A Writer's Moment: 'Great ideas press for admission'

A Writer's Moment: 'Great ideas press for admission':   “A great idea is usually original to more than one discoverer. Great ideas come when the world needs them. Great ideas surround the world...

'Great ideas press for admission'

 

“A great idea is usually original to more than one discoverer. Great ideas come when the world needs them. Great ideas surround the world's ignorance and press for admission.” – Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

 

Born in Boston on this date in 1844, Phelps began writing as a young girl, creating stories to entertain her classmates and friends.  By age 13, she already had a story published in the national magazine Youth's Companion and from that point on through her teens her youth stories appeared in many publications.

 

After studying at Abbot Academy, she became one of America’s most popular writers, authoring dozens of short stories collected into books like The Empty House and Other Stories.   She also authored 57 volumes of fiction, poetry and essays, starting with the bestselling novel Ellen’s Idol in 1864.  Her book The Gates Ajar was the second bestselling religious novel of the 19^th century.   

 

In nearly all of her works she challenged the prevailing view that a woman's place and fulfillment resided in the home, depicting her protagonists as physicians, ministers, artists and, of course, writers. 

 

“It is not the straining for great things that is most effective,” Phelps said about writing.  “It is the doing the little things . . . a little better and better.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The cathedrals of the imagination'

A Writer's Moment: 'The cathedrals of the imagination':   “Writing a novel is not merely going on a shopping expedition across the border to an unreal land: it is hours and years spent in the fact...

'The cathedrals of the imagination'

 

“Writing a novel is not merely going on a shopping expedition across the border to an unreal land: it is hours and years spent in the factories, the streets, the cathedrals of the imagination.” – Janet Frame

 

Born in New Zealand in August of 1924, Nene Janet Paterson Clutha, who published under the name Janet Frame, authored novels, short stories, poetry, juvenile fiction, essays and several bestselling nonfiction books.

 

Hospitalized for depression and anxiety as a young adult, Frame decided to start anew by traveling abroad.  In London, she began therapy with London doctor Robert Hugh Cawley, who encouraged her to pursue what would become a great writing career.  She dedicated 7 of her novels to Cawley.   

 

During her lifetime (she died in 2004), Frame's work garnered numerous literary prizes including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for The Carpathians.  She also was one of the most widely published essayists of the late 20^th Century and two of her nonfiction books, An Angel at My Table, and The Envoy from Mirror City, earned Book of the Year Awards in several nations.

 

Noted for her hard-hitting realism, she noted, “I like to see life with its teeth out.”

A Writer's Moment: A really 'great' book!

A Writer's Moment: A really 'great' book!:   “Don’t judge me by my cover, ’cause I’m a real good book.” – Dolly Parton   Born in Locust Ridge, Tenn, in 1946, Parton – whose deat...

A really 'great' book!

 

“Don’t judge me by my cover, ’cause I’m a real good book.” – Dolly Parton

 

Born in Locust Ridge, Tenn, in 1946, Parton – whose death Tuesday made worldwide news – grew up in The Smoky Mountains surrounded by church singing, front-porch harmonies, old ballads, and an ear for writing music and stories.

 

Starting her career as a songwriter for her uncle Bill Owens she wrote songs for other singers before trying some for herself with such hits as Jolene; Coat of Many Colors; and I Will Always Love You.   Always interested in books as well, she used her music as the foundation for writing memoirs like My Life and Other Unfinished Business and Star of the Show.  Then she wrote a series of children's books and co-wrote a bestselling thriller Run, Rose, Run with James Patterson.

 

Despite it being a secondary career for her, books were never a side project for Parton.

 

Her books for children included the bestsellers Coat of Many Colors (also made into a TV movie) and I Am a Rainbow, giving young readers a guide on how to talk about feelings. Her Billy the Kid series feature a music-loving French bulldog in a string of Nashville-sized adventures, and she wrote a cookbook with her sister Rachel titled Good Lookin' Cookin'.

 

But perhaps her biggest “writing based impact” came with the founding of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, inspired by her father's inability to read or write. What began as a local effort grew into an international book-gifting program, and millions of children knew her as 'The Book Lady' before they knew about her music.  

“I didn’t have books at home when I was a kid, so I did all my reading at school,” Parton said.  “I love books and I believe that helping kids to read gives them a great start in life.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The catalyst for opening your mind'

A Writer's Moment: 'The catalyst for opening your mind':   “The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages is preserved into perpetuity by a nation's proverbs, fables, folk sayings and q...