Tennessee Williams, 1953

Posted on January 26, 2016 by maedez

Playwright Tennessee Williams at the memorial service for poet Dylan Thomas:

Tennessee Williams by Walter Albertin for the New York World-Telegram and Sun, 1953

Tennessee Williams photographed by Walter Albertin for the New York World-Telegram and Sun, 1953

Two Jean Toomer Quotes

Posted on December 12, 2015 by maedez

“Acceptance of prevailing standards often means we have no standards of our own.”-Jean Toomer

“We do not possess imagination enough to sense what we are missing.”-Jean Toomer

An Emily Dickinson Scrapbook

Posted on December 10, 2015 by maedez

Today is poet Emily Dickinson’s 185th birthday. Let’s celebrate, shall we?

Drawing of Emily Dickinson as a child

“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.”-Emily Dickinson

Book cover of Poems by Emily Dickinson, 1890

“I dwell in possibility.”-Emily Dickinson Continue reading →

What Are You Reading in November?

Posted on November 18, 2015 by maedez

What is on your reading list this month?

Have you given yourself permission to take it easy, as the year comes to a close?

Or, as we race the clock to 2016, are you trying to stuff as many books into your brain as possible?

I am doing the latter.

Very much the latter.

Since 1 November, I’ve finished:

Holding on Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore by Linda Leavell
Eleanor Marx: A Life by Rachel Holmes
Benjamin Britten: A Life for Music by Neil Powell
All Art is Propaganda: Critical Essays by George Orwell
Careless People: Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby by Sarah Churchwell
Gloria Swanson: The Ultimate Star by Stephen Michael Shearer
Vintage Reading: From Plato to Bradbury: A Personal Tour of Some of the World’s Best Books by Robert Kanigel
A Woman of Temperament by Lucile Duff Gordon (in progress)

To Be Read by 30 November:

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (the only novel on the list!)
Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee
Madcap May: Mistress of Myth, Men & Hope by Richard Kurin
White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson by Brenda Wineapple
The Mad Potter: George E. Ohr Eccentric Genius by Jan Greenberg & Sandra Jordan
Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only: The Life of America’s First Black Filmmaker by Patrick McGilligan

And, if I finish all of these…I have Michel de Montaigne’s essays waiting in the wings.

What is your favourite book this month?

Which book on your list are you most looking forward to reading?

Please share with me in the comments!

Happy reading.

[Alternative Muses] Writerly Style: The Sharp Dressing Nancy Cunard

Posted on November 11, 2015 by maedez

Nancy Cunard-poet, publisher, and activist-was famously fashion-forward. In this photo, she looks like she could step out of the current issue of any high fashion magazine.

Nancy Cunard, looking quite editorial.

That sleek belted-jacket is everything, with the statement necklace and her signature piled-on bracelets both coming in a close second.

Perfection.

Three Quotes in Honor of Anne Sexton’s Birthday

Posted on November 9, 2015 by maedez

Poet Anne Sexton was born on 9 November 1928.

“I am a collection of dismantled almosts.”
“Saints have no moderation, nor do poets, just exuberance.”
“Writers are such phonies: they sometimes have wise insights but they don’t live by them at all. That’s what writers are like…you think they know something, but usually they are just messes.”