Saxon Henry's Blog, page 8
May 1, 2017
Everyday Life as Literary Concept
As mundane as the phrase everyday life may seem, it can be an extraordinary notion. Think about how the major players in the French salons during the ancien régime believed their everyday lives would be relevant after they were long gone because they were advancing human gracefulness and intelligence. They were certainly right, as they […]
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April 16, 2017
The Subtle Magnetism of Nature
There’s no better way to celebrate nature than a complete immersion like I experienced during a day-hike on the Appalachian Trail in 1989. I share it today as a call to action given another Earth Day approaches next Saturday, April 22nd. Twenty-seven of them have passed since I walked those trails, and while some measures toward […]
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April 3, 2017
Hail Django, Gypsy of Jazz
Strolling along Main Street in Sag Harbor one luscious summer day, I spotted a rosary made of onyx beads in the window of one of my favorite shops. I always made a point of stopping by when I was in town because the things the owner brought together in her store were so exquisite—aromatic […]
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March 30, 2017
The Stuff of Literature
I opened a recent diary entry with this quote by Richard Ford: “A lot of people could be novelists if they were willing to devote their lives to their responses to things.” Tomorrow is my three-year anniversary here on The Diary of an Improvateur, and this is my 100th post on this blog, so […]
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March 22, 2017
The Secret of Happiness
Nestled into her chateau in St. Brice, France, during the summer of 1924, Edith Wharton wrote in her diary, “The secret of happiness is to have forgotten what it is to be happy.” As a writer, I interpret this sentiment as being so absorbed in work that no feelings register at all. Whether she meant it […]
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March 15, 2017
Uncommon Characters in South Dakota
Just before traveling to the Sioux reservations of South Dakota for the first time, I read an article in The New York Times’ T Magazine titled “Richard Ford’s Uncommon Characters.” It was written by photographer/film director Bruce Weber, who quoted Ford as saying “A lot of people could be novelists if they were willing to […]
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February 27, 2017
A Meditation on Age and Romance
I turn 59 this week and knowing I am about to enter the last year of my 50’s has me thinking a great deal about age, particularly as it relates to independent women and romance. Did you know Peggy Guggenheim had a crush on Beat Poet Gregory Corso when she was my age—feelings he […]
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February 21, 2017
Earnest in Paris
This comparative look at Wes Anderson and Ernest Hemingway, Earnest in Paris, is a guest post by Miles Stephenson, a talented young writer whom I had the great pleasure of haunting locales touched by the Lost Generation during the trip to Paris he is presenting on The Diary of an Improvateur today. Earnest in […]
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February 18, 2017
Seeing with New Eyes
Day two of my Parisian literary adventure, which I began last week, turned out to be a long wanderjahr because I decided to walk all the way from my hotel, Le Meridien Etoile in the 17th arrondissement near the Périphérique, along the spine of Avenue de la Grande Armée, past the Arc de Triomphe, […]
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February 6, 2017
A Backward Glance on rue de Varenne
The narrow sidewalks push their black iron batons up out of the ground to protect the buildings hemming them; the rain turns the cobblestones to muted mirrors of damp light—I’m visiting her again on the anniversary of her 155th birthday, and it dawns on me that I’ve never seen the statuesque green door with its […]
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