Archives

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born April 21st

Apr21

Charlotte Bronte, b. 1816.

A Circle of Quiet recommends Jane Eyre on CD read by Juliet Stevenson.

I suggest the 1983 BBC version of Jane Eyre. I’ve not really seen any other televised or movie version (not the new one), but I do like this one very much.

BronteBlog is running a contest to give away five DVD copies of the Orson Welles/Joan Fontaine movie version of Jane Eyre.

Books related to the Brontes:
The Return of the Twelves by Pauline Clarke. It’s the story of a boy and his sisters who find in the attic of their new house twelve toy soldiers that magically come alive. The soldiers turn out to have belonged to another boy, Branwell, and his sisters, and keeping them a secret becomes a challenge.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhyss. Semicolon review here. I didn’t really care for this story of Mr. Rochester’s wife, Bertha, as she descends into Caribbean madness, but you may like it. Definitely for adults.

Mrs. Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Bronte is a nice, cozy biography, just what you’d expect from a nice, cozy, Victorian gentlewoman. Perhaps it’s a bit hagiographic, but that’s a welcome change from the obligatory debunking that biographers do nowadays.

Blog Notes;
Lanier’s Books on Jane Eyre.

Dani Torres’s favorite passages from Jane Eyre.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born April 17th

Apr17

Thornton Wilder, b. 1897. What a great writer! I probably read The Bridge of San Luis Rey thrity years ago, but I remember it being fascinating in terms of the questions it raised. I should read it again. Then, there’s Our Town, a play I’ve always liked, and The Matchmaker, which is the source for one of my favorite movies, Hello Dolly!.

From The Matchmaker:
Money is like manure; it’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around encouraging young things to grow.

Ninety-nine per cent of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion.

From Our Town:
Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you. …Do human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every, every minute?

“Miss Read” Dora Jessie Saint, b. 1913. I think I tried one of the Miss Read books a long time ago, but I don’t remember anything about it. Should I try again?

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born April 16th

Apr16

Gertrude Chandler Warner, author of The Boxcar Children was born on this day in 1890. It turns out she was a first grade teacher who never actually finished high school herself (although she did study with a tutor–homeschooled?). The bio I read said she taught 40 first graders in the morning and another 40 in the afternoon. And today’s teachers think they have a hard job! She wrote her mystery stories for her first graders who were just learning to read. (Today they’re recommended for third graders–another example of how American education has declined.) At any rate, I can remember still how intriguing the thought was of living in an old abandoned boxcar with only other children and using one’s ingenuity to earn enough to get food and other necessities. It was all so very romantic and adventurous. I must have read the books when I was six or seven, and I know I wanted to be one of the Boxcar children.

John Millington Synge, b. 1871. Irish dramatist, poet, and folklorist. I read his play The Playboy of the Western World a long time ago for a class in modern drama, but I can’t say I remember much about it.

Grace Livingston Hill, b. 1865. I read a few of Ms. Hill’s novels when I was a young adult, but I didn’t really enjoy them very much. Others do.
Review of Rainbow Cottage by Grace Livingston Hill from The Headmistress of The Common Room.
Review of Because of Stephen by the same author, same reviewer.
Review of Maris, again same author, same reviewer.
Neat and Dainty As a Flower is a blog dedicated to “feminine beauty and accomplishment as seen in the works of Grace Livingston Hill.”
Brenda of Coffee Tea Books and Me and Sallie of A Gracious Home also enjoy Ms. Hill’s fiction. So, if you do there’s company for you.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born April 13th

Apr13

It’s the birthday of Thomas Jefferson (b.1743) and of poetry lover and promoter Lee Bennett Hopkins.

Jefferson: “The most valuable of talents is never using two words when one will do.”

Genevieve Foster, b.1893, wrote several books of history for young people including Augustus Caesar’s World, The World of Columbus and Sons, The World of Captain John Smith, The World of William Penn, George Washington’s World,and Abraham Lincoln’s World. These are wonderful living history books that correlate events around the world with US history in a fascinating way.

Marguerite Henry, b.1902, wrote Misty of Chincoteague and other horse stories.

Samuel Beckett, b.1906, Nobel prize-winning author of Waiting for Godot and other plays.

Eudora Welty, b.1909, American Pulitzer prize-winning author of short stories, novels, and nonfiction. She was born and lived most of her life in Jackson, Mississippi.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born April 12th

Apr12

Johanna Spyri, b. 1827. I have found birthdates of April 12, June 12, and July 12, all in 1827, for this author of the beautiful story Heidi. Take your pick, but read Heidi. It’s a wonderful story about a feisty little girl, Heidi, and her friend Peter and how they are tempted to do wrong, confused about spiritual things, and finally loved and forgiven. The themes of the story—broken relationships, reconciliation, forgiveness, sin and temptation–are woven into the story in a way that teaches and entertains at the same time. Modern writers of “Christian fiction” could learn a few things from reading and emulating Johanna Spyri’s classic book.

Henry Clay, b. 1877. He ran for president and was defeated three times. Always a bridesmaid . . .

Hardie Gramatky, b. 1907. Author of Hercules: The Story of an Old-Fashioned Fire Engine and Little Toot.

Beverly Cleary, b. 1916, is 91 years old today, and the celebration includes D.E.A.R. Day. Do all you children’s literature aficionados know what D.E.A.R. stands for? Have you D.E.A.R.-ed today?

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born April 11th

Apr11

Christopher Smart, b. 1722. English poet and song-writer, he was sometimes confined to the madhouse for praying in the streets and at other times arrested and thrown into jail for debt. Here’s a Kit Smart poem for the cat lovers among us (of which group I am not a member, but I like the poem):

Jubilate Agno (excerpt)

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.
For he rolls upon prank to work it in.
For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.
For this he performs in ten degrees.
For first he looks upon his forepaws to see if they are clean.
For secondly he kicks up behind to clear away there.
For thirdly he works it upon stretch with the forepaws extended.
For fourthly he sharpens his paws by wood.
For fifthly he washes himself.
For sixthly he rolls upon wash.
For seventhly he fleas himself, that he may not be interrupted upon the beat.
For eighthly he rubs himself against a post.
For ninthly he looks up for his instructions.
For tenthly he goes in quest of food.
For having consider’d God and himself he will consider his neighbour.
For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness.
For when he takes his prey he plays with it to give it a chance.
For one mouse in seven escapes by his dallying.
For when his day’s work is done his business more properly begins.
For he keeps the Lord’s watch in the night against the adversary.
For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes.
For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life.
For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him.
For he is of the tribe of Tiger.
For the Cherub Cat is a term of the Angel Tiger.
For he has the subtlety and hissing of a serpent, which in goodness he suppresses.
For he will not do destruction, if he is well-fed, neither will he spit without provocation.
For he purrs in thankfulness, when God tells him he’s a good Cat.

Dr. Samuel Johnson on Christopher Smart.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born April 10th

Apr10


William Hazlitt, b. 1778. Journalist, essayist, Shakespearean scholar. He wrote many books, including Characters of Shakespeare and A View of the English Stage.
“If we wish to know the force of human genius, we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning, we may study his commentators.”

Matthew Calbraith Perry, b. 1794. US Navy commodore who negotiated the first treaty between the United States and Japan in 1854. The 1986 Newbery Honor book, Commodore Perry in the land of the Shogun by Rhoda Blumberg, is a great introduction to this historical episode.

Lew Wallace, b. 1827. Civil War general, Governor of New Mexico Territory, Ambassador to Turkey, and author of Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ.

Third paragraph of Ben Hur: “Judged by his appearance, he was quite forty-five years old. His beard, once of the deepest black, flowing broadly over his breast, was streaked with white. His face was brown as a parched coffee-berry, and so hidden by a red kufiyeh (as the kerchief of the head is at this day called by the children of the desert) as to be but in part visible. Now and then he raised his eyes, and they were large and dark. He was clad in the flowing garments so universal in the East; but their style may not be described more particularly, for he sat under a miniature tent, and rode a great white dromedary.” Does anyone know what Biblical character is being described in this paragraph?

William Booth, b. 1829. He and his wife Catherine founded the Salvation Army, a Christian ministry to feed, clothe, and evangelize the poor.
“In answer to your inquiry, I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.” William Booth

Joseph Pulitzer, b. 1847, d.1911. Hungarian American journalist and newspaper publisher. He left in his will an endowment to create the Columbia School of Journalism, and Columbia began in 1917 to award annual prizes for journalism, letters, fiction, drama, and education. Last year I looked at this list of Pulitzer-prize winning novels and counted the ones I’ve read: 12 out of 80. (Eight of the years say “No Award.” I wonder why.) Now I’ve read 14 and a half out of 81.

1919 The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington. Read in 2006. Semicolon review here.
1921 The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton
1925 So Big Edna Ferber
1928 The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder
1932 The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck
1937 Gone With The Wind Margaret Mitchell
1939 The Yearling Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1940 The Grapes Of Wrath John Steinbeck
1947 All the King’s Men Robert Penn Warren I read this one over my blog break and thought it was quite a reflection on depression-era Louisiana and the life and legacy of Huey Long. Scroll down for a review.
1952 The Caine Mutiny Herman B. Wouk
1953 The Old Man And The Sea Ernest Hemingway
1961 To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee
1975 The Killer Angels Michael Shaara
1986 Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry This book constitutes the “half” in fourteen and a half. Actually, I don’t think I read quite half. Unappreciative Semicolon review here.
2005 Gilead Marilynne Robinson

So how many Pulitzer prize winning novels have you read, and which ones do you recommend? I recommend all of the above except the Hemingway and the Steinbeck and of course, Lonesome Larry’s Texas opus.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born March 31st

Mar31

Rene Descartes, mathematician and philospher, b. 1596. Eldest Daughter read something by Descartes in one of her classes, and she’s added him to the list of historical characters for whom she has a strong antipathy. I’l bet even she’d feel sorry for him after reading about his sad end:

In 1649 Queen Christina of Sweden persuaded Descartes to go to Stockholm. However the Queen wanted to draw tangents at 5 a.m. and Descartes broke the habit of his lifetime of getting up at 11 o’clock. After only a few months in the cold northern climate, walking to the palace at 5 o’clock every morning, he died of pneumonia. —MacTutor History of Mathematics

Franz Josef Haydn, musician and composer, b. 1732.

Edward Fitzgerald, translator and poet, b. 1809. It’s difficult to say how much of Edward Fitzgerald’s “translation” of the eleventh century poet, philosopher, and scientist Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat is Fitzgerald and how much is Khayyam. Although a rather free translation, his version or versions are said to be more true to the spirit of the original than any more literal translation. It was my old friend Dante Gabriel Rossetti who made Fitzgerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam famous when he commended it.

Some for the Glories of This World; and some
Sigh for the Prophet’s Paradise to come.
Ah, take the Cash, and let the promise go,
Nor heed the music of a distant Drum!

Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut, author of A Diary from Dixie, b. 1823. This diary is often quoted in the Ken Burns series on the Civil War. You can read it online. Mrs. Chesnut’s husband was a U.S. senator from South Carolina and then an aide to Jefferson Davis during the War.

Andrew Lang, poet, novelist, editor, folklorist, historian, biographer, scholar, and essayist, b. 1844. Of course, we know Lang for his fairy tale books.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born March 26th

Mar26

Nathaniel Bowditch, self-taught mathemetician, astronomer, and navigator, b. 1773. We read Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham last year. He’s a very interesting character, a Yankee seaman and an extraordinary mathematician and ship’s captain. Let your boys read this one, and anyone who is interested in numbers and math.

Edward Bellamy, Utopian novelist, b. 1850. His very popular novel, Looking Backward, was set in the future in the year 2000, and in it Bellamy envisioned a socialist utopia. People have been trying, unsucccessfully, to make the novel come true ever since he wrote it.

A.E. Houseman, poet, b. 1859.

Betty MacDonald, author of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and its sequels, b. 1908. Mrs. MacDonald also wrote The Egg and I, which inspired the 1947 movie with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born March 20th

Mar20

William Barnes, b.1801. Dorset poet. You can read read some of his poems here if you can cut through the dialect.

Thomas Cooper, b. 1805. He was the son of a dyer, educated himself at home, and then opened his own primary school. A Wesleyan Methodist, then later a Baptist itinerant preacher, he was involved politically with the Chartists in protesting the poor working conditions for factory workers at that time in England. When he was in his sixties, he wrote his autobiography, The Life of Thomas Cooper.

Henrik Ibsen, b. 1828. Norwegian playwright. “There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt.” —A Doll’s House.

Mitsumasa Anno, b. 1926. Author and illustrator of children’s books, born in Tsuwano, Japan. He was a teacher of mathematics for ten years before he began to write and illustrate children’s books. His books show both a love of mathematics and puzzles and a love of travel.
Try Anno’s USA or Anno’s Mysterious Multiplying Jar.

I was once asked at a symposium, “Why do you draw?” I knew what they would have liked for an answer, “I draw for the children of Japan who represent our future, blah, blah, blah”. But what I actually wound up saying was, “I draw because that’s my work. I made it my work because it’s what I like to do”. Michael Ende then said, “The same goes for me. I’m just like Anno-san”, while Tasha Tudor said, “I do my work so that I can buy lots of flower bulbs”. From a 2004 interview with Mitsumasa Anno

I like Tasha Tudor’s answer.

Fred Rogers, b. 1928. I still say to my urchins, “Right as usual, King Friday.” The younger ones don’t even know where the phrase comes from, but I used to watch MisterRogers’ Neighborhood with Eldest Daughter about sixteen years ago. I thought then, and I still think, that it was much better than Sesame Street or most of the other PBS children’s shows. It was slower, of course, more reminiscent of Captain Kangaroo, the TV show I remember watching as a preschooler.