Week #12: March 22 – March 28
The world today has literally millions of authors: most with claims to one or two obscure novels, a few with blockbuster hits that reach the prestigious New York Times Bestseller List, and only a handful that people will remember in centuries to come. With so many writers creating novels, it is often easy to forget that other writing genres exist in the world of literature. On March 26 we celebrate the birthdays of two writers (yes they share a birth day – but not a birth year) who through their own set of personal struggles persevered to become masters of their own genres. We celebrate America’s poet Robert Frost, born in 1874, and the playwright Tennessee Williams, born as Thomas Lanier Williams in 1911. Although these masters of their craft encountered different mountain peaks of success and valley lows, fortunately for us, they had two coping mechanisms in common: they wrote to escape and they traveled, leaving behind a cornucopia of places for us to visit which deepens our connection and appreciation of the men behind their individual masterpieces. So don your adventure shoes and let’s start with a walk in the footprints of Robert Frost. Although most think of Robert Frost as a Northeastern poet, he actually started out in life on the opposite coast, in San Francisco, California. He lived in this area with his parents for almost eleven years until his father passed away, leaving them almost penniless. Although we can’t visit his childhood home, the city does have a plaque commemorating the author’s birthplace in the middle of their very own Robert Frost Plaza. With only eight dollars to their name, the remaining Frost family moved to the east coast to live with relatives until his mother found employment teaching in Salem Depot, New Hampshire. Although Frost initially struggled in school, by the time he reached high school he had already found his love for writing poetry, publishing two poems in the school’s paper. Feeling the promise of a bright future, he enrolled in Harvard University and soon met future Mrs. Robert Frost – although she refused his proposals until after she graduated (smart girl!). Within a year after their 1895 marriage, the young couple welcomed their first son. Three years later, they welcomed a daughter. But the dawn of a new century brought tragedy: Frost had dropped out of college, his son died of cholera, his wife suffered from depression, and his mother died from cancer. At a breaking point, Frost learned that his grandfather had also passed, leaving him Derry Farm in New Hampshire. During his stay at the farm, Frost experienced some of his greatest peaks and valleys in life: they welcomed son Carl and three more daughters (Irma, Marjorie, and Elinor), he began teaching English Literature at Pinkerton Academy, and had several poems published; but then the sudden death of his infant daughter cast him back into the valley of despair. In his grief, Frost continued to teach and try different endeavors on the failing farm, but ultimately he decided to sell it. But please don’t fret; after some finagling of the property’s ownership, the state of New Hampshire purchased the farm so that generations to come can still tour the house, explore a poetry trail, and even listen to poetry readings in order to encourage a connection to not only the poetry, but the man behind it. (Visit www.robertfrostfarm.org for more information.) With the proceeds of the farm’s sale in his pocket, Frost moved his devastated family to England with both personal and professional aspirations: personally he hoped that the change of scenery would improve his wife’s justifiable depression, and professionally he hoped to secure a permanent publisher for his poetry. Upon their arrival in Beaconsfield, Frost began meeting several internationally well-known poets and both his aspirations became true: the scenery helped the family prosper, and his new colleagues and the scenery inspired him to write the poems “Birches” and “Mending Wall.” Although the family’s cottage no longer exists, the city recognized the influence the area had on Frost, so like San Francisco, it too placed a plague in the cottage’s original location to honor Robert Frost. Always drawn to the nature in the countryside, Frost then moved his family to a small cottage two hours further west from Beaconsfield to Dymock, Gloucestershire. During their time here, Frost wrote his most widely-known poem “The Road Not Taken” after taking a nature walk with a good friend. Although he claimed that he wrote the poem as a jest because his friend constantly asked Frost to follow him down a path to see a particular plant and then regretted that he hadn’t shown Frost a plant only seen on a different path, upon reading the poem to his friend and then the public, they immediately read a deeper – longer lasting – meaning in the poem which has withstood the test of time. And guess what? You too can take the same walk in Dymock that inspired Frost! Although the cottages are privately owned, the city has organized a poet’s trail for adoring fans. (Visit www.dymockpoets.org.uk for more information.) Although Frost wanted his stay in England to last longer, after WWI began, he moved his family back to the States, deciding to settle down on a farm in Franconia, New Hampshire. Even though Frost only lived there for half a decade, fans can still visit the property, touring the farmhouse and exploring another hiking trail. (See www.frostplace.org for more information.) Fortunately, the success Frost experienced in England had also boosted his reputation in America, allowing him to launch his career in teaching and lecturing, while continuing to write poetry. For the next decade, Frost bounced back and forth accepting and resigning teaching and advising positions at both Amherst College and the University of Michigan. During this time, he sold his Franconia property and moved to Shaftsbury, Vermont where he resided for the next decade. This property, which includes several of the original apple trees, is now the Robert Frost Stone House Museum where admirers can see where Frost wrote his famous poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” while sitting at his kitchen table. (Visit http://www.bennington.edu/robert-frost-stone-house-museum for more information). Frost savored his national fame until his wife began experiencing health problems, eventually leading to her death in 1938 at which time Frost resigned his affiliation with the colleges, sold his home, and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Although this house in Cambridge still stands, unfortunately Frost enthusiasts can only admire the property from the street since it is currently privately owned. (Visit https://www.cambridgeusa.org/listing/robert-frost-house for more information). I wonder if these owners ever tire of having literary admirers gawk at their property. If so, maybe they’ll sell! During the last twenty years of Frost’s life he battled several health issues, including two bouts of pneumonia, a cancerous lesion, and facial skin cancer. He endured and then overcame all of these while still lecturing, earning different honorary degrees, and accepting literary awards. Unfortunately, a diagnosis of and surgery for prostate and bladder cancer which lead to a pulmonary embolism halted this American poet’s life on January 29, 1963. In addition to leaving a rich legacy of poetry behind, he also left one last location for Frost devotees to come and pay their respect: his gravesite at Old Bennington Cemetery in Vermont. Having a general love and appreciation for poetry and as one of those Frost devotees, I look forward to taking a road trip to visit these multiple locations while re-reading my most favorite Robert Frost poems. So while I’m waiting to take that road trip, let’s take a look at another writer ranked as one of American’s best: playwright Thomas Lanier Williams, or Tennessee Williams as we all know him. Much like with Robert Frost, America appreciates the talent of Tennessee Williams and has protected the multiple properties associated with this master of the stage. Unlike Frost though, whose places of literary significance are sprinkled around the world – making it a little more difficult to visit all of them, Tennessee William’s places are all located in the Southern portion of the United States, beginning in Columbus, Mississippi. Now the home that welcomed Thomas Williams into the world in 1911, welcomes visitors to the city as the Tennessee Williams Welcome Center. (Visit www.visitcolumbusms.org/attractions/tennessee-williams-home/ for more information). Seeing how his family moved from there to Clarksdale, Mississippi when young Williams was only three years old, he probably didn’t remember toddling around this house. Fans can also visit Clarksdale in October to enjoy the annual Tennessee Williams Festival where they honor the playwright with porch performances and a walking tour of the neighborhood including viewing his friends’ homes and touring the home that he remembered with some trepidation, since it was here that he suffered from diphtheria that left him weakened with paralyzed legs and confined to the house for over a year. (Visit www.clarkhouse.info/historic-district-tennessee-williams for more information.) So although the Clarksdale home may mark the beginning of his tempestuous childhood, he claimed his real struggle didn’t begin until his alcohol-loving father moved the family of five to St. Louis, Missouri as part of a work promotion. Maybe the urban bustle stressed his father, maybe the added responsibilities at work lowered his father’s patience, maybe the added chaos from moving to several different homes within the city caused his father’s turbulent behavior; whatever the cause, Thomas felt his father’s aggression and the growing tension in the house, and often sought refuge in writing. Nowadays, instead of fostering curiosity about these homes, this city also honors the playwright with an annual festival, but in May. (Visit www.twstl.org for more information.) And with the exception on one privately-owned apartment, his remaining homes in this region remain a mystery. And maybe they should remain blockaded from the prying eyes of literary aficionados since, although they provided him with inspiration for characters and locations in the plays he would later write, they did not evoke happy memories for the young Williams, and he would forever (ironically – which I’ll explain later) despise the city. Fortunately, young Williams found his salvation from his chaotic home life through writing. Like Robert Frost, Thomas Williams also experienced his first writing success while still attending high school, publishing an essay and a short story. These small successes led him to major in Journalism at the University of Missouri – at least until his father pulled him out of school to work at the same shoe company where he worked. We can only imagine too well that this did not bode well with Thomas. Although he tried to write his way through his depressive state of mind, it eventually took hospitalization to overcome a nervous breakdown. At the age of twenty-six, he returned to college, enrolling at the University of Iowa. In between his studies, he wrote his first play, “Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay” (1937), and then graduated the following year. Out of his father’s demanding presence, he moved to New Orleans, Louisiana and changed history – at least for the world of the theatre. If you’ve ever traveled to New Orleans, you know it has a unique vibrant vibe. And it was here while living in various rooms that he learned to accept himself as a homosexual and he learned to mold his experiences with family, addiction, madness, and sexuality into enduring plays that theatre-goers would enjoy for generations to come. It was also here that he reinvented himself as ‘Tennessee’ Williams, supposedly taking the name of his father’s home state – which if true, goes to show his father’s psychological influence (maybe subconsciously seeking his father’s approval). And it was here, while listening to the streetcar travel down towards Desire Street that he penned his famous play, “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Unfortunately for us, we can’t experience a ride on the actual streetcar because the city modernized the route with a city bus the following year, but we can still get our Tennessee Williams fix by either following a walking tour of the city that showcases the different rooms where he lived and bars where he enjoyed a drink or two (visit www.biography.com/news/tennessee-williams-new-orleans for more information), or celebrating his birthday at the New Orleans Literary Festival that they hold every year (visit http://tennesseewilliams.net for more information). With success and fame, came money and the freedom to travel. He enjoyed vacationing in Key West, Florida so much that he eventually bought a house there and consistently traveled between New Orleans and Key West for the next several decades. And not wanting to be forgotten, the city of Key West bought an old house down the street from Williams’ original house (which is now privately owned) and renovated it as a Tennessee Williams Museum, displaying the largest collection of his memorabilia, including photographs taken in the area, first edition plays, and the typewriter he used while writing in Key West. So come relax in the small town he probably called his home away from home (visit http://twkw.org for more information). Unfortunately with success and fame also came alcohol and drugs, which led him to depression. In this state, he struggled to write at the same level. The critics, smelling a weakness, attacked. With each new play, he suffered new criticisms, and with each criticism he drank more alcohol and abused more drugs, causing a vicious cycle. Concerned for his well-being, his mom and brother intervened. Under false pretense, they lured Williams back to St. Louis, imploring him to come quickly because of his mother’s failing health. When he arrived, mom was fine. And they forcibly admitted him to a psychiatric ward for recovery. He never forgot his brother’s betrayal and never spoke to him again. After six months sober and back home, he began writing again. But the roots of addiction run deep and like a weed they sprang back to life, choking off his creativity. In the mist of alcoholism and addiction, Tennessee tried to revitalize his reputation; however even though he wrote almost two dozen more plays, none of them received the accolades of his earlier work like “The Class Menagerie” (1944), “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947), or “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1955). And then too entangled in the weeds of alcohol and drugs, he died in a New York hotel room in 1983. When a national icon dies, fans relish the opportunity to visit the final resting place to pay their respect, and it was no different for fans of Tennessee Williams; however they didn’t find his final resting place in either one of his most beloved cities, Key West or New Orleans. Instead, he rests eternally in the city he despised the most, St. Louis. Why? His brother. As his surviving kin, his brother chose to return Tennessee Williams to St. Louis for burial alongside his mother in the family plot in Calvary Cemetery, making even his death a plot, that if still living, he’d likely use in one of his own plays. But since he could not overcome his addiction, the city he despised the most welcomes visitors to both his tormented childhood homes and his unlikely gravesite. So between these two literary giants that each earned the title as “America’s Best” in their respective genres, we, as literary aficionados, have over a dozen places to visit strengthening our bond with literature. But having visited several places of literary significance, some of the ones I mention here included, I have come to a deeper understanding. While in the presence of a writer’s home, place of inspiration, or even their gravesite, I feel the justifiable reverence we have for these national icons. But I also understand that to truly claim a connection to a writer, to understand and to bond with a writer, it cannot be accomplished by standing in their foyer decades or centuries after their death; it can only be accomplished through the enjoyment of reading and understanding their works of art, and then recommending others to read it as well. So I implore you to read…. and then go pay your respects knowing why. In addition to the websites I mentioned in my article, I also reference information from researching these authors on the following sites: “10 of the Best Robert Frost Poems Everyone Should Read.” Interesting Literature: A Library of Literary Interestingness. 26 June 2017. Retrieved 19 March 2018 from https://interestingliterature.com/2017/06/26/10-of-the-best-robert-frost-poems-everyone-should-read/ Giegerich, Steve. “Why Tennessee Williams rests for eternity in the city he openly despised.” The St. Louis Post Dispatch. 19 February 2017. Retrieved 18 March 2018 from http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/why-tennessee-williams-rests-for-eternity-in-the-city-he/article_ea5a875f-2332-5227-a698-6532cfcfded5.html “Robert Frost.” Academy of American Poets. Retrieved 19 March 2018 from https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/robert-frost “Robert Frost.” Biography.com. A&E Television Networks. 27 April 2017. Retrieved 19 March 2018 from https://www.biography.com/people/robert-frost-20796091 “Robert Frost Biographical Information.” Retrieved 20 March 2018 from http://www.ketzle.com/frost/frostbio.htm “Tennessee Williams.” Tennessee Williams Biography. A&E Television Networks. 2 December 2015. Retrieved 18 March 2018 from https://www.biography.com/ people/tennessee-williams-9532952 “Tennessee Williams.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 14 March 2018. Retrieved 18 March 2018 from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tennessee_Williams &oldid=830336410
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Week #11: March 15 – March 21
If we placed writers on a spectrum based on their writings’ readability, we would most likely have historical William Shakespeare on the left most difficult end, and the modern writers like James Patterson on the right, easier end. The authors celebrating a birthday this week are just as diverse on where they’d fall on this spectrum. We have John Updike and Irving Wallace who would both fall more towards the right of the spectrum, and then Henrik Ibsen who would fall closer to the left. Regardless of where we place them though, their work stands on their own and remains enjoyed by millions. Let’s take a look at our two authors closer to the right end: John Updike, who celebrated a March 18, 1932 birthday, and Irving Wallace, who celebrated a March 19, 1916 birthday. Although born sixteen years apart, these two authors have many similarities in their backgrounds and writing styles. Both of these authors were born in the United States: Updike in Shililngton, Pennsylvania, and Wallace in Chicago, Illinois. Both had working parents who influenced the foundations of their beliefs: Updike’s father as a math teacher and Wallace’s father as a store clerk, both taught their -sons to work for their living and to understand social class; while both writers’ mothers instilled in them a love and appreciation for reading and writing. Both writers worked for their high school’s newspaper. And while still in high school, both submitted their work to outside magazines: Updike submitted his drawings (yes – he had aspirations to become the next Walt Disney) to The New Yorker, and Wallace published his first article to Horse and Jockey magazine. Upon graduation, both young men went to college but developed different skills: Updike studied graphic design at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Wallace studied creative writing at Williams Institute in Berkeley, California. Both married in their early twenties. Both travelled, albeit for different reasons: Updike earned a scholarship to attend Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford, England, while Wallace traveled for the military creating training scripts during World War II. Both attempted working for other companies before considering writing as a career: Updike returned to the States as a staff writer for The New Yorker, and Wallace tried his hand at screenwriting in Hollywood. Although both achieved a goal – Updike to write for the esteemed New Yorker, and Wallace to write for Hollywood - the achievement of the goal only wet their appetite for true writing success as independent writers, and so both men quit their jobs for a professional career as an author. And although both eventually died in their seventies (Updike from lung cancer in 2009, and Wallace from pancreatic cancer in 1990, both achieved long successful writing careers before then: Updike published twenty-one novels, twelve works of non-fiction, and several collections of poetry, while Wallace published sixteen novels and seventeen works of non-fiction. Even their novels contained often pondered the same questions, such as “How do different pressures affect an individual? How do men and women handle situations? And what’s the purpose of an individual’s life?” Obviously, these questions pertain to citizens in our everyday working-class society, so it’s no wonder their novels remained popular over the decades. One difference between the two writers is that John Updike’s novels typically reference significant events that actually happened during the time of the book’s setting, so in reading them, not only do you empathize with the characters, and learn about history, but you learn about how these historical events escalated and affected the characters over time. This is especially evident in Updike’s Rabbit series, which includes Rabbit Run (1960), Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit Is Rich (1981), and Rabbit at Rest (1990), because the multiple books follow a character over four decades. With so much similarity, I’ll have to read at least a couple of novels from each author to see if I personally prefer one over the other. I think I’ll begin with John Updike’s novel The Centaur (1963) which tells the story of a distraught relationship between a father and his son, while shifting narrators between these characters and Greek mythical beings. Sounds interesting! And then I’ll compare it to Irving Wallace’s controversial The Celestial Bed (1987) which follows a “hero’s” journey as he attempts to solve patients’ sexual challenges as their sex therapist. Maybe this is one to keep the young kiddos from looking over my shoulder as I read? These seem like totally different plots, so I’m curious to see if they have any over-lapping themes. Either way, I’m reading something different, and regardless of which one I personally prefer, when I’m in their neck-of-the-woods, at the very least I’ll stop at their gravesites (Updike is buried at Robeson Lutheran Church Cemetery in Plowville, Pennsylvania, and Wallace is buried in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California), if for nothing else but to pay my respects to two authors who made a successful living writing for others – something I long to do as well. And while I’m in Pennsylvania, I’d also like to make the quick eight minute drive over to Shillington to tour John Updike’s childhood home (see https:// blogs.iwu.edu/johnupdikesociety/the-john-updike-childhood-home/) and see just where the young lad first recognized his artistic talent. Who knows, maybe I’ll catch that artistic bug too! Now let’s take a look at Henrik Ibsen on the other end of our spectrum, whose work is only out-performed world-wide by that of Shakespeare! Like John Updike and Irving Wallace, Henrik Ibsen, born in Skien, Norway on March 20, 1828, learned the fundamentals in life from his parents. His father worked hard as a merchant, and his mother, talented in the arts, taught him the joy of reading and writing. But that’s where the similarities end. As the eldest of five children, Henrik Ibsen endured a childhood more characteristic of other literary giants, meaning he persevered through life’s challenges. At the age of eight, the collapse his father’s business left the family in poverty. Henrik leaned on reading and writing as a way to escape his new situation. Then at the age of fifteen, tired of living in the poverty-stricken household of his family, he dropped out of school and supported himself by working for an apothecary. Again, he utilized his free time to read and write, but this time his scribbling turned into something more: it positioned him on his fateful path because it led to his first play in verse Catilina (1849), which follows a man full of doubts and torn between love and duty. Sounds like maybe Henrik’s decision to leave home came back to haunt him, at least subconsciously . Not only did this play signify the beginning of his illustrious career as a playwright, but it also signified how he would continue to handle stressful situations. You see, people in town thought the content of the play scandalous – after all, one must never question duty. With the town up in arms, Ibsen quit his apprenticeship with the apothecary and moved to the university town of Christiania, which proved a fateful step in the right direction. Within a year he met a theatre manager who offered him a job as a writer and manager of a theatre in Bergen, where at the young age of twenty-three, he learned the ins-and-outs of the theatre business. Before he reached his thirtieth birthday, he had returned to the college town of Christiania to manager yet another theatre, but this time in additional to getting married and starting a family, he encountered several challenges with the business-end of the theatre. In order to handle the stress, he leaned on his old friend – writing, and by 1862 he had written Love’s Comedy, which takes a satirical look at marriage… hummm. I wonder if the stress of the theatre business also caused him stress in his personal life. Regardless of why he wrote it, once again people in town thought the content of the play controversial and immoral. And so, maybe with the understanding that he enjoyed writing more than managing, or maybe he grew frustrated with the controversy surrounding the play, he applied for a small grant and uprooted his family to move to Italy. Italy suited him well: he wrote the much applauded Brand (1865), quickly followed with Peer Gynt (1867), which he took inspiration from the Norwegian folktale character Per Gynt who as a hunter rescued three dairy-maids from trolls. Not everyone praised Ibsen’s verse in this play, and he took his accustomed approach, and fled to Germany. Although he spent the next decade unhindered and writing, which included the play The Pillars of Society (1877), the publication of his masterpiece A Doll’s House (1879) set the theatre world into chaos because he had once again questioned the traditional roles in society. With debate hot on his tail, he did what he did best – he moved, this time to Rome where he continued his Tasmanian devil approach to writing and life (placing a town in chaos by creating controversial plays that caused people to question their traditions and morals, and then fleeing under such controversy). While in Rome he became bolder and wrote Ghosts (1881), which includes taboo topics of incest and sexually transmitted diseases. Feeling the pressure from critics, he immediately the appropriately titled An Enemy of the People (1882), to try to educate his audiences on his belief that traditions and morals change, and they must too. Although he continued to write while in Rome, he seemed to have backed off a little on trying to get this point across; after all he still needed to make a living and everyone thought his plays too risqué and controversial, then he risked his income. Before finally returning to Norway in 1891, he managed to pen his last masterpiece, Hedda Gabler (1890) with its formidable female character, that actresses still today claim as the pinnacle of an acting career. Unfortunately, after suffering for several years after multiple strokes in 1900 took his writing ability, he passed away IN 1906, leaving behind his legacy of plays for future generations to ponder and enjoy. Fortunately, in addition to these plays, you can also visit Norway (twist your arm, right?) and walk in his footsteps as he searched for inspiration for some of his plays, then tour his Reimanngarden home and the Ibsen Museum, before finally arriving at his grave to pay your respects to this playwright that seemed to evoke chaos wherever he went (www.visitnorway.com). To me, the fact that the themes in his plays still remain popular and still make people question their own morals and self-identity prove the validity of the accolades he earned over a hundred years ago, and make us want to read or watch his plays even though we place them on the more challenging side of our readability spectrum. In addition to the websites I mentioned in my article, I also reference information from researching these authors on the following sites: Adams, Robert M. “Henrik Ibsen: Norwegian dramatist and poet.” 2018. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 12 March 2018 from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henrik-Ibsen “Henrik Ibsen.” Biography.com. 3 March 2015. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved 12 March 2018 from https://www.biography.com/people/henrik-ibsen-37014 “John Updike.” Encyclopaedia of World Biographies. 2018. Retrieved 12 March 2018 from http://www.notablebiographies.com/Tu-We/Updike-John.html Pamuk, Orhan. “Updike at Rest: Adam Begley’s ‘Updike’.” New York Times. 17 April 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2018 from https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/books/review/adam-begleys-updike.html Severo, Richard. “Irving Wallace, Whose 33 Books Sold in the Millions, Is Dead at 74.” 30 June 1990. New York Times. Retrieved 12 March 2018 from https://www.nytimes. com/1990/06/30/obituaries/irving-wallace-whose-33-books-sold-in-the-millions-is-dead-at-74.html Week #10: March 08 – March 14
The two authors celebrating a birthday during this week, spent their entire career striving to write a great novel equivalent to historical international literary giants, but inevitably came up short, and now their contributions to the literary canon, although popular at the time, collect dust on antiquated bookshelves or lay waiting as a forgotten treasure at estate sales. Let’s take a peek into the lives of Jack Kerouac and Hugh Walpole to see if like fashion that becomes popular again decades later, their writing can once again ignite interest in our modern society. When I first travelled to Denver, Colorado, in search of the area’s literary significance, the life and writings of Jack Kerouac piqued by interest, not because he was born there – he was born in Lowell, Massachusetts – but because he’d spent influential time in Denver. Born on March 12, 1922, as Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac, he experienced an unblemished and carefree childhood, until the tragic death of his older brother from rheumatic fever. At this point, Jack knew his role and responsibilities in the family had just became more important. So when the Great Depression hit and his father, the owner of a small print shop, suffered severe financial loss and eventually the business, Jack stepped up to help by concentrating on his talents to win a scholarship to Columbia University, where he envisioned a degree would mean better opportunity for job security and financial assistance for his family. The scholarship was not for writing though – but for football. With dreams of stadium-filled fans, Jack packed up his belongings and moved to New York to attend the required pre-college preparatory school, Horace Mann. During his time there he discovered two influential artistic elements that would drive him for the rest of his life: jazz and writing. Although the influence of jazz would come in to play later, the benefit of writing happened immediately when Jack used his new talent to begin writing for the school’s magazine. Jack found this new passion just in time before life would throw him a curve ball that would alter his path. During one of the first Columbia University football games, Jack broke his leg. With life not going the way he had anticipated, he dropped out of college. With the dreams of a degree destroyed and knowing that his family still needed help, after working a few construction jobs, he joined the military only to have life hit him with another curveball. The military honorably discharged him after only ten days for having “strong schizoid trends.” No degree. No patriotic enlistment in the military. Kerouac was anchorless, and remained so for the remainder of his life. He returned to New York City and although he didn’t return to the school, he befriended two Columbia students aspiring to write. Although these two students, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, along with Jack, would eventually start the Beat Generation literary movement, these “friends” also encouraged his chaotic irresponsible life-style and bad-decision making, leading to a positive or negative influence, depending on the situation. The first negative influence and bad decision occurred when one of William Burroughs’ friends committed murder and Kerouac helped dispose of evidence, ultimately leading to Kerouac’s arrest as a material witness. That bad decision lead to his first marriage; his girlfriend’s parents bailed him out of jail on the condition that he marry their daughter immediately. Within a few months he realized his mistake and divorced her. But this then in return lead to a positive influence because he used their connections to publish his first book, Town and City, which narrated his first-hand experiences of the conflicting big-city life temptations and his fundamental family values. With a little success under his wings, he began to aspire to write the next “Great American Novel,” which too often left him edgy and dissatisfied with life. Restless, jobless, and constantly looking for inspiration in what he thought life owed him, he travelled back and forth between West Coast and East Coast with frequent stops at his friend, Neal Cassady’s, house. His nomadic traveling often included sex, drugs, alcohol, and jazz, at the end of which, during a three-week binger, he wrote unedited on a 120-foot scroll these tales. The result? His most prolific novel, On the Road, (1951). It revolutionized the literary world. His unique “spontaneous prose,” which he compared to the rhythms of jazz, combined with his descriptive non-conformist accounts of characters’ and their behaviors, left the literary world open-jawed by his abandonment of form, but also more knowledgeable about the hippy-lifestyle surrounding them. Although Kerouac received much acclaim for this novel, he did not handle the success well and oftentimes used alcohol and drugs as an escape. In one of his drunken states, he married his second wife. The marriage produced a daughter and then ended shortly afterwards. Still feeling edgy and in search of enlightenment, he went on a mountain hiking trip. He used his experiences there as the basis for his next novel The Dharma Bums (1958). Although he received positive reviews, it was not canonical. Always hoping that his next novel would capture the title of the elusive “Great American Novel,” he continued to write several more novels. With each one he encountered some success, and with the success came more drugs and alcohol. In 1966, basically penniless, he married his third wife and moved to Florida. Unfortunately, in one of his drunken states he argued with the wrong bar locals and their fight resulted in his death from internal hemorrhaging at the age of forty-six. Although Kerouac lived a personally dissatisfying life - always searching - he did influence the next generation of writers to take more freedom with their own personal writing style. So much so that in Orlando, Florida, there’s a waiting list to reside at the Kerouac Project, which is the house where Jack lived and wrote, and where now sponsors provide free housing for aspiring writers. To date, over sixty-five writers from all over the world have called this little house a temporary home and an inspiration to their writing. But Kerouac inspired more than writers. Although for decades his work fell to the wayside, many readers wishing to forego his lack of direction and entitlement for tales of hard work and perseverance, nowadays this next youthful generation, with its own feeling of entitlement, has initiated a resurgence of Kerouac’s work, enjoying his “speak-your-mind” kind of writing. And so to honor him, both young and old admirers of his work, crisscross the country stopping at places where he once visited. On the West Coast they marvel at his contributions to the Beat Generation literary movement at the Beat Museum in San Francisco and then head over to the Jack Kerouac Alley for a drink or two at one of the local bars he frequented during his visits. And after sobering up, on their way east they stop (like I did) at Brother’s Bar in downtown Denver, Colorado, where he and sidekick Neal Cassady often clinked glasses while musing over life. Again after sobering up – remember Kerouac spent most of his adult life in a state of drunkenness – they travel another 1,800 miles and stop on the East Coast at the Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts to pay their respects at the Jack Kerouac Commemorative Path and then visit his grave in Edson Cemetery. Wherever you go or whatever you do, make sure you enjoy the journey there, not just the destination, otherwise you could end up like Jack. Skipping across the pond, we have another novelist that spent his life aspiring to write the next great – not the next great ‘American” novel, because he’s British so - English novel after the likes of Thomas Hardy or Anthony Trollope. Say Happy Birthday to Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, who would have celebrated his March 13, 1884 birthday this week. As the eldest son of a prominent reverend, Hugh Walpole was supposed to follow in his father’s footsteps, but from an early age started on a different path. After his father accepted a position in New York, his parents sent young Hugh to England for a proper English education. Unfortunately, Hugh suffered through miserable experiences at four different schools leading up to his college education. Often bullied and feeling miserable, he spent most of his available time in the library reading the works of the literary giants. And he must have absorbed at least some of what he read because he published his first essay for the school’s magazine, starting his prolific writing career. During his college years, Hugh struggled with his sexuality, finally secretly admitting his homosexuality which caused him great personal strife because it conflicted not only with the laws of society but also with his religion – which he eventually abandoned. When offered a post as a missionary in Liverpool, although he originally accepted the position in order to refrain from upsetting his father, he resigned within a few months because of his lack of faith and commitment. With a strong educational background, he decided to tutor children from a wealthy family. During this free time, he wrote, eventually publishing his first book The Wooden Horse (1909). He then taught at Epsom College, and continued writing in his free time, which led to his first real success with Mr. Perrin and Mr. Trail (1911), a story about clashing school masters. Even with this success, he remained a disappointment to his father, who consistently proved difficult to please. Hugh wanted to help with the oncoming war effort, but the military didn’t want him because of his poor eyesight and the police didn’t want him. Undeterred he accepted a position as a journalist in Moscow, Russia. When his father learned of this, he disappointment continued. Again, during his free time, he continued to write and published four more novels by 1915. Eventually he became a Russian officer, working on the Austrian-Russian front where the military awarded him the Cross of Saint George for his heroic efforts to rescue a wounded rescue. Walpole utilized his experiences during his time in Russia to write The Dark Forest (1916) and The Secret City (1919). By this time, he had more free time on his hands than actual war-related responsibilities, so the military sent him back to England. And that suited Walpole, who continued to write and lecture, including a lecturing tour in the United States where people lined up to see and hear him. But even with the literary stardom, he felt the inadequacy of his writing career and the loneliness in his personal life. He finally met Harold Cheevers, who even though had a wife and children, took up residency with Walpole as his companion and chauffeur for the remainder of Walpole’s life. With his personal life fulfilled, he concentrated on his quest be write the next great British novel, writing anywhere from one up to three novels a year between 1918 and 1943. And although he achieved success with The Herries Chronicle series which includes four books he wrote between 1930 through 1933, his work never reached the canonical level of Thomas Hardy. Walpole also founded The Book Society to promote literature by selling members the latest quality books published – of course that included his literature as well. And maybe this business venture vexed fellow writers, like Somerset Maugham who based his superficial ambitious character with limited literary talent on the likes of Walpole. Unfortunately, even with the positive review from readers about The Herries Chronicles series, the negative attention associated with Walpole because of Maugham, combined with Walpole’s more traditional views and what literary critics considered an outdated writing style, seriously lacerated his popularity which he never regained. Never having reached his ultimate goal, Walpole died of a heart attack at the age of fifty-seven and is buried in the St. John’s churchyard in Keswick, England. So after three-quarters of a century, can he finally make a comeback? Does his writing style that displays little concern for form and conventional rules of writing deserve a place in the canon? With themes relating to conflicts between societal classes, ageism, the agony of love, and the inner desires of the soul, one would think that his novels are even more relatable to our modern society. After researching both of these authors and learning about their quest for greatness, while never really appreciating the journey along the way, I am reminded of a quote by one of the world’s leading wellness authorities Greg Anderson during his fight against terminal lung cancer. He said, “Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” I wonder if Kerouac and Walpole had reached their goal of writing the next great novel, if they would have lived the end of their days differently. Would they have any regrets knowing that readers still enjoy their novels decades later, even if the novels are not considered one of the greats? I think they would find that greatness is subjective. In addition to the websites I mentioned in my article, I also reference information from researching these authors on the following sites: “Jack Kerouac Biography.” The Biography.com Website. A&E Television Networks. 27 April 2017. Retrieved on 6 March 2018 from https://www.biography.com/ people/jack-kerouac-9363719 Shrivastava, Dr. Ila Rani. “The Technique of Plot-Construction in the Novels of Sir Hugh Walpole.” New Man International Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies. 1(6) June 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2018 from http://www.newmanpublication.com/br/4%20-JUNE%202014%20%20Issue%20Final.pdf Weinreich, Regina. “Jack Kerouac: American Writer.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 5 March 2018. Retrieved on 7 March 2018 from https://www.britannica.com/biography/ Jack-Kerouac Wikipedia contributors. “Hugh Walpole.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 25 January 2018. Retrieved 7 March 2018 from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title= Hugh_Walpole&oldid=822339235 Youngs, Ian. “Author Hugh Walpole Comes in from the Cold.” BBC News. March 2013. Retrieved 7 March 2018 from http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-21829409 Week #9: March 01-March 07
In a society that simultaneously evades and embraces identity, romanticizes and rationalizes actions, and destroys and protects childhood, the three prolific and distinctly different authors that celebrate their birthdays this week all would have something to say about our uncertain future. As we celebrate their ingenuity, let’s take a brief look at the pathway that led Ralph Ellison, William Dean Howells, and Theodor Geisel to success. But first, say Happy Birthday boys! Being named after the Father of Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson, immediately thrust Ralph Waldo Ellison, on a path for greatness when he was born on March 1, 1914 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Although his father died during Ellison’s early childhood, he instilled in him a love of reading. And his mother, left to raise her children as a single mother, instilled in him the sense of duty. And a summer job after high school which influenced him to relocate to New York taught him perseverance. And the writers (Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, and Alain Locke) he met in New York while working for the New York Federal Writers Program taught him to spread his wings and fly. Overall, Ellison had a strong foundation of “teachers” when he picked up the pen while at his friend’s farm in Vermont and started writing what would become his most prized work, The Invisible Man. I have read this and have utilized it while teaching a unit on identity in AP Literature. I personally found it a very insightful and challenging novel. And although this novel takes place in Harlem during the 1930’s, as I reflect on the overall idea of the importance of identity nowadays – both how others see you and how you see yourself – I can’t help but contemplate how this same issue affects our world today. Before Ellison died of pancreatic cancer in 1994, did he realize the impact his novel would continue to have? Within four months, we have endured three ghastly mass shootings: one at a concert in Las Vegas leaving fifty-eight dead, and two at high schools leaving nineteen dead. In the aftermath of those shootings, in our search for answers, we question the identity of the perpetrator: who was he? Which characteristics does he have that led him to these actions? How can we identify this possibility in someone else? Sadly we do not have all the answers, and will probably never have all the answers. But this also leads me to wonder how these criminals thought of themselves. Did their own distorted view of themselves and society lead to their actions? Mental state, self-worth, and identity are closely connected, as the nameless protagonist in Invisible Man describes in his telling of his life’s experiences. He knows he is not literally invisible, but he might as well be for his thoughts and actions are not his own; he is a puppet on puppet strings doing what he thinks society expects of him. And what limitations come with this type of invisibility? If you’re invisible, how much can you get away with? Based on recent event, apparently a lot. So we want to embrace our identity, we want others to see us, to know us, to love us. We need human connections. In a world where it is easy to communicate over the phone, over the internet, but increasingly difficult to communicate in person, to physically look into another individual’s eyes, to physically touch another, we cannot evade those connections. Look what happens when individuals feel invisible. So this week to honor Ralph Ellison’s search for identity, instead of visiting his memorial at Riverside Park in the Bronx or touring Oklahoma City’s tour of places significant to Ellison (www.historypin.org/en/remembering-ralph-ellison-the-oklahoma-city-t/geo) - you can do that another week, I ask that you look someone in their eyes, take someone by the hand and feel their presence. Let them know they are not invisible; you are not invisible. William Dean Howells also celebrated a March 1 birthday. Born in 1837 as the second son of eight children with a father in the printing and publishing industry positioned William to experience situations that would contribute to his career as a writer. For example, as a young adult, under the influence of his father, he worked as a typesetter and as a printer’s apprentice. This gave him the knowledge and experience to earn money as a writer. He used the money to move to New England where, with his publishing influence, met quite a few literary giants including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. His success in the writing industry continued awarded with a job offer in Italy as a consulate. Once there, he met his wife and started a family. As he aged, he continued to meet with success, publishing works by Mark Twain, Henry James, Emily Dickinson, and Stephen Crane in America and Henrik Ibsen Leo Tolstoy in Europe. Born with access into the industry, to this point, some would say he had lived a perfect life. But then he endured a parent’s worst nightmare: the death of his daughter. Maybe before this event, he was already considering turning his own writing into his primary career or maybe this tragedy made him realize the uncertainty of life and question the legacy he would leave behind one day. Either way, Howells began to write… a lot. Although he wrote eight novels, beginning with Venetian Life (1866) long before he ever traveled to Europe, and he wrote nine novels, including the rags to riches tale The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) while living in Europe, when he returned to the United States until his death he wrote an additional thirty-eight novels ranging from Indian Summer (1886) to his autobiography Years of My Youth in 1916, which he wrote while vacationing at the house in St. Augustine, Massachusetts that people can still tour today. Maybe because of the tragedy he endured in his own life, or maybe because he published the works of other realists like Mark Twain or Stephen Crane, regardless of the reason, Howells too wrote in a realist manner. He portrayed ordinary people with dreams of something better but confined by moral or societal responsibilities. So how does his writing relate to our troubled times? Dreaming of something better is the foundation of the American Dream. The problem is that criminals in our society romanticize individual freedoms and ignore the restraints of societal responsibility, and the victims suffer the consequences. Too many people think they deserve something or are owed something, and therefore take it regardless of the lawfulness of such actions. We need to remember, such as Howells reminds us, that we can’t allow our individual wants and desires to overshadow our greater responsibility to society. If we do, we’re left with a dark and dangerous amoral world. So to combine our honor of Ralph Ellison in which we will physically reach out to someone, let us also honor William Dean Howells by choosing positive, moral actions that positively affect the greater society. Our most famous author that celebrated a birthday this week entered the world on March 2, 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts, so it is no surprise that in honor of Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, that the city opened “Seussville” which contains the National Memorial Sculpture Garden including prominent characters from his books, The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum displaying significant artifacts, and a map of places around the area influential to the great man himself. But in the early years, Dr. Seuss was certainly not a doctor and not even a writer. He was a cartoonist in advertising. Although he attended college at New Hampshire’s Dartmouth and then England’s Oxford University, while studying literature, he had a greater propensity for doodling than taking notes. So eventually he dropped out and after marrying his first wife, they returned to the United States where Theodor for the next thirty years he drew cartoons for different advertisements. Three simultaneous events occurred that propelled Theodor into writing children’s books. First, his contract as a cartoonist forbade him from writing any other type of book, and second, he found out his wife could not have children, and third he became seasick on a cruise returning from Europe. As a distraction from the seasickness he concentrated on the rhythm of the ship’s engines and chanted purposeless sayings. In hope of still connecting to children since he couldn’t have any, he organized these sayings into his first children’s book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Upon landing in the States, he looked for a publisher, only to have them reject his book. Ready to give up, he ran into an old high school friend that worked at Vanguard Press. With Vanguard Press’ 1937 publication of this book, Dr. Seuss was born. Like many of you, I remember learning to read and reading Dr. Seuss books as a child. As a teacher, I used them to help students understand the cadence of William Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter. As a mother, I gifted Oh the Places You’ll Go (1990), filled with memories written by her high school teachers to my graduating daughter. As a grandma, I still send them to my grandbabies hoping to instill in them that same love of reading that these same books instilled in me many, many moons ago. During all of my experiences with Dr. Seuss’ books, I enjoyed them on the purely entertainment level. I only now realize the autobiographical and political nature of his books. Let’s look at the more autobiographical books beginning with the story of an adoptive father, Horton Hatches an Egg (1940), perhaps still pinning for the chance to raise children. Everyone’s Christmas favorite, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (1957), also surprisingly portrays Seuss himself. After enduring yet another stressful Christmas season, Seuss looked in the mirror and saw a sour man who, lost in the sea of materialism, felt lonely. So he created Mr. Grinch and Cindy Lou Who in order to rediscover the meaning of Christmas. And finally we have the epitome of chaos with The Cat in the Hat (1957), which transcends both autobiographical and political backgrounds. Seuss wrote the book as a challenge. In 1954 John Hersey wrote an article “Why Do Students Bog Down on the First R?” which exclaimed that boring books such as Dick and Jane perpetuated the country’s low reading skills problem and challenged Seuss to write a book that children couldn’t put down, but that only contained 225 different early-reading words. Challenge accepted. After looking at the list and finally finding two words that rhymed, he had the title and main character for the book. On a personal level though he connected to the cat’s creativity, his sense of awe in the frenzy that comes with multi-tasking, and his rebellious nature. This rebellious nature of Seuss’ we see in several of his other children’s books. As an adolescent whom others teased because of his German ancestry, his books often portray a sensibility to social injustice. For example, he took inspiration from America’s atomic bombing on Japan to write his 1954 classic Horton Hears a Who!, which portrays a world facing annihilation. He wrote Yertle the Turtle (1958) about an oppressive turtle who builds his empire at the expense of his miserable citizens, closely resembling Hitler’s rise to power. In 1971 he wrote The Lorax after witnessing the destruction of trees on a visit to Kenya. The powerful message that someone must speak for those who can’t, led the logging industry to try to ban the book. And finally, out of concern about the ever-growing nuclear arms race, in 1984 he wrote his last major political outcry in The Butter Battle Book, which ends leaving the reader to decide what happens with the characters as they stand ready to drop a bomb on the other’s country. If children read these books with a deeper understanding of their etymology, would they still enjoy them? Would these books still make the classic literature list? I think it’s important to remember that Seuss wrote for two audiences: the child – he just wanted them to read, and they did; and the parent – who could understand and take interest in the books connectivity to their own society. But, other than still teaching and encouraging millions of children to read each year, do they still relate to our society? Just a few weeks prior to Theodor Geisel’s death from oral cancer in 1991, biographers asked if there was anything he might have left unsaid that he wanted to tell children. He replied, “We can…and we’ve got to…do better than this.” In the aftermath of our recent shootings, his words can never be truer, can never hold more power. And just look at the impact the survivors are making on ways to eliminate this violence in the hope that as a society we will stop destroying childhood and start protecting it. So to honor Dr. Seuss, in addition to reaching out to someone, to making a positive impact on society, support the protection of childhood because we can “do better than this.” In addition to the websites I mentioned in my article, I also reference information from researching these authors on the following sites: Campbell, Donna M. The William Dean Howells Society. August 2009. Washington State University Retrieved February 28, 2018 from https://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/howells/hbio.htm. Christinawolf68. Oklahoma City University. December 4, 2013. Retrieved February 28, 2018 from https://www.historypin.org/en/remembering-ralph-ellison-the-oklahoma-city-t/geo. Nel, Philip. Seusville. Penguin Random House LLC. 2010. Retrieved February 28, 2018 from http://m.seussville.com/biography.html Ralph Ellison. Biography.Com. A&E Television Networks. May 31, 2017. Retrieved February 28, 2018 from https://www.biography.com/people/ralph-ellison-9286702. |
AuthorLet me introduce myself. I am Julie Blasofsel. While teaching high school English for the past dozen years, my appreciation for works of literature increased after visiting several locations associated with the authors and their texts. You can't help but feel the presence of Ralph Waldo Emerson as you stand on the shores of Walden pond, the despair of Henry Longfellow as you stand in his house, the loneliness of Edgar A. Poe as you descend into his walled basement, the candor of Samuel Clemons as you reach his men-only study. My goal is to gather information and relate my experiences about these places of literary significance in this literary hive. Please add your literary travel experiences and recommendations. Together we can bring these authors to life and light the flame of passion for reading in others. Enjoy! Archives
October 2018
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