A Year in Books/Day 48: Seeing Europe with Famous Authors

Posted on February 17, 2012 by maedez

Title: Seeing Europe with Famous Authors Vol. II Great Britain and Ireland Part Two
Editor: Francis W. Halsey
Year Published: 1914 (Funk & Wagnalls Company)
Year Purchased: September, 2010
Source: Springfield (OH) Antique Show & Flea Market
About: This tiny book was one of a ten-volume compilation series culled from previously published travel essays by famous authors. On hand are pieces by Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Boswell, William Makepeace Thackeray, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson and others. Even in 1914, some of the essays were decades old. Now, they all read like history as well as travel-they remain fascinating word-gems of a time long ago surpassed by the frantic rhythms of our modern world.
Motivation: I bought this perfectly preserved first-edition copy while shopping for vintage lovelies for my December 2010 nuptials. It was too adorable and cheap ($3.00) to pass up. History and literature is a heady mix for this girl.
Times Read: 1
Random Excerpt/Page 54: “It is doubtful whether the name of any lighthouse is so familiar throughout the English-speaking world as the “Eddystone.” Certainly no other “pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day,” can offer so romantic a story of dogged engineering perseverance, of heartrending disappointments, disaster, blasted hopes, and brilliant success.”
Happiness Scale: 7 1/2
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The Dead Writers Round-Up: 24th-27th January

Posted on February 12, 2012 by maedez

Edith Wharton was born on 1/24/1862. “Beware of monotony; it’s the mother of all the deadly sins.”
Vicki Baum was born on 1/24/1888. Her novel, ‘Menschen im Hotel’ supplied the basis for the 1932 Hollywood film, ‘Grand Hotel’. Starring John and Lionel Barrymore, Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford (along with many others), it was one of the first big budget all-star productions.
Robert Burns was born on 1/25/1759. “Dare to be honest and fear no labor.”
W. Somerset Maugham was born on 1/25/1874. “Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.”
Virginia Woolf was born on 1/25/1882. “A good essay must have this permanent quality about it; it must draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in not out.”
Ouida died on 1/25/1908. Her novel ‘Under Two Flags’ has been adapted for the screen 5 times, the 1936 version starring Ronald Colman and Claudette Colbert being the most famous.
Lewis Carroll was born on 1/27/1832. “Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end. Then stop.”
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The Dead Writers Round-Up: 19th-23rd January

Posted on February 11, 2012 by maedez

Edgar Allan Poe was born on 1/19/1809. “All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”
Robinson Jeffers died on 1/20/1962. “Corruption never has been compulsory; when the cities lie at the monster’s feet there are left the mountains.” (Shine, Perishing Republic, 1941)
Lytton Strachey died on 1/21/1932. Strachey revolutionized the genre of biography, finally bringing it out of the Victorian era by infusing his profiles with wit and genuine human emotions.
George A. Moore died on 1/21/1933. “Art must be parochial in the beginning to be cosmopolitan in the end.”
George Orwell died on 1/21/1950. “Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.”
Lord Byron was born on 1/22/1788. “Between two worlds life hovers like a star, twixt night and morn, upon the horizon’s verge.”
August Strindberg was born on 1/22/1849. Strindberg was an artistic triple-threat, engaging in painting and photography as well as the writing for which he is known. He also fancied himself an alchemist.
Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle) was born on 1/23/1783. “A novel is a mirror carried along a main road.
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Quote

Posted on February 7, 2012 by maedez

“When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.”-Ernest Hemingway

A Year in Books/Day 35: Ford Madox Ford

Posted on February 5, 2012 by maedez

Title: Ford Madox Ford
Author: Alan Judd
Year Published: 1990 (Harvard University Press)
Year Purchased: 2004
Source: Unknown
About: A biography of the great, prolific and mostly forgotten English writer who was so closely associated with Joseph Conrad.
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Motivation: Although I mostly concentrate on dead female writers, I am always eager to add to my collection of literary (auto)biographies. I especially love those obscured by time or circumstances; the more out of favor, the better! I actually bought this volume as a vacation read for a 3-week trip to Canada in the summer of 2004.
Times Read: 1
Random Excerpt/Page 168: “Goldring adds that he cannot vouch for the accuracy of the story ‘but if it didn’t happen it ought to have done. Events of this description occurred daily, almost hourly, during the twelve month’s of Ford’s editorship of ‘Review’. Looking back, it seems amazing to me, that so much could have happened in so short a time. It was only a year: but what a year!’ “
Happiness Scale: 9 1/2

Shopping for the Bookworm: A Strange Miscellany of Yummy Things

Posted on February 4, 2012 by maedez

This edition of ‘Shopping for the Bookworm’ is comprised entirely of shiny, interesting things that caught my eye, magpie-style. All of the goods are from Etsy. The author offerings include pieces featuring Poe, Austen and Burroughs. There is also a fabulous typewriter print, a conversation-starting belt buckle and a fab necklace.

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A Year in Books/Day 33: Webster’s Dictionary of American Writers

Posted on February 3, 2012 by maedez

Title: Webster’s Dictionary of American Writers
Year Published: 2004 (Barnes & Noble)
Year Purchased: 2005
Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
About: A dense, delightfully thorough history of every American writer of merit, popularity or notoriety since the 17th Century.
Motivation: I gobble up data like Wheaties or mac and cheese. I write about dead writers. I love history.
Times Read: Cover-to-cover-1/As reference tool-countless.
Random Excerpt/Page 65: “Grandson of the inventor of the adding machine, Burroughs was born into wealth and graduated from Harvard University in 1936. While living in New York, he met Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac and became one of the early core members of the group that would become known as the Beats. He became addicted to heroin around 1945 and would remain a junkie for almost 15 years. While living in Mexico in 1951, he killed his second wife in an attempt to shoot a glass off her head at a party. He fled Mexico and wandered through the Amazon region, continuing his experiments with drugs, experiences described in ‘The Yage Letters’ (1963), his 1953 correspondence with Allen Ginsberg.
Happiness Scale: 9
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A Year in Books/Day 31: Ernest Hemingway A to Z

Posted on January 31, 2012 by maedez

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Title: Ernest Hemingway A to Z
Author: Charles M. Oliver
Year Published: 1999 (Checkmark Books)
Year Purchased: 2004/2005
Source: Unknown book seller, Upstate New York
About: Every knowable fact about Hemingway, contained in one large volume. With photographs.
Motivation: I’m of 3 or 4 minds about Hemingway the writer, and many more about Hemingway the man. However, since I write about dead writers, I knew this would be a useful reference tool. I also love-love!-any kind of encyclopedia.
Times Read: Cover-to-cover-1/as reference-countless
Random Excerpt/Page 348: “In criticizing her husband’s writing, Catherine Bourne says, in ‘The Garden of Eden’ , that a wastebasket is “the most important thing for a writer”. She later burns his stories and the reviews of his second novel in a wastebasket.”
Happiness Scale: 8

Voices from the Grave #3: Anne Sexton Reading ‘The Truth the Dead Know’

Posted on January 23, 2012 by maedez

‘The Truth the Dead Know’ from ‘All My Pretty Ones’ (1962).

Men kill for this, or for as much.

Shopping for the Bookworm: Literary Pretties

Posted on January 22, 2012 by maedez

My preferred literary pretties for the week include pieces inspired by George Bernard Shaw, Virginia Woolf, Flannery O’Connor and Sylvia Plath.

George Bernard Shaw cuff bracelet by Unique Art Pendants

Virginia Woolf Pendant by Funcky Pop Art

Flannery O’Connor Necklace by Love Las Muertas Jewelry

Sylvia Plath hair pin by Sunny Raven Designs

R.I.P. Norman Lloyd (1914-2021)

Norman Lloyd, long a personal favorite of mine, was a fascinating man and performer. Norman Lloyd Dead [THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER]

R.I.P. Geoffrey Scott

Geoffrey Scott was from a younger generation than the performers I normally write about, but his handsome presence was ubiquitous during my 1980s childhood. From Dynasty to The Love Boat, Night Court, and Battle of the Network Stars, his charisma and acting ability lit up the small screen for decades. He will be missed. Geoffrey […]

Kirk Douglas: 1916-2020

[2019 Reel Infatuation Blogathon] But Baby Think of Me Once in Awhile: On Andy Travis as Television’s Best (and Hunkiest) Boss

Welcome to the 2019 Reel Infatuation Blogathon! Baby, If You’ve Ever Wondered: It still seems like yesterday that the idea for RI popped in my head. It was actually in December 2015, while in a hotel room getting ready for a holiday party, when it occurred to me that there was a gap in the classic […]

Announcing the 2019 Reel Infatuation Blogathon!

This is one of my favorite events of the year, and not just because I’m the co-hostess. It’s simply that good. And fun. Oh, so much fun! Here’s my original announcement. ANNOUNCING THE 2019 REEL INFATUATION BLOGATHON I hope you’ll join us!

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