Judi’s Reviews > A Reader's Book of Days: True Tales from the Lives and Works of Writers for Every Day of the Year > Status Update
Judi
is on page 384 of 448
December 5
1890 ...The subject of his next novel, New Grub Street, was one he knew well, the degrading poverty of the scribblers on the edges of commercial literary life, and on the same day he wrote the final page of the book he also noted in his diary an invitation to a respectable dinner party: "Of course I must refuse. I have sold my dress-suit, so that I couldn't go, even if I had no other reason....
— Dec 09, 2024 06:44AM
1890 ...The subject of his next novel, New Grub Street, was one he knew well, the degrading poverty of the scribblers on the edges of commercial literary life, and on the same day he wrote the final page of the book he also noted in his diary an invitation to a respectable dinner party: "Of course I must refuse. I have sold my dress-suit, so that I couldn't go, even if I had no other reason....
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Judi’s Previous Updates
Judi
is on page 322 of 448
October 11
1928 Arthur Sydney McDowell, in the TLS, on Virginia Woolf's Orlando: "It is a fantasy, impossible but delicious; existing in its own right by the colour of imagination and exuberance of life and wit."
— 1 hour, 13 min ago
1928 Arthur Sydney McDowell, in the TLS, on Virginia Woolf's Orlando: "It is a fantasy, impossible but delicious; existing in its own right by the colour of imagination and exuberance of life and wit."
Judi
is on page 321 of 448
October 10
19047 Fired as a publisher's assistant, William Styron reported to his father he was glad, since publishing is "only a counterfeit, a reflection, of really creative work."
— 5 hours, 29 min ago
19047 Fired as a publisher's assistant, William Styron reported to his father he was glad, since publishing is "only a counterfeit, a reflection, of really creative work."
Judi
is on page 320 of 448
October 9
1890 The trouble with fictional chronologies is that sometimes the math just doesn't add up. It sharpens our sense of Sherlock Holmes as a living presence to read such concrete details as the posted notice in one of his best-loved cases that "THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE IS DISSOLVED, October 9, 1890." The problem, though, as generations of Holmesians have debated, is the Mr. Jabez Wilson the red-headed dupe ...
— 15 hours, 7 min ago
1890 The trouble with fictional chronologies is that sometimes the math just doesn't add up. It sharpens our sense of Sherlock Holmes as a living presence to read such concrete details as the posted notice in one of his best-loved cases that "THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE IS DISSOLVED, October 9, 1890." The problem, though, as generations of Holmesians have debated, is the Mr. Jabez Wilson the red-headed dupe ...
Judi
is on page 319 of 448
October 8
1818 ...showed a resilient indifference in a letter to his publisher on this day. He was his now fiercest critic, after all: "My own domestic criticism has given me pain without comparison beyond what Blackwood or the Quarterly could possibly inflict." With his "slipshod Endymion," he added, he had :leaped headlong into the Sea, and thereby have become better acquainted with the Soundings,...
— 21 hours, 29 min ago
1818 ...showed a resilient indifference in a letter to his publisher on this day. He was his now fiercest critic, after all: "My own domestic criticism has given me pain without comparison beyond what Blackwood or the Quarterly could possibly inflict." With his "slipshod Endymion," he added, he had :leaped headlong into the Sea, and thereby have become better acquainted with the Soundings,...
Judi
is on page 318 of 448
October 7
1924 Having finally read the manuscript of T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom after spending two years attempting to arrange its publication, George Bernard Shaw reprimanded the young soldier about his punctuation: "You practically do not use semicolons at all. This is a symptom of metal defectiveness, probably induced by camp life."
— 23 hours, 52 min ago
1924 Having finally read the manuscript of T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom after spending two years attempting to arrange its publication, George Bernard Shaw reprimanded the young soldier about his punctuation: "You practically do not use semicolons at all. This is a symptom of metal defectiveness, probably induced by camp life."
Judi
is on page 317 of 448
October 6
1536 ...by the Holy Roman Emperor. Tradition has it that this is the day he was strangled and burned to death, with the final words "Lord, open the King of England's eyes." Not long after, Henry VIII did indeed approve an English translation of the Bible, and when King James commissioned his own version in the next century, a majority of its words were taken from Tyndale's once-heretical translation.
— Oct 17, 2025 06:28AM
1536 ...by the Holy Roman Emperor. Tradition has it that this is the day he was strangled and burned to death, with the final words "Lord, open the King of England's eyes." Not long after, Henry VIII did indeed approve an English translation of the Bible, and when King James commissioned his own version in the next century, a majority of its words were taken from Tyndale's once-heretical translation.
Judi
is on page 316 of 448
October 5
1927 ... only with a change from one sex to another." She quickly gave herself up "to the pure delight of this farce," and then asked her subject's permission to write about "the lusts of your flea; and the lure of your mind." vita ws equally delighted: "What fun for you; what fun for m," she replied. "Yes, go ahead, toss up your pancake, brown it nicely on both sides, put Brandy over it, and serve hot."
— Oct 15, 2025 02:27PM
1927 ... only with a change from one sex to another." She quickly gave herself up "to the pure delight of this farce," and then asked her subject's permission to write about "the lusts of your flea; and the lure of your mind." vita ws equally delighted: "What fun for you; what fun for m," she replied. "Yes, go ahead, toss up your pancake, brown it nicely on both sides, put Brandy over it, and serve hot."
Judi
is on page 315 of 448
October 4
1866 ... contracted novel until this day, less than a month before his deadline, when he finally engaged a young stenographer, Anna Grigorievna, to help him. He dictated the story of The Gambler to her every afternoon, turned in the manuscript two hours before the deadline, and then, when they net a week later to resume his work on Crime and Punishment, asked for Anna's hand in marriage, which she granted.
— Oct 15, 2025 07:09AM
1866 ... contracted novel until this day, less than a month before his deadline, when he finally engaged a young stenographer, Anna Grigorievna, to help him. He dictated the story of The Gambler to her every afternoon, turned in the manuscript two hours before the deadline, and then, when they net a week later to resume his work on Crime and Punishment, asked for Anna's hand in marriage, which she granted.
Judi
is on page 314 of 448
October 3
1918 It wasn't until he was thirty-seven, with four novels published and one, Maurice, written but kept secret because of the gay relationship at its heart, that E. M. Forster first had sex. Stationed in Egypt with the Red Cross during the war, he confessed in coded language to a friend, "Yesterday, for the first time in my life I parted with respectability. I have felt the step would be taken for many...
— Oct 13, 2025 05:07AM
1918 It wasn't until he was thirty-seven, with four novels published and one, Maurice, written but kept secret because of the gay relationship at its heart, that E. M. Forster first had sex. Stationed in Egypt with the Red Cross during the war, he confessed in coded language to a friend, "Yesterday, for the first time in my life I parted with respectability. I have felt the step would be taken for many...
