“Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers.”-Janis Joplin
I had to do it, eventually.
I am just getting started. The books in the middle box look like they have hatched an escape plan.
I hate packing my books. Even though I am just getting started, my studio already seems bereft of a certain energy.
“A book reads the better which is our own, and has been so long known to us, that we know the topography of its blots, and dog’s ears, and can trace the dirt in it to having read it at tea with buttered muffins.”-Charles Lamb, Last Essays of Elia, 1833.
Marilyn, waiting her turn.
Paddy Chayefsky Quote
Writer-painter August Strindberg died on 14 May 1912. Here he is, looking suitably bohemian…
August Strindberg, self-portrait. Circa 1891.
QUOTE: “I dream, therefore I exist.”
SOME WORKS: Master Olof; The Free Thinker; The Outlaw; The Father; The Dance of Death; A Dream Play; The Great Highway; The Son of a Servant.
A KEEPSAKE:
August Strindberg Pinback Button by BuyTheLightoftheMoon. $1.50
Daily Rituals of Famous Authors [courtesy Huff Post Books]
Famous Authors’ Handwritten Outlines for Great Works of Literature [courtesy Flavorwire]
An extract from The Make Believe World of Daphne du Maurier.
FYI-Daphne du Maurier was born 106 years ago today!
On his way home from Indiana, I hope. For two golden, precious days he’s mine again. Until then, I am jittery with anticipation. I cannot sit still. I cannot write. All I can do is smile.
Puck Magazine, 1917
“”I would always rather be happy than dignified.”-Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
When it comes to feelings, writers often over-write. We embellish, write in circles, whip out florid phrases. All in an effort to tell someone how much they mean to us, when a simple, “I love you,” would do. Today is Mother’s Day in the US, and I only need four words.
I LOVE YOU, MOM.
Mother Sewing by Mary Cassatt
“Adversity” illustration by Edith Mahier, from the Tulane University yearbook. 1915.
Edith Mahier Illustration, 1915. Tulane University Yearbook.
One of my writing specialties is silent cinema. It’s actually one of the great loves of my life, and so is Buster Keaton. Last night, The Chef and I had the rare treat of seeing Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) on the big screen. The show was held in the ballroom of the stunning Cincinnati Music Hall. Clark Wilson provided musical accompaniment on the Hall’s restored “The Mighty Wurlitzer”. This is my favourite Keaton production. I have watched it at least 20 times, but always in the privacy of my home. The joy of experiencing a silent movie whilst surrounded by hundreds of spontaneously laughing people seeing it for the first time is energetic and awe-inspiring. Buster, who made his film debut 96 years ago, would certainly be proud and humbled. It was a wonderful evening to be a cinema buff and writer.
“The first thing I did in the studio was to want to tear that camera to pieces. I had to know how that film got into the cutting room, what you did to it in there, how you projected it, how you finally got the picture together, how you made things match. The technical part of pictures is what interested me. Material was the last thing in the world I thought about. You only had to turn me loose on the set and I’d have material in two minutes, because I’d been doing it all my life.”-Buster Keaton
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 