Author Archives: maedez

Unknown's avatar

About maedez

Writer, biographer, poet. History nerd, silent movie maven. Punk rocker, amateur baker, bookworm. Cricket fan, Scotch drinker, craft beer snob.

A Year in Books/Day 146: A Memoir of Jane Austen

Posted on by
2
  • Title: A Memoir of Jane Austen and Other Family Recollections
  • Author: J.E. Austen-Leigh
  • Year Published: 1870/This Edition: 2002 (Oxford University Press)
  • Year Purchased: 2002/2003
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: J.E. Austen-Leigh was Jane’s nephew, the son of her eldest brother. He was nineteen when his famous aunt died; his impressions of her were published 53 years later. Although there are more scrupulous works of scholarship available, this memoir is the closest we will ever get to the ‘real’ woman (other than her surviving letters and fiction). On the other hand, one can argue that a writer’s works are the best representative of their true self and that everything else-character, mannerisms, speech patterns, habits, loves, hates and proclivities-is the fiction. That is a bit deeper than I want to dive in this mini-review, so hold on to that thought if you’d like; I’m sure I will cover it here some other day. Where were we? Ah, yes! Jane as presented in the bosom of her family hearth and home, by her nephew. As biased as it obviously is, it is a really fantastic book. It is of key importance to Austen scholars and fans alike. This edition also includes reminiscences by her brother Henry and nieces Anna and Caroline, which is a touch that nicely rounds out the portrait of this truly compelling woman.
  • Motivation: I love Jane Austen. Pick your jaw up off of the floor, you must be shocked.
  • Times Read: 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 1: “More than half a century has passed away since I, the youngest of the mourners, attended the funeral of my dear aunt Jane in Winchester Cathedral; and now, in my old age, I am asked whether my memory will serve to rescue from oblivion  any events of her life or any traits of her character to satisfy the enquiries of a generation of readers who have been born since she died.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10

The Dead Writers Round-Up: 2nd-4th June

Posted on by
8
  • Thomas Hardy was born on 6/2/1840. “And yet to every bad there is a worse.”
  • Barbara Pym was born on 6/2/1913. “My thoughts went round and round and it occurred to me that if I ever wrote a novel it would be of the ‘stream of consciousness’ type and deal with an hour in the life of a woman at the sink.”-Excellent Women
  • George S. Kaufman died on 6/2/1961. “When I invite a woman to dinner, I expect her to look at my face. That’s the price she has to pay.”
  • Franz Kafka died on 6/3/1924. “A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.”
  • Allen Ginsberg was born on 6/3/1926. “America, how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?”-America
  • Harry Crosby was born on 6/4/1898. “When I like people immensely, I never tell their names to anyone. It is like murdering a part of them.”
  • Arna Bontemps died on 6/4/1973. “There will be better days when I am gone And healing pools where I cannot be healed”-Nocturne at Bethesda

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

[All images are in the Public Domain and are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]

 

Shopping for the Bookworm: The Great Gatsby Edition

Posted on by
15

It’s no secret that I am skeptical of the  Baz Luhrmann adaptation of The Great Gatsby. Since it is set for a Christmas Day release, we will be inundated with ads for another 6+ months. Now that we have seen the trailer I am, for the most part, content to turn my back on the growing hullabaloo surrounding the movie. Instead, I’m going to re-focus on the book. What a concept, right? In that vein, this Shopping for the Bookworm is dedicated to all things F. Scott Fitzgerald/Gatsby. Enjoy! Continue reading →

Daily Diversion #11: A Party in Porkopolis*

Posted on by
6

While The Queen City is a noble and elegant nickname, Cincinnati has long embraced its other, earthier appellation: Porkopolis. In the 19th century, this American jewel was the pig-packing center of the nation. In those days, citizens shared the streets with thousands of hogs. Today, nods to the city’s past are present in many ways, including the Flying Pig Marathon and a proliferation of objets d’pig sprinkled throughout town.They were even present at the Taste of Cincinnati USA, held this past (Memorial Day) weekend.

Taste of Cincinnati Collage

Taste of Cincinnati Collage

Top left: Revelers enjoying one of the nation’s largest street festivals. In its 34th iteration, it is the longest-standing food festival in the country.

Top right: One of many festive pig statues specially decorated for the event.

Bottom left: The cuts of this pig represent local neighborhoods.

Bottom right: A 95 degree day called for Frozen Margaritas. It was, unfortunately, way too hot to sample most of the food. We settled for pork and chicken tacos from a food truck, a slice of pizza and Irish nachos made with Saratoga chips.

Taste of Cincinnati 2012

Taste of Cincinnati USA 2012

After 2 hours of downing cold drinks and people watching in the extreme heat, we went home and collapsed into bed, far too tired to function for the rest of the day.

*Photographic proof that I do, indeed, have a life outside of writing and reading and editing.

 

 

 

A Year in Books/Day 145: Marilyn-The New York Years

Posted on by
2
  • Title: Marilyn-The New York Years
  • Author & Photographer: Sam Shaw
  • Year Published: 2004 (Lardon)
  • Year Purchased: 2004
  • Source: Unknown, but it was in conjunction with a show of Sam Shaw’s Marilyn photographs.
  • About: Sam Shaw was a photographer who also worked as a movie producer (most notably on several John Cassavetes films). He was a long-time close friend of Marilyn Monroe, and acted as the still photographer on The Seven Year Itch (1955). After her famous move to New York City to study acting with Lee Strasberg, during which time she married playwright Arthur Miller, Sam Shaw took up his camera to capture his friend at her luminous best. The trust she felt for Shaw is apparent: whether candid or posed, there is an ease and casual glamour to most of the images not seen since her earlier modeling work with Andre de Dienes. It is a beautiful coffee table volume that allows the photography to shine; the text is limited to a few brief quotes by Shaw and Monroe.
  • Motivation: Sam Shaw is my favourite Marilyn photographer; many of the images in this book were never-before-published. Win-win.
  • Times Read: A few
  • Random Excerpt/Page 4: “Eventually, Marilyn found herself in the business of being a superstar. She became a business woman. She became a big tycoon trying to lay the law down to the Hollywood bigshots. And she nearly beat them. In today’s atmosphere, with women all over demanding more rights, she would have won hands down.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10+++

A Year in Books/Day 144: Anthony Trollope

Posted on by
2
  • Title: Anthony Trollope
  • Author: James Pope-Hennessy
  • Year Published: 1971/This Edition: 2001 (Phoenix Press)
  • Year Purchased: 2003/2004
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: The creator of fictional Barsetshire, and its memorable inhabitants, receives an excellent biographical treatment by Pope-Hennessy. To read a Trollope novel-especially one from this famed series-is to step into one of the greatest of all fictional worlds. It’s a beautifully self-contained experience. As part of the careful unfolding of the novelist’s life, we are introduced to his formidable mother, Fanny; a professional writer with a deep social conscience, she has been sadly neglected by most modern scholars. Her story offers an interesting counterpoint to that of her famous son.
  • Motivation: I am a Trollope fan. I love dead writers. Biographies are an obsession.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 102: “To sum up: we know extremely little about the pretty Yorkshire girl whom Anthony Trollope met at Kingstown near Dublin in the summertime of 1842, to whom he was engaged for the best part of three years, and whom he finally married.”
  • Happiness Scale: 9
    English: Anthony Trollope

    English: Anthony Trollope (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

A Year in Books/Day 143: Longfellow’s Poems

Posted on by
5
  • Title: Longfellow’s Poems
  • Year Published: 1900/This Edition: 1901 (A.L. Burt Company, Publishers)
  • Year Purchased: Unknown
  • Source: My Step-grandmother
  • About: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the great American poet of the 19th century, is remembered for Evangeline, Paul Revere’s Ride, and The Song of Hiawatha.
  • Motivation: This is another book that I ended up with after my Step-grandmother’s death nearly 20 years ago; it was given to her by her mother, who had been a school teacher during The Great War. This beautifully preserved volume was, I thought then, something of a reward for having been frightened by my stepfather’s severe (yet kindly enough) Grandmother Doris. During the few years that I knew her, when she was in her nineties, she was every inch the prim, dour school marm. Each encounter with her was like an inspection, where I was assessed head to foot then grilled about my school work. In her presence, I instinctively knew not to speak until spoken to; fortunately, simply being in the same room with her cowed me (and my natural chattiness) to the point of panicky muteness.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page vii: “The reader observes also the absence of the wit and humor which is almost universal in poets. While Longfellow was always cheerful, he was never droll.”
  • Happiness Scale: 7 1/2

    English: Engraving of American poet Henry Wads...

    English: Engraving of American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, presumably after a portrait by Samuel Lawrence. From the book The Song of Hiawatha, Moscow, 1931. Published by OGIZ. Sepia. Русский: Генри Лонгфелло. Портрет. “Песнь о Гайавате”. ОГИЗ – Молодая гвардия – 1931. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Great Gatsby Trailer

Posted on by
8

Call me conflicted. Go ahead, do it! I am openly ambiguous about F. Scott Fitzgerald as a writer, yet I have never been able to completely escape The Great Gatsby’s allure. Or that of Tender is the Night. Or This Side of Paradise. Or many of his short stories (I’m looking straight at you, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz). There is so much to admire, and so much to question. However, I am going to leave that for another day (as I am working on a new Fitzgerald essay). The Great Gatsby, for all of Hollywood’s money and resources, has never been satisfactorily adapted to film. The Alan Ladd/Betty Field version (directed by Elliot Nugent, 1949) and the Robert Redford/Mia Farrow iteration (directed by Jack Clayton, 1974) are both so-so. Although I write extensively on silent cinema, I have never seen the lost (?)1926 Herbert Brenon directed film starring my hometown movie star (and early Academy Award winner) Warner Baxter, with Lois Wilson as Daisy. Although a good actor, he seems entirely miscast. So much so, that I am really intrigued. Until then, we have this:

Make of it what you will. I’m not sold, but I will probably see it anyway. Unlike HBO’s Hemingway & Gellhorn, which looks so bad that my soul hurts.