A Writer's Moment: 'Dreams or Swords'

A Writer's Moment: 'Dreams or Swords':   All books are either dreams or swords; you can cut, or you can drug, with words.”  – Amy Lowell   Pulitzer Prize winner Lowell, whose ...

'Dreams or Swords'

 

All books are either dreams or swords; you can cut, or you can drug, with words.” – Amy Lowell

 

Pulitzer Prize winner Lowell, whose poetry falls into “The Imagest School,” was born in February of 1874, one of the many members of the Massachusetts’ Lowell family to make an impact on writing and education.  

 

Lowell was an early adherent of "free verse” and one of its major champions.   Although she didn’t start writing poetry until age 28 and died young (at age 51), Lowell produced more than a dozen major books of poetry, reprinted in The Complete Poetical Works of Amy Lowell, published in 1955.  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Lowell’s, 

                                                               Solitaire

When night drifts along the streets of the city,
And sifts down between the uneven roofs,
My mind begins to peek and peer.
It plays at ball in old, blue Chinese gardens,
And shakes wrought dice-cups in Pagan temples,
Amid the broken flutings of white pillars.
It dances with purple and yellow crocuses in its hair,
And its feet shine as they flutter over drenched grasses.
How light and laughing my mind is,
When all the good folk have put out their bed-room candles,
And the city is still!

A Writer's Moment: The creation of an 'unlucky' myth

A Writer's Moment: The creation of an 'unlucky' myth:   Leave it to a writer to create a myth that dogs us to this day.  It’s often believed the   publication of Bostonian Thomas W. Lawson’s pop...

The creation of an 'unlucky' myth

 

Leave it to a writer to create a myth that dogs us to this day.  It’s often believed the publication of Bostonian Thomas W. Lawson’s popular novel Friday the 13^th  in 1907 contributed immensely to the creation of the myth. 

 

Born in Charlestown, Mass., in February of 1857, Lawson was intensely superstitious and made certain – as a promotional move – to not only name his book Friday the Thirteenth but also release it on that day.  It's the story of an unscrupulous stockbroker (also a profession he had in addition to writing) who brings down Wall Street on Friday the 13th.

Lawson chose to publish on Dec. 13, 1907, which ironically was the same day the only 7-masted schooner ever built - the Thomas W. Lawson (in which Lawson had invested heavily) - was wrecked off the coast of Sicily.  The triumph of his book's launch was quickly tempered by news that his ship had gone down just hours after the book's appearance.  

 

The mystique surrounding that combination of events led to the book becoming immensely popular and spawning dozens, if not hundreds, of other stories that led to an ongoing phobia about the day.   Up until that day in 1907 there is little, if any, mention of Friday the 13^th being a day of which to beware.    By the way, Lawson is said to have firmly believed in Lucky Number 7.  He was the author of 7 books.

 

P.S.  This is one of those lucky years when Friday the 13^th’s comes in back-to-back months.  Friday, March 13th, is just around the corner.

A Writer's Moment: 'The books we should cherish'

A Writer's Moment: 'The books we should cherish':   “The best books come from someplace inside. You don't write because you want to, but because you have to.” – Judy Blume   Born in ...

'The books we should cherish'

 

“The best books come from someplace inside. You don't write because you want to, but because you have to.” – Judy Blume

 

Born in Elizabeth, NJ on this date in 1938, Blume has authored dozens of novels that have tackled sensitive topics and sometimes been a source of controversy.  But there’s little doubt that they resonate with young people.  To date her 30 books - mostly written for teens -  have had sales approaching 100 million, translated into 32 languages.

 

Blume said she hopes her stories have opened the doors to teens to gain a better understanding of themselves and issues that surround them.    Racism, divorce, bullying, sexuality, all have all been “on the table” for Blume’s characters. “Generating discussion,” she said, is her primary goal.  She has been recognized as one of the world’s great “storytellers” who bring kids into the reading world, winning more than 90 literary awards, including three lifetime achievement awards and the American Library Association’s Margaret A. Edwards Award for "significant and lasting contribution to Young Adult literature.”

 

“Any book that gets kids to read are books that we should cherish,” she noted.  “We should be thankful for them”

A Writer's Moment: 'Listen with both the ear and the eye'

A Writer's Moment: 'Listen with both the ear and the eye': “Read something of interest every day - something of interest to you, not to your teacher or your best friend or your minister/rabbi/priest....