Notes For May 15th, 2026

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This Day In Literary History

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On May 15th, 1890, the famous American writer Katherine Anne Porter was born. She was born Callie Russell Porter in Indian Creek, Texas. The fourth of five children, she was a descendant of the legendary frontiersman Daniel Boone. The famous writer O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) was her father's second cousin.

When Callie was two years old, her mother died of complications following the birth of her last child. Callie's father sent his children to live with his mother, and the children, especially Callie, adored their grandmother.

Seven years later, Callie's grandmother died suddenly. She and her siblings lived with various relatives or in rented rooms paid for by their father. At the age of 16, Callie ran off to marry her boyfriend John Henry Koontz, the son of a wealthy rancher.

In order to marry Koontz, Callie, a Methodist, had to convert to Catholicism, which she did. Her devout Catholic husband turned out to be an abusive drunk who once threw her down the stairs, breaking her ankle.

After suffering for nine years in a rotten marriage, Callie divorced her husband - a shocking thing for a woman to do in 1915. As part of her divorce decree, Callie had the court legally change her name to Katherine Anne Porter, which was the name of her beloved grandmother.

From there, Katherine fled Texas for Chicago, where she tried her hand at acting and singing, but that was cut short when she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She spent two years in a TB sanitarium before it was discovered that she'd been misdiagnosed; she actually had bronchitis.

During her stay at the sanitarium, Katherine decided to become a writer. She began her writing career as a newspaper drama critic and gossip columnist. Then, during the 1918 flu pandemic, she contracted the virus and nearly died from it.

She was left in a frail state; her hair turned white and would remain white for the rest of her life. After regaining her health, Katherine moved to New York City's Greenwich Village, where she made her living as a ghostwriter and movie company publicist. She also wrote children's stories.

By 1920, she met some Mexican revolutionary leaders, including legendary painter Diego Rivera, and traveled to Mexico to cover the leftist revolution. She would split her time between Mexico and New York City, where she continued to write short stories and would become a master of the form.

One of her best known stories was The Jilting of Granny Weatherall. In it, the sick, elderly Granny lies on her deathbed. Her daughter Cornelia has been serving as her caregiver, but Granny considers herself a much better housekeeper than Cornelia.

The delirious Granny is still obsessed with George, the man who jilted her at the altar when they were a young couple. She later married her late husband John, and it was a happy marriage, but Granny never got over George and still loves him.

Meanwhile, she's visited by her priest, Father Connolly, whom she chides for being more interested in drinking tea and gossiping than in the welfare of her soul. She's also visited by her son, Jimmy.

What she really wants is to see her daughter Hapsy, who never comes to visit. It's suggested, but not directly implied, that Hapsy died at birth. Granny has a vision of Hapsy visiting her and holding a baby, but it's really another daughter, Lydia, who has come to visit.

Realizing that she's dying, Granny doesn't want to go yet and worries what will happen if she can't find Hapsy. She looks for a sign from God. No sign comes, and Granny, believing that she's been jilted again, dies in despair.

Katherine married her second husband, Ernest Stock, in 1926. The marriage would only last a year, ending when the philandering Stock gave her venereal disease. During both her marriages, she had tried to conceive children, only to suffer miscarriages and at least one stillbirth.

After divorcing Stock, she had a hysterectomy. During the 1930s, Katherine spent several years in Europe, continued writing short stories, and endured two more disastrous marriages. She continued to receive acclaim for her short story collections.

In the 1940s and 50s, she taught at several universities, including Stanford, the University of Michigan, and the University of Texas. Her very unconventional method of teaching endeared her to her students.

As a short story writer, Katherine Anne Porter loved to delve into the dark side of human nature. Though she was best known for her short stories, she also wrote four novellas (she hated the term novella) and one full length novel, which would become a classic.

Ship of Fools, published on April 1st, 1962, (April Fool's Day) took Porter over twenty years to write. She was never really satisfied with it, calling it "unwieldy" and "enormous."

The novel received mixed reviews at the time of its publication, but has since been recognized for its brilliance and prescient insight into the human condition. It was an existentialist character study rather than a standard plot driven story.

It's the summer of 1931, and a cruise ship has left Mexico, bound for Germany. The ship contains a variety of passengers. Many are German expatriates, but there is also a drunken lawyer, an American divorcee, a Spanish noblewoman, two Mexican Catholic priests, and others.

In following these characters, Porter explores the nature of nationalism, racism, xenophobia, and human frailty in general as she examines the attitudes that would enable Hitler to come to power, maintain dictatorial control, and plunge Europe into a devastating war. The story is full of passion, duplicity, and treachery.

Ship of Fools became the best selling novel of 1962 and a Book of the Month Club selection. The movie rights were snapped up immediately for $500,000 - the equivalent of about five million dollars in today's money. It provided Katherine with financial security for the rest of her life.

The feature film adaptation of Ship of Fools premiered in July, 1965. It was directed by Stanley Kramer, best known for classic films such as The Defiant Ones (1958), On The Beach (1959), and Judgement At Nuremberg (1961).

Featuring a screenplay by Abby Mann, Ship of Fools starred Vivien Leigh in her last film role. The film won an Oscar for Best Cinematography and was nominated for several other Academy Awards. It is rightfully considered one of the most acclaimed films of the 1960s.

In 1965, The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter was published. It would win the author a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Twelve years later, in 1977, Porter, then 87 years old, published her last book, The Never-Ending Wrong.

The Never-Ending Wrong was a work of nonfiction - an account of the infamous trial and execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, which Porter had protested against when it took place fifty years earlier.

Sacco and Vanzetti were two Italian immigrant anarchists who had been tried, convicted, and executed for robbery and murder in Massachusetts. Their politically charged trial, controversial to this day, was tainted by racism and malicious prosecution, including coerced false testimony.

Katherine Anne Porter died in 1980 at the age of 90.

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Quote Of The Day

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“A story is like something you wind out of yourself. Like a spider, it is a web you weave, and you love your story like a child.”

- Katherine Anne Porter

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features Katherine Anne Porter being interviewed by James Day on the 1970s PBS TV show, Day At Night. Enjoy!

Notes For May 14th, 2026

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This Day In Literary History

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On May 14th, 1962, A Clockwork Orange, the classic novel by the famous English writer Anthony Burgess, was published in London. The title comes from the British slang expression, "queer as a clockwork orange."

An antifascist parable set in a dystopic England of the future, it examined a major problem facing Britain at the time of its publication - skyrocketing juvenile delinquency and the government's inability to deal with it effectively.

The novel was also inspired by the vicious gang rape of the author's pregnant wife by four American soldiers while he was away serving in the British Army during World War II. She lost the baby and, to add insult to injury, the Army denied the author leave to see her.

The novel is narrated by its main character, Alex, who refers to himself as "Alexander the Large." A highly intelligent but psychopathic teenager, he leads the Droogs, a violent street gang comprised of his friends Pete, Georgie, and Dim. Alex introduces everyone and sets the scene in this unforgettable opening paragraph:

There was me, that is Alex, and my three Droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry. The Korova Milkbar was a milk-plus mesto, and you may, O my brothers, have forgotten what these mestos were like, things changing so skorry these days and everybody very quick to forget, newspapers not being read much, neither. Well, what they sold there was milk plus something else. They had no licence for selling liquor, but there was no law yet against prodding some of the new veshches which they used to put into the old moloko, so you could peet it with vellocet or synthmesc or drencrom or one or two other veshches which would give you a nice quiet horrorshow fifteen minutes admiring Bog and All His Holy Angels And Saints in your left shoe with lights bursting all over your mozg. Or you could peet milk with knives in it, as we used to say, this would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of dirty twenty-to-one, and that was what we were peeting this evening I'm starting off the story with.

The dazzling poetic prose is written in Nadsat, a language invented by Anthony Burgess for this novel. It's a dialect that combines standard English with British, Slavic, and Russian slang expressions and made-up words. Alex speaks this language as he tells his horrific story.

The novel opens with Alex and his gang at a milk bar, where they drink drugged milk to get themselves high and ready for committing random acts of violence. First, they gleefully beat an old, homeless drunkard. One night, while joyriding in a stolen car, the gang breaks into an isolated cottage.

They terrorize the occupants, beating the husband and raping his wife. When he's not out with his gang, Alex passes the time in his dreary home, escaping his poor excuse for parents by blasting the works of his favorite composer, "Ludwig Van," (Beethoven) and masturbating to violent sexual fantasies.

When Georgie challenges Alex for leadership of the gang, he puts down the rebellion by beating Georgie in a fight and slashing open Dim's hand. Then he takes them out for drinks at the milk bar.

Georgie and Dim have had enough, but Alex demands that the gang follow through with Georgie's plan for a "man-sized job" and rob a rich old woman who lives alone. The robbery is botched when the victim calls the police - but not before she is assaulted and knocked out.

The gang then turns on Alex, attacking him and leaving him to take the fall when the police arrive. The old woman later dies from her injuries and Alex is accused of murder.

After spending a couple of years in prison, Alex becomes an involuntary participant in an experimental rehabilitation procedure called the Ludovico Technique, which is supposed to remove all violent and criminal impulses from the human psyche.

The prison chaplain is opposed to the Ludovico Technique. He argues that conscious, willing moral choice is a necessary component of humanity. Nevertheless, Alex is forced to undergo the procedure.

For two weeks, his eyes are wired open and he is forced to watch violent images on a screen while being given a drug that induces extreme nausea. It's basically a horrific form of aversion therapy.

When Alex recognizes the soundtrack to the violent film presentation as Beethoven's fifth symphony, he begs the doctors to turn off the sound, telling them that's a sin to take away his love of music, and Beethoven never did anything wrong. They refuse.

After the procedure is completed, Alex is brought before an audience of prison and government officials and declared successfully rehabilitated. To demonstrate this, they show how Alex is unable to react with violence even in self defense, and becomes crippled by extreme nausea when sexually aroused.

The outraged prison chaplain again protests the Ludovico Technique, accusing the state of taking away Alex's God-given ability to choose good over evil. "Padre," a government official replies, "There are subtleties. The point is that it works."

Alex is released from prison, but his life plunges into a downward spiral. He finds that the Ludovico Technique has rendered him physically unable to listen to his Beethoven and unable to defend himself from attack. He is promptly beaten up by a former victim.

The police arrive, and they're Alex's former gang member Dim and former rival gang leader Billyboy. They beat him savagely and leave him for dead. Later, he's befriended by a political activist who turns out to be the man whose wife Alex had raped during the home invasion.

When the activist finally recognizes Alex as the gang leader, he tortures him with the classical music he once loved. His life destroyed by the therapy that was supposed to make him a model citizen, a desperate Alex attempts suicide, but survives.

A huge scandal erupts and the embarrassed government officials agree to reverse the Ludovico Technique in order to quell the bad publicity. Afterward, they offer Alex a cushy job at a high salary, but he looks forward to returning to his violent ways.

He forms a new gang, but after watching them beat a stranger, Alex finds that he has tired of violence. He contemplates giving up gang life, becoming a productive citizen, and doing what he secretly always wanted to do - start a family of his own. He wonders if his children would inherit the violent tendencies he once had.

In the U.S. first edition of the novel, the last chapter was cut. The publisher wanted the story to end on a dark note, with Alex looking forward to resuming his violent ways. He believed that the original UK edition ending, with Alex deciding on his own to reform, was unrealistic.

Anthony Burgess resisted the idea at first, but gave in because he needed the money. He would always regret allowing the final chapter of A Clockwork Orange to be cut from the U.S. edition. In America, the novel would not be published in its original version until 1986.

When legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick adapted it as an acclaimed feature film in 1971, he based his screenplay on the U.S. first edition of the novel, ending the film on a dark note, with Alex smirking wickedly and saying, "They cured me all right!"

A huge success at the box office and widely praised by critics, A Clockwork Orange was one of the few X-rated films to be nominated for Academy Awards. The movie did have its detractors, due to its relentlessly dark tone and violence.

Passed uncut for release in the UK, the film sparked outrage when several violent juvenile offenders claimed that their crimes were inspired by it. After he and his family received death threats and their London home was picketed, Stanley Kubrick withdrew the film from circulation in the UK, where it would remain out of print until after Kubrick's death in 1999.

I've read both versions of the novel, and I prefer the U.S. first edition because its grim ending really brings home the main theme of the novel - that fascism is an evil far greater than the societal ills it promises to cure.

The cut final chapter makes for interesting reading, but it does seem unlikely that all the damage done by the horrific Ludovico Technique could be reversed, which leaves the reader wondering if Alex's ultimate rejection of violence was really the product of his own free will.

Today, both editions of A Clockwork Orange are available in the U.S., and it remains a classic work of literature.

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Quote Of The Day

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"It seems priggish or pollyannaish to deny that my intention in writing the work was to titillate the nastier propensities of my readers. My own healthy inheritance of original sin comes out in the book and I enjoyed raping and ripping by proxy. It is the novelist’s innate cowardice that makes him depute to imaginary personalities the sins that he is too cautious to commit for himself."

- Anthony Burgess on A Clockwork Orange

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a rare, 60-minute spoken word album of Anthony Burgess reading from his classic novel, A Clockwork Orange. Enjoy!

Notes For May 13th, 2026

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This Day In Literary History

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On May 13th, 1907, the famous English writer Daphne du Maurier was born in London, England. Her father, Sir Gerald du Maurier, and her mother, Muriel Beaumont, were both prominent actors. Her grandfather was the famous writer and cartoonist, George du Maurier.

The Llewelyn-Davies boys, befriended by writer J.M. Barrie and used as the inspiration for the Lost Boys in Barrie's classic play, Peter Pan (1904) were her cousins.

Daphne du Maurier's first novel, The Loving Spirit, was published in 1931, but it would be her fourth novel, Jamaica Inn (1936) that made her name as a writer. Set in Cornwall in 1820, the novel told the story of Mary Yellan, a young woman forced to live with her Aunt Patience after her mother dies.

Her aunt's husband Joss is the keeper of the Jamaica Inn. When Mary arrives, she finds her aunt under the thumb of her vicious, domineering husband. Mary senses that something is definitely wrong at the gloomy, ominous Jamaica Inn, which has no guests and is never open.

Mary soon falls in love with Joss' younger brother Jem, who, although a thief, is not evil like Joss. As she tries to solve the mystery of the Jamaica Inn, Mary discovers that her uncle Joss is the leader of a murderous criminal gang.

She turns to the town vicar for help. After her aunt and uncle both turn up murdered, Mary finds a shocking clue that reveals the killer's true identity, placing her life in danger. Jamaica Inn would be adapted as a feature film by legendary English director Alfred Hitchcock in 1939.

The screenplay took great liberties with the novel, and du Maurier hated the film. Alfred Hitchcock would adapt more of her writings as feature films, including her next novel, which is considered her masterpiece.

Part suspense thriller, part Gothic romance, Rebecca (1938) is narrated by an unnamed woman who tells the story of her marriage to Maxim de Winter, a wealthy Englishman. She met him while working as a companion to a rich American woman on vacation in the French Riviera.

They fall in love, and after a courtship of two weeks, the narrator accepts de Winter's marriage proposal. After their wedding, they return to live at de Winter's beautiful West Country estate, Manderley.

The narrator soon realizes that her husband is haunted by the death of his first wife, Rebecca. Their sinister, controlling housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, was deeply devoted to Rebecca, and is determined to undermine her employer's new marriage by any means necessary.

She even manipulates the narrator into wearing a replica of one of Rebecca's dresses. After her attempt at manipulating the narrator into committing suicide fails, the narrator's husband makes a shocking confession.

Rebecca was an evil woman who tortured Maxim with her affairs and illegitimate pregnancy. Finally, Maxim could stand no more. He killed Rebecca and disposed of her body on her boat, then sunk the vessel.

After Rebecca's boat is raised, an inquest is held and Maxim is cleared of suspicion due to lack of evidence. Unfortunately, Rebecca's cousin (and lover) Jack tries to blackmail Maxim with evidence of his guilt...

Rebecca was adapted several times, first as a feature film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940. The film, which starred Sir Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The novel was also adapted as a play by its author. The play opened in London in 1940 and ran for over 350 performances.

In addition to her novels, Daphne du Maurier was famous for her short story collections. Her second short story collection, The Apple Tree (1952) contained six stories, including one of her most famous - The Birds.

Told from the viewpoint of Nat Hocken (a farm worker in coastal Cornwall) and his family, the story chronicles the inexplicable attacks on humans by birds in the area. The Birds would be adapted by Alfred Hitchcock as a classic horror film in 1963, starring Tippi Hedren.

In the title story, The Apple Tree, a widower believes that the old apple tree in his garden is possessed by the spirit of his neglected wife. du Maurier's 1971 short story collection Not After Midnight, features her second most famous story, Don't Look Now.

In it, married couple John and Laura Baxter are vacationing in Venice, trying to recover from the sudden and devastating death of their five-year-old daughter, Christine, which has strained their marriage.

In a restaurant, Laura meets two odd looking women - elderly identical twin sisters who have psychic knowledge of Christine. Meanwhile, John encounters a little girl who bears a striking resemblance to his dead daughter. Don't Look Now would be adapted as an acclaimed horror film in 1973 by the famous English director Nicolas Roeg.

du Maurier also wrote several works of nonfiction, including memoirs both of herself and her family members. She married Sir Frederick "Boy" Browning, a Lieutenant General in the British Army, and bore him a son and two daughters.

Biographers have noted that as a wife and mother, she was sometimes warm and loving, and sometimes cold and distant. Writer Margaret Forster, who worked with the approval and assistance of the du Maurier family, revealed in her biography that Daphne had a few affairs with women.

She vigorously denied being bisexual. Personal letters released after the author's death revealed, according to Forster, that Daphne was terrified that she might be a lesbian. She had been raised to hate homosexuals with a passion by her father, a virulent homophobic bigot.

Daphne du Maurier died in April 1989 at the age of 81.

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Quote Of The Day

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"When one is writing a novel in the first person, one must be that person."

- Daphne du Maurier

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a complete reading of Daphne du Maurier's classic short story, The Birds. Enjoy!

Notes For May 12th, 2026

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This Day In Literary History

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On May 12th, 1883, Life on the Mississippi, the classic memoir by the legendary American writer Mark Twain, (the pseudonym of Samuel Clemens) was published simultaneously in Boston and London.

In this great book, Twain combines autobiography with history. He begins with the discovery of the Mississippi River by Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in 1542. Twain's personal history with the river began in childhood.

As a young man, while traveling by steamboat down the Mississippi to New Orleans, he befriended the pilot, Horace E. Bixby, who inspired him to become a steamboat pilot himself.

At the time, steamboat piloting was a very prominent and respected position. It paid handsomely - around $3000 per year, which is equivalent to about $72,000 in today's money. That's because the job required lots of training.

As he chronicles his own personal history with that of the river, Twain tells of his training and career as a steamboat pilot before the Civil War, discussing the science of navigating the Mississippi River.

To become a steamboat pilot in those days was a daunting task - you had to learn everything about the piloting and mechanics of a steamboat and also memorize the geography of the entire river, from St. Louis to New Orleans, which changed course frequently.

Later in his life, Twain and some of his friends traveled the same path by steamboat, and the author discusses how the river boating industry had changed since he was a pilot, including the competition it faces from the railroad.

Interspersed through the straightforward documentary are numerous anecdotes and commentaries, as Twain offers his perspective on the people who live on the Mississippi and their culture - everything from the architecture of homes to local customs and folklore.

The narrative is classic Mark Twain, often tongue-in-cheek and filled with self-deprecating humor. A good example of the narrative can be found in the following passage:

In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oölitic Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upwards of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing rod. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have joined their streets together, and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.

Life on the Mississippi is a fascinating read that paints a colorful, detailed portrait of life in the 19th century American South. To write the book, Twain used a then newfangled instrument called a typewriter. Life on the Mississippi is believed to be the first book submitted to a publisher in the form of a typewritten manuscript.

In 1980, Life on the Mississippi was adapted as a movie for American public television. Starring David Knell as Samuel Clemens, the film weaves folklore from the book into a fictional narrative of the author's life.

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Quote Of The Day

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"Words are only painted fire; a book is the fire itself."

- Mark Twain

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a complete reading of Mark Twain's classic book, Life on the Mississippi. Enjoy!

Notes For May 8th, 2026

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This Day In Literary History

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On May 8th, 1956, Look Back in Anger, the classic first play by the famous English playwright John Osborne, opened in London at the Royal Court Theatre. It introduced a character whose volatile nature would define a generation in England.

Look Back in Anger opens in a grim and seedy one-bedroom flat in the Midlands where Jimmy Porter, his wife Alison, and their friend Cliff Lewis live. Though college educated, Jimmy is of the lower class, his only means of support the candy counter that Cliff helps him run.

Jimmy's wife Alison comes from an upper-middle class family - more upper than middle class. Jimmy loathes them. When he's not reading the newspaper, he's ranting and raving about Alison's family and friends.

What really drives Jimmy's rage is Alison and Cliff's taciturn acceptance of their lot in life and the world around them. The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West is at its apex.

British citizens are conditioned through right wing propaganda to be thankful for their so-called freedom, but Jimmy is anything but thankful for his lot in life. An intelligent university graduate, he sells candy for a living because that's best work he can get.

England's so called welfare program is a failure, thanks to the conservative government which serves the interests of the rich. Unable to provide a better life for himself and his wife, Jimmy's rage has reached the boiling point.

Struggling to find meaning in a meaningless existence, at one point he says:

I've an idea. Why don't we have a little game? Let's pretend that we're human beings and that we're actually alive. Just for a while. What do you say?

When Alison becomes pregnant with their first child, she's terrified to tell Jimmy, who, not knowing she was pregnant, said to her:

If only something — something would happen to you, and wake you out of your beauty sleep! If you could have a child, and it would die. Let it grow, let a recognizable human face emerge from that little mass of India rubber and wrinkles. Please — if only I could watch you face that. I wonder if you might even become a recognizable human being yourself. But I doubt it.

Meanwhile, Jimmy flies into a rage when Alison announces that her snobbish best friend Helena is coming to visit. Helena, shocked by the squalid surroundings, calls Alison's father, a retired colonel, and urges him to take Alison away from the flat. Which he does - while Jimmy is visiting a friend's mother.

The Colonel is also distressed by his daughter's living conditions. She tells him "You're hurt because everything's changed, and Jimmy's hurt because everything's stayed the same." Although he's out of touch with the modern world, the Colonel becomes a sympathetic character - he feels sorry for Jimmy.

After Alison is taken away, Helena moves in with Jimmy and Cliff. She and Jimmy still despise each other and come to physical blows, but they ultimately become friends, and when the curtain falls on the second act, they end up kissing passionately and falling on the bed.

In the third act, Jimmy and Helena have another fight, and she decides to leave. Cliff also decides to get his own flat, so Jimmy plans a final night out for the three of them. That night, Alison shows up out of the blue. Jimmy dismisses her coldly at first, but then she tells him about her pregnancy - and that she lost their baby.

Ashamed of her affair with Jimmy, Helena reconciles with Alison. As the final curtain falls, Jimmy and Alison reconcile with each other, taking up an old game they used to play together.

Look Back in Anger received fiercely mixed reviews after its premiere in London. Some critics were shocked and appalled by the searing play's anti establishment themes and nihilism, while others praised it as the breakthrough work it was. Critic Kenneth Tynan wrote the following in his rave review:

All the qualities are there, qualities one had despaired of ever seeing on the stage - the drift towards anarchy, the instinctive leftishness, the automatic rejection of 'official' attitudes, the surrealist sense of humour (Jimmy describes a [gay male] friend as 'a female Emily Bronte'), the casual promiscuity, the sense of lacking a crusade worth fighting for and, underlying all these, the determination that no one who does shall go unmourned...

...I agree that Look Back in Anger is likely to remain a minority taste. What matters, however, is the size of the minority. I estimate it as roughly 6,733,000, which is the number of people in this country between the ages of 20 and 30. And this figure will doubtless be swelled by refugees from other age-groups who are curious to know precisely what the contemporary young pup is thinking and feeling. I doubt if I could love anyone who did not wish to see Look Back in Anger. It is the best young play of its decade.

The hugely influential play defined an entire genre of anti establishment plays, novels, and films in 1950s and 60s England - the "angry young man" genre, named after the volatile character of Jimmy Porter. Look Back in Anger would be adapted in 1959 as an acclaimed feature film.

Directed by Tony Richardson and starring Richard Burton and Claire Bloom, the screenplay was written by John Osborne and Nigel Kneale. The film would earn four BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Award) nominations.

John Osborne would write more classic plays, including The Entertainer (1957), Epitaph for George Dillon (1958), and Luther (1961). He died in 1994 at the age of 65.

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Quote Of The Day

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"I never deliberately set out to shock, but when people don't walk out of my plays I think there is something wrong."

- John Osborne

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a rare, complete BBC radio play adaptation of Look Back in Anger. Enjoy!

Notes For May 7th, 2026

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This Day In Literary History

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On May 7th, 1812, the legendary English poet Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, London, England. His liberal, intellectual family had a passion for literature; his father, a clerk for the Bank of England, had amassed a collection of around 6,000 books, most of them rare.

Browning wrote his first poetry collection at the age of twelve. Unable find a publisher, he destroyed the manuscript. He attended private schools and quickly developed a fierce hatred of institutionalized education. He was then educated at home by tutors.

An outstanding student, he became fluent in French, Greek, Italian, and Latin by the age of fourteen. At sixteen, he enrolled at University College, London, but left after his first year. In 1845, Browning met the famous English poet Elizabeth Barrett.

Also a literary critic, Elizabeth was one of the very few critics who had given Browning's first poetry collection, Dramatic Lyrics (1842), a good review. A glowing review, in fact. So he wrote to thank her, and they began corresponding frequently.

Six years his senior, Elizabeth's health problems (chronic lung disease) had left her a semi-invalid. She lived in her father's house on Wimpole Street. She finally agreed to let Browning visit her in person, and it was love at first sight for both of them.

The following year, the couple secretly eloped. They fled to Italy, living first in Pisa, then in Florence. They had to elope because Elizabeth's father had forbidden all of his children from marrying under penalty of disinheritance.

Unlike his liberal, intellectual daughter, Edward Barrett, an ignorant, racist conservative, believed that he was most likely the illegitimate son of his plantation owner father and a black slave, and feared that his children, who were white, could produce black offspring.

Three years later, Elizabeth gave birth to her only child, Robert Barrett Browning Jr., known by his childhood nickname, Pen. Robert Browning Sr. loved Italy and was fascinated by its art and literature.

While living in Florence, he worked on the poems that would appear in his first major poetry collection, the two-volume Men and Women (1855). The collection would include classic poems such as Love Among the Ruins and Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.

Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came would inspire American horror master Stephen King to write his classic Dark Tower series of dark fantasy novels featuring the iconic knight errant Roland of Gilead, the Last Gunslinger.

Around this time, while Robert Browning's name was known by the cognoscenti, (he had written plays in verse and dramatic monologues) he remained an obscure poet until 1861, when he returned to England following the death of his wife.

He became part of the London literati and his reputation took off. By 1868, after five years of work, he completed and published The Ring and the Book, an epic blank verse poem comprised of twelve "books." It was based on a real crime that took place in Rome in 1698.

The story, which is narrated by various characters, tells of an impoverished nobleman, Count Guido Franceschini, who is convicted of murdering his wife and her parents. The Count supposedly committed the murders as an act of revenge for his wife's infidelity.

His wife Pompilia was having an affair with a young priest, Father Giuseppe Caponsacchi. Despite the Count's protests of innocence, he is found guilty and sentenced to death. He appeals to Pope Innocent XII to overturn the conviction, but the pontiff denies his request.

Steeped deep in philosophy, psychology, and spiritual insight, The Ring and the Book was rightfully considered a work of genius - a masterpiece of dramatic verse. Browning's best selling work during his lifetime and a huge critical and commercial success, it brought him the renown he'd sought for 40 years.

Browning spent his last years traveling extensively. He continued to write, publishing a series of long poems, then returning to collections of shorter verse. His last major work, Parleyings with Certain People of Importance In Their Day, was published in 1887.

In it, the poet speaks in his own voice as he engages in a series of dialogues with long forgotten figures from the worlds of art, literature, and philosophy. Regarded as a masterpiece today, Parleyings baffled Browning's Victorian readers.

For his last published work, Asolando, Robert Browning returned to traditional form and wrote another collection of short poems. The book was published on the day he died, December 12th, 1889. He was 77 years old.

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Quote of the Day

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"Ignorance is not innocence, but sin."

- Robert Browning

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a reading of Robert Browning's classic poem, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.

Notes For May 6th, 2026

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This Day In Literary History

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On May 6th, 1868, the legendary French writer Gaston Leroux was born. He was born in Paris, but grew up on the Normandy coast, where his grandparents owned and operated a ship building business.

As a boy, Leroux loved sailing, swimming, and fishing, but he longed to be a writer. He began by writing poetry for his own amusement and reading voraciously, studying the works of legendary writers such as Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas.

After completing his secondary education, Leroux went to Paris to study law. He became an outstanding student and seemed destined for a successful career as a lawyer, but writing was still his passion.

He was 21 and still at university when he inherited a large sum of money from his father. By the time he turned 23, he had squandered most of it away on wine, gourmet food, women, and gambling.

Gaston Leroux did earn his law degree and began his practice, but he considered the legal profession a dead end job. He began a writing career to supplement his income. First, he became a drama critic for L'Echo de Paris, which had previously published his poems.

He soon switched to reporting and covered criminal trials. His legal expertise was a valuable asset, and the quality of his work earned him positions at more prominent newspapers. He became an investigative reporter.

His exploits, such as disguising himself to sneak into jails to interview prisoners made him famous - one of the earliest celebrity journalists. His name on a magazine article guaranteed sales.

He was given an international beat, and he traveled throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia, either anonymously or in disguise, reporting on wars around the world and other important events. He played a part in exposing the scandal surrounding the anti-Semitic prosecution of Captain Alfred Dreyfuss.

Eventually, Leroux switched from journalism to writing fiction. His first novel, The Seeking of the Morning Treasures, was published in 1903, first as a serialization in Le Matin. Leroux's fictionalized tale of the life and legacy of the legendary bandit Cartouche became a huge sensation.

The critical acclaim continued. In 1907, Leroux published The Mystery of the Yellow Room, the first in a series of detective novels featuring reporter / sleuth Joseph Rouletabille. The success of the novel allowed the author to quit journalism and write full time.

Gaston Leroux didn't write detective fiction exclusively. Fascinated with the dark side of life, he explored his interest in the macabre by writing horror and dark fantasy. His most famous horror novel, an all-time classic work of literature, established him as one of the greatest novelists of his generation.

The Phantom of the Opera (1911) was inspired by Leroux's visit to the Paris Opera House and tour of its cellars. The Gothic horror novel told the story of Christine Daae, a young, aspiring opera singer whose strange music teacher, Erik, she hears but never sees.

Christine believes that Erik is the "Angel of Music" from the folktales told to her by her father, a famous violinist. Erik is really the Phantom of the Opera, the "ghost" who supposedly haunts the Paris Opera House.

The dancers are terrified, and a stagehand ends up murdered. Erik terrorizes everyone who stands in the way of his protege Christine becoming a star. Later, Christine is called upon to replace the lead singer and gives an impressive performance.

One of the concertgoers who hears her sing turns out to be her childhood sweetheart Raoul, who falls in love with her all over again. This outrages her music teacher, Erik. Born physically deformed but musically gifted, he lives in the cellar of the Paris Opera House.

Erik, who hides his disfigured face behind a mask, is also in love with Christine. He captures her and Raoul and locks them in the cellar. Mad with jealous rage, Erik gives Christine an ultimatum: either marry him or he'll blow up the Opera House with explosives, killing everyone - including her, Raoul, and himself...

The Phantom of the Opera would be adapted numerous times as a feature film. The first version, released in 1925, featured legendary silent film star Lon Chaney as Erik. The 1943 and 1962 film versions featured Claude Rains and Herbert Lom as Erik, respectively.

These film adaptations, which were also memorable, made a major change to the story - instead of being born deformed, Erik was disfigured after having acid thrown into his face. A gruesome horror film adaptation, made in 1989, starred horror legend Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund as Erik.

In 1986, Andrew Lloyd Webber adapted The Phantom of the Opera as an acclaimed and hugely successful Broadway musical. It would become one of the longest running musicals in history, surpassing Webber's Cats as the longest running Broadway show of all time.

Unfortunately, Webber's sequel, Love Never Dies (2010), a loose adaptation of Frederick Forsyth's 1999 novel The Phantom of Manhattan, was widely panned by critics and theatergoers. A huge flop on the London and Australian stages, a Broadway production was planned but canceled after all the bad press drove away the show's backers.

Gaston Leroux wrote over two dozen novels, short stories, and a play. He died in 1925 of surgical complications following a urinary tract infection. He was 58 years old.

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Quote Of The Day

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"An author really ought to have nothing but flowers in the room where he works."

- Gaston Leroux

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a complete reading of Gaston Leroux's classic novel, The Phantom of the Opera. Enjoy!