Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 359
June 15, 2019
A Writer's Moment: Poetry Expresses Love Of The World
A Writer's Moment: Poetry Expresses Love Of The World: “When it (poetry) aims to express a love of the world it refuses to conceal the many reasons why the world is hard...
Poetry Expresses Love Of The World
“When it (poetry) aims to express a love of the world it refuses to conceal the many reasons why the world is hard to love, though we must love it because we have no other, and to fail to love it is not to exist at all.”– Mark Van Doren
Born in June 1894, Van Doren was a poet, writer, critic and professor of English at Columbia University for nearly 40 years, shaping the writing skills of dozens of America’s leading 20thcentury writers. His teaching skills were such that Columbia created an annual award in his name honoring its best teacher as selected by the students. In 1940, Van Doren was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his poetry.
For Saturday’s Poem, here are Van Doren’s
Nothing Stays Spring Thunder
Nothing stays Listen, the wind is still, not even change, And far away in the night – That can grow tired See! The uplands fillof it's own name; With a running light.The very thoughttoo much for it. Open the doors. It is warm; And where the sky was clear—Somewhere in air Look! The head of a storma stillness is, That marches here!So far, so thin- But let it alone. Come under the trembling hedge—Whoever we are Fast, although you fumble...it is not for us There! Did you hear the edge
of winter crumble?
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June 14, 2019
Living 'A Comfortable Truth'
“I never regret things. It's a really dangerous thing to say, but for anyone involved in the arts, the bad things that happen make for good material. It's not a comfortable truth, but it is true.” – Antony Sher
Born in South Africa on this date in 1949, Sher is an actor, painter and writer who has twice won the prestigious Laurence Oliver Award for his acting on the stage. He also has appeared in many movies and on TV, and written numerous novels, essays, memoirs and scripts for both the stage and screen.
Among Sher’s best-known books are the memoirs Year of the King and Woza Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus in South Africa; his autobiography Beside Myself; and the novels Middlepost, Cheap Lives and The Feast.
Among his many award-winning plays are Primo – also adapted as a film – and The Giant, portraying Michelangelo at the time of the creation of his masterpiece sculpture David, along with fellow artist Leonardo da Vinci and their mutual apprentice Vito. Awarded several honorary degrees and named by the Queen as a Knight Commander of the British Empire (for his lifetime contributions to the arts), Sher said he focuses his work on and about people. “When I'm painting and drawing I only do people,” he said. “Acting is obviously portraiture - and writing is as well.”
Writer’s Moment with a friend at http://writersmoment.blogspot.com
A Writer's Moment: Living 'A Comfortable Truth'
A Writer's Moment: Living 'A Comfortable Truth': “I never regret things. It's a really dangerous thing to say, but for anyone involved in the arts, the bad things ...
June 12, 2019
Writing Leads You To Many Lives
“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted. You should live several lives while reading it.” – William Styron
Born in June 1925, Styron thought for a time he wanted to be a book editor. And, after finishing his studies at Duke University he went to work for McGraw-Hill where it quickly became apparent to him that being an editor was not what he wanted – what he wanted and finally did, was to write.
After provoking his employers into firing him, he set to writing the first of his 15 successful novels, Lie Down in Darkness, the story of a dysfunctional Virginia family (who some thought reflected on his own growing up years in Virginia). The novel received overwhelming critical acclaim, earned him the prestigious Rome Prize and started him on his lifelong career path.
Styron’s best known and most awarded novel is Sophie’s Choice, which also won an Academy Award for actress Meryl Streep as a film. The nationwide best seller won the National Book Award and cemented Styron’s reputation as one of the 20thcentury’s great creative novelists.
Sandwiched in among his writing credits were two other seminal life experiences: Service in the Marine Corps that took him into battle in Korea, and time living in Paris where he helped found the prestigious Paris Reviewmagazine.In his later years, he suffered from depression and wrote of the experience in another award-winning book, Darkness Visible. Styron died in 2006.
Writer’s Moment with a friend at http://writersmoment.blogspot.com
A Writer's Moment: Writing Leads You To Many Lives
A Writer's Moment: Writing Leads You To Many Lives: “A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted. You should live several lives while read...
June 11, 2019
Your Dreams Are Untouchable
“One of the most adventurous things left us is to go to bed. For no one can lay a hand on our dreams.” – E. V. Lucas
Humorist, essayist, playwright, biographer, publisher, poet, novelist, short story writer and editor, Lucas was born on this date in 1868 and made his name both editing the works of writer Charles Lamb and serving as major contributor to Britain’s humor magazine Punch.
Considered one of the greatest humorists of his day, fellow writer Frank Swinnerton said of Lucas that, “(He) had a great appetite for the curious, the human, and the ridiculous. If he were offered a story, an incident or an absurdity, his mind instantly shaped it with wit and form.”
Lucas had a long association with the publishing house Methuen and Co., which published his edition of Lamb’s works, and from 1924 until his death in 1936 he served as the company’s chairman. His achievements there and as a writer earned him honorary degrees from both St Andrews and Oxford. “The art of life is to show your hand,” Lucas said. “There is no diplomacy like candor. You may lose by it now and then, but it will be a loss well gained if you do. Nothing is so boring as having to keep up a deception.”
Writer’s Moment with a friend at http://writersmoment.blogspot.com
A Writer's Moment: Your Dreams Are Untouchable
A Writer's Moment: Your Dreams Are Untouchable: “One of the most adventurous things left us is to go to bed. For no one can lay a hand on our dreams.” – E. V. Lucas ...
June 10, 2019
A Great Writing 'Balancer'
“A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life. With a novelist, like a surgeon, you have to get a feeling that you've fallen into good hands - someone from whom you can accept the anesthetic with confidence.”– Saul Bellow
Bellow's writing is always so mesmerizing that you never have to worry about being anesthetized. Canadian by birth and later a naturalized U.S. citizen, Bellow attended the University of Chicago and Northwestern University where he studied writing and English but earned degrees in sociology and anthropology. The fact that he was an anthropologist probably is not a surprise for his readers who find anthropological references sprinkled throughout his many award-winning books. Born his date in 1915, Bellow is best known for his Adventures of Augie March, often labeled “The 20th Century Don Quixote.” Bellow won every major writing award, including the Nobel Prize. He is the only writer to win the National Book Award for Fiction 3 times and also be honored with the Lifetime Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the National Medal of Arts, and 2 Pulitzer Prizes. His friend and protégé Phillip Roth said of him, "The backbone of 20th-century American literature has been provided by two novelists—William Faulkner and Saul Bellow. Together they are the Melville, Hawthorne, and Twain of the 20th century."
Well-liked for his wry sense of humor, he once noted “You know, you never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write down.”
Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend at http://writersmoment.blogspot.com
A Writer's Moment: A Great Writing 'Balancer'
A Writer's Moment: A Great Writing 'Balancer': “A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call ...
