Eudora Welty discussing A Worn Path with Beth Henley (1994).
Voices from the Grave #30: Eudora Welty Discussing ‘A Worn Path’
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Tag Archives: Writers
Day Dreams and Night Parades: Why Writers Are Always Surrounded by Dead People
DAY DREAMS/ There were two trees I loved as a child. They lived less than an acre apart, but never met. This made me sad, as I was certain they would get along if the chance ever came. I tried making introductions, but whenever I broached the subject they were too busy doing secretive tree things that I did not understand.
The Front Yard Tree thrived on the imaginations of little girls. Continue reading
A Year in Books/Day 179: It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be
- Title: It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be
- Author: Paul Arden
- Year Published: First Edition:2003/This Edition: 2007 (Phaidon)
- Year Purchased: Unknown
- Source: My mom, who gave me a bunch of books to either keep or sell. (According to the sticker on the inside back flap, she bought the book at Anthropologie.)
- About: Another corporate motivational book, this one by an ad man from the UK. He was highly successful, and so was this common-sense little volume. It is as easy to digest as your favourite ad campaign, and almost as memorable (the chapter on Victoria Beckham not withstanding). Continue reading
Alternative Muse of the Month News-Katherine Mansfield Edition
Four Katherine Mansfield short stories were recently discovered by a college student, along with several photographs. All were previously unknown. This is fantastic news for fans of Katherine Mansfield and students of the short story. If you are pleased or titillated by this news, thank Chris Mourant. Kudos, sir!
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“I spent three days a week for 10 years educating myself in the public library, and it’s better than college. People should educate themselves-you can get a complete education for no money. At the end of 10 years, I had read every book in the library and I’d written a thousand stories.”-Ray Bradbury
[Intermezzo] A Ball of Light*
We crossed the river, yesterday. We skimmed impatient hands across jewelry, postcards, record albums, tin canisters emblazoned with long-dead logos, crockery. My eye was momentarily entrapped by these shiny things, distractions all. The sun riveted its heat into my flesh, dribbles of sweat danced down my arms before diving off of my jagged fingernails to land in the grassy unknown, spent. My eyes, shaded, landed on a pile of ink and ideas cobbled together with old leather and faith. This fellow was on top… Continue reading
Voices from the Grave #29: James Joyce Reading from Ulysses
James Joyce reading from Ulysses, 1924.
The Dead Writers Round-Up: 18th-21st July
- William Makepeace Thackeray was born on 7/18/1811. “A good laugh is sunshine in the house.”
- Jane Austen died on 7/18/1817. “A person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill.”
- Clifford Odets was born on 7/18/1906. “Life shouldn’t be printed on dollar bills.”
- Hunter S. Thompson was born on 7/18/1937. “Buy the ticket, take the ride.”
- Hart Crane was born on 7/21/1899. “Love: a burnt match skating in the urinal.”
- Ernest Hemingway was born on 7/21/1899. “As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.”
All images are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and are in the public domain.
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“In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends imprisoned by an enchanter in paper and leathern boxes.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson
A Year in Books/Day 173: John Stanislaus Joyce
- Title: The Voluminous Life and Genius of James Joyce’s Father John Stanislaus Joyce
- Authors: John Wyse Jackson and Peter Costello
- Year Published: 1997 (St. Martin’s Press)
- Year Purchased: 2002/2003
- Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
- About: Even though they leave us more evidence of their existence than nearly any other (loosely aligned) group of people, opportunities to gain genuine insight into the lives and larger motivations of writers is exceedingly rare, and often unreliable. In according the elder Joyce a thorough and rigorous biographical treatment, the authors have given us a double-wonder: a fresh and informative look at the tender years of the singular writer of Ulysses and an introduction to his amazing father, whose remarkable storytelling ability influenced and shaped his son. Even if, like me, you come to this book because of James, you will leave with a keen appreciation and respect for the complex, colourful John Stanislaus.
- Motivation: See above. I bought it because of what James Joyce means to me. I’m glad I did, because JSJ is second to only John Butler Yeats as my favourite famous father.
- Times Read: 1
- Random Excerpt/Page 97: “Mr. and Mrs. John Stanislaus Joyce decided on a honeymoon abroad. It was another beacon to the world of John’s confident social expectations. As if to spite his mother for dragging him back from there when he was a boy, he took his bride to the capital of the Empire, London, where William Gladstone was currently busy, at the age of seventy-one, forming the Liberal government of 1880. An opportunity to meet Irish members was not to be neglected-to remind some of them the debt owed to John Stanislaus.”
James Joyce in 1888 at age six. Possibly in Bray, a seaside resort south of Dublin. The Joyces lived there from 1887 to 1892. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
- Happiness Scale: 10+++
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 