The Writer's Almanac from Saturday, January 20, 2007
The Writer's Almanac from Saturday, January 20, 2007
"The Jumblies" by Edward Lear.
It's the birthday of poet Edward Hirsch, born in Chicago, Illinois (1950).
It's the birthday of novelist and short-story writer Robert Olen Butler, born in Granite City, Illinois (1945). Butler worked as a cab driver, an editor, in a steel-mill, and as a teacher in both high school and college. He started off at Northwestern University as a theater major, but before graduating he turned to playwriting, deciding he would "rather write the words than mouth them." He signed up to serve in the Vietnam War and was assigned to army intelligence and he spent a year learning Vietnamese. He returned to the U.S. in 1972 and worked as an editor and reporter in New York City. He wrote his first novels using a lapboard while traveling to and from work on the Long Island Railroad.
He won the Pulitzer Prize in short fiction in 1993 for his collection A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain (1992). His collection Tabloid Dreams (1997) is a series of stories, each of which is based on actual headlines he had seen in grocery store tabloid newspapers.
It's the birthday of filmmaker Federico Fellini, born in Rimini, Italy (1920). Fellini was a perfectionist who oversaw all the details of a film's production. He wrote all of his scripts — with help from dialogue writers — and was even involved in the final editing of his films. He said that the most important year of his life was 1939, when he traveled with his friend, the comedian Aldo Fabrizi, all across Italy with a vaudeville troupe.
Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®
Garrison Keillor might be coming to a city near you! CLICK HERE for a schedule and tickets!
Edward Lear did love sending folk off to sea. From the Owl & the Pussy-Cat.
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-Tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
"It's the birthday of poet Edward Hirsch, born in Chicago, Illinois (1950)."
Couldn't you write a bit more about Edward Hirsch-- even one more line?