In Celebration of Franz Kafka's 130th Birthday

Franz Kafka – 130th Birthday from Pablo Delcán on Vimeo.

Happy 75th Birthday, Superman

The Saturday Evening Post sings his praises, here.

From the piece...

Forget what you’ve read in the comics. Superman was not shot into space as an infant moments before his home planet exploded.

Instead, he was born in Cleveland, Ohio—specifically, in the halls of Glenville High School. And his parents were not Mr. and Mrs. Jor-L (original spelling), but Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

The mythical Superman, as we all know, was faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive (a dated figure of speech that reflects Superman’s age: 75 this month), and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound (before his creators decided he could, in fact, fly.)

The real Superman was a “continuity”—a recurring comic-book character with superhuman powers to create revenue.

The Birthday of H.A. Rey

Happy Birthday, Theodore Roethke

Read some poems in his honor today!

The Waking

 

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

Happy 50th Birthday, A Clockwork Orange

Go celebrate by...joining a gang.

Happy 200th Birthday, Charles Dickens

Celebrate with the Guardian.

Happy Birthday, Thomas the Tank Engine

Celebrations marking 100 years since the birth of the creator of the Thomas the Tank Engine books are being held at the Welsh station which inspired him.

From a piece on the BBC...

The Reverend Wilbert Awdry based his stories on experiences as a volunteer at Talyllyn Railway, in the 1950s.

A new exhibition includes the model railway on which he based his stories.

This year marks the 60th anniversary since a preservation society took over the railway in Gwynedd, of which Awdry became a member and volunteer guard.

For almost a century the narrow gauge railway hauled slate through Snowdonia before becoming a museum in 1951.

Passengers also used the service to reach remote villages high in the hills.

Talyllyn Railway found its way into Awdry's books, first appearing as the Skarloey Railway in Four Little Engines in 1955.

Happy Birthday, Harper Lee

Today's her birthday. And, no, she's not authorized a biography about her.

Happy 100th Birthday, Tennessee Williams

NPR sings praise of the famous playwright, here.

Happy Birthday to My Favorite Photographer

Yesterday was Dorothea Lange's birthday. The New York Public Library celebrate her award-winning Depression-era photography. So does this site, and this site, and this site, and this site. I could go on but I'll just let you peruse those and be awed by her photography.

Happy Birthday, Jack London

Neatorama celebrated Jack London's birthday yesterday with a bunch of interesting tidbits about the writer's life.

Including...

A Rip Off Artist?

Many people, both past and present, have claimed London plagiarized much of his work. To some extent, the accusations were fair. When accused of basing The Call of the Wild on Egerton R. Young’s My Dogs in the Northland, Jack admitted that it was a “source” and he said he wrote a letter to the author thanking him for the inspiration. Jack even bought plots and novels from Sinclair Lewis and used them as his own.

The most damning case against him involved a chapter in his book The Iron Heel. Jack claimed that he based this chapter on a speech by the Bishop of London that he clipped from an American newspaper that he didn’t realize was actually an excerpt from an ironic essay by Frank Harris called “The Bishop of London and Public Morality.” Harris was angered by this use of his essay and he argued that he should receive 1/60th of all royalties for the book.

On the other hand, some of the plagiarism accusations against Jack were merely a result of his using newspaper stories to inspire his plots. A 1901 newspaper article criticized how similar his “Moon-Face” story was to Frank Norris’ “The Passing of Cock-eye Blacklock.” London defended himself by proving that both stories were inspired by the same newspaper story. Soon, there was even a third similar story discovered to have been written about the same article. This one was published a year earlier.

When criticized for writing a story directly from a non-fiction article by Augustus Biddle and J. K Macdonald, London argued that it was fair game, saying, “I, in the course of making my living by turning journalism into literature, used material from various sources which had been collected and narrated by men who made their living by turning the facts of life into journalism.”

To learn more about the life and times of Jack London, I'd start here.

Happy birthday, Jack. It was because of this book that I started becoming an avid reader, and it was because of this book that I started collecting first editions.

Happy Birthday, Allen Ginsberg

Happy birthday, Allen Ginsberg.

Catching Up with Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The great Beat poet turns 90 today. The San Francisco Chronicle spoke with him recently about his life.

Here's a reading of his poem, "#2":


And here's that bookshop he's associated with.

Happy 200th Birthday, Edgar Allan Poe

The macabre writer celebrates a birthday today and many folks are taking notice.

The New York Times' Paper Cuts blog showcases his works and manuscripts, via slide show. They also included a bit about how the NY Times celebrated his birth 100 years ago.

Across the pond, The Guardian asks the question, with Poe as part of our "cultural furniture," "Should we still bother to read him?" The short answer: Yes. They also have a Poe Quiz for those who consider themselves to be a literary smartypants.



But there's more on this, his happy day! You can watch a video with Poe reenactors at his old home.

Personal note: When I was a kid I had two books that I read voraciously. The short stories of Jack London and the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe. Both, I do believe, shaped me and made me want to write my own stories. My favorite Poe piece of fiction? This one.



And, no Poe post would be complete, without Vincent Price reading "The Raven":

Still Paging Mr. Salinger

The great mysterious J.D. Salinger, author of Catcher in the Rye, just celebrated his 90th birthday. What's he been up to, that recluse, for the past several decades? The New York Times discusses it.

Happy Birthday, Emily Dickinson

It's on this day, in 1830, that the poet Emily Dickinson was born. I'm actually a distant relative of Miss Dickinson, hence the shout out to the poetess.

"To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else," said she.

To read some of her work, go here.

I have no life but this,
To lead it here;
Nor any death, but lest
Dispelled from there;

Nor tie to earths to come,
Nor action new,
Except through this extent,
The realm of you.

And, for an added thrill, her poem "The Sky Is Low...":

Happy Birthday, Henry

Today is Henry David Thoreau's birthday.

A good quote of his:

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor."

Do something Thoreau-esque, like read, visit a nearby pond, or wear a neck beard.