The Writers Almanac has been full of famous birthdays the past couple of days. Get a load:
Today, March 26: A.E. Housman, Tennessee Williams, Joseph Campbell, and Robert Frost.
Yesterday, March 25: Flannery O'Connor
When I was young, I wanted to write like Flannery O'Connor. She was so in touch with everyday life and people, and so witty, and so wise. I have two favorite passages from her work:
"She had theseyer brown glasses, and her hair was so thin it was like ham gravy trickling over her skull." -- From Wise Blood
"Besides the neutral expression she wore when she was alone, Mrs. Freeman had two others, forward and reverse, that she used in all her human dealings." --
From "Good Country People"
Both of these women were somebody's mother. Wouldn't you just know?
How many people nowadays know what ham gravy looks like? For how many modern readers is that image indelible?
Happy birthday, Flannery! You other guys, too. Who knew that Joseph Campbell got his start thinking about stories and myths when his parents took him as a kid to the Museum of Natural History in NYC? And poor Robert Frost. What a series of calamities he lived through, what family sorrow. And Flannery dying at the age of 39 of lupus. Thirty-nine seems very young to have written such memorable, stirring literature.
I love the poet A E Houseman! I bought his collection, A Shropshire Lad years ago and it makes wonderful reading. To an Athlete Dying Young still makes my throat go tight.
ReplyDeleteI've always loved Tennessee Williams. He was quite the character who never took himself or his art too seriously.
ReplyDeleteA favorite quote is: "The future is called 'perhaps,' which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the important thing is not to allow that to scare you."
Yes. Me too.
ReplyDeleteI love Houseman's athlete dying young too..."smart lad to slip betimes away/from fields where glory does not stay." When I used to do our Quaker newsletter, I included this quote for one of the boys, my daughter's age, then 16, who died in a car accident.
And then his other wonderful poem. Much happier:
when i was one and twenty
i heard a wise man say
give crowns and pounds and guineas
but not your heart away
give pearls away and rubies
but keep your fancy free
but i was one and twenty
no use to talk to me
when i was one and twenty
i heard him say again
the heart out of the breast
was never giv'n in vain
tis paid for with pain a plenty
and cause for endless rue
Now I am two and twenty
And, oh, tis true, tis true
This is from memory...so surely abbreviated and twisted. But so much fun to remember and type.
Thanks xtreme!
Love your website.
Kles...
You're the one who got me started on Flannery O'Connor! I tried one of her short stories at a neighborhood book club one time - not every one's cup of tea, apparently, but I loved those stories. --The D.N.
ReplyDelete