"If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain."
Life, p. 6 - Collected Poems (1993)
American lyric poet Emily Dickinson died #OTD in 1888. Although she wrote 1789 poems, only a few of them were published in her lifetime, all anonymously, and some perhaps without her knowledge.
“Since the beginning of #Israel’s war on #Gaza, academics in fields including #politics, #sociology, Japanese #literature, public #health, Latin American and Caribbean studies, Middle East and African studies, #mathematics, #education, and more have been fired, suspended, or removed from the classroom for pro-#Palestine, anti-Israel speech.”
Kafka's works were not widely known during his lifetime, and he published only a few of his stories. Most of his major works were published posthumously by his friend and literary executor, Max Brod, despite Kafka's instructions to destroy his manuscripts.
British mathematician, logician, philosopher, & public intellectual Bertrand Russell was born #OTD in 1872.
One of Russell's most significant achievements is the co-authorship of "Principia Mathematica" (1910-1913) with Alfred North Whitehead. His works, such as "The Problems of Philosophy" (1912) & "Our Knowledge of the External World" (1914), explored issues related to knowledge, perception, & the scientific method.
Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway is published by the Hogarth Press in Bloomsbury, London.
The working title of Mrs Dalloway was The Hours. The novel originated from 2 short stories, "Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street" & the unfinished "The Prime Minister". In autumn 1922, Woolf began to think of the "Mrs. Dalloway" short story as the first chapter of her new novel, and she completed the manuscript in late autumn 1924.
French illustrator, etcher, lithographer, caricaturist, and novelist Albert Robida was born #OTD in 1848.
One of Robida's most significant contributions to literature and art was his pioneering work in the genre of science fiction. He was a visionary artist who imagined futuristic worlds filled with advanced technology, air travel, space exploration, and other innovations that were ahead of his time.
Many years ago i found a ‘list of items for a grand house in mourning’, on it were things like black velvet drapes etc and also a butter dish in the shape of a skull that moulds the butter inside in to a brain.
I feel like this was maybe a Perec thing, or something published by Atlas Press or someone like that.
Anyone know who wrote it or where it’s from? #goth#avantgarde#literature
Alice Munro's death was announced yesterday. Her self-described "second oldest remaining friend and colleague," fellow Canadian author Margaret Atwood, has written this tribute to her on her Substack, In the Writing Burrow. It's meant for paying subscribers, but a substantial portion is free to read.
"Alice could be quite mischievous, and not only in her writing. Both of us had dark curly hair at one time. We were about the same height.
"Alice: I was standing on a train platform and a man came up to me and said, ‘You’re Margaret Atwood!' 'Yes,' I said, 'I am.' Then we had quite an interesting conversation about your working methods and where you get your inspiration.
"Turn and turn about: After we both had white hair, and after Alice had won the Nobel, people would come up to me and murmur, 'Congratulations.' 'For what?' I would say. 'You know. Winning that prize.' After a while I stopped trying to explain, and just murmured back, modestly, 'Thank you.' Though the Thank Yous were really for Alice."
Natsume Sōseki's novel Light and Darkness (明暗, Mei An) begins to be serialized in the Tokyo and Osaka editions of the newspaper Asahi Shimbun, but will remain unfinished at the author's death on December 9, aged 49.
The first copies of the children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum were printed by the George M. Hill Company.
During the subsequent decades after the novel's publication in 1900, it received little critical analysis from scholars of children's literature. This lack of interest stemmed from the scholars' misgivings about fantasy, as well as to their belief that lengthy series had little literary merit.
What Scotsman was caught up in a civil war before the age of twenty? Wrote a book that became the inspiration for an Oscar-winning film? Met a runaway teenager in Paris and married her against the wishes of his family? Lost his ranch to raiding Apaches?
#writing mastodon, could you recommend any good resources on organizing a #shortStory#contest, especially in context of optimal text length / jury size / time?
American novelist and short story writer Nathaniel Hawthorne died #OTD in 1864.
Hawthorne's early career was marked by relative obscurity. He self-published his first work, a novel titled "Fanshawe," in 1828, but later sought to suppress it. Throughout the 1830s and 1840s, he wrote numerous short stories and sketches which were later collected in volumes such as "Twice-Told Tales" (1837, 1842).
"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true."
Chapter XX: The Minister in a Maze - The Scarlet Letter (1850)
~Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864)
Herwegh's poetry is characterized by its passionate advocacy for freedom and democracy. He became famous with his collection "Gedichte eines Lebendigen", published in 1841. This work was widely acclaimed for its revolutionary zeal and critique of the existing social and political order.
"The anxious night is now over,
We ride silently, we ride silently,
And ride to our doom.
How sharply the morning wind blows!
Mrs. Innkeeper, one more glass quickly
Before dying, before dying."
"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
In June 1914.
James Joyce's Dubliners, a collection of fifteen short stories depicting the Irish middle classes in and around Dublin during the early 20th century, is published in London.
English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator W. S. Gilbert died #OTD in 1911.
He is best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan in creating the famous series of comic operas known as the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. The most famous of these include H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre, The Mikado.
Virginia Stephen, the future Virginia Woolf, writes her first work of fiction, a short story which becomes known as "Phyllis and Rosamond" when first published, posthumously.
"Phyllis and Rosamond" is a short story included in "The complete shorter fiction of Virginia Woolf" (1985). It is a lesser-known work that reflects her early experimentation with narrative form and character development.
The first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded: Laura E. Richards, Maude H. Elliott, and Florence Hall receive the first for biography (for Julia Ward Howe), Jean Jules Jusserand the first for history with With Americans of Past and Present Days, and Herbert B. Swope the first for journalism for his work for the New York World.
Currently on the BBC iPlayer: Ian Rankin investigates Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde”. Rankin traces the roots of this story, which stretch back to Stevenson's childhood. Grave-robbers, drugs & prostitution all play their part, as Rankin's journey takes him into the dark streets of the city that inspired the tale: Edinburgh.
American artist and fiction writer Robert W. Chambers was born #OTD in 1865.
Chambers is best known for his weird fiction and horror stories, particularly "The King in Yellow," a collection of short stories published in 1895. He wrote numerous other novels and short stories across various genres including "The Maker of Moons" (1896), "The Mystery of Choice" (1897), and "The Tracer of Lost Persons" (1906).
"Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Carcosa.
...
Song of my soul, my voice is dead;
Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
Lost Carcosa."
Cassilda's Song in "The King in Yellow," Act i, Scene 2.
~Robert William Chambers (May 26, 1865 – December 16, 1933)
English author, philosopher, literary and art critic G. K. Chesterton was born #OTD in 1874.
Chesterton created the character Father Brown, a Catholic priest and amateur detective. The first collection, "The Innocence of Father Brown," was published in 1911. His most famous novel is "The Man Who Was Thursday" (1908), a metaphysical thriller that explores themes of anarchy and order.
American writer Randolph Silliman Bourne was born #OTD in 1886.
Bourne's career was marked by his prolific writing and his engagement with contemporary social and political issues. His essays and articles were published in influential magazines like The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, and The Dial. His incisive critique of World War I and his vision of a pluralistic America have left a lasting impact on American thought and cultural studies.
"The secret of life is then that this fine youthful spirit should never be lost. Out of the turbulence of youth should come this fine precipitate—a sane, strong, aggressive spirit of daring and doing. It must be a flexible, growing spirit, with a hospitality to new ideas, and a keen insight into experience. To keep one's reactions warm and true, is to have found the secret of perpetual youth, and perpetual youth is salvation."