Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 29
May 20, 2025
A Writer's Moment: 'The Magic of imagination'
May 19, 2025
A Writer's Moment: 'At the least, be a nuisance'
'At the least, be a nuisance'
“The optimism of a healthy mind isindefatigable.” – Margery Allingham
Born on May 20, 1904 into a British writing family(her mother and father were both journalists), Allingham said she probably started putting pen to paper before she couldeven walk or talk. By age 10 her first poems had been published and two of her plays had been performed in nearby community theatres.
By her early 20s, Allingham had turned from poetry and theatre to crime and mystery writing, creating Detective Albert Campion in the process. Ultimately, Campion became one ofthe most well-known crime detective characters of the mid-20th Century after being added to her first novel – The Crime of Black Dudley – almost as an afterthought. But he was such anoptimistic and interesting character that her publisher demanded more stories focusingon him.
With that encouragement and hercreative, imaginative mind, she wrote nearly 30 novels with Campion as hercenterpiece character. To try one of them out, I recommend TheTiger in the Smoke, 14th in the series and an amazingexample of Allingham’s writing style.
Allingham died at age 62 from breastcancer but ever the optimist, she laid out ideas for several more novels “justin case they’re wrong and I’m not really dying,” bugging everyone around her tokeep the faith and help her keep writing.
Just a few days before her death (inJune of 1966), she wrote: “If one cannot command attention by one’s admirablequalities, one can at least be a nuisance.”
May 17, 2025
'Good morning to Life'
“Being in this fine mood, I spoke toa little boy, whom I saw playing alone in the road, asking him what he wasgoing to be when he grew up. Of course I expected to hear him say a sailor, asoldier, a hunter, or something else that seems heroic to childhood, and I wasvery much surprised when he answered innocently, 'A man'.” –W. H. Davies
Born in Wales on May 19, 1871, Daviesspent a significant part of his life as a hobo, both in the United Kingdom andUnited States while also becoming one of the most popular poets of his time.
Davies’ lyrical observations aboutlife's hardships, the ways in which the human condition is reflected in nature,and his own tramping adventures – including losing a leg while trying to hop atrain – resulted in his writing a remarkable60 books of poetry. For Saturday’s Poem here is Davies’,
A Greeting
Goodmorning, Life - and all
Things glad and beautiful.
My pockets nothing hold,
But he that owns the gold,
The Sun, is my great friend -
His spending has no end.
Hail to the morning sky,
Which bright clouds measure high;
Hail to you birds whose throats
Would number leaves by notes;
Hail to you shady bowers,
And you green field of flowers.
Hail to you women fair,
That make a show so rare
In cloth as white as milk -
Be't calico or silk:
Good morning, Life - and all
Things glad and beautiful.
A Writer's Moment: 'Good morning to Life'
May 16, 2025
A Writer's Moment: 'Hope' that memory is never lost
'Hope' that memory is never lost
“We use the word 'hope' perhaps moreoften than any other word in the vocabulary: 'I hope it's a nice day.''Hopefully, you're doing well.' 'So how are things going along? Good Ihope.' 'Going to be good tomorrow? Hope so.' Memory is valued,and I hope that we never lose memory.” –Studs Terkel
Born in New York City on this datein 1912, Louis “Studs” Terkel was an author, historian, actor, and broadcasterwho won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for his book onWorld War II titled The Good War. He also wrotethe terrific book Working, sharing his unbending optimismabout life and the goodness of people, and for his oral histories.
Terkel studied as a lawyer butinstead of entering the profession, he turned to acting and then broadcasting,starting his long-running career through the WPA's Federal Writing Programduring the Depression. Ultimately, in addition to his broadcasting andwork on oral histories, he wrote 18 nonfiction books.
WFMT, the Chicago radio stationwhich broadcast Terkel's long-running interview program, preserved 7,000 taperecordings of Terkel's interviews and histories. After his death in2008 at age 96, The Library of Congress announced a grant to digitally preserveand make available those recordings, which it called "a remarkably richhistory of the ideas and perspectives of both common and influential peopleliving in the second half of the 20th century."
"For Studs, there was not avoice that should not be heard, a story that could not be told," said GaryT. Johnson, president of the Chicago Museum of History, the initial recipientof the recordings. "He believed that everyone had the right to be heardand had something important to say. He was there to listen, to chronicle, andto make sure their stories are remembered.
May 15, 2025
Providing 'shape and meaning'
“Human life itself may be almostpure chaos, but the work of the artist is to take these handfuls of confusionand disparate things, things that seem to be irreconcilable, and put themtogether in a frame to give them some kind of shape and meaning.” – KatherineAnne Porter
Porter, born in Indian Creek, TX onthis date in 1890, was a prize-winning journalist, essayist, short story writerand novelist. Known for her penetrating insight, particularly in hershort stories and essays, she wrote only one novel – but it was a good one. Shipof Fools not only was a worldwide bestseller but also earned her thePulitzer Prize, The National Book Award, and a box office hit movie.
She also won the National Book Awardfor The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter, a hallmark ofshort story excellence. Writing shortstories may have come as second nature to Porter, since her father’s cousin wasWilliam Sydney Porter – known to posterity as O. Henry (and in whose name theannual best American short story award is given).
Katherine’s journalism career beganon the East Coast, then gravitated to Colorado where she was writing forthe Rocky Mountain News when she almost died during the 1918flu pandemic. When she was finally discharged from the hospital, she was frailand completely bald and when her hair finally grew back, it was white andremained that way for the rest of her life.
Her life-and-death experience wasreflected in a trilogy of novelettes led by the wonderful Pale Horse,Pale Rider. That work earned her the 1940 Gold Medal forLiterature from the Society of Libraries of New York University. When she wasn’t writing professionally, shewas corresponding with dozens of friends and fellow writers. Collected and edited by her close friendIsabel Bayley, the Letters of Katherine Anne Porter shares 250 of thethousands of letters the prolific Porter wrote during her lifetime.
“Writing is a craft,” Porter said to beginningwriters. “Be respectful of words. They mean something.”
