Happy Birthday, André Breton!

André Breton, poet, writer, and father of Surrealism, was born on 19 February 1896.

Andre Breton, 1924

André Breton, 1924.

“Let us not mince words…the marvelous is always beautiful, anything marvelous is beautiful, in fact only the marvelous is beautiful.”-André Breton

Another Year Has Passed and You Still Look Like This

When you died on 11 February 1963, my mom was nine years old. My grandmother was your age: thirty. She’s eighty-one now, but to all of the world you still look like this:

Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath. 

How sad.

“The silence depressed me. It wasn’t the silence of silence. It was my own silence.”-Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

Congratulations, Sir John Suckling, You Have One of the Best Writer Names of All Time. Also, Happy Birthday!

Sir John Suckling, poet and inventor of cribbage, was born on 10 February 1609.

Sir John Suckling by Anthony van Dyck, 17th century

Sir John Suckling by Anthony van Dyck, 17th century.

“I prithee send me back my heart,/Since I cannot have thine;/For if from yours you will not part,/Why, then, shouldst thou have mine?”

Happy Birthday, Mr. Langston Hughes!

Langston Hughes was born on 1 February 1902.

Langston Hughes by Carl Van Vechten, February 1936

Langston Hughes by Carl Van Vechten, February 1936.

“I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.”-Langston Hughes

The Dead Writers Round-Up: 6th January

  • Fanny Burney died on 1/6/1840. “Generosity without delicacy, like wit without judgement, generally gives as much pain as pleasure.” (Evelina; Cecilia; Camilla; The Wanderer)
  • Carl Sandburg was born on 1/6/1878. “Time is the coin of your life. You spend it. Do not allow others to spend it for you.” (Chicago Poems; Abraham Lincoln: The War Years; Remembrance Rock; Rootabaga Stories)
  • Kahlil Gibran was born on 1/6/1883. “You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.” (Broken Wings; The Prophet)
  • Alan Watts was born on 1/6/1915. “Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.” (The Way of Zen; The Joyous Cosmology; The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are)

[Alternative Muses] Going, Going, Gone: Rossetti, Rilke, Phillpotts

“Choose love not in the shallows/but in the deep.”-Christina Rossetti (died on 12/29/1894)

Christina Rossetti, portrait by her brother

Christina Rossetti, portrait by her brother

“Let everything happen to you/Beauty and terror/Just keep going/No feeling is final.”-Rainer Maria Rilke (died on 12/29/1926)

Rainer Maria Rilke by Paula Modersohn-Becker, 1906

Rainer Maria Rilke by Paula Modersohn-Becker, 1906

“The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”-Eden Phillpotts (died on 12/29/1960)

Eden Phillpotts by Frederic Taber Cooper, 1912

Eden Phillpotts by Frederic Taber Cooper, 1912

The Dead Writers Round-Up: 20th-24th December

  • James Hilton died on 12/20/1954. “The right mixture of caring and not caring-I suppose that’s what love is.” (Knight Without Armour; Lost Horizon; Goodbye, Mr. Chips; Random Harvest)
  • John Steinbeck died on 12/20/1968. “Maybe ever’body  in the whole damn world is scared of each other.” (The Red Pony; Tortilla Flat; Of Mice and Men; The Grapes of Wrath; The Moon is Down; Cannery Row; The Pearl; East of Eden)
  • Denise Levertov died on 12/20/1997. “You have come to the shore. There are no instructions.” (The Double Image; Life in the Forest; Candles in Babylon)
  • Dame Rebecca West was born on 12/21/1892. “It’s the souls duty to be loyal to its own desires. It must abandon itself to its master passion.” (The Return of the Soldier; The Fountain Overflows; Black Lamb and Grey Falcon; 1900)
  • Anthony Powell was born on 12/21/1905. “Books do furnish a room.” (A Dance to the Music of Time; Afternoon Men) Continue reading

Happy Birthday, Dearest Emily!

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