This Week in Reading November 1 - 7

Authors born this week -

Nobel Prize in Literature

Philosopher, novelist Albert Camus, poet Odysseus Elytis

Novelists and story writers
Stephen Crane, Sholem Asch, Robert Musil, Martin Flavin, Herman Broch, Moa Martinson, James Jones, Christopher Wood, Geoffrey Wolff, Charles Frazier, Thomas Mallon, Michael Cunningham

Poets and Playwrights
Poets: William Cullen Bryant, C. K. Williams Playwrights: Thomas Kyd, Charles MacArthur, A. R. Gurney, Sam Shepard

Thinkers, Believers, Scientists, Historians, Biographers
Thinkers: Edward Said Believers: Billy Graham Historians: Will Durant, Henry Troyat, Paul Johnson

Humorists, Essayists, Editors, Journalists, Officials, Media and Others
Humorists: Will Rogers Essayists: Eugene Debs, Andre Malraux, Diana E. H. Russell, Shere Hite, Stephen Greenblatt, Bernard-Henri Levy, Joe Queenan Editors: Karl Baedecker Journalists: Ida M. Tarbell, Grantland Rice, Walter Cronkite, James Reston, James Kilpatrick, Pat Buchanan, Maria Shriver Officials: Joseph C. Wilson Media and Others: Mike Nichols, Larry Flynt, Dennis Miller, Morgan Spurlock, Jenny McCarthy

Fantasy / Science Fiction Writers
Fantasy: Gordon Dickson

Visual Artists
Manga: Goseki Kojimba

Young People’s Writers
Children’s: Samuel Marshak Teens: Joyce Maynard

Events to read about this week:
Standard Time, Election Day, Weather Bureau, Stamp Act, Hydrogen Bomb, George Boole, first woman voter, TS Eliot naturalizes, Spruce Goose, GB Shaw theatre lights, Quiz Show scandal, federal income tax, PBS, King Tut, Guy Fawkes, Meet the Press, MOMA.

Obituaries
Spanish novelist Francisco Ayala (103)
Anthropologist Claude Levi Strauss (100)
Suspense novelist Lionel Davidson (87)
Illustrator Don Punchatz (73)

This Week’s Questions:
Who, born this week, said:

"A character is never the author who created him. It is quite likely, however, that an author may be all his characters simultaneously. "

A man said to the universe:
"Sir I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."

"All art is a revolt against man's fate."

Answer to Last Week’s Questions:
"I like to think of poetry as statements made on the way to the grave." - Dylan Thomas

"If poetry comes not as easily as leaves from a tree, it had better not come at all." - John Keats

"Too many people in the modern world view poetry as a luxury, not a necessity." - John Betjeman (Who was not born last week. Misread Berryman for Betjeman. Was on vacation, sorry. Small fonts on a borrowed laptop.)

"Words should be an intense pleasure to a writer, just as leather should be to a shoemaker." - Evelyn Waugh

This Week in Reading October 28 - November 3

This week is a time of remembrance for things that began, the Internet, PBS, the marriage of Ariel and Will Durant, and the right of women to vote in America, and things that ended, the life of George Bernard Shaw, trust in live television quiz shows, and the flying career of Howard Hughes' large wooden seaplane, the Spruce Goose.

It is also a time of transitiions, from the good times before the stock market crash of 1929 to the Great Depression afterwards, and from Daylight Savings Time to Pacific Standard Time. Technically it doesn't end and begin until 2:00 AM next Sunday morning, but most of us change the clocks in our houses and cars before we retire on Saturday night. It used to happen by now, but by Federal decree as of this year we Fall Back an hour on the first Sunday in November and Spring Forward an hour on the first Sunday in March.

None of this week's authors won a Nobel prize for Literature -- so the streak is over -- but there are a few names you might recognize from various school and library adventures. A famous multipart adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited helped find a literarily inclined audience for PBS.

This Week's question: Orson Welles' broadcast of War of the Worlds scared many Americans who were not at all aware of H.G. Wells famous book and mistook made up scenarios for live news even though the word "dramatization" was announced regularly throughout the program. Do you know the name of the rado series of which it was a part and the theatre from which it got its name? The program actually existed to bring classically famous literature to the general public through radio. Do you know the first book Welles' program dramatized that year, its first?

Answer to Last Week's Question: Moss Hart frequently teamed with George S. Kaufman and the duo created some of America's most performed and most loved comedies such as The Man Who Came to Dinner, You Can't Take It with You, and Once in a Lifetime. They both wrote plays and screenplays with other authors but their six play teamwork stands out. Kaufman wrote movie scripts for the Marx Brothers and Moss Hart wrote the screenplay for Gentleman's Agreement based on Laura Hobson's novel.