“All the world’s a stage/And all the men and women merely players/They have their exits and their entrances/And one man in his time plays many parts/His acts being seven ages.”-William Shakespeare
Peter O’Toole
Farewell, dear sir!
I’m feeling frosty! Can you tell?
CHARLES DICKENS
Charles Dickens
REASON: Is it possible to get through winter without pulling out a volume of Dickens? What a desperate, weary, chilly world his characters inhabit! It is enough to make the pages freeze mid-turn.
“Bleak, dark, and piercing cold, it was a night for the well-housed and fed to draw round the bright fire, and thank God they were at home; and for the homeless starving wretch to lay him down and die. Many hunger-worn outcasts close their eyes in our bare streets at such times, who, let their crimes have been what they may, can hardly open them in a more bitter world.”-Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
If you missed My Top Six Cold Weather Writers, go here.
For Honorable Mention: Christina Rossetti, go here.
Thanks to Tom Gething for reminding me that Charles Dickens deserves a place on my list!
Our wedding ceremony was cobbled together with rock and roll and bagpipes and honest poetry, love and tears; there were no vows, except to bluntly say, “I do.” If the act of marriage itself is not promise enough, then an oath is meaningless armor against the inevitable.
Bells Are Ringing
I DO NOT LOVE YOU EXCEPT BECAUSE I LOVE YOU BY PABLO NERUDA
The Chef and I are somewhere on this spectrum of cute coupledom:
We are in the midst of an unusual (and heavy) early season snowstorm. I took time out from trimming my tree to do this:
Little Penguin in the Snow
I did a whole series, using several ornaments. My neighbors must think me quite the delight.
“Well, I know now. I know a little more how much a simple thing like a snowfall can mean to a person.”-Sylvia Plath
You can’t see me…
There’s Nothing to See Here
“The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself, too.”-Samuel Butler
Busted!
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
I am taking a break from writing tonight to decorate my house for the holidays. Here’s Clara Bow, enjoying a similar kind of evening.
Clara Bow
Robert Louis Stevenson died on 3 December 1894. He was forty-four years old. Here he is, looking elegant in a John Singer Sargent portrait…
Portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson by John Singer Sargent, 1887
He was as dashing as the best of them…
Robert Louis Stevenson, 1879
His spirited wife, Fanny, also excelled at living life to the fullest …
Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne Stevenson
“So long as we love, we serve; so long as we are loved by others, I should say that we are almost indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend.”-Robert Louis Stevenson
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
“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
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 