The art of saying it all

“Gossip is the art of saying nothing in a way that leaves practically nothing unsaid.” – Walter Winchell

Born on this date in 1897, Winchell rose from what he termed “the mean streets of New York” to become the somewhat mean writer about New York and the entertainment world.   A grade school dropout (6^th grade) who ran off to join the Vaudeville stage, he became a conduit for sharing showbiz tales at the age of 15, first posting stories on theater walls and then feeding them to entertainment journals.

By age 20, Winchell was working for The Vaudeville News and by 30 for the New York Daily Mirror, where he started a gossip column called On-Broadway.  Ultimately, King Features made it the first syndicated column, and Winchell became a worldwide phenomenon.  At the height of his popularity 50 million people read his daily column and another              20 million tuned in for his Sunday Night radio broadcast.

Noted for taking a stand against Hitler, Mussolini and Facism and for his support of Civil Rights, he also was notorious for often unjustified attacks on those he thought were trying to hurt his career.   But, if he was your friend, he was a true friend no matter what.

“A real friend,” he said,  “is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”

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Drawn from one's surrounding life

“[The writer] must essentially draw from life as he sees it, lives it, overhears it or steals it, and the truer the writer, perhaps the bigger the blackguard. He lives by biting the hand that feeds him.” – Charles R. Jackson

Born on this date in 1903, Jackson was an American author widely known for his mostly autobiographical novels, including The Lost Weekend, published in 1944 and adapted into an Academy Award-winning Best Picture in 1945.   The novel – his first – and subsequent film thrust Jackson into a limelight in which he wasn’t always comfortable, although he did enjoy a fairly distinguished lecture circuit career from the book and film successes.

A native of New Jersey, he attended Syracuse University, studied journalism, and wrote for a number of newspapers before gravitating over to books – both writing and selling them.  He wrote several more novels with varying success and also wrote a number of well-received short stories coupled with a very successful stint as a scriptwriter for radio soap operas.  But his career was derailed by illness and alcohol.

Hospitalized for a number of years with both tuberculosis and alcoholism, he had about a 15-year hiatus before writing one more successful book, another somewhat autobiographical novel A Second-Hand Life, shortly before his death in 1968.

Jackson blamed his demise more from the early successes he had than from his longtime illness.  “The writer knows his own worth,” he lamented,  “and to be overvalued can confuse and destroy him as an artist.”

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Counting down to 1,000

Countdown to 1,000:  April 27th will mark 1,000 consecutive days of posts to A Writer’s Moment.  Thanks for reading!

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“Not only is it OK for a woman to write about a tough guy, but it might even help sell him.” – Ann Maxwell

Born on this date in 1944, Ann Maxell started as a science fiction writer even though she really didn’t read any sci-fi herself until college.  A native of Milwaukee, she grew up reading the Classics and majored in English Literature, but as a stay-at-home mom who didn’t like TV, she started reading sci-fi while her son was napping. Claiming to have read all the sci-fi books in the nearby library and second-hand book store, she decided to write one herself, even though she had no creative writing training.  And the rest, as they say, is writing history.

Today, she has written over 50 novels, ranging from science fiction to historical fiction to romance, mystery and suspense, some in collaboration with her husband Evan. Her novels have been published in 21 languages with some 23 million in print.   Her collaboration with Evan developed out of his career as a crime reporter. Their first crime novel together led to a series about a couple named Fiddler and Fiora, all published under the name A.E. Maxwell.  Two of those books – The Frog and the Scorpion and Just Enough Light to Kill – won major awards.   Together they’ve also produced           4 best-selling suspense novels.

“The good news, when you write with another, is that you never have an empty page in front of you,” Ann said.   But, the bad news is ... you never have an empty page in front of you.”

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A unique bond: author & reader

“There's a unique bond of trust between readers and authors that I don't believe exists in any other art form.  As a reader, I trust a novelist to give me his or her best effort, however flawed.” – Dan Simmons

Simmons, who was born on this date in 1948, is an award-winning author of science fiction, horror and fantasy, sometimes all within the same novel. A typical example of Simmons' intermingling of genres is his World Fantasy Award winner Song of Kali, a tale surrounding a mysterious cult that worships the Indian god Kali. 

After a number of modest successes, Simmons became internationally renowned for Hyperion, which won the 1989 Hugo and Locus Awards for the best science fiction novel.    He followed that with 3 more books and several short stories in a series that concluded with another award winner, The Rise of Endymion, also winner of the Locus and a finalist for the Hugo.  Don’t be surprised to see a SyFy Channel series arriving soon.

Simmons is a master at connecting stories to bits and pieces or characters from Classic literature ranging from Dante’s Inferno to H.G. Wells’ Time Machine.        And, he also writes mysteries and thrillers and enjoys moving among and between genres, something he finds relaxing.

“ I think it's one of the strangest attributes of this profession that when we writers get exhausted writing one thing, we relax by writing another.”

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Working hard and doing more

“The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but, like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer approach, and the thorns and briars become visible.” – Washington Irving

Born on this date in 1783, Irving is one of America’s earliest and most beloved storytellers, best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle” and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” both in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.   The Sketch Book (as it is best known) was the first widely read work of American literature in Britain and Europe. It also helped advance the international reputation of American writers.

Being a short story writer was only a small part of Irving’s vast portfolio.  Also a noted essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat, he served as U.S. Ambassador to Spain in the 1840s – a time when relations between our young nation and the well-established European nation were crucial.  He is credited as one of the leading diplomats of his time.

Among Irving’s historical writings were best selling biographies of George Washington, Oliver Goldsmith, and Muhammad, and histories of 15th-century Spain on subjects such as Christopher Columbus, the Moors and The Alhambra.  Using his celebrity, Irving pushed tirelessly for stronger copyright laws to protect the young American writing community at a time when their works often were pirated.  Ultimately, he was instrumental        in helping create international copyright laws.

  

In a piece of great advice for those who write, he noted, “One of the greatest and simplest tools for learning more and growing is simply working hard and doing more.” 

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A critical review of good writing

“A novel is a static thing that one moves through; a play is a dynamic thing that moves past one.” – Kenneth Tynan

One of the most impactful theater critics of the mid-20^th Century, Tynan was born on this date in 1928 and in his relatively short lifetime (he died at age 53 of emphysema) he became a force in the theatrical world, which often regarded him with a mix of awe, fear and hatred, according to fellow writers. 

His understanding of what made good writing (and a good show) led to his eventual appointment as literary manager of the British National Theatre Company.  In that role he not only greatly expanded the Theatre’s reach and choice of plays but also established his own worldwide reputation.

Tynan's career first took off in 1952 as a young theatre critic for the London Evening Standard.   In 1954, he joined The Observer and it was there that he rose to prominence.  After becoming part of the National Theatre’s management team, he continued his writing as a film reviewer.  During the final decade of his life he lived in California, writing often for The New Yorker and doing screenplays and theatrical pieces, including the very popular Oh, Calcutta!           He also kept diaries that have been much studied, both in writing courses and by historians.

“A good drama critic is one who perceives what is happening in the theatre of his time,” Tynan wrote, when asked what advice he might give to aspiring critics. “A great drama critic also perceives what is not happening.”

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Giving energy through good writing

“The pleasure that I take in writing gets me interested in writing a poem. It's not a statement about what I think anybody else should be doing. For me, it's an interesting tension between interior and exterior.” – Marilyn Hacker

American poet Hacker, who was born in New York in 1942, often employs strict forms in her poetry: for example, writing in sonnets as in her acclaimed verse novel, Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons.    

 Among her 11 books of poetry is Presentation Piece, which won the National Book Award, and the amazing Going Back to the River.  Her writing often speaks for the marginalized or for those who are suffering, especially from cancer.           “Good writing gives energy,” said Hacker,  “whatever it is about.”  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Hacker’s:

 

                Invocation

This is for Elsa, also known as Liz, 

an ample-bosomed gospel singer: five 

discrete malignancies in one full breast.

 This is for auburn Jacqueline, 

who is celebrating fifty years alive, 

one since she finished chemotherapy.

 with fireworks on the fifteenth of July.

 This is for June, whose words are lean and mean 

as she is, elucidating our protest.

 This is for Lucille, who shines a wide 

beam for us with her dark cadences.

 This is for long-limbed Maxine, 

astride a horse like conscience.

 This is for Aline who taught her lover 

how to caress the scar.

 This is for Eve, who thought of AZT 

while hopeful poisons pumped into a vein.

 This is for Nanette in the Midwest.

 This is for Alicia, shaking back dark hair, 

dancing one-breasted with the Sabbath bride.

 This is for Judy on a mountainside, 

plunging her gloved hands in a glistening hive.

 Hilda, Patricia, Gaylord, Emilienne, 

Tania, Eunice: this is for everyone 

who marks the distance on a calendar 

from what's less likely each year to "recur.”

 Our saved-for-now lives are life sentences 

-- which we prefer to the alternative.

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