July 23:
Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore (b. 1823, d.1896) was a Catholic poet and essayist associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. He wrote The Angel in the House, a poem about the significance of love in marriage. He looks a little bit like Mark Twain to me, and he definitely has a great name. He was also homeschooled, a librarian at the British Musuem, and father to seven children. I smell a kindred spirit; I tend to like Victorians anyway.
Raymond Chandler (b.1888, d.1959) was the author of The Big Sleep and The Long Good-bye and other “hard-boiled” detective novels and stories. I took this quote from this website: “From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away.”–The High Window (Chapter 5) Now that’s hard-boiled!
Elspeth Huxley (b. 1907, d. 1997) began writing at the age of fourteen and authored some thirty book, but her most famous book was Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood. It sounds interesting, about her childhood in Kenya. Has anyone read it, and can you comment on it?
July 24:
Robert Graves (b.1895, d. 1985) considered himself first and foremost to be a poet, but he became famous and supported himself by writing novels, the most notable being I, Claudius. I read this historical novel a long time ago, and I’m left with an impression of Emperor Claudius as a doddering old man with a streak of Machiavellian genius. I haven’t seen the BBC series based on the book. Shoudl I? Graves, according to the biographies I read on the web, had his own eccentric theology, something he ccalled the worship of the White Goddess, inspired by studies of matriarchal societies and goddess cults. And that just goes to show that none of this pagan stuff is new (or ever dies completely), just recycled endlessly.
July 26:
Aldous Huxley (b.1894, d. 1963) was the author of Brave New World, a science fiction classic in which Huxley envisioned a world where babies were cloned in baby factories and the populace was kept calm and happy with a drug called soma. I read this one in high school, and I remember it being rather scary. Nowadays it’s coming true–and it’s still scary.
George Bernard Shaw (b.1856, d.1950) was, of course, the famous playwright and socialist. Epigrams galore:
England and America are two countries separated by a common language.
Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.
Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman. Believing what he read made him mad.
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
All professions are conspiracies against the laity.
I think GBS made it his hobby to be quotable. I also think homeschoolers can at least appreciate the last quotation in my list. Down with the NEA!
Sherry, I haven’t read it yet, but one of my most trusted book buddies recommended _The Flame Trees of Thika_ very highly. I just happen to have that and the sequel, _The Mottled Lizard_, for sale ;-).
Did you know that Elspeth Huxley was Aldous Huxley’s daughter? She talks a great deal about her parents in the books, I understand.
Also, GBS, though he was very quotable, was an “enemy” (via the pen, which is mightier than the sword) of a much more quotable gentleman, G.K. Chesterton.
Yes, I was aware of the “war of words” between GBS and Chesterton. I happen to think Chesterton was right and wittier than GBS, but Shaw can nevertheless be lots of fun. “My Fair Lady/Pygmalion” is one of my favorite movies in spite of the rotten ending.
On the other hand, no, I wasn’t aware of the relationship between the two Huxleys. In the material I read about Elspeth it didn’t say anything about her parents, and I just started reading about her last night and thought the book sounded interesting. In fact, my husband asked if the two were related, and I said, ‘No, I don’t think so.” Thanks for the information.