The Dead Writers Round-Up: 1st-3rd August

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  • Herman Melville was born on 8/1/1819. “A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.”
  • James Baldwin was born on 8/2/1924. “Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.”
  • Wallace Stevens died on 8/2/1955. “As life grows more terrible, its literature grows more terrible.”
  • Donald Ogden Stewart died on 8/2/1980. Stewart was a playwright-turned-screenwriter. He won an Academy Award for his adaptation of Philip Barry’s play, The Philadelphia Story.
  • William S. Burroughs died on 8/2/1997. “Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact.”
  • Ernie Pyle was born on 8/3/1900. “War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the earth.”
  • Joseph Conrad died on 8/3/1924. “An artist is a man of action, whether he creates a personality, invents an expedient, or finds the issue of a complicated situation.”
  • Colette died on 8/3/1954. “A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.”
  • Flannery O’Connor died on 8/3/1964. “I am not afraid that the book will be controversial, I am afraid it will not be controversial.”

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[All images are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and are in the public domain.]

 

10 thoughts on “The Dead Writers Round-Up: 1st-3rd August”

    • I generally really like Wallace, but run hot and cold on Flannery. I’ve been thinking lately about busting out my copy of her complete stories to see where I stand on the subject from my 2012 vantage point.

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      • Flannery is different. I love her because her imagery is arresting and her characters are so complex and unusual. Plus she wrote about Catholicism in a unique and insightful way. I was raised Catholic, so I can appreciate a twisted view on it. LOL.

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      • I love different, as you know by now! While I certainly find her characters odd and interesting, there is just something about her stories that keeps my admiration in check. I don’t dislike them, but I don’t love them. I might pick up my copy of her Collected Stories and try again. Time can change perception and reception, so you never know.

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    • Yes, I have read her books! I never mention anyone whose work I do not personally know, even in the context of The Dead Writers Round-Up. In the real world I specialize in writers from the 1890s-1950s, with my main focus on women writers of that period. Her entire career took place within that time frame, so I cross paths with her work on a regular basis.

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      • Thank you and you are welcome! Most people I know find my taste to be inexplicably weird, so I will take a compliment where I can find one.

        You have an amazing command of the haiku. Kudos!

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