Down There On A Visit was published. A semi-sequel to The Berlin Stories, the novel is narrated by a hedonistic writer who proves himself to be a man of extremes. He relentlessly pursues physical pleasures, but interrupts his binges of debauchery to engage in meditation and take up disciplines such as learning a foreign language. He meets a famous male prostitute and the two men decide to take up a spiritual life dedicated to self-denial and meditation.
Two years later, in 1964, Isherwood published his other masterpiece, A Single Man. Told in a stream-of-consciousness narrative, the novel takes place during one day in the life of George Falconer, a middle-aged gay Englishman and professor living in Los Angeles, as he struggles to cope with the sudden death of his partner Jim in a car accident.
The novel's frank and honest treatment of homosexuality and gay relationships proved to be a shocker in 1964, but it was Isherwood's dazzling prose that made the novel a masterpiece. Isherwood's fellow British writer Anthony Burgess declared it "a testimony to Isherwood's undiminished brilliance as a novelist." An acclaimed feature film adaptation of A Single Man was released in December of 2009, starring Colin Firth as George Falconer.
For the rest of his life, Christopher Isherwood lived with his partner Don Bachardy in Santa Monica, California. He died of prostate cancer in 1986 at the age of 81, after which, Bachardy's portraits (he had become a successful draughtsman and painter) of his dying partner became famous.
Quote Of The Day "The Nazis hated culture itself, because it is essentially international and therefore subversive of nationalism. What they called Nazi culture was a local, perverted, nationalistic cult, by which a few major artists and many minor ones were honored for their Germanness, not their talent." - Christopher Isherwood
Vanguard Video Today's video features the original theatrical trailer for the recent feature film adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's classic novel, A Single Man! Enjoy!
Internet Writing Workshop members continue to find publishing success in all venues. Congratulations to this week's crew!
Jody
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Jerry Dube
My first article for MarketingSherpa, "Email Relevance: 8 tactics for leveraging timing, segmentation and content" was the site’s most popular article last week. Marketing Sherpa measures popularity by retweets and sharing on social media. I'm not sure how much longer it will continue to be available to the general public.
It's a few tips any author can use with marketing, both pre- and post publication.
To get to the posting the site require you to indicate you are an adult. Not because of my piece, but because of other content there.
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Jassy Mackenzie
Some great news -- Random Violence has been nominated for a Shamus Award in the 2011 Best First Novel category. These awards are presented annually by the Mystery Writers of America, and we are one of five nominations in this category. I am super thrilled about this.
The Internet Review of Books may be scheduled for a hiatus come October, but we're still attempting to keep up with our three-reviews-a-week schedule.
We begin this week with a review I wrote about the Zenith Press book, Mission to Berlin, a story of an air raid on the Nazi capital during the waning days of WW II.
If you enjoy history, especially that of the 20th century, you'll find Zenith's catalog interesting. That press has been a long-time supporter of IRB, and we appreciate it.
Both stories are set to be published at unspecified future dates.
My story, "Fear of Not Flying," is up at Eric's Hysterics. This is an old story, revised many times, and critiqued in Fiction.
It takes a village, but my problem with Submishmash has been solved and I can now announce that "A Normal Life," will be published in the November print edition of Insolent Aadrvark. The editor says a section of it may also go online.
"A Night on Harvey's Couch," written originally with Practice, has been accepted for the Oct. 2 issue of Daily Love.
"A Change of Heart" is scheduled for the September 10 edition of Fiction365.
This Day In Writing History
On August 25th, 1949, the famous English writer Martin Amis was born. He was born in Oxford, England, the son of famous writer Sir Kingsley Amis. As a boy, Martin Amis attended 14 different schools, as his father gave lectures at colleges and universities all over the United Kingdom and the United States, taking the family with him.
Martin Amis was twelve years old when his parents divorced. He only read comic books until his stepmother, novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard, introduced him to the novels of Jane Austen, whom he credited as his earliest influence.
As a teenager, Martin became a hippie and hung out at bars with the mod crowd. He later graduated from Exeter College, Oxford, with a Congratulatory First in English, which he described as "the sort where you are called in for a viva and the examiners tell you how much they enjoyed reading your papers."
In 1973, Martin Amis' first novel, The Rachel Papers, was published. The semi-autobiographical comic novel told the story of Charles Highway, a bright, bookish, 19-year-old wannabe intellectual making the transition from adolescence to manhood.
Nasty yet moral, calculating yet able to love, Charles falls for the lovely Rachel, executes a carefully planned seduction of her, then abandons her even though she may be pregnant with his child. The absurdly conceited Charles doesn't realize how much he has in common with his father, whom he detests.
The Rachel Papers, which was adapted as a feature film in 1989, won Martin Amis the Somerset Maugham Award - the same award his father had won for his 1954 novel, Lucky Jim. Unfortunately, Sir Kingsley Amis showed no interest in his son's work and often derided it.
Martin's next novel, Dead Babies (1975), a black comedy, has been described as a cross between the works of P.G. Wodehouse and the Marquis de Sade. It's set in a bleak future where excess has become the norm, as the characters engage in orgies of sex and drugs. Dead Babies was adapted as a feature film in 2000, released in the United States under the title Mood Swingers.
Some of Martin Amis' best known and most respected novels were written in the 1980s and 90s, including Money (1984), London Fields (1989), Time's Arrow (1991), and The Information (1995).
In Time's Arrow, which was nominated for a Booker Prize, the novel is the autobiography of its main character, an ex-Nazi doctor accused of torturing Jews during the Holocaust. Amis employs an unusual narrative technique: time runs backward during the entire novel, to the point that the characters even speak backward.
In addition to his novels, Martin Amis also wrote short story collections and non-fiction. Some of his most memorable non-fiction books include The Moronic Inferno And Other Visits To America (1986) - a collection of satirical essays about all things American, from fashion to the religious right, and Koba The Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million (2002), about the horrors of Stalinism. His most recent non-fiction book, The Second Plane: September 11: Terror and Boredom (2008) offers scathing attacks on both Islamic fundamentalism and the Bush administration's response to it.
Martin Amis' latest novel, The Pregnant Widow, was published in February, 2010. His upcoming novel, The State of England: Lionel Asbo, Lotto Lout, will be released later this year. He teaches creative writing at the University of Manchester. He lives with his second wife, writer Isabel Fonseca, and their two young daughters. In 2008, he became a grandfather when his daughter Delilah gave birth to a son.
Quote Of The Day "When success happens to an English writer, he acquires a new typewriter. When success happens to an American writer, he acquires a new life." - Martin Amis
Vanguard Video Today's video features an interview with Martin Amis, who discusses his recent novel, The Pregnant Widow. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History
On August 24th, 1847, the legendary English writer Charlotte Bronte submitted the manuscript for her classic novel Jane Eyre to Smith, Elder, and Co. - the publisher who would finally accept it. The novel had been rejected by five previous publishers.
Jane Eyre would become an instant hit - a huge critical and commercial success during its time - and later be rightfully recognized as one of the all-time greatest works of English literature. But why was it rejected so many times before finally being published?
In Victorian England, female writers were looked down on. In fact, Charlotte Bronte had been advised by famous poets (and staunch conservatives) William Wordsworth and Robert Southey that writing was no profession for a woman.
Undaunted, Bronte submitted Jane Eyre under the pseudonym Currer Bell, as it was common for female writers to use male sounding pseudonyms. The publishers who rejected Jane Eyre knew that it had been written by a woman, but that didn't bother them. What they found infuriating were the feminist themes in the novel.
Narrated by its title character, the story follows Jane from the age of ten through womanhood. As a young orphan girl, following her kind uncle's death, Jane escapes from her cruel aunt and cousins when she is enrolled at Lockwood School. Unfortunately, the school is run by Mr. Brocklehurst, a hypocritical Christian clergyman who is both self-righteous and dishonest.
Life at Lockwood is grim for Jane and the other students. When a typhus epidemic exposes Brocklehurst's neglect and dishonesty, new people are brought in to share his duties as inspector and treasurer. (Brocklehurst is not removed due to his family's wealth and position.) As a result, the conditions at Lockwood School improve considerably.
The novel then jumps ahead eight years, and we find Jane Eyre, having taught at Lockwood for a couple of years, taking a better job as governess to Adele, the spoiled little daughter of Edward Rochester, owner of Thornfield Manor. Though Jane is twenty years younger, Rochester finds himself taken with her. Happy at first with her new job, Jane is soon troubled by mysterious occurrences, including strange laughter echoing through the hallways, a fire, and an attack on a guest.
When Jane, who had been keeping her feelings a secret for months, finally proclaims her love for Rochester, he proposes to her. Later, after a month of courtship, Jane finds herself stalked by a strange and savage-looking woman. Rochester blames a drunken servant for the strange happenings, but at their wedding, Jane learns the truth. A man named Mason and a lawyer interrupt the ceremony and reveal that Edward Rochester is already married.
Rochester's wife, Bertha, is a violently insane madwoman whom he keeps confined in the attic. Rochester hadn't known that madness ran rampant in Bertha's family when he married her. The wedding is canceled and Jane is heartbroken. Rochester asks her to move with him to the South of France where they will live as husband and wife, but she cannot bring herself to live with him in sin. So she leaves him, fleeing Thornfield Manor in the middle of the night.
When her money runs out, Jane reluctantly turns to begging. One night, freezing and starving, she goes to a house to beg for help. The clergyman who lives there, St. John Eyre Rivers, turns out to be a cousin of Jane's. Rivers is a fanatical Calvinist clergyman. While he is charitable, honest, and forgiving, he's also proud, cold, and controlling.
When Rivers asks her to marry him and go with him to India, where he plans to do missionary work, Jane refuses. She knows that they really don't love each other. Rivers continues to pressure her and she finally agrees to marry him, but then she thinks she hears the voice of Edward Rochester calling her name. The next morning, she decides to go to Thornfield Manor to check on Rochester before she leaves with Rivers for India.
On her way to Thornfield, Jane learns from an innkeeper that Rochester's mad wife Bertha set the whole manor on fire, then committed suicide. Rochester saved the lives of all his servants, but lost a hand and was blinded in the process. When Jane is reunited with him, he fears that she won't want a blind cripple and she fears that he won't want to marry again. But after they reveal their feelings to each other, Rochester proposes and Jane accepts without hesitation. After Jane gives birth to their first child, Rochester eventually regains sight in one eye and is able to see his son.
Charlotte Bronte's intelligent, determined heroine left a bad taste in the mouths of prospective publishers. The fact that most of the male characters are depicted as self-righteous, dishonest, cold, and controlling yet weak at heart, didn't help, either. Even Jane's true love Edward Rochester is weak until he commits his act of heroism near the end of the novel.
After Jane Eyre was published under the pseudonym Currer Bell, early reviews of the novel were scathing, with some critics blasting the author for daring "to trample upon customs established by our forefathers, and long destined to shed glory upon our domestic circles." Still, the novel became an overnight sensation.
In her preface to the second edition of Jane Eyre, (which the author dedicated to legendary English novelist and satirist William Makepeace Thackeray, who wept openly while reading it) Charlotte Bronte reminds "the timorous or carping few" of "certain simple truths":
Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns...
The world may not like to see these ideas dissevered, for it has been accustomed to blend them; finding it inconvenient to make external show pass for sterling worth - to let white-washed walls vouch for clean shrines. It may hate him who dares to scrutinize and expose - to raise the gilding, and show base metal under it - to penetrate the sepulcher, and reveal charnel relics: but hate as it will, it is indebted to him.
Quote Of The Day
"I'm just going to write because I cannot help it." - Charlotte Bronte
Vanguard Video
Today's video features a clip from the famous 1944 feature film adaptation of Jane Eyre, starring Joan Fontaine as Jane and Orson Welles as Edward Rochester. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History
On August 23rd, 1305, the legendary Scottish knight Sir William Wallace was executed by order of England's King Edward I. This important historical event would inspire the writing of two classic poems and the making of an acclaimed feature film.
The story of Sir William Wallace's execution actually begins nearly twenty years earlier in 1286, with the death of Scotland's monarch, King Alexander III. For years, he had ruled over a peaceful and prosperous Scotland. Then, in 1286, Alexander was killed when his horse threw him off. His successor to the throne was his little granddaughter Margaret, Maid of Norway. Sadly, the young girl died on her voyage home, leaving Scotland without a ruler.
The Scottish lords set up an interim government of "Guardians" to rule until a new king could be crowned. This new government was sharply divided; some of the guardians wanted independence from England, while others remained loyal to the British crown. The conflict threatened to plunge Scotland into civil war. England's King Edward I intervened to prevent that, acting as an arbiter to settle disputes between the feuding Guardians.
As the search for a new King of Scotland continued, King Edward demanded that all contenders to the throne recognize him as Lord Paramount of Scotland. This left a bad taste in many Scots' mouths. In 1292, a great feudal court in Berwick-upon-Tweed chose John Balliol to be the new King of Scotland, as he was a descendant of former King David I.
Meanwhile, King Edward continued to antagonize the Guardians of Scotland by continually reversing the rulings of their court. The new King John Balliol was then summoned to appear at the English court as a common plaintiff, which most Scots considered the height of disrespect. Balliol, a weakling known by his people as Toom Tabard, (Empty Coat) pledged his loyalty to King Edward, sparking off a revolution. King Edward had his armies storm Berwick-upon-Tweed. They sacked the town.
In July of 1296, three months after the Scots were defeated in the Battle of Dunbar, temporarily squelching the flames of revolution, King John Balliol was forced to abdicate, even though he had pledged loyalty to the British crown. Nearly a year later, Sir William Wallace, a Scottish nobleman, assassinated William De Heselrig, England's brutal High Sheriff of Lanark. Legend has it that De Heselrig sought to arrest Wallace at his home, but finding only Wallace's wife there, he arrested her and put her to death.
After killing De Heselrig, Sir William Wallace teamed up with fellow Scottish noble William the Hardy, Lord of Douglas, and led many armed insurrections against British soldiers on Scottish soil. In September of 1297, along with fellow revolutionary Andrew Moray, Wallace led their army to victory in the Battle of Stirling Bridge, where they routed a much larger British force. After the battle, Wallace and Moray were made Guardians of Scotland. Two months later, Wallace led a successful large scale raid on Northern England. For this, he was knighted.
On April 1st, 1298, a horde of English soldiers invaded Edinburgh, looting and pillaging the land as they searched for William Wallace and his men. Wallace found them and attacked, and the Battle of Falkirk was on. Unfortunately for Wallace, this battle proved to be an embarrassing, catastrophic defeat that cost the Scots a lot of men. Wallace escaped from the battlefield, but his reputation as a military leader would be irreparably tarnished. By September, he resigned as Guardian of Scotland.
William Wallace continued to do his part for Scottish independence, mostly in a non-military capacity. He visited France's King Philip IV to ask for assistance in fighting the British. For several years, Wallace avoided capture by the English, but then in August of 1305, he was caught by John De Menteith, a Scottish knight loyal to the British crown. He turned Wallace over to a regiment of English soldiers near Glasgow. Wallace was transported to London and tried for treason at Westminster Hall.
Sir William Wallace, defiant to the last, defended his actions by saying, "I could not be a traitor to [King] Edward, for I was never his subject." Nevertheless, he was convicted of treason and sentenced to death. It was a gruesome execution; after his conviction, he was taken away, stripped naked, dragged through London by a horse, and hanged to the point of near death. Then, still alive, he was castrated, disemboweled, and beheaded. Finally, his body was quartered - ripped apart into four pieces. In a final act of humiliation, his severed head was dipped in tar and mounted on a pike atop London Bridge.
Wallace's horrific fate and his earlier heroics made him one of Scotland's great folk heroes. The story of his life would inspire two classic poems written by two legendary Scottish poets. In 1477, the poet Blind Harry, aka Henry the Minstrel, wrote The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace, (The Acts and Deeds of the Illustrious and Valiant Champion Sir William Wallace) a nine volume epic poem about the Scottish hero. In these lines, Blind Harry tells of Wallace's assassination of William De Heselrig in retribution for the alleged murder of his wife:
"And thought'st thou, traitor," fierce the hero cried,
"When by thy murd'ring steel she cruel died;
When thy fell hand her precious blood did spill,
Wallace though absent, would be absent still?"
Furious he spoke, and rising on the foe,
Full on his head discharg'd the pond'rous blow;
Down sinks the felon headlong to the ground,
The guilty soul flew trembling through the wound...
In 1793, Robert Burns, considered Scotland's greatest poet, wrote Scots Wha Hae, (Scots, Who Have) his classic patriotic ode to his country's heroes:
Scots, wha hae wi Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed
Or to victorie!
Now's the day , and now's the hour:
See the front o battle lour, [look menacingly],
See approach proud Edward's power --
Chains and slaverie!
Wha will be a traitor knave?
Wha can fill a coward's grave?
Wha sae base as be a slave? --
Let him turn, and flee!
Wha for Scotland's King and Law
Freedom's sword will strongly draw,
Freeman stand, or Freeman fa',
Let him follow me!
By Oppression's woes and pains,
By your sons in servile chains,
We will drain our dearest veins,
But they shall be free!
Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow! --
Let us do or die!
Burns originally published the poem anonymously, as publicly advocating for Scottish independence was an imprisonable offense at the time.
In 1995, the highly acclaimed feature film Braveheart was released, starring Mel Gibson (who also directed) as William Wallace. The screenplay was based on Blind Harry's classic epic poem, The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace. The movie won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director (Gibson).
Quote Of The Day
“Suspicion is a heavy armor and with its weight it impedes more than it protects.” - Robert Burns
Vanguard Video
Today's video features the original theatrical trailer for Braveheart, the classic 1995 feature film about Sir William Wallace. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History
On August 19th, 1902, the famous American poet Ogden Nash was born in Rye, New York. His father owned an import-export company; due to the nature of the business, the Nash family moved frequently when Ogden was a boy.
After he graduated St. George's School in Middletown, Rhode Island, Ogden Nash entered Harvard University. He dropped out a year later and returned to St. George's School to teach. A year after that, he quit teaching and worked a series of menial jobs, including writing advertisement cards for streetcars at an agency that once employed writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Eventually, Nash landed a job as an editor for the Doubleday publishing house and began to write poetry. He would say in a 1958 interview that he always had a fondness for rhyme: "I think in terms of rhyme, and have since I was six years old."
In 1931, Ogden Nash published his first book of poetry, Hard Lines. It became a huge success and earned Nash national recognition, establishing his talent for humorous verse with playful rhyming and anti-establishment themes. That same year, he married his wife, Frances Leonard. Three years later, in 1934, the couple moved to Frances' hometown, Baltimore, Maryland, where Ogden Nash would live for the rest of his life.
When Nash wasn't writing poems, he made guest appearances on radio shows and toured the U.S. and England, where he gave lectures at colleges and universities. He was respected by the literary establishment and his poems were published frequently in anthologies, even serious ones such as Selden Rodman's A New Anthology of Modern Poetry (1946).
As a poet, Nash was known for his pun-like rhymes and for deliberately misspelling words for comic effect, as in this riff on Dorothy Parker's famous lines "Men seldom make passes / At girls who wear glasses":
A girl who is bespectacled
She may not get her nectacled
But safety pins and bassinets
Await the girl who fassinets.
In one of Nash's most famous rhymes, he parodied Joyce Kilmer's famous lines "I think that I shall never see / A poem as lovely as a tree":
I think that I shall never see A billboard lovely as a tree. Perhaps, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all.
My favorite Nash lines are these classics from his poem Reflections On Ice-Breaking:
Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker.
Nash also wrote a series of poems dedicated to his favorite football team, the Baltimore Colts, now known as the Indianapolis Colts.
In 1943, Ogden Nash collaborated on writing the Broadway musical One Touch Of Venus. Nash wrote all the song lyrics himself and co-wrote the libretto with S.J. Perelman. The music was composed by the great Kurt Weill. The musical is a loose spoof of the Pygmalion myth that satirizes modern (1940s) suburban America and its values, artistic fads, and social and sexual mores.
The original Broadway production opened on October 7th, 1943, at the Imperial Theatre and closed on February 10th, 1945, after 567 performances. Directed by Elia Kazan, it featured Mary Martin, Kenny Baker, and Paula Laurence. Marlene Dietrich was originally cast in the title role of Venus, but backed out during rehearsals, calling the musical "too sexy and profane." Mary Martin took over the role and used it to establish herself as a Broadway star.
In addition to his poetry collections, Odgen Nash also wrote children's books. His daughter Isabel was married to the celebrated photographer Fred Eberstadt. Nash's granddaughter, Fernanda Eberstadt, became an acclaimed writer - a child prodigy who wrote her first novel at the age of eleven.
Ogden Nash died of Crohn's Disease in 1971 at the age of 68. On August 19th, 2002, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp featuring Ogden Nash and six of his poems to commemorate the centennial of his birthday. It was the first stamp in the history of the Postal Service to contain the word sex.
Quote Of The Day "People who have what they want are very fond of telling people who haven't what they want that they really don't want it, and I wish I could afford to gather all such people into a gloomy castle on the Danube and hire half a dozen capable Draculas to haunt it." - Ogden Nash
Vanguard Video Today's video features a reading of Ogden Nash's poem The Sunset Years of Samuel Shy. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History
On August 18th, 1958, Lolita, the classic and controversial novel by Vladimir Nabokov, was published for the first time in the U.S. Nabokov's brilliant and daring tragicomedy told the tale of Humbert Humbert, an intelligent, cultured, middle-aged European man who becomes obsessed with sexually precocious 12-year-old American girl Dolores "Lolita" Haze, leading him down a path of degradation, depravity, despair, paranoia, and ultimately, murder.
Nabokov had completed the novel in 1953, but he was unable to find an American publisher. One publisher told Nabokov that he should burn all copies of the manuscript. Another suggested that the story wouldn't be so objectionable if Lolita were a boy. Nabokov tried to get Lolita published in Europe, but one British publisher was so shocked by the novel that he tore up his copy of the manuscript.
Finally, in 1955, Nabokov found a publisher - Olympia Press, based in Paris. Olympia was known as a publisher of both controversial, challenging works of literature (such as William Burroughs' Naked Lunch and Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer) and pornographic novels. Olympia's first 5,000 copy press run of Lolita sold out across Europe. There were no real reviews of the book, but in late 1955, in an interview with the London Times, British writer Graham Greene called Lolita one of the best novels of the year.
Greene's comments provoked the editor of the conservative London Sunday Express to publicly condemn Lolita, calling it "the filthiest book I have ever read" and "sheer unrestrained pornography." The newspaper further stoked the flames of outrage, and Britain's Home Office panicked, ordering Customs officers to seize all copies of Lolita that came into the U.K. France followed suit; the French Minister of the Interior instituted a ban on the novel that would last for two years.
In 1958, United States officials were nervous about Lolita, but the novel was published without incident by G.P. Putnam's Sons. It became a bestseller - the first book since Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind to sell 100,000 copies in the first three weeks of publication. Today, it's considered to be one of the greatest novels written in the 20th century. It was named the fourth greatest English language novel of the 20th century by Modern Library. Vladimir Nabokov originally wrote it in English and later translated it into Russian.
Written in a dazzling, lyrical prose style, Lolita is a novel-within-a-novel. It begins with a lengthy forward explaining that the book you're about to read was written by Humbert Humbert while in his jail cell awaiting trial for murder. (Humbert died of coronary thrombosis upon completing the manuscript.) Humbert begins his autobiographical account by relating the tale of his 1920s childhood romance with an angelic girl named Annabel Leigh, which was tragically cut short when she died of typhus. Their love for each other and his loss of her would affect Humbert for the rest of his life.
Later, just before the outbreak of World War 2, Humbert leaves Paris for New York after his first real relationship with a woman goes sour. After the war, he moves to New England to begin a writing career. He rents a room from grotesque widow Charlotte Haze after meeting and becoming smitten with her precocious 12-year-old daughter, Dolores, known by her nickname, Lolita. The tragically deluded Humbert sees in her his beloved Annabel Leigh, despite the fact that the corrupt, nasty Lolita is really the polar opposite of Annabel.
Humbert will do anything to be near Lolita. He even marries her mother, Charlotte, though he can't stand her. The marriage ends in dramatic fashion when Charlotte reads Humbert's secret diary, freaks out, flees the house in shock, and is struck and killed by a car. Later, when Humbert tries to have his way with Lolita, she ends up seducing him and reveals that she lost her virginity to a boy she met at summer camp.
Humbert and Lolita drive across the country in Charlotte's car, going from state to state and motel to motel, where the older man bribes the young girl for sexual favors. Humbert is frustrated by the fact that Lolita doesn't return his affection or share his interests, and blind to the fact that she's a manipulative sociopath who is exploiting him even more than he's exploiting her. Lolita falls ill and is hospitalized. After her recovery, while Humbert is away, Lolita checks out with a man claiming to be her uncle, who pays her hospital bill. Humbert begins a frantic (and funny) search for her, trying to make sense of humorous clues left behind by Lolita and her "uncle."
After giving up the search, Humbert has a chaotic, two-year affair with Rita, an alcoholic 30-year-old woman who reminds him of Lolita. Years later, Humbert receives a letter from Lolita, who is now married, pregnant, and in need of money. Armed with a loaded gun, he tracks her down, intending to kill her husband. Lolita reveals that her husband is not the man she ran off with. That man was Clare Quilty, a demented playwright, pervert, and amateur pornographer whose play, The Hunted Enchanters, she acted in while a member of her school's drama club. He seduced her, and she became his lover for a time.
Humbert gives Lolita the money she asked for, along with her rightful inheritance from her mother's estate. Then he leaves to track down Clare Quilty and take his revenge.
Lolita was adapted an acclaimed feature film in 1962, directed by the legendary Stanley Kubrick and starring James Mason as Humbert Humbert, Shelley Winters as Charlotte Haze, Peter Sellers as Clare Quilty, and 14-year-old newcomer Sue Lyon as Lolita. The screenplay was written by Vladimir Nabokov himself. Although the novel had to be sanitized as per Production Code requirements, the movie remains a naughty delight that wonderfully captures both the comedy and tragedy of Nabokov's novel.
In 1997, director Adrian Lyne remade Lolita. Despite the sincere performance of Jeremy Irons as Humbert Humbert, the movie is a plodding, depressing, boring mess, with dreadful performances by 17-year-old Dominique Swain as Lolita and a horribly miscast Melanie Griffith as Charlotte Haze. Frank Langella, also horribly miscast, plays Clare Quilty as a bestial psychopath instead of the delightfully perverse playwright portrayed with comic malice by the great Peter Sellers in the 1962 original.
Vladimir Nabokov would later name Lolita as his favorite novel. It still remains a classic work of literature.
Quote Of The Day "Lolita is famous, not I. I am an obscure, doubly obscure, novelist with an unpronounceable name." - Vladimir Nabokov
Vanguard Video Today's video is a two-part presentation featuring Vladimir Nabokov discussing his classic novel Lolita on Canadian TV in the 1950s. Enjoy!
Poiret first became famous in 1951, when he starred in the radio series Malheir aux Barbus, created by Pierre Dac and Francis Blanche. A year later, while working in a stage show at the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre, Poiret met legendary French actor Michel Serrault. They co-starred in a sketch called Jerry Scott, Vedette International. They would later co-star in a production of Poiret's legendary play.
That same year, Jean Poiret wrote the play that made him world famous - a comedy called La Cages Aux Folles. (The Birdcage) In the stage production, Poiret played the lead role of Renato Baldi, a middle-aged gay man who manages the Saint-Tropez nightclub where his partner, Albin Mougeotte, (Michel Serrault) performs in drag as Zaza Napoli. Renato has a son, Laurent, from an early heterosexual relationship. He and Albin raised him.
When Laurent returns from college, he announces his wedding plans and brings his fiance's arch conservative, homophobic parents home to meet his father. He didn't tell them that Dad was gay, and now he fears that they won't let him marry their daughter when they find out. So, Renato and Albin redecorate their garishly adorned apartment and try to pass themselves off as husband and wife, with Albin in drag as Laurent's mother!
La Cage Aux Folles became a huge hit. In 1978, a feature film adaptation was made. In the role of Renato, Jean Poiret was replaced by Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi, but Michel Serrault resumed his co-lead role as Albin. For its U.S. release, the movie was retitled Birds Of A Feather and dubbed into English by the original cast - a rarity for foreign films released in the U.S. The highly acclaimed feature film was followed by two mediocre sequels, La Cage Aux Folles II (1980), and La Cage Aux Folles 3: The Wedding (1985).
The original La Cage Aux Folles would later be adapted as a Tony Award winning Broadway musical and remade as a film in 1996 - The Birdcage - which starred Robin Williams and Nathan Lane in the lead roles.
In his amazing career, Jean Poiret acted in dozens of movies over a 40-year period. In 1992, he directed his first film - Le Zèbre (The Zebra). It was an adaptation of a novel by Alexandre Jardin that starred Poiret's wife, Caroline Cellier. Unfortunately, three months before the film's premiere, Poiret died of a heart attack. He was 65 years old.
Quote Of The Day “To achieve harmony in bad taste is the height of elegance.” - Jean Genet
Vanguard Video
Today's video features a clip from a 2008 London performance of the La Cage Aux Folles musical. Enjoy!
Internet Writing Workshop members are having a scorching summer with a number of publishing successes in all venues. Congratulations to our latest crew!
Who knows how long it will last, but based on critiques received, the opening chapters of "Teya's Kiss" broke into the top ten chart on youwriteon.com. I hope to make it to the top five by the end of the month, which means a professional review and admittance to the site's bestseller chart, a feat "The Stasi File" accomplished in 2009.
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Jan Bridgeford-Smith
As far as I can tell, two of my short stories, "Train Ride 2001" and "Stewed" are available for download through the Apple App Store thanks to acceptance through Ether Books.
Received word yesterday that a piece I wrote on a "lost and found" Lincoln speech will run in the November/December issue of American History Magazine.
Got an email that another article on the Junior Republic Movement, a radical approach to juvenile reform during the Progressive Era, will run in the winter issue of History Magazine.
Both of the editors I worked with have been delightful.
My short story, "Garden Bounty," will be included in the online magazine 6Tales, December 2011 edition. I first subbed a version of the piece on the Practice List--as always, the feedback I got from the group was invaluable. Thanks!
"Off With His Head" was accepted by One Buck Horror. It's a paying market.
This story was critiqued here. Thank you everyone for critiquing it.
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Mira Desai
My article, "What Can India and America Accomplish Together?" has been published with the US Dept. of State.
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Sue Ellis
A reprint of the essay I wrote about my years as a rural mail carrier is up at Mona Vanek's Local Voices blogspot. It originally appeared at Christian Science Monitor.
If you haven't fully explored Mona's site make sure to visit Behind These Mountains, Mona's out of print historical work. Luckily for us, it lives on at her blog. I was able to find the book at the local library last year and really enjoyed the eye-witness accounts of the massive forest fire that raged through Montana years ago. The vintage photos she had gathered were a treat in themselves. Firefighters from all over the Northwest lost their lives battling the blaze. I understand Mona is currently working to download the photos to her blog, so check in from time to time to keep pace with her progress.
And finally, my book review of You Believers by Jane Bradley is up at Internet Review of Books. The book grabbed me at hello and I couldn't put it down. It's about criminal abduction and its aftermath.
Last week an online contest in the Clarity of Night blog awarded my entry (250 words) an honorable mention. It was apparently also a high scorer in the Readers' Choice voting. Contest Results
I'm proud as can be about this, because the other entries (all 101 of them) were fantastic. I hope you take the time to visit the site and take a look at the entries; most were great, and some absolutely fantastic.
Thank you, Mira, for pointing me in this direction!
My essay, "Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Me," appears on the Fringe Magazine blog. It was disqualified from a regular issue because I've already been published in Fringe this year.
My full column is available from last week's Creative Loafing. It's about the differences and similarities between North and South Tampa. Don't these divisions exist in every town? Anyway, hope you enjoy it!
Here's my column from yesterday's Tampa Tribune about how our forties are as good as it gets.
Came home from a long weekend away and found four (!) writing-related checks in the mail. The amounts are modest, but they made my day.
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Wayne Scheer
My story, "Where Are You Now, Charming Billy?" is up at Dew on the Kudzu. Scroll down to July 22.
My short story, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," will be published in the January or July 2012 edition of Still Crazy. Still Crazy is a print magazine about people over fifty designed to appeal to boomers.
"Starting Over" is up at Fiction365. This short story was critiqued at Fiction a long while ago.
"The Transition" has been accepted at Eunoia Review for their March 2012 issue. I guess I'll have to wait patiently. This flash originally began in Practice.
The Northwest Herald sent out a reporter and photographer to interview me for my novel, On Guard For Thee.
This was my first interview for the book.
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Pat St. Pierre
Fiction365 accepted my flash fiction, "Lovers Forever." The editor is wonderful to work with.
The Front Porch Review accepted a photo of mine, "Autumn in New Hampshire," for their October issue.
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Mona Leeson Vanek
MontanaHistory.net linked the books I put online this year -- my three-volume Montana regional history series. Site-owner Bruce Gourley said, "Behind These Mountains is truly a wonderful resource to have available online!"
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Joanna M. Weston
I have a blog (at last) thanks to a dear friend who helped me set it up. I'm cheering about it! And yes, there's poetry there.
I have a haiku in Mu, Issue 2. On the left-hand side, scroll down to page 2.
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Michael Wright
My story "City Canyons" is today's selection at Fiction365.
There are a couple of typos you'll have to read past (doggie should be dogie, e.g.) and lots of missing punctuation. But hey.
This Day In Writing History
On August 16th, 1920, the legendary American writer Charles Bukowski was born. He was born in Andernach, Germany. His parents, an American serviceman and a German woman, married a month before he was born. His birth name was Heinrich Karl Bukowski. In 1923, before his third birthday, the economic collapse in Germany compelled the family to emigrate to America. They settled in Los Angeles, where his mother changed his name to Henry Charles Bukowski.
As a young boy, Charles Bukowski grew up with an abusive father who would beat him savagely for the smallest offense. Due to the Great Depression, the elder Bukowski was frequently unemployed, a source of great shame that fueled his psychotic rage. Charles' mother, who was not only beaten by her husband but cheated on as well, did nothing to stop her husband's abuse of their son - or herself.
When he was a young teenager, Charles' shy and introverted nature grew worse, thanks to a case of severe acne that left his face covered with boils. Around this time, his two greatest passions were awakened - his passion for literature and his passion for alcohol. He preferred to spend time alone, reading avidly. He also began writing short stories. His best friend, William "Baldy" Mullinax, introduced him to booze. Of his first experience with intoxication, he wrote, "This [alcohol] is going to help me for a long time."
After high school, Bukowski enrolled in Los Angeles City College, where he studied art, journalism and literature. He dropped out two years later, deciding to move to New York City and become a writer. In July of 1944, the nearly 24-year-old Bukowski, who had been living in Philadelphia, found himself arrested by FBI agents on suspicion of draft evasion. He was held for over two weeks in Moyamensing Prison, then released and taken to be enlisted in the military. He failed the psychological exam, was classified 4F, (unfit for military service) and let go.
That same year, Bukowski's first published short story, Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip, appeared in Story magazine. Soon, more of his stories appeared in other literary magazines. Unfortunately, he racked up far more rejection slips than sales. Discouraged, he quit writing for nearly a decade. He would refer to this period of time as his "ten year drunk." He drifted from place to place, doing odd jobs and staying at cheap rooming houses. He drank and brawled from bar to bar.
In the early 1950s, Bukowski took a job as a letter carrier for the Postal Service, which would last almost three years. By 1955, he found himself hospitalized, suffering from a severe, nearly fatal bleeding ulcer. After he was released, while he recovered at home, he decided to give writing another try. He began writing poetry, and within his verse, he found the muse. He continued to write poetry prolifically, and would author over 1,000 poems throughout his career.
As he made his rounds drinking from bar to bar, Bukowski would read his poetry to his fellow patrons, dazzling both barflies and bartenders who couldn't believe that a disheveled, boisterous drunk could write such incredible verse. He became the poet laureate of the lower class, "the Bard of Booze and Broads" who found sublimity on skid row. Soon, his poems began appearing in literary magazines. This time, his rejection slips were few and far between.
By 1960, Bukowski's first poetry collection, Flower, Fist, and Bestial Wail, was published. At the time, he had taken another position with the Postal Service, working as a letter filing clerk. The job would last for nine years. In 1962, he found out that Jane Cooney Baker, (a widowed alcoholic eleven years his senior) the first woman he ever loved - perhaps the greatest love of his life - had died. So, he immortalized her in a series of poems and short stories. He met poet Frances Smith, who became his live-in girlfriend. In 1964, they had a daughter, Marina.
Three years later, in 1967, Charles Bukowski began writing a column for Open City, an underground newspaper based in Los Angeles. Titled Notes of a Dirty Old Man, the column was so popular that it got picked up by the Los Angeles Free Press and the NOLA Express (an underground newspaper based on New Orleans) after Open City folded in 1969. That year, publisher John Martin of the Black Sparrow Press, now known as Black Sparrow Books, impressed with his poetry collections, offered to provide the financial support for Bukowski to write full time, in exchange for which, he would become the author's exclusive publisher.
A lifelong supporter of the independent small press, Bukowski accepted the offer and quit his job at the Postal Service. He began work on his first novel, which would be published two years later. Post Office (1971), an autobiographical novel based on his later years, was the first to feature his alter ego, alcoholic writer Henry Chinaski. Although Bukowski's publisher, John Martin, worried that he wouldn't be able to make the transition from poetry to prose, the novel proved to be a breakout work that made its author's name as a writer.
Bukowski would write more memorable novels, including Factotum (1975), which found Henry Chinaski drifting through the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, circa 1944. His most famous novel, Ham on Rye (1982), told the story of Henry Chinaski's unhappy childhood and adolescence as he grows up to become a misanthropic antihero. Some scholars believe the title is a play on The Catcher in the Rye, the title of J.D. Salinger's classic novel. Others believe that Ham on Rye refers to some literary critics' negative appraisal of Bukowski, whom they derided as the literary equivalent of a ham actor. Thus, Ham On Rye refers to a ham writer fueled by rye whiskey.
Bukowski earned extra money by performing live readings of his poetry and prose. His first was a poetry reading performed in 1962 on radio station KPFK in Los Angeles. When he performed at coffee houses and clubs, he always engaged in banter with his audience, which could be quite combative at times, as he usually performed in various states of intoxication.
In 1970, Bukowski gave a reading at Bellevue Community College in Washington State, which was taped by two students using the college's primitive black and white video cameras. Eighteen years later, the recording, thought long lost, was found. It would be released on video as Bukowski at Bellevue in 1995, and later on DVD. The poor quality, stark black and white video perfectly captured the writer in all his gritty glory.
A 1979 reading given by Bukowski in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, would be released on DVD in 2010 as There's Gonna be a God Damn Riot in Here! Bukowski's last public reading was given in 1980 at the Sweetwater, a punk rock club in Redondo Beach, California. It would be released on audio CD as Hostage and on DVD as The Last Straw.
In 1987, Charles Bukowski wrote the screenplay for a feature film based on his Henry Chinaski novels. Directed by the great French filmmaker Barbet Schroeder, Barfly starred Mickey Rourke as writer and skid row alcoholic Henry Chinaski, who spends his days writing poetry and prose and his nights drinking and brawling at the local bar. He loathes the bartender, Eddie (Frank Stallone), especially after he finds out that Eddie slept with his girlfriend, Wanda (Faye Dunaway).
When Henry's writings begin appearing in literary magazines, they catch the eye of publisher Tully Sorenson (Alice Krige) who seeks Henry out, hoping to become his exclusive publisher. She pays him $500 and takes him to her home, where they have an affair. He rejoices in his literary success, but ultimately grows disenchanted with Tully's high society lifestyle.
Henry returns to his sleazy neighborhood, his blue collar bar, his bar buddies, and his ex-girlfriend, Wanda. Tully won't give him up without a fight, and actually gets into a fight with Wanda. The film ends with Tully recognizing that Henry needs to be who he really is and wishing him luck. In the last scene, Henry, who has earned Eddie's respect, fights the bartender in the parking lot one last time, to win Wanda from him once and for all.
Bukowski would base his 1989 novel Hollywood on his experiences making the movie Barfly. In addition to the film he wrote, Bukowski would be the subject of several acclaimed documentaries, including The Charles Bukowski Tapes (1983), directed by Barbet Schroeder, and Bukowski: Born Into This (2003), directed by John Dullaghan.
Charles Bukowski died of leukemia in 1994 at the age of 73. He left behind an impressive body of work that included over 30 poetry collections, six novels, nearly a dozen short story collections including his classic Tales of Ordinary Madness (1983), and several works of non-fiction.
Quote Of The Day
"My beerdrunk soul is sadder than all the dead Christmas trees of the world." - Charles Bukowski
Vanguard Video
Today's video features Charles Bukowski's complete Bukowski at Bellevue reading. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History
On August 12th, 1774, the famous British poet, novelist, playwright, essayist, and biographer Robert Southey was born in Bristol, England. Southey was educated first at Westminster School, where he was expelled for publishing a magazine article where he condemned the practice of flogging students. He later attended Balliol College, Oxford. Later, Southey would poke fun at the lax standards of the college, quipping that "All I learnt was a little swimming... and a little boating."
Southey became friends with writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge and they began a writing partnership. Their best known collaborative effort was a three-act play called The Fall Of Robespierre. In 1794, Southey published his first solo work, a collection of poems. He remained friends with Coleridge, and they and a few others discussed going to America and setting up a utopic commune. They later decided to set up the commune in Wales. Southey became the first member of the group to reject the whole idea as unworkable.
In November 1795, Southey married his girlfriend Edith Fricker - the sister of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's wife, Sara. She and her children would later move in with Southey after Coleridge abandoned them.
Southey continued to write. In 1808, writing under the pseudonym Don Manuel Alvarez Espirella, Southey published Letters From England, a non-fiction account of a tour of the country - England as seen through the eyes of (allegedly) a foreigner. It has been said that the book features the most accurate descriptions of early 19th century English life ever written.
Beginning in 1809, Southey became a regular contributor to the Quarterly Review literary magazine. By 1813, he had become so well known as a poet that he was appointed Poet Laureate of England after Sir Walter Scott declined the honor.
Although Southey had been a political radical most of his life, (he was an ardent supporter of the French Revolution) by the time he had become Poet Laureate, his political views had changed to that of a staunch conservative. The Tory Establishment embraced him and gave him a small stipend.
Southey used his position as Poet Laureate to voice support of the repressive Liverpool government and argue against Parliamentary reform. He even sided with the government following the notorious Peterloo Massacre of August 16th, 1819.
What happened was this: approximately 60,000 people gathered at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, for a demonstration to demand Parliamentary reform. The demonstration featured a speech by radical orator Henry Hunt. The local magistrates called in the military to arrest Hunt and disperse the crowd. The military's idea of crowd dispersal was to have the cavalry charge into the crowd with sabers drawn. As a result, 15 people were killed and another 400 to 700 injured. The event was nicknamed the Peterloo Massacre in reference to the Battle of Waterloo.
Robert Southey's political views resulted in him falling out of favor with his fellow writers. He had gone from political radical to establishment tool who demanded the prosecution of his former fellow travelers. He was seen as a sellout. In 1817, he was brought to task for hypocrisy when, after arguing against the publication of radical literature, Wat Tyler, a radical play Southey had written himself when he was young, was brought out to embarrass him.
One of Southey's most scathing critics, William Hazlitt, wrote that Southey "wooed Liberty as a youthful lover, but it was perhaps more as a mistress than a bride; and he has since wedded with an elderly and not very reputable lady, called Legitimacy." Southey's fellow poets mocked him and denounced his works as sycophantic odes to the King.
Lord Byron's legendary epic poem Don Juan opens with a scathingly funny, deliberately long-winded dedication to Robert Southey, whom Byron loathed and suspected of spreading rumors about the relationship between himself, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley's wife Mary, and her stepsister, Claire Clairmont, accusing them all of being involved in a "League of Incest" while they lived together on Lake Geneva in 1816. Southey denied spreading the rumors.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Robert Southey's conservative politics alienated him from his contemporaries. Today, most of his work remains obscure for the same reason, but he did make some important contributions to literature. In addition to his poetry, he wrote biographies of John Wesley, Oliver Cromwell, Horatio Nelson, and other figures. He introduced new words to the English language, including the term autobiography.
A prolific writer, Southey's works also included children's stories and poems. He wrote The Story of the Three Bears - the classic fairy tale about Goldilocks and the Three Bears - which first appeared in his 1834 novel, The Doctor. He also wrote the nursery rhyme What Are Little Boys Made Of? and to this day, British schoolchildren still read his poems in class.
Robert Southey served as Poet Laureate for thirty years until his death in 1843 at the age of 68. He was buried in the churchyard of Crosthwaite Church, Keswick, to which he belonged for forty years. Inside the church is a memorial to Southey written by his friend William Worsdworth, who succeeded him as Poet Laureate.
Quote Of The Day "Write poetry for its own sake; not in the spirit of emulation, and not with a view to celebrity; the less you aim at that the more likely you will be to deserve and finally obtain it." - Robert Southey
Vanguard Video Today's video features a reading of Robert Southey's poem The Battle Of Blenheim, performed by Sir Derek Jacobi. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History
On August 11th, 1921, the legendary African-American novelist and journalist Alex Haley was born in Ithaca, New York. He was the oldest of four children. His father was a professor of agriculture who taught at Cornell University - a position he had to overcome formidable obstacles of racism to obtain.
When he was fifteen, Alex Haley enrolled at Alcorn State University, a college for black students in Mississippi. Two years later, he dropped out and returned home. His father, concerned by his lack of discipline and progress in life, encouraged him to join the military when he turned eighteen. So, in 1939, a few months before his 18th birthday, Alex joined the Coast Guard. It would prove to be a 20-year enlistment.
After the Pearl Harbor attack in December of 1941 brought the U.S. into the second world war, Alex Haley saw action in the Pacific. Actually, for sailors during the war, life consisted of sporadic bursts of action amidst long periods of downtime. Haley once quipped that the greatest enemy he and his shipmates battled was boredom, not the Japanese.
To alleviate his boredom, Haley taught himself to write short fiction. His writing skills caught the attention of his fellow sailors, who often paid him to write love letters to their girlfriends back home. After the war ended, Haley petitioned the Coast Guard to transfer him to its journalism division. By the time he retired from active duty in 1959, he had become both a Chief Petty Officer and the first Chief Journalist in the Coast Guard - a position created exclusively for him.
After returning to civilian life, Alex Haley began his writing career, first as a journalist. In that capacity, he conducted the very first interview for Playboy magazine, which appeared in the September 1962 issue. His subject was jazz legend Miles Davis. Throughout the 1960s, Haley conducted some of Playboy's most memorable interviews; among his subjects were Martin Luther King, Jr., Melvin Belli, (Jack Ruby's defense attorney) Jim Brown, Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Carson, and Muhammad Ali.
Haley's two most famous interviews were of controversial, radical figures on both sides of the civil rights issue: black militant civil rights activist Malcolm X and George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party. When Rockwell spoke to Haley on the phone, he refused the interview until Haley assured him that he wasn't Jewish. When the two men met in person, Rockwell was shocked to find that Haley was black. Nevertheless, he agreed to do the interview. While Haley remained calm and professional during the interview, a nervous Rockwell kept a gun on the table within reach.
In February of 1965, six months after he'd been interviewed by Alex Haley, Malcolm X was assassinated. The two men had first met in 1960, when Haley had written an article on the Nation of Islam for Reader's Digest. Over a period of nearly two years, Haley had conducted some 50 interviews with Malcolm X. Some of the material was published as a memoir in the July 1965 issue of Playboy. Later that year, Haley reworked all of the material and published it in book form as The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
Alex Haley continued his career as a journalist and became a senior editor for Reader's Digest. Later, he began work on his first novel - a 700+ page historical epic based on the lives of his own ancestors. Published in 1976, Roots: The Saga of an American Family became a classic work of literature. The novel opens in 1767, with a young African man named Kunta Kinte being kidnapped from his home in Gambia by slave traders. Kinte is brought to America and sold to a plantation owner, Master Lord Calvert, who renames him Toby. The novel provides a heartbreaking and gut wrenching expose of the horrors of slavery and shows how it shaped the lives of generations of African-Americans - and continues to do so.
Roots won Alex Haley a Pulitzer Prize. It would be adapted as a highly acclaimed TV miniseries in 1977 that would prove controversial, as it was the first network TV program to show uncensored nudity and graphic violence. The network censors allowed these elements because they were included in the name of historical accuracy - not for exploitation or titillation. The novel would cause controversy as well.
In 1978, novelist and folklorist Harold Courlander sued Alex Haley for plagiarism. He claimed that a 100-word segment that appeared three times in Roots had been lifted verbatim from his novel, The African (1967). As the case went to trial, Haley denied plagiarizing Courlander's novel, but he soon settled out-of-court with Courlander for $650,000 and issued an apology, stating that the plagiarism was not intentional. He claimed that someone had given him the text without crediting it as an excerpt from Courlander's novel. The plagiarism case would be used as ammunition by conservative critics who had claimed that the novel was historically inaccurate.
Undeterred by controversy, Haley later began work on his second novel, Queen: The Story of an American Family. Queen was based on the life of Haley's grandmother - the illegitimate daughter of a plantation owner and one of his slaves. The novel chronicled the plight of such children, who, rejected by their fathers who refused to recognize them, were doomed to lives of slavery and suffering. Before he could finish his novel, Alex Haley died of a heart attack in 1992 at the age of 70. His novel was completed by writer David Stevens, based on Haley's 700-page outline and boxes of research notes. It was published in 1993.
That same year, the novel would be adapted as a TV minseries called Alex Haley's Queen, featuring Halle Berry in the title role.
Quote Of The Day
"I look at my books the way parents look at their children. The fact that one becomes more successful than the others doesn't make me love the less successful ones any less." - Alex Haley
Vanguard Video
Today's video features a 1983 interview with Alex Haley. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History
On August 10th, 1637, an Englishman named Edward King drowned at sea. His tragic death would inspire his college friend, the legendary English poet and polemicist John Milton, to compose a poem of elegy in his memory. The poem, Lycidas, published three months after King's death, would prove to be one of the earliest and most famous poems in the elegiac tradition.
Some three centuries later, Milton's poem would inspire a legendary American novelist. It gave him the title of his first novel and influenced his writing. The novelist was Thomas Wolfe, and the title of his first (and classic) novel, Look Homeward, Angel, comes from the following passage in Milton's Lycidas:
. . . Ay me! Whilst thee the shores, and sounding Seas
Wash far away, where ere thy bones are hurld,
Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides,
Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide
Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world;
Or whether thou to our moist vows deny'd,
Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old,
Where the great vision of the guarded Mount
Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold;
Look homeward Angel now, and melt with ruth.
The angel in Lycidas was St. Michael. The angel in Thomas Wolfe's novel was based on a statue his father had bought for his tombstone shop:
No one knew how fond he was of the angel. Publicly he called it his White Elephant. He cursed it and said he had been a fool to order it. For six years it had stood on the porch, weathering, in all the wind and the rain. It was now brown and fly-specked. But it came from Carrara in Italy, and it held a stone lily delicately in one hand. The other hand was lifted in benediction, it was poised clumsily upon the ball of one phthisic foot, and its stupid white face wore the look of some soft stone idiocy.
The real angel statue was placed on the grave of a minister's wife in Asheville - Wolfe's North Carolina hometown. In the novel, the angel statue is bought by the town madam and placed on the grave of a young prostitute. Many people in Asheville were appalled and infuriated by Look Homeward, Angel, and not just because the novel's content was a shocker for readers in 1929 - the year it was published. Wolfe's characters were thinly veiled portraits of his friends, neighbors, and other townspeople. A review of the novel in a local newspaper declared that "Wolfe's First Is Novel of Revolt: Former Asheville Writer Turns in Fury upon North Carolina and the South."
Wolfe's sister Mabel recalled how the people of Asheville reacted: "They were denouncing him from the roofs and the corners and the housetops." In a letter to Mabel, Wolfe complained that "Apparently you can rob banks, be a crooked lawyer, swill corn whiskey, commit adultery with your neighbor's wife -- and be considered a fine, lovable, misunderstood fellow; but if you try to make something true and beautiful you are 'viciously insane' and your 'big overgrown body' ought to be dragged through the streets by a lynching mob."
Finishing the letter, Thomas Wolfe summed up his fate this way: "Now I feel as if I have been exiled.... It is like death.... If then, I am dead to people who once knew me and cared for me, there is nothing more to say or do -- I must go on into a new world and a new life, with love and sorrow for what I have lost."
Quote Of The Day
"This is the artist then; life's hungry man, the glutton of eternity, beauty's miser, glory's slave." - Thomas Wolfe
Vanguard Video
Today's video features a complete reading of John Milton's classic poem, Lycidas. Enjoy!
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