This Week in Reading May 24 - 30

Authors born this week:

Nobel Prize in Literature: Novelist Mikhail Sholokov (1965), novelist Patrick White (1973), poet Joseph Brodsky (1987),

Novelists and story writers
Edward Bulwer Lytton, Louis Ferdinand Celine, John Cheever, Herman Wouk, Walker Percy, William Trevor, Rosario Castellanos, John Barth, John Gregory Dunne, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, W.P. Kinsella, Raymond Carver, Jamaica Kincaid, Alan Hollinghurst, Michael Chabon, Poppy Z. Brite

Poets and Playwrights
Poets: Thomas Moore, Countee Cullen, Theodore Roethke Playwrights: Arthur Wing Pinero, Arnold Wesker, Eve Ensler

Thinkers, Believers, Scientists, Historians, Biographers
Thinkers: Oswald Spengler Believers: William F. Albright Scientists: Paul Ehrlich, David Viscott Historians: Jacob Burckhardt

Humorists, Essayists, Editors, Journalists, Officials, Media and Others
Humorists: Cornelia Otis Skinner, Bob Hope Essayists: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Randolph Bourne, Rachel Carson, George Lakoff, Ian C. Bradley Editors: Bennett Cerf Officials: John F. Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Rudy Giuliani

Mystery / Crime / Suspense Writers
Mystery: G. K. Chesterton Crime: Dashiell Hammett, Tony Hillerman Suspense: Ian Fleming, Robert Ludlum

Fantasy / Science Fiction Writers
Fantasy: Al Sorrontonio, Harlan Ellison, Edward Lee, Catherine R. Kiernan, Kelley Armstrong Science Fiction: Hal Clement, Phyllis Gotlieb

Historical Fiction / Romance / Western Writers
Historical Fiction: T. H. White Westerns: Max Brand

Visual Artists
Cartoonists: Lynn Johnston

Young People’s Writers
Children’s: Mo Willems

Events to read about: The start of this week marks the date when the island of Manhattan was bought by Europeans from unsuspecting native Americans. Or was it? Some scholars suggest the then residents thought they were only selling the right of passage through that part of the earth. Nevertheless, nearly three hundred years later on that day the New York Public Library opened its doors and mysteries of history began to be demythified. The week also offers many pairs of fascinating events and people to read about, such as Queen Victoria and Wild Bill HIckcock; Bennie Goodman and Miles Davis; John Scopes and Amelia Bloomer; Patrick Henry and (Glendale High grad) John Wayne; the Continental Congress and Tianeman Square; and more.

This Week’s Questions:

What a week of exemplars. Some of the best of a genre is here this week, a couple of superb short story writers, a top speculative fiction writer, great writers of mystery and suspense, the editor of many of America's most famous authors, and, finally, the ultimate essay writer whom everybody quotes, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson, however, didn't care for quotes himself.

Stay at home in your mind. Don't recite other people's opinions. I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.

Still, he wrote too many good lines not to quote him. With his words in mind, then, which one of the following quotes are not by Emerson?

Tis the good reader that makes the good book.

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

Never read a book that is not a year old.

A great deal of contemporary criticism reads to me like a man saying "Of course, I do not like green cheese; I am very fond of brown sherry."

Answer to Last Week’s Questions:

Sir, I admit your general rule
That every poet is a fool;
But you yourself may serve to show it,
That every fool is not a poet.

This famous epigram is most often, and most likely, attributed to the witty Alexander Pope, especially since he wrote many epigrams and also wrote The Dunciad, a long verse skewering, among others, the foolish and unpoetic actor - playwright Colley Cibber who butchered poetry in his adaptations of the bard. However, several sources attribute this epigram instead to Samuel Taylor Coleridge. We have two complete works of Pope in the library. The one from Oxford includes this epigram. The one from Cambridge does not. Go figure. Not even a library solves everything.

And what is an epigram? It is simply a short, pithy statement that is easily remembered. From the ancient Greeks to nineteenth century epitaphs they were often attached, in limited word space, to the burial site of someone whom others felt needed to be remembered, but came to be used whenever a short, often poetic, and frequently satiric dig was needed. The best ad copywriters are often epigrammists, and there is little doubt that some of the best users of new media like Twitter will turn out to be memorable epigrammists as well.

What ever can be said today,

About having little or nothing much to say,

And yet you have no more than a slim

Dozen dozen spaces to say it all in?

This Week in Reading February 8 - 14

We're winding down one of the two times of year that seem to produce the most prolific authors. There are some extremely popular frequently releasing novelists, relentless essayists, a mystery writer who published more than anyone, and fantasy and teen writers who have filled whole shelves by themselves. Also, some very important people to our culture, who also wrote a bit, were born this week.

Literary Names of Note This Week

Literary Obituaries: Playwright Robert Anderson, (1917 - 2009), Tea and Sympathy, I Never Sang for my Father; playwright Hugh Leonard, (1926 - 2009), Da.

Nobel Prize in Literature: Boris Pasternak (1958)

Novelists and Story Writers: Kate Chopin, Sidney Sheldon, Alice Walker, John Grisham

Poets and Playwrights: Amy Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, Bertolt Brecht, Brendan Behan

Thinkers, Scientists, Historians, Biographers: Robert Burton, Charles Darwin, Martin Buber, David Friedman.

Humorists, Essayists, Editors, Journalists: Charles Lamb, John Ruskin, Frank Harris, George Meredith.

Mystery / Crime / Suspense Writers: Georges Simenon, Janwillem van de Wetering.

Fantasy / Science Fiction Writers: Jules Verne.

Children’s / Teen Authors: Jane Yolen, Judy Blume.

Events to read about: Both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on February 12, 1809 and are receiving bicentennial celebrations this week. Inventors Thomas Edison and Ray Kurrzweil were born a day apart, just over a century apart. Plus, there’s the Beatles, Bill Clinton, and a few literary dates to note, as well.

This Week’s Question: The writers above, and, of course, the writers from every week of the year, have filled many of the world's most beautiful libraries with their books which take us on many curious expeditions. In fact, we’ve just been sent a link to a wonderful website called, strangely enough, Curious Expeditions, which has an amazing set of photographs of some of the most beautiful libraries in the world to please those who love libraries. How many of these exquisite libraries have you visited? Which ones would you like to visit?

Answer to Last Week’s Question: According to Wikipedia, besides theme parks, museums, and festivals, (some in winter and some in summer,) in England, there are four major Dickens festivals in the United States. San Francisco has the annual Great Dickens Christmas Fair (which often includes a performer from the festival in Kent, England.); Port Jefferson, New York has a Dickens Festival in the Village; Galveston, Texas has Dickens on the Strand; and Riverside, California has the Riverside Dickens Festival which was held last weekend. We don’t know anyone who’s been to any of them but a search of the Internet reveals many smaller and more temporary ones as well.