Tag Archives: Birthdays

Happy Birthday, Dearest Emily!

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Happy Birthday, dearest Emily!

Emily Dickinson

Birthday Girl Emily Dickinson (Born 10 December 1830).

FIVE EVERYDAY FACTS ABOUT EMILY DICKINSON:

EMILY ELIZABETH WAS A MIDDLE CHILD, SANDWICHED BETWEEN OLDER BROTHER (WILLIAM) AUSTIN AND YOUNGER SISTER LAVINIA (NORCROSS).

SHE WAS KNOWN FOR HER SIMPLE WARDROBE OF MOSTLY WHITE CLOTHING.

EMILY HAD A PET NEWFOUNDLAND DOG NAMED CARLO.

SHE WAS A GIFTED BAKER.

EMILY WAS A DEDICATED AND WELL-EDUCATED GARDENER.

“I am out with lanterns, looking for myself.”-Emily Dickinson

Happy Birthday, Rex Stout!

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Rex Todhunter Stout was born on 1 December 1886. He gave the world that singular detective, Nero Wolfe (and his unremittingly charming factotum Archie Goodwin!), writing dozens of excellent genre novels and short stories during a four decade period. Stout’s version of New York City is one of the best (fictionalized) settings in all of literature. Here he is, mixing patterns and still looking casually dapper in his eighty-seventh year…

Rex Stout by Jill Krementz, 1973

Rex Stout by Jill Krementz, 1973

“To say that a man is a reasoning animal is a very different thing than to say that most of man’s decisions are based on his rational process. That I don’t believe at all.”-Rex Stout

[Alternative Muses] Happy Birthday, Georgia O’Keeffe!

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Georgia O’Keeffe was born on 15 November 1887.

Georgia O'Keeffe by Alfred Stieglitz, 1918

Georgia O’Keeffe by Alfred Stieglitz, 1918

“I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I wanted to do.” *

Georgia O'Keeffe, taken July 19, 1915

Georgia O’Keeffe, taken July 19, 1915

“To create one’s world in any of the arts takes courage.” Continue reading →

Off Topic Post: Happy 100th Birthday, Vivien Leigh!

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Vivien Leigh was born Vivian Mary Hartley on 5 November 1913.

Young Viv

Young Viv

She was a very, very fine actress of stage and screen. If you’ve only seen Gone with the Wind or A Streetcar Named Desire, you have missed some wonderful film performances. Her theatrical work has, of course, been lost to time. It’s a shame, because she was a serious and brilliant stage actress obsessively dedicated to her craft. Her film stardom was largely beside the point.-“I’m not a film star, I am an actress. Being a film star is such a false life, lived for fake values and for publicity.”-Vivien Leigh

She was married to this chap for two decades.

Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, June 1948

Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, June 1948

She died on 8 July 1967.

Vivien Leigh

Vivien Leigh

If I ever find a time machine, I will make dozens of stops just to see the magnetic and fiercely talented Vivien Leigh weave her magic across the world’s stages.

[Alternative Muses] Coming and Going: Samuel Taylor Coleridge/Jack Kerouac Edition

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“Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.”-Samuel Taylor Coleridge (born 10/21/1772)

A Young Samuel Taylor Coleridge

A Young Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.”-Jack Kerouac (died 10/21/1969)

Naval Reserve Enlistment Photo of Jack Kerouac, 1943

Naval Reserve Enlistment Photo of Jack Kerouac, 1943

 

Happy Birthday to an Icy Looking Elinor Glyn

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Elinor Glyn, who forever changed the popular culture landscape by ballyhooing the concept of It, was born on 17 October 1864.

Elinor Glyn

Elinor Glyn

A QUOTE: “Everything that I write will be signed with my name.”

SOME WORKS: Beyond the Rocks; Three Weeks; Three Things; Love’s Blindness; ‘It’ and Other Stories

A KEEPSAKE:

Elinor Glyn's Man and Maid Movie Still Book at Backwoods Treasure

Elinor Glyn’s Man and Maid Movie Still Book at Backwoods Treasure Antiques. $26.95

A Brief Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald on His Birthday

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Dear Scott,

Another year has gone by, and I still find you as enigmatic and problematic as ever. You, who could write such beautiful words, ruffle my feathers like few others. You, who squandered such exemplary gifts, frustrate me to the point of madness. Although I’ve never loved you, not even a bit, I have spent some wonderful time in your company. At this point in the game, I realize that I will never stop questioning you and, in questioning you, relentlessly, learn more about myself than I ever cared to know. Happy birthday, you beautiful bastard.

Yours (but not really),

Maedez

F. Scott Fitzgerald by Gordon Bryant. Shadowland, 1921.

F. Scott Fitzgerald by Gordon Bryant. Shadowland, 1921.

“I don’t want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again.”-This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald

[Alternative Muses] Birthday Mashup: John French Sloan/James Baldwin

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Red Kimono on the Roof, John French Sloan. 1912.

Red Kimono on the Roof, 1912, by John French Sloan (born 2 August 1871).

“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”-James Baldwin (born 2 August 1924)