Week #13: April 08 – April 15
What makes an author great? It wouldn’t surprise me to hear day, week, or even month-long discussions on this topic. Does an author have to embrace rich language to be great, like Shakespeare? Does a great author have to bring to light appalling conditions, like Charles Dickens? Does a great author have to make readers question their morals, like Harriet Beecher Stowe? Does a great author have to display a pioneering concept, like Wilkie Collins? Does a great author have to capture the essence of an era, like F. Scott Fitzgerald? Does a great author have to incorporate personal experiences, like Ernest Hemingway? Does a great author have to publish numerous books, like Jane Austen, or one powerful book, like Harper Lee? We’d all agree that these authors individually earned their title as a “great” author, but we’ve all read a book that includes one or more of these qualities, and yet we don’t consider the author “one of the greats.” So to be a great author one must be remembered – not just a passing fad that lasts a year or a decade, but remembered for even centuries. And why do we remember them? For any of the qualities listed above. But why do some good authors never transition to the “great” category? To answer that, let’s take a look at the four authors that all celebrate a birthday this week: Paul Theroux, Glenway Wescott, Scott Turow, and James Branch Cabell. Let’s begin with saying ‘Happy Birthday’ to popular travel writer, Paul Theroux who will celebrate his April 10, 1941 birthday this week. After spending a childhood lost in the pages of books, Theroux left the comforts and chaos associated with living with his parents and six siblings in Medford, Massachusetts to attend the University of Maine, but then transferred to the University of Massachusetts and took creative writing classes before earning his bachelor’s degree in English. But Theroux needed more than writing – he wanted to travel. So he trained to become a member of the Peace Corps, and as a result spent time lecturing and writing in Italy and Africa. During his stint in Africa, he met his wife and started a family. Although he loved Africa, he uprooted his family and moved to Singapore to teach after an angry mob almost hurt his pregnant wife. During his time in the Peace Corps, Theroux wrote five novels, beginning with the publication of Waldo in 1967, and concluded with Jungle Lover in 1971, which the Malawi government banned. But it was his travelogue, The Great Railway Bazaar, about his four-month journey by train from London through Europe, the Middle East, and southern Asia that earned him substantial literary recognition. Since then he went on to write eighteen more non-fiction books, most about his travels, and thirty more novels. As a professional writer and currently living in Hawaii, he has obviously achieved success, but will society remember him in one hundred years? Hopefully he doesn’t take this personally, but probably not. And not just because of his vocal criticism about celebrities and their attempts to help third-world countries within Africa. More likely, society won’t remember him because it will have outgrown his main genre of writing – travelogues. Nowadays, if people want information about a specific location, they Google it or turn to social media for assistance – they generally do not read a book about it. Travelogues will sit on the shelves of our memories like phone books and will only come up in conversations about the ol’ days… “Remember when people used to look up phone numbers in a massive printed phone book?” Just replace phone numbers with locations and phone book with travelogues. Fortunately for us thought, although Paul Theroux may not transition to a great author, we can certainly enjoy his work now. Since we have travels on our mind, let’s also say ‘Happy Birthday’ to another substantial literary figure of his time, expatriate Glenway Wescott who would have celebrated his birthday on April 11. Although back in the 1920s Glenway Wescott ranked on the literary charts along with Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein, nowadays, his work has taken up residence on the dusty bookshelves of a bygone era along with that phone book. Born at the turn of the century in 1901 in the small agricultural town of Kewaskum, Wisconsin, Wescott quickly grew tired of the tedious farm life and struck out for college as soon as he could. Unfortunately, he didn’t prosper at the University of Chicago either and just a year shy of graduating, dropped out in search of bigger horizons. After a brief stint in New Mexico, he found himself, along with several other literary-talented expatriates, in Paris during the 1920s. Paris’ relaxed atmosphere agreed with Wescott’s creativity, and he began writing. At the age of twenty-six he started a promising writing career with the publication of his first novel The Apple of the Eye” (1924). Earning the Harper Prize award for his second novel, The Grandmothers (1927), a story set in the mid-1800s about a family that moved from New York to barren Wisconsin, also earned him a legitimate place on the literary stage. But then he encountered a writer’s worst nightmare, writer’s block. Maybe he felt too much pressure to maintain the high level of successful writing since critics often compared his writing to the other expatriate literary giants of the time; maybe his perfectionist attitude about language and sentence structure bogged down his creativity, or maybe he just enjoyed living on the coattails of his previous work; whatever the reasoning, he struggled to write for over a decade. He even returned to the States for inspiration when the troubling preludes to WWII began in Europe. And it took the war to shock his creativity into overdrive; in 1944 he finally published Apartment in Athens. The story about a young family forced to house a German officer became an instant worldwide success – soldiers even carried it around with them during their search for the Nazi enemy. And then he stopped writing fiction – forever. Even though his book had reached the best-sellers list, even though Ernest Hemingway’s own mother chided Ernest for not being more like Wescott – which led Hemingway to portray him as the annoying writer, Robert Prentiss in The Sun Also Rises, even though Wescott relied on his sister-in-law for money to keep up his extravagant lifestyle after the money ran out, Wescott didn’t write, giving the excuse that he simply wasn’t good enough anymore. And so, after more than forty years of living quietly without writing, he died of a stroke quietly at his Rosemont, New Jersey home at the age of eighty-five with his partner of more than seventy-years beside him. Unfortunately, the question remains though: although Glenway Wescott achieved literary success during the same era as Fitzgerald and Hemingway, why do their books reside on the canonical bookshelf while people don’t even recognize Wescott’s name? Was it because Hemingway and Fitzgerald continued their extravagant wild lifestyles almost ‘til their dying days, and therefore stayed in the limelight and continued to write? Was it because Wescott didn’t have a successful publisher, marketing his novels? Was it because Wescott became complacent with living on his brief success? Or was it because he feared never reaching the same level of success as he did with his last novel? Regardless of the reason (or perhaps reasons) Glenway Wescott and his works have fallen into obscurity. So I suppose the moral of his life, if one in fact needs a moral, is that although it takes dedication and perseverance to reach the top, staying there requires even more! And our next birthday boy, celebrating his sixty-ninth year on April 12, certainly knows about dedication and perseverance! Chicago native, Scott Turow knew he needed a college education to achieve success, and so he dedicated himself to his studies at Amherst College and graduated with high honors, which not only earned him a prestigious fellowship to Stanford University’s Creative Writing Center but then a position there as lecturer for a Creative Writing course. Although Turow enjoyed writing, his aspirations included another love – the law. In order to satiate that love, he moved to the opposite coast to attend the best law school, Harvard. Once again, he reaped the benefits of his dedication to his studies, when he graduated with honors and the city of Chicago welcomed him back home with a position as their Assistant United States Attorney, where he remained – probably consciously or subconsciously collecting story ideas – for the next eight years. And then in 1986 his original love, writing, awoke from its long slumber and Turow realized he had a dual calling in life – he needed to practice law and write. And so he did. He traded his position as Assistant US Attorney, for a partnership in a Chicago-based law firm, and started writing novels based on litigation. And he obviously made the correct choice; beginning with the international success of his first novel, Presumed Innocent (1987), he continued to write six more bestsellers, including his latest Testimony (2017), all the while continuing to fight for the underdog in the courtroom. With several bestsellers and even books made into major motion pictures, why is Scott Turow not listed as one of the literary giants? Will we remember him in a hundred years? Sadly, probably not. But why? It’s his niche. Although millions of readers love a good courtroom drama and mystery, (including me), they certainly do not appeal to everyone, especially with his highly effective and justifiable use of legalese. And although his work at least attempts to answers many of the original questions that the literary giants answer in their works, his setting – the courtroom – is not where we as readers want to imagine ourselves. And so, although we’ve learned that it takes perseverance and dedication to remain at the top, in order to be a literary great, an author must make sure that their “top” is not such a small peak that not everyone knows it even exists. Now talk about not knowing something exists! Let’s take a look at author of fifty books in just as many years, James Branch Cabell, who would have celebrated his April 14, 1879 birthday this week as well. Fifty books! Surely with so many novels, he and his work must have a place on that elusive canonical bookshelf! Sadly, hardly anyone nowadays even knows he existed; but they sure did back in his day. Odd rumors followed Cabell for most of his life, beginning with college gossip that he partook in a homosexual orgy, costing him the loss of his girlfriend and a hiatus from college. Shortly after returning to his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, a rumor that he killed his mother’s lover waylaid him. And even though the investigation into the death proved otherwise, he never truly evaded the hint of speculation. And maybe he didn’t mind the speculation because he enjoyed the limelight – even negative limelight – which he found himself in again when after publishing several unremarkable books, he published his controversial medieval novel, Jurgen (1919). Concerned about the safety of the public’s morality, the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice banned the book, causing a lengthy lawsuit and court battle which Cabell eventually won. Although some considered him the first contemporary writer from the South or even the first American fantasy writer, the rising popularity of Hemingway’s rough demeanor and realism writing style clashed with Cabell’s sophisticated writing style, which combined with his elitist past, quickly threw his popularity into a downward never-ending spiral. Rather than wallow in self-pity though, Cabell continued to write well into the 1950s. With over fifty books published in his lifetime, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage at his home in Richmond in May 1958 and is buried alongside his wife of over three decades in the city’s Hollywood Cemetery. So now we know that the quantity of books an author publishes does not guarantee him the title of a great author. A great author must keep their finger on the pulse of society’s ever-changing literary taste in order to maintain at least a degree of connection to their audience. Because if an audience feels like an author doesn’t understand them, they will less likely continue to read their publications. After looking at the temporary success these four authors encountered during their writing careers, I find it amazing that any author can reach the elusive level of greatness that last centuries instead of years or decades. Once upon a time I thought that a great writer just had to write an awesome story. Now I know differently. I wonder which of our society’s modern authors will finally grasp the “great” adjective that they all want associated with their names. Will I even read one of their works in my lifetime? If given the opportunity, who would you nominate? Which author do you think society will remember in a hundred years from now? In addition to the websites I mentioned in my article, I also reference information from researching these authors on the following sites: Kelly, Gwyneth. “Travel Writing Doesn’t Need Any More Voices Like Paul Theroux's.” The New Republic. 11 September 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2018 from https://newrepublic.com/article/122789/travel-writing-doesnt-need-any-more-voices-paul-therouxs McCabe, Vinton Rafe. “Glenway Wescott: The Man Behind The Writer.” 30 May 2014. Chelsea Station. Retrieved 5 April 2018 form http://www.chelseastationmagazine.com/2014/05/glenway-wescott-the-man-behind-the-writer.html McDowell, Edwin. “Glenway Wescott, 85, Novelist and Essayist.” 24 February 1987. The New York Times. Retrieved 5 April 2018 from https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/24/obituaries/glenway-wescott-85-novelist-and-essayist.html “Paul Theroux.” 2007. Retrieved 4 April 2018 from http://www.paultheroux.com/biography/index.html Rosco, Jerry. “Glenway Wescott Personally: A Biography.” 29 December 2012. The University of Wisconsin Press. Retrieved 5 April 2018 from https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/3537.htm “Scott Turow: Plays Vocals.” The Rock Bottom Remainders. Retrieved 5 April 2018 from http://www.rockbottomremainders.com/pages/bios/scott.html Turow, Scott. “The Slow Death of the American Author.” 7 April 2013. The New York Times. Retrieved 5 April 2018 from https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/opinion/the-slow-death-of-the-american-author.html Wetta, Stephen R. “James Branch Cabell (1879–1958).” 12 August 2013. Encyclopedia Virginia: A Publication of Virginia Humanities. Retrieved 6 April 2018 from https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Cabell_James_Branch_1879-1958#start_entry “What's in a name: James Branch Cabell.” Virginia Commonwealth University. 5 March 2018. Retrieved 5 April 2018 from https://www.library.vcu.edu/about/libraries/cabell/history/whats-in-a-name-james-branch-cabell/ Wikipedia contributors. “Glenway Wescott.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 19 February 2018. Retrieved 5 April 2018 from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Glenway_Wescott&oldid=826521647 Wikipedia contributors. “Paul Theroux.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 4 April 2018. Retrieved 4 April 2018 from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paul_Theroux&oldid=834157547 Wikipedia contributors. “Scott Turow.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 20 March 2018. Retrieved 5 April 2018 from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Scott_Turow&oldid=831357848
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Week #13: April 01 – April 07
According to the calendar, it’s springtime; and for once, the weather outside feels like it too: a rollercoaster of temperatures with chilly mornings and warmer windy afternoons, and scattered thunderstorms and rain across the country. It feels good to shake off the frigid winter months and finally plan ahead for outdoor activities. Watching the budding trees, and blooming flowers, and listening to the busy birds chirping outside my window, it’s easy to understand why we traditionally associate spring with new beginnings. And so now is the perfect time for a new beginning in our society as well. Unless you’re living under a rock with ear muffs on, you’re familiar with the tragic mass shootings that have occurred during just the past six months. And in their wake, teenagers and young adults, identified according to survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, Cameron Kasky, as “the mass-shooting generation” want change and a new beginning for their safety causing heated debates and controversy across the country. But this is not a political rant, on the contrary – it’s a plea for perseverance and kindness penned by authors across centuries, who also happen to celebrate a birthday this week. To look at the names of these authors you’d think they didn’t have anything in common: they lived centuries a part, called different continents home, experienced unique challenges and successes, and even contributed to various genres of literature. But these authors, while wildly different, each left a snippet of advice behind that we as a society on the brink of a new beginning need to hear. So let’s lend an ear to what Hans Christian Andersen, Washington Irving, Maya Angelou, and William Wordsworth had to say. Our first snippet of advice comes from one of our favorite children’s literature author of all-time, Denmark born, Hans Christian Andersen, who celebrated a birthday on April 2, 1805. In his famous tale “The Ugly Duckling” he wrote, “He now felt glad at having suffered sorrow and trouble, because it enabled him to enjoy so much better all the pleasure and happiness around him.” How does this apply to our society’s hopeful new beginning? We have all suffered sorrow and trouble during the past, even if we were not personally connected to the recent shooting tragedies, we’ve all felt the sting of failure, the perspiration of a challenge, and then the euphoria of overcoming it all and tasting success. Overcoming dark times and enjoying new beginnings is all about spring, it’s at the heart of the message that this young generation wants to achieve. They want to feel the euphoria of actually changing their course. But why should we heed Hans Christian Andersen’s advice? What experiences did he have to make him an expert? He experienced his own challenges, feeling like the ‘ugly duckling’ he created. Although his family struggled financially, especially after his father passed away, who had instilled in young Christian the love of folktales, the community banded together and sent him to school. And even at this young age, he dreamt of making it big in life, and not from books, but on the stage. So at just fourteen, he packed his bags and moved to Copenhagen. Unfortunately, his poor acting ability, his awkward stage presence, and his inferior script writing, left the theatre owners with little choice. But they liked him, so instead of dashing all his hopes they sent him back to school to hone his skills. The university professors did not treat him as kindly though as the theatre owners did. Older than all the other students, they often made fun of him, leaving him feeling isolated and feeble-minded. Once again his home community came to the rescue and hired a private tutor for him, which must have worked because he later graduated from Copenhagen University, published his first short story, a play, a book of poetry, and a travelogue after traveling around Europe, Asia, and Africa on the government’s dime. Oh and in the meantime, he wrote the fairytales that we would come to love: “The Princess and the Pea” and “Thumbelina” both in 1835, quickly followed with “The Little Mermaid” (1836), “The Emperor’s New Suit” (1837), “The Ugly Duckling” (1844), and “The Little Match Girl” (1846) – to name just a few of the most popular tales. The point is though that he felt like the outsider – the ugly duckling – and he dreamed of living in a different world than the one of his parent’s – the inspiration for Ariel in the “The Little Mermaid” – and he succeeded. He knew that his challenges in life made him into the successful person he became. Those dark challenges allowed him to enjoy his new beginning, his springtime. Let’s take a look at another quote pertinent to our society’s approaching spring. Coined the first professional writer of American short stories, New York City native, Washington Irving, in his “Philip of Pokanoket: An Indian Memoir” (1820) which describes the Native American Chief’s demise after the colonists arrived, wrote “Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them.” His revelation perfectly describes the movement currently taking place in our society. This mass-shooting generation has endured enough misfortune in their brief lifetime, but instead of bowing down, instead of tucking tail, instead of closing their eyes and minds to the terror and allowing it to tame them, they have donned boxing gloves and have prepared to battle the terror on multiple fronts. Their collective wisdom has allowed them to rise above the norm and to think outside the box. They don’t want their tragedy to be a fleeting moment in our history; they want to make an enduring change. And they realize that change must start with them. But why should we heed Washington Irving’s advice? What experiences did he have to make him an expert in rising above challenges? From the beginning of his life, which began April 3, 1783, he suffered from sickness but never allowed it to dampen his rambunctious spirit. This sense of perseverance endured even when his parents, fearing an outbreak of Yellow Fever, sent him to live with relatives close to Sleepy Hollow during his teen years. And he later withstood the long voyage overseas to France in order to receive treatment for his continuing lung ailment. Upon his return to the States, although he had passed the bar exam, he floundered in finding his true aspirations in life. In just a few short years, he helped publish a magazine with his brother, he temporarily edited another magazine, he briefly joined the military, he traveled back to England to help with the family business, which failed anyways, and he unexpectedly lost his beloved fiancée to illness – all these experiences left him feeling aimless. But instead of allowing them to tame him, he rose above them and decided to write. While in England, he wrote The Sketch Book (1820) which included an array of travel pieces, literary essays, descriptions of the Native Americans, and three short stories – “The Spectre Bridegroom,” and the two that would immortalized him in the world of literature, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and “Rip Van Winkle.” And when his health again took a turn for the worse, temporarily paralyzing his legs, he didn’t retrieve into depression – he picked up the pen again and wrote, publishing two more collections in the following four years. Upon returning to the United States, throughout the rest of his life he accepted various positions within the government allowing him to write about his continuous travels throughout Spain, England, and the western territory of America. At the age of seventy-six, he died of a heart attack in his ‘Sunnyside’ home in New York, just a few months after finishing his lifetime goal of writing a biography about his namesake, George Washington. Looking at his life, we can see that he rose above challenges that may have diminished others in a similar situation. But he chose to rise above; just like we must rise above our challenges in order to welcome our springtime. You may make the observation that both of these authors had two common attributes: 1) they both wrote stories that have remained favorites among younger generations, and 2) they lived over a hundred years ago, which may leave you questioning whether or not any contemporary author also provides the same advice. And the answer to that is an astounding yes! From the recipient of eleven prestigious awards, including the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom Award and the author of the first nonfiction best-seller by an African American women, Missouri native, Maya Angelou wrote in her book Letter to My Daughter (2008), “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” Obviously we can try to prepare for what we think life will throw at us, we can take precautions, but it never fails, that sometime in our life we experience the unexpected. Maya Angelou pleads in her words of wisdom for us not allow those challenges to define us, but rather rise above them. And like Hans Christian Andersen and Washington Irving, did she also have the experiences in life to support her own advice? As you’ll soon read, the answer to that question is also an astounding yes, but we’ll need to take a look specifically at her childhood. Marguerite Annie Johnson, Maya’s full given name on April 4, 1928, endured a potentially devastating childhood. From an early age, she lived with her paternal grandmother because her parents had divorced. During one of her visits to see her mother when she was seven years old, her mother’s boyfriend raped her. When her uncles found out about it, they sought revenge and killed the man. So not only did she suffer the physical and psychological effects of the rape, but she also felt the added unjustified guilt over the man’s death. A horrific event like this could very well destroy an adult, much less a child – and although she spent the next five years in a non-communicative state, she did not allow the experience to demolish her. She took the love of language that she learned during her recuperation and made a successful life for herself which included, earning a scholarship to the California Labor School in San Francisco, a successful stage career and civil rights activist in the 1950s, working as an editor and writer while living in Egypt and Ghana in the 1960s, and then publishing her award-winning autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969. Her international success in literature and civil rights continued until her death in May 2014 at her Winston-Salem, North Carolina home. We now have advice from multiple authors across centuries and genres, all with actual life experience validating their pleas. We understand that when faced with challenges, we must persevere; but what is our call to action? How do we bring springtime to our dark winter? The answer comes from our last author celebrating a birthday this week. And as you’ll see – he composed this plea centuries ago. Celebrating a birthday on April 7, 1770, English native William Wordsworth, creator of some of the most influential poems in literature, wrote in his poem “Tintern Abbey” (1798), “That best portion of a good man's life, His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.” After living in the city for years, William Wordsworth returned to the countryside which inspired him to write this poem. One can only imagine that interactions between people in the city differ from those in the country. And Wordsworth took pride in his country upbringing. He recalled that in the country, people helped each other without expecting accolades for doing so. If a neighbor needed help harvesting their crop, they arrived with tools in hand to help; if someone felt under the weather, they arrived with casseroles in hand; if a stranger looked weighed down with stress, they arrived with alcohol in hand and an open ear. And they did these acts of kindness without being asked. How did they know someone needed their help? They were in-tune with the needs of the individuals in their community. They cared about each other. And day-by-day, these small acts of kindness accumulated so that when one reflected on their life, they saw that they had a good life and that they would leave kindness as their legacy. But did Wordsworth experience these acts of kindness during his life? Unmistakably. William enjoyed a typical carefree country childhood, until the age of eight when his mother died. With five children in the house, the community gathered around to help. And then while still in elementary school, his father died too, leaving his five children in a cloud of debt, but the community and relatives stepped in to raise the children, with William staying with relatives in Cumberland. Without his parents and now without his siblings, he found peace in taking long walks throughout the countryside, focusing on the simplicity and kindness in nature. And when they recognized his talent in language and poetry, they sent him to school in the Lake District where he would continue his habit of long walks in nature, and would eventually call home for most of his life. Although maybe less obvious, and therefore even more relevant to his quote since they are the ‘unremembered’ acts of kindness, these most likely occurred during his college years at Cambridge University, where he published his first poem and met fellow-poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In their friendship, they traded numerous small acts of kindness, including helping each other wake up on time and meet deadlines. Living with him until her death in 1855, he and his sister Dorothy had an unusually close relationship. And in that relationship, they also exchanged various acts of kindness, including Dorothy journaling William’s daily activities so that he would have access to the memories for later writing inspiration – such was the case with his famous poem “Daffodils” (1815), which William took inspiration from while walking with Dorothy, but recalled once reading her journal. And although William had an illegitimate child during his college years, he eventually married another girl, Mary. He and Mary had five children together and remained married until his death in 1850 at their Rydal Mount home. A marriage that lasts almost fifty years, and endures the death of two children within the same year, takes countless exchanges of acts of kindness – all too private for future generations to analyze. So now we know our call to action. In order to bring in our society’s new beginning, our springtime, we must start with acts of kindness. And many have already started this movement. They see someone eating alone – and they join them. They see someone ridiculed – and they intervene. They see someone unable to speak – and they provide a voice. They see someone drop something – and they pick it up and return it. They see someone struggling to enter – and they pause allowing them entrance. They see someone hungry – and they deliver food. These small acts of kindness, instead of focusing on selfish, mean, and belittling behavior, will bring about a change that this generation of 50 million school kids would be proud to call their legacy. I used to feel good when I did a daily unrecognized “act of kindness,” but that is no longer enough. I need – we all need – to increase those acts of kindness until it becomes who we are as a society, as a community. Only in this manner will we be in-tuned with others enough to prevent senseless acts of violence. Hummm…. People say that reading books is going out of style. That the younger generation doesn’t read like its predecessors. But just imagine the snippets they would pick up if they did. They could learn to understand and empathize with other cultures and their beliefs before they actually find themselves thrust into a situation. So in addition to acts of kindness, I urge everyone to pick up a book, and read to make us a better, kinder society. On a side note, I usually include places to visit to pay your respect to the authors that celebrated a birthday each week. So if you’ve accepted the two calls to action, then read on and during your visit to these places, you’ll appreciate their talent and wisdom just a little more. If you’re traveling in Europe, visit Denmark to tour the landscape and homes that inspired Hans Christian Andersen before his final resting place at Assistens Cemetery in Copenhagen. Then jump on a train that ferries across the channel to England and tour the landscapes, homes – including Rydal Mount – and churches that inspired William Wordsworth in the Lake District before his final resting place in the St. Oswald’s Church Cemetery in Grasmere. And if your travels only take you within the United States, don’t fret; there’s still a few places to visit. On the west coast stop in the Hans Christian Andersen Museum in Solvang, California which they’ve filled with significant memorabilia from his life and fairytales. And then take a road trip across the country, stopping in Ripley, Oklahoma to experience the Washing Irving Trail Museum, which highlights memorabilia from his adventurous travels in the area. Then continue east and enjoy a picnic at the Maya Angelou City Park in Arkansas. Unfortunately, we do not have another place of significance to pay our respects to this awe-inspiring contemporary writer. Perhaps a letter to the President will change that? After lunch, start the long drive over to the east coast, and visit Tarrytown, New York to tour the landscape, homes – including ‘Sunnyside’, and churches that inspired Washington Irving before his final resting place in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Finally, while in New York, stop for another picnic at Central Park and feed the birds in front of the Hans Christian Andersen statue. Wow! That would be a road trip wouldn’t it? And for added relevance, complete it during spring! In addition to the websites I mentioned in my article, I also reference information from researching these authors on the following sites: “10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Washington Irving.” 15 April 2017. Historic Hudson Valley. Retrieved 25 March 2018 from http://www.hudsonvalley.org/community/blogs/10-things-you-probably-didn%E2%80%99t-know-about-washington-irving “Hans Christian Andersen Biography.” The Biography.com. 2 April 2014. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved 23 March 2018 from https://www.biography.com/people/hans-christian-andersen-9184146 Hans Christian Andersen Center, The. 11 August 2015. University of Southern Denmark. Retrieved 23 March 2018 from http://andersen.sdu.dk/liv/biografi/eventyr_e.html Hakon Rossel, Sven. “Hans Christian Andersen: Fairy Tales and Stories.” Retrieved 23 March 2018 from http://hca.gilead.org.il/chron.html “Maya Angelou Biography.” The Biography.com Website. 27 February 2018. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved 26 March 2018 from https://www.biography.com/people/maya-angelou-9185388 “Maya Angelou.” The Poetry Foundation. 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2018 from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/maya-angelou Merriman, C. D. “Biography of Washington Irving.” The Literature Network. 2007. Jalic Inc. Retrieved 25 March 2018 from http://www.online-literature.com/irving/ Shmoop Editorial Team. William Wordsworth: Childhood. 11 November 2008. Retrieved 28 March 2018 from https://www.shmoop.com/wordsworth/childhood.html “Washington Irving Biography.” The Biography.com website. 20 October 2015. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved 25 March 2018 from https://www.biography.com/people/washington-irving-9350087. “William Wordsworth.” Academy of American Poets. Retrieved 27 March 2018 from https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/william-wordsworth |
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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