A Writer's Moment: 'A most solitary occupation'

A Writer's Moment: 'A most solitary occupation':   “Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He or she must be alone, uninterrup...

'A most solitary occupation'

 

“Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He or she must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking." – Jessamyn West

 

Born in Indiana on this date in 1902, West wrote dozens of short stories and 20 novels, most notably her acclaimed The Friendly Persuasion – also made into an Academy Award “Best Movie” nominee – and its sequel, Except For Me and Thee, eventually made into a much-heralded television movie.

 

West started her adult life as an elementary teacher in California before contracting tuberculosis and being sent to a sanatorium for treatment.  While there, undergoing extensive treatment and rehabilitation, she began writing to pass the time and after regaining her health decided to continue pursuing writing as a career.

 

Her stories, loosely based on tales told to her by her mother and grandmother about their life in rural Indiana, often reflect West’s proclaimed love of bygone eras.

  

“The past,” she said, “is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future.”

A Writer's Moment: Taking on 'the task of finding reality'

A Writer's Moment: Taking on 'the task of finding reality':   “Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck” – Iris Murdoch   Born in Irel...

Taking on 'the task of finding reality'

 

“Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck” – Iris Murdoch

 

Born in Ireland on July 15, 1919 Murdoch grew up in London and first made her writing “commitment” with a series of philosophical essays and the blockbuster novel Under the Net that catapulted her onto the international literary scene in the early 1950s.  The novel ultimately was selected by both Time magazine and Modern Library as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.   

 

Murdoch went on to produce 25 more novels and many additional works of philosophy, poetry and drama, winning The Booker Prize for The Sea, The Sea, The Whitbread Literary Award for Fiction, and the James Tait Black Award for The Black Prince.  Shortly before her death in 1999, she was awarded the Golden PEN Award for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature.”

 

Her literary life was further honored by two memoirs from her husband John Bayley -- the books serving as the basis for the movie Iris, featuring Kate Winslett and Judi Dench as the younger and older Murdoch.

 

“We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion,” Murdoch wrote.   “The great task in life is to find reality”

A Writer's Moment: 'Lke arranging pieces of music'

A Writer's Moment: 'Lke arranging pieces of music':   “Ordering is difficult. It's like arranging pieces of music in a concert: What do you put first? What do you put after the intermissio...

'Lke arranging pieces of music'

 

“Ordering is difficult. It's like arranging pieces of music in a concert: What do you put first? What do you put after the intermission? I want the reader to be sort of surprised, to come to each story freshly.” – Lydia Davis

Born in Massachusetts on July 15, 1947 Davis is primarily a short story writer, although she’s also published novels and essays and served as a translator from French and other languages.  She’s especially noted for her translations of French literary classics, including Proust's Swann’s Way and Flaubert’s Madame Bovary.  

 

 Winner of the Man Booker Prize for her lifetime body of work, Davis has been acclaimed for the brevity and humor of many of her short stories.   Davis has compared her shorter stories to skyscrapers, because, "They are surrounded by an imposing blank expanse."  Some of her stories have been labeled poetry, even though she insists they are not.  A number of her stories are highlighted in The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis.  Her most recent works are 2023’s Our Strangers: Stories and 2025’s Into the Weeds. 

 

While both her parents were writers and teachers, Davis gravitated toward a career in music, initially studying piano, then violin.  But she said it probably was inevitable that she would become a writer.

 

"I was probably always headed to being a writer, even though that wasn't my first love,” she said.  “I guess I must have always wanted to write in some part of me or I wouldn't have done it.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Creating an appropriate past'

A Writer's Moment: 'Creating an appropriate past':   Isn't it amazing the way the future succeeds in creating an appropriate past?” – John Leonard   Born in Great Britain in July of 1...