A Writer's Moment: 'The most nourishing forms of meditation'

A Writer's Moment: 'The most nourishing forms of meditation':   “I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the m...

'The most nourishing forms of meditation'

 

“I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle.”  -- Kurt Vonnegut  

Born in Indianapolis in 1922, Vonnegut wrote for 50 years, publishing 14 novels, 3 short story collections, 5 plays, and 5 works of non-fiction. He is most famous for his darkly satirical, best-selling novel Slaughterhouse-Five.

Vonnegut always claimed that it was by reading other great writers that he himself developed the writing style and ideas that led to his success.  Among the most influential on his writing, he said, were George Orwell, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry David Thoreau and H.G. Wells.

A journalist first, Vonnegut often credited journalistic writing as another key to his style – one that made his writing both straightforward and understandable by a wide audience.

“One of the things that I tell beginning writers is this: If you describe a landscape, or a cityscape, or a seascape, always be sure to put a human figure somewhere in the scene. Why? Because readers are human beings, mostly interested in human beings,” he said.  “People are humanists … most of them, anyway.”

A Writer's Moment: Making the magic happen

A Writer's Moment: Making the magic happen:   “The nice thing about being a writer is that you can make magic happen without learning tricks.” – Humphrey Carpenter ...

Making the magic happen

 

“The nice thing about being a writer is that you can make magic happen without learning tricks.” – Humphrey Carpenter

Born in England on this date in 1946, Carpenter, who was both a writer and radio broadcaster, was one of the 20^th Century’s leading biographers, including major works on both J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.  A native of Oxfordshire, Carpenter’s notable output of biographies included J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography and The Inklings: CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Charles Williams and their Friends, winner of the 1978 Somerset Maugham Award, given annually to the best book written by someone under the age of 35. 

 

He also won the prestigious literary award, the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize, for his 1988 book Ezra Pound. 

         

When he wasn’t writing, he was performing as a jazz musician, or serving as an engaging broadcaster, host and producer of many of the BBC’s leading series.  He kept up a tireless routine of writing and broadcasting right up to his premature death from Parkinson’s and heart failure at the age of 58.

 

“You call a star a star, and say it is just a ball of matter moving on a mathematical course. But that is merely how you see it,” he wrote in J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography. “By so naming things and describing them you are only inventing your own terms about them. And just as speech is invention about objects and ideas, so myth is invention about truth.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Life would be sorry without ideals'

A Writer's Moment: 'Life would be sorry without ideals':   “You have the itch for writing born in you. It's quite incurable. What are you going to do?   You might as well use...

'Life would be sorry without ideals'

 

“You have the itch for writing born in you. It's quite incurable. What are you going to do?  You might as well use it?” – L.M. Montgomery

 

The marvelous Lucy Maud Montgomery, born in 1874, rocketed to worldwide acclaim with her very first book, Anne of Green Gables and really never looked back.  The book has sold more than 50 million copies in 20 languages worldwide.    Over a 45-year writing career, Montgomery authored 20 novels, many featuring her lead character Anne Shirley.  And she wrote a remarkable 530 short stories.

 

Anne Shirley made Montgomery famous in her lifetime and gave her an international following even from fellow authors.   Mark Twain called Anne, “the dearest and most moving and delightful child since the immortal Alice.”  (I believe he was referring to that one who made that visit to Wonderland). 

 

Montgomery – who died in 1942 – also wrote some 500 poems and 30 essays and been honored as the first female in Canada to be named a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in England.  In 1935 she was invested into the Order of the British Empire, one of the highest British honors. 

 

“We must have ideals and try to live up to them, even if we never quite succeed,” Montgomery noted.   “Life would be a sorry business without them. With them it's grand and great.” 

A Writer's Moment: 'It's a Condition'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's a Condition':          "To be a poet is a condition, not a profession." - Robert Frost                Born in California...

'It's a Condition'

      

"To be a poet is a condition, not a profession." - Robert Frost

 

            Born in California in 1874, Frost spent most of his life in New England and is recognized as one of the world's greatest poets.  He said visitors loved New England in the Fall for its brilliant colors, but he loved it year-around and especially for its summer beauty.  For Saturday's Poem here is his very brief,

                A Summer Sunday

''He bestows summer on us and escapes
Before our realizing what we have
To thank him for. He doesn't want our thanks.''

                                      
  

Photo by Dan Jorgensen