Agatha Christie in Hawaii, 1922 (Photo courtesy of Retronaut.co)
Agatha Christie: Surfin’ Bird
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Author Archives: maedez
A Year in Books/Day 142: American History
- Title: American History
- Year Published: 1911/This Edition: 1933 (The Athenaeum Press)
- Year Purchased: 1930s
- Source: My Step-grandmother.
- About: This book belonged to my Step-grandmother. She started high school the year this edition hit classrooms. It was, as the excerpt below testifies, a very modern take on the subject. What was new then is, nearly 80 years later, a piece of history itself. It is a window into how education was approached during the early part of the 20th century.
- Motivation: I just love old books (and history!). The books I inherited from my Step-father’s mother (and grandmother) are still in excellent condition; I treasure them deeply.
- Times Read: 1
- Random Excerpt/Page iii: “The present volume represents the newer tendency in historical writing. Its aim is not to tell over once more the old story in the old way, but to give the emphasis to those factors in our national development which appeal to us as most vital from the standpoint of today. However various may be the advantages of historical study, one of them, and perhaps the most unmistakable, is to explain prevailing conditions and institutions by showing how they have come about.”
- Happiness Scale: 8
New $1.62
A Year in Books/Day 141: Silent Players
- Title: Silent Players A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses
- Author: Anthony Slide
- Year Published: 2002 (The University Press of Kentucky)
- Year Purchased: 2010
- Source: Half Price Books
- About: Most of the stars profiled in this book were forgotten within a few years of the end of the silent era; the rest-the lucky few- are mere by-words for Old Hollywood, names disconnected from faces. Leftovers from our great-Grandparents’ childhoods. Anthony Slide, over the course of a couple of decades, had the pleasure or the privilege to have met the majority of entertainers featured in this volume. Thus, Silent Players is not dry biography or weak conjecture, nor is it pure scholarship (although it has a foundation of extensive research); it is alive with personal experiences and revealing reminiscences. His passion for his subjects shines through his clear, yet keen writing. A must-have for anyone interested in silent cinema and those who graced it with their magic.
Publicity photo of Mae Marsh from Stars of the Photoplay (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
- Motivation: Many of my favourite film performers appeared in silent movies. I write on the subject. A lot. In fact, silent movies are one of my biggest passions!
- Times Read: 1
- Random Excerpt/Page 127: “The number of Hollywood extras is probably in the hundreds of thousands. As early as November 1934, Photoplay reported some 17, 541 individuals registered as extras with Central Casting. Among the number of small part and bit players available at that time were former stars, including Monte Blue, Betty Blythe, Mae Marsh, and Dorothy Phillips, and silent directors, including Francis Ford, Frank Reicher and George Melford. One-time stars might become extras, but the only extra to ever be accorded the celebrity and fame of stardom is Bess Flowers.”
- Happiness Scale: 10+++
Daily Diversion #10: A Fountain of Gladness
My mom lives in a converted 1930s hotel, in a charming corner of downtown.
Courtyard Fountain
This courtyard fountain is a neat little touch. If I lived there, I would probably photograph it every day.
The Dead Writers Round-Up: 23rd-27th May
- Henrik Ibsen died on 5/23/1906. “Do not use that foreign word “ideals.” We have that excellent native word “lies.””
- Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on 5/25/1803. “A great man is always willing to be little.”
- Madame de La Fayette died on 5/25/1693. “Never refuse any advance of friendship, for if nine out of ten bring you nothing, one alone may repay you.”
- Maxwell Bodenheim was born on 5/26/1892. “Poetry is the impish attempt to paint the color of the wind.”
- Dashiell Hammett was born on 5/27/1894. “I deserve all the love you can spare me. And I want a lot more than I deserve.”
- Rachel Carson was born on 5/27/1907. “Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life.”
A Year in Books/Day 140: Evelyn Waugh
- Title: Evelyn Waugh The Later Years 1939-1966
- Author: Martin Stannard
- Year Published: 1992/This Edition: 1994 (W.W. Norton & Company)
- Year Purchased: 2000?
- Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
- About: I’m currently on a Bright Young Things reading binge; although it focuses on Waugh’s mature years, this book almost instantly came to mind. It is one of the better biographies present on my sagging shelves. A potent reminder that he was more than just the writer of Brideshead Revisited (which, if it came down to that, wouldn’t be such a bad thing), Stannard succeeds in making the complex yet usually unapproachable Waugh, for good and bad, seem human. It is a masterly work.
- Motivation: I collect dead writer biographies like kids collect toys.
- Times Read: 1
- Random Excerpt/Page 170: “The delay in departure was all Waugh needed to fire his imagination. There was, he felt, a story in this about everything that had troubled him since leaving the army, and Scott-King’s Modern Europe was to be his revenge on his hosts.”
- Happiness Scale: 9
Portrait of Evelyn Waugh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A Year in Books/Day 139: Schott’s Original Miscellany
- Title: Schott’s Original Miscellany
- Author: Ben Schott
- Year Published: 2003 (Bloomsbury)
- Year Purchased: 2004/2005
- Source: Bas Bleu
- About: If I decided to write a reference book, it would be in this mould: eccentric, far-reaching and a treat to read. The entries are ridiculously fun yet still informative (as, of course, all such books should be): Eponymous Foods, Hampton Court Maze, Public School Slang, The Language of Flowers, Churchill & Rhetoric, Proverbially You Can’t, Super Bowl Singers, George Washington’s Rules and The Bond Films are just a few. It is a little treasure of a volume, and one that suits those of us for whom so-called useless knowledge is one of life’s great enjoyments.
- Motivation: We all know that I LOVE reference books. Of any kind. I also hanker after eclectic knowledge because, well, why not?
- Times Read: Cover-to-cover:1/As reference tool: countless
- Random Excerpt/Page 5: “An encyclopedia? A dictionary? An almanac? An anthology? A lexicon? A treasury? A commonplace? An amphigouri? A vade-mecum? Well…yes. Schott’s Original Miscellany is all of these and, of course, more.”
- Happiness Scale: 10++
Quote
“She reads Dickens in the spirit in which she would have eloped with him.”-Eudora Welty
Voices from the Grave #20: Leonard Woolf Speaking on Bloomsbury and Virginia Woolf
This is a rare recorded interview of Leonard Woolf speaking about his wife, Virginia, and their friends and fellow artists in that loose, non-movement called the Bloomsbury Group. It is nearly ten minutes long but is well worth your time. It was recorded in May 1964, when Leonard was 83.
[20 May 2012] This Week’s Lessons in Reading and Writing
- My ideal non-fiction to fiction reading ratio is 4 to 1.
- There are certain writers-as in certain foods-I just do not like. But it is still important to take them for a spin every couple of years to see if that has changed. You never know, I love mushrooms now.
- I can go a week without reading a magazine-any magazine-and not explode.
- The only way that I will devote time to fiction crafting is to firmly write it in, using indelible marker. Works every time. You’d think I would do that more often.
- I should pay more attention to contemporary fiction (that actually has a contemporary setting.).
- No matter how organized I am in other areas of my life (which is to say, I am usually HIGHLY organized) it is hard to apply that to my business for any extended period of time.
AND A LESSON RE-LEARNED:
- Know your strengths and use them to move or alter creative boundaries.
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 