Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 75

'Reluctant Writer; Popular Storyteller'

 

“Oneway an author dies a little each day is when his books go out of print.”– William Goldman

 

Born on August 12, 1931 Goldman wasone of the most successful screenwriters in history winning Academy Awards for ButchCassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men and writingor adapting three dozen other highly successful works that each won variousawards and were box office smash hits.   

 

And remarkably Goldman first came toprominence for his novels, short stories and works for the stage.  Nearly all of his 16 novels were bestsellers,led by the thriller Marathon Man and the comedy-fantasy The PrincessBride – both of which he adapted into very successful films. He also won two Edgar Awards, from theMystery Writers of America, for Best Motion Picture Screenplay for “Harper” (adapted from Ross Macdonald’sbook The Moving Target) and for“Magic” (adapted from his own novel by the same name).

 

Described by fellow author Sean Eganas "one of the 20th Century’s most popular storytellers," Goldman grewup in Chicago, earned a writing degree from Oberlin College and started his writingcareer as a poet.                                                                                

  

Goldman, who died in 2018, often referred to himselfas a reluctant writer.  "The easiestthing to do on earth is not write,” he said. “But this is life on earth.  Youcan't have everything.”

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'The inventor of the past'

 

“Writers of historical fiction arenot under the same obligation as historians to find evidence for the statementsthey make. For us it is sufficient if what we say can't be disproved or shownto be false.” – Barry Unsworth
Born on this date in 1930 to afamily of coal miners, Unsworth said his family “got out of that trap” when his fatherbucked tradition and became an insurance salesman.  “He saved us,” Unsworth said.   Barry started writing in his 30s and his historical novels became the gold standard in the genre.  “All my fiction starts from a feeling of uniqueperception, the pressure of a secret, a story that needs to be told.”
Three of his 17 novels were shortlisted for TheBooker Prize, and his 1992 masterpiece Sacred Hunger aboutthe English involvement in the slave trade shared the prize with MichaelOndaatje's The English Patient.
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At the time of his death in 2012 – on June 4, the same day as science fiction writer Ray Bradbury's death – he was so well entrenched inhistorical fiction that Wall Street Journalwriter Cynthia Crossen noted in a story about their deaths:  "Mr. Bradbury invented the future; Mr.Unsworth invented the past."
“Ilike the condition of being an outsider," Unsworth said.  "(Someone) just passing through.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The inventor of the past'

A Writer's Moment: 'The inventor of the past':   “Writers of historical fiction are not under the same obligation as historians to find evidence for the statements they make. For us it i...

A Writer's Moment: 'Live life before it lives you'

A Writer's Moment: 'Live life before it lives you':   “Life has a practice of living you, if you don't live it.” – Philip Larkin Born on this date in 1922, Larkin was one of England’s...

'Live life before it lives you'

 “Lifehas a practice of living you, if you don't live it.”– Philip Larkin

Born on this date in 1922, Larkinwas one of England’s most famous poets from 1945 until his death in 1985.  His best-known and most popularcollections – The Less Deceived, The Whitsun Weddings, and HighWindows – present “a poetry from which even people who distrust poetry . .. can take comfort and delight.”  For Saturday's Poem, here is Larkin's,

     Afternoons   Summer is fading:
The leaves fall in ones and twos
From trees bordering
The new recreation ground.
In the hollows of afternoons
Young mothers assemble
At swing and sandpit
Setting free their children.

Behind them, at intervals,
Stand husbands in skilled trades,
An estateful of washing,
And the albums, lettered
Our Wedding, lying
Near the television:
Before them, the wind
Is ruining their courting-places

That are still courting-places
(But the lovers are all in school),
And their children, so intent on
Finding more unripe acorns,
Expect to be taken home.
Their beauty has thickened.
Something is pushing them
To the side of their own lives.

A Writer's Moment: 'More interested in questions'

A Writer's Moment: 'More interested in questions':   “I wrote Sophie's World in three months, but I was only writing and sleeping. I work for 14 hours a day when I'm working on a boo...

'More interested in questions'

 “Iwrote Sophie's World inthree months, but I was only writing and sleeping. I work for 14 hours a daywhen I'm working on a book.” – Jostein Gaarder

Born in Norway on this date in 1952,Gaarder is noted for writing from a child’s perspective and using atechnique called metafiction or writing stories within stories.  His biggest success is Sophie’s World: ANovel about the History of Philosophy, which has been translated into 60languages and sold over 40 million copies.

 

The son of two educators and thesecond generation of children’s book authors (his mother also had severalchildren’s books published), he said he developed a deep-rooted interest inreading, writing and teaching at an early age.

 

His first big success was The Solitaire Mystery, winner of theNorwegian Literary Critics’ Award and the Ministry of Cultural and ScientificAffairs Literary Prize.  He followed thatwith Sophie’s World, gainingworldwide acclaim.                                 

 

As a writer Gaarder said he seeksanswers and doesn’t provide them.  “I amreally more interested in questions than in giving answers.”

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A Writer's Moment: 'Story ideas surround you'

A Writer's Moment: 'Story ideas surround you':   “I always tell my students, 'If you walk around with your eyes and ears open, you can't possibly live long enough to write all ...

'Story ideas surround you'

 

“Ialways tell my students, 'If you walk around with your eyes and ears open, youcan't possibly live long enough to write all the novels you'll encounter.'”– Jill McCorkle

Born in North Carolina on this datein 1958, short story writer and novelist McCorkle grew up writing and neverstopped, finding ideas in every nook and cranny around her.  The author of dozens of stories and 10 books,she also has had a stellar career as a writing professor at such leadinguniversities as Tufts, North Carolina, Duke and (currently) North CarolinaState.

 

McCorkle has the distinction ofhaving her first two novels – The CheerLeader and July 7th –published on the same day in 1984.  Five of her books have been named NewYork Times notable books, and McCorkle has received the New EnglandBooksellers Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature andthe Thomas Wolfe Award.

  

Character development, McCorkle said, is key to a story's success.  “Youwant to feel that your reader does identify with the characters so that there'sa real entry into the story - that some quality speaks to the individual.”

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'Information In; Creative Responses Out'

 

“Oneof the great joys of life is creativity. Information goes in, gets shuffledabout, and comes out in new and interesting ways.”–  Peter McWilliams

Born in Detroit on Aug. 5, 1949McWilliams was an author, poet and photographer whose first book of poems ComeLove with Me and Be My Life was publishedwhen he was just 17.

 

By age 25he had written a series of Transcendental Meditation books that made the NewYork Times bestseller lists and was followed by the best-selling Portraits- A Book of Photographs by Peter McWilliams. 

 

Ultimatelythe author of more than 40 books he also was a much-sought-after speaker, butboth careers were cut short by his death at age 50 from non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

“While goals are chosen, a purpose is discovered,” McWilliams said.  “Our purpose (as human beings) is somethingwe have been doing all along and will continue to do regardless ofcircumstances, until the day we die.”

 

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