Did You Know William Carlos Williams?

William Carlos Williams was born in Rutherford, New Jersey and followed in the footsteps of Ezra Pound to become a principal poet in the Imagist movement. Williams tried to separate himself from European cultures and traditions by playing with meter and lineation to invent a singularly American style.

As for interesting things about Williams – you probably didn’t know that Williams married Florence Herman after his proposal to her older sister was refused. You also probably didn’t know that Williams’s primary occupation was not as a writer, but actually as a doctor. He worked as a doctor by day and wrote on nights and weekends. Williams was highly opposed to European influence on American culture and felt strongly that American literature should be unique to American culture. Williams was known for his opposition to European influence, which gained him popularity in America; however, two days after his death in 1963, a British publisher decided to publish all of Williams’s poems.

Did You Know: William Faulkner

William Faulkner was born in 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi. He joined the Canadian Airforce after being rejected from the US Airforce for not meeting the physical requirements. Faulkner didn’t have much interest in formal education and dropped out of high school as well as the University of Mississippi which he attended for two years after his time in the Airforce. Previous to the Civil War Faulkner’s family  acquired a large sum of wealth which they lost in the course of the war. Because of this loss they experienced, Faulkner often talks of the history and traditions of the Old South.

Faulkner began his writing when his family relocated to Oxford, Mississippi. After dropping out if University of Mississippi, Faulkner took a job at the school and spent his time working on his writing; Faulkner was fired from his position in 1924. His first published piece was a collection of poems entitled The Marble Faun but it did not sell well. Sherwood Anderson advised him to try writing some prose as poetry was not his strong suit. Faulkner later published a novel MOSQUITOS satirizing New Orleans writing and writers, including Anderson. Their friendship suffered as a result and Anderson cut off their tied though Faulkner continued to admire his old friend.

Faulkner’s writing is often known for its stream of consciousness and distortion of time. He attempted to create his own world through several of his novels. Faulkner developed a town called Jefferson located in Yoknapatawpha County which he modeled after Oxford where he began his writing. Faulkner was also interested in the aftermath effects of slavery in the South and the struggle with identity many people of mixed race experienced.

Faulkner married Estelle Oldham in 1929 and had two children with her, one of them died just nine days after birth. In 1932 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios hired him to write screenplays and he relocated to Hollywood, CA. Faulkner was not comfortable in his new environment and began to drink heavily. However, Faulkner’s funds from screenwriting provided him with money to continue his own fiction writing. He later helped write the script for Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not and Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, however his novel sales twiddled and eventually his books went out of print during WWII.

 

Although Faulkner’s sales did not reach astounding heights, Faulkner received a number of writing awards, one of the most notable being the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949. Other awards included the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Howell Medal for fiction (1951), National Book Award for his Collection of stories and the National Institute’s Gold Medal for fiction. Faulkner continued to travel the world writing screenplays, visiting places like Egypt, Brazil and Greece. He also became involved in advocating Civil Rights. Faulkner unfortunately passed away in 1962 as a result of a heart attack.

 

Sources:

http://www.egs.edu/library/william-faulkner/biography/

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/faulkner-bio.html

Did You Know: Lucille Clifton

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Lucille Clifton was born in Depew, New York, on June 27, 1936. She originally studied at Howard University, but after suffering from poor grades, transferred to State University of New York at Fredonia. In 1958, she married Fred James Clifton who was a professor at the University of Buffalo.
Before she became famous with her writings, she was a worker for the government and a literature assistant for the Office of Education in Washington D.C. Fred and Lucille starred in “The Glass Menagerie” for the Buffalo Community Drama Workshop, which was called, “sensitive and poetic” by the Buffalo Evening News.
Later, Lucille was introduced to writer Ishmael Reed by her husband. Reed knew Lucille was working on some poems, so he brought them to author Langston Hughes, who included Clifton’s poems in his anthology, “The Poetry of the Negro”. From then, Lucille was noticed. Her first poetry collection, “Good Times”, was published in 1969 and referred by the New York Times as one of the year’s top ten best books.
From 1979 to 1985, Lucille was Poet Laureate of the state of Maryland. She also was a visiting writer at the Columbia University School of the Arts and at George Washington University.
Sadly, in 1984, her husband, Fred Clifton, died of cancer. After her husband’s passing, Lucille moved to California and became a professor of literature and creative writing at University of California, Santa Cruz. She continued on as a visiting writer and professor at various prestigious colleges, including Columbia University and Dartmouth College.
Lucille Clifton was a gifted poet and had two of her works nominated for Pulitzer Prizes. She also won the Coretta Scott King Award. In 1999, she was elected as Chanceloor of the Academy of American Poets.
Lucille Clifton died on February 13, 2010 after a long battle with cancer. She is set to receive the Robert Frost Medal for lifetime achievement for her outstanding works with poetry and society.

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/79

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/lucille-clifton

Did you know Eudora Welty?

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The First Lady of Southern Literature

“All serious daring starts from within.” 

A recipient of 38 honorary doctorate degrees and more than 40 major literary awards, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, a master of short story writing, the first living writer to be published in the Library of America series, and even a renowned photographer, Eudora Alice Welty managed to pack a lot into her ninety-two years on this here Earth. Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Welty was heavily influenced by her Southern upbringing and set the majority of her works in the American South. Regardless, Welty’s talent broke regional barriers, and she came to be one of the most respected and admired modern American fiction writers – all because of the humanity ever-present in her works. In addition to being able to effectively transcribe what it means to be human, she also produced a diverse portfolio, ranging from the grotesque and tragic to the light and humorous. Welty oftentimes used writing as a means of experimentation, and with that came criticism. But, she didn’t care, and I’m sure the Southern blood in her must’ve boiled at the thought of being merely one-dimensional.

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In 1936, Eudora Welty’s short story entitled “Death of a Traveling Salesman” was published, and thus began her illustrious career. Her first book of stories, A Curtain of Green, was published just five years later in 1941.  Later, in the 1960s, following years of traveling and writing, a few of Welty’s works appeared in The New Yorker. Her book of photographs, One Time, One Place, was published in 1971. In 1972, Welty was awarded the Gold Medal for Fiction and in 1973, she received the Pulitzer Prize for her The Optimist’s Daughter. In 1980, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States, by President Carter and three years later, in 1983, she delivered  three William E. Massey Lectures to standing-room-only crowds at Harvard, which became One Writer’s Beginnings, New York Times bestseller. In 1996, Welty received the French Legion of Honor Medal, and sadly, in 2001, Eudora Welty passed away in Jackson, Mississippi, where it all began. Her lifelong home is now a National His­toric Land­mark and public museum.

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Did You Know Jhumpa Lahiri?

Not only is Jhumpa Lahiri a strikingly gorgeous Indian-American author, but she is also a unique and humble writer. Jhumpha Lahiri was born in London in 1967, and was raised in Rhode Island by her Bengali parents. Her most popular works include The Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake, and Unaccustomed Earth. She won the http://robertarood.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/arar01_jhumpa_lahiri.jpgPEN/Hemingway Award in 1999, the Pulitzer Prize in 2000, and has won eleven other awards throughout her literary career thus far (No big deal, right?). Mrs. Lahiri also has an extensive educational background. While I am barely scraping by to get one bachelors degree, Jhumpa Lahiri has THREE Masters Degrees! One is in English, one in Creative Writing, and the last one is in Comparative Literature. All of these degrees she earned from Boston University. Not to mention, this amazing female writer also has a PH. D in Renaissance Studies. This woman is insanely ambitious.

Lahiri’s style is all about simplicity. Lahiri is not as interested in dressing up her stories with elaborate language like some authors are. As a writer involved in the Post-Modernist Movement, Jhumpa Lahiri’s literature uses concise language and focuses on representing specific points of views and themes. The majority of Lahiri’s work also centers around her own personal experiences as well as her own cultural identity. Obviously, Mrs. Lahiri is still writing and producing literature. Her most recent book was published in 2013 and is titled The Lowland. No pressure, but YOU MOST DEFINITELY NEED TO GET YOUR HANDS ON ONE OF HER STORIES!!!

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click on the picture for more stuff!

Learn more about Jhumpa Lahiri and get access to her books here

 

Did You Know: Ernest Hemingway

Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway lead an interesting life to say the least. Born in 1899 Hemingway quickly became involved in the industry of journalism. During his High School career he served on the staff of Trapeze and Tabula, his school’s newspaper. At the age of 17 he began to work for a newspaper office in Kansas City. Shortly thereafter he volunteered to serve in an ambulance unit for the Italian army during WWI. During his service, Hemingway was wounded and found himself in a hospital in Milan. Though Hemingway served in the military, he is quoted saying, “Never that think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.”

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Perhaps the more interesting aspect of Hemingway’s life is his seeming inability to keep a woman. His first proposal took place shortly after his being injured in Italy. It was to a nurse who cared for him in the hospital. She decided she had better options elsewhere, and though she had accepted his proposal, left Hemingway for another man. However, Hemingway did not lose all hope. He would be married 4 times after this failed proposal. I blame young heartbreak, but judging from the timeline of events, most would probably just blame him on not being able to keep his hands to himself.

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Besides not being able to hold down a relationship, Hemingway was pretty awesome. He had opportunities to hunt exotic creatures on the plains of Africa and to be a correspondent writer all over the globe. However, sustaining many injuries from his life of adventure (even surviving plane crashes) he later in life developed severe depression. On July 2, 1961 in Ketchum, Idaho Ernest Hemingway took his own life. (Being real for a second, Ketchum, Idaho sounds like a place that would make you want to kill yourself. Unless you’re from there, in which case, I’m sure it’s lovely.)

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Though Hemingway’s life was what some people might define as a “Hot Mess” that came to a tragic end. He was one of the greatest writers of his time. Defined by Gertrude Stein as a member of “the lost generation”, Hemingway was placed in a  category among F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Pablo Picasso and James Joyce. He was also nominated for and later awarded the Pulitzer Prize and in 1954 was given the Nobel Prize in Literature for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style”.

Fun Fact: Ernest Hemingway had a cat named Winston Churchill.

Sources:

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1954/hemingway-bio.html

http://www.biography.com/people/ernest-hemingway-9334498?page=1

Photo Sources:

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/articles/life/drink/features/2013/martini_madness_tournament/first_round/hemingway_s_martini_recipe_loses_to_gilbert_seldes_and_other_round_of_64/Ernest_Hemingway_in_Milan_1918_retouched_.jpg.CROP.multipart2-medium.jpg

http://www.retronaut.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Ernest-Hemingway-in-the-bath.jpg

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/BOOKS/Pix/pictures/2011/7/15/1310727156264/Ernest-Hemingway-007.jpg

 

Did You Know: Langston Hughes

 

 

 

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Although his mother resided in the United States and his father in Mexico, he spent the majority of his childhood life with his grandmother in Lawrence, KS. After she died in his teens, he jumped between both households until adulthood. His first poems came from this feeling of being ungrounded that came with constantly switching homes and never quite having the stability of his parents in his life. His first poem was published in 1921. He attended Lincoln University and graduated in 1929.

Langston Hughes was a writer, very much a part of an abolitionist family. One of his great grandparents died in the John Brown slave revolt on Harper Ferry during pre-civil war conflicts while another was related to John Mercer Langston who became the first African American to hold public office. A versatile and prolific author, his works combined the enduring interests of the African American community of his period. Using elements of African American music—particularly blues and jazz— and African American dialect, Langston Hughes’ literary voice became the embodiment of the Harlem Renaissance. Although Hughes was a columnist, novelist, and eventually, a playwright, he is best known for his innovation in form of jazz poetry and his main objective was writing to uplift the condition of his people.

Towards his later years, however, his works became influenced by growing sense of alienation in a segregated America where his voice was still very much submerged; He began veering towards the political left. Like many minority groups at the time, in his later works to begin participating in the Popular Front— a coalition of leftist, radicals, labor activists, and civil rights advocates who promoted labor unionism and other alternative cultural political and economic models. He began to sympathize with socialist regimes writing for a magazine associated with the Communist Party, New Masses, began writing more plays, and in 1932 sailed to the Soviet Union with a group of young African Americans. During World War II, Jesse B. Semple became his character, his version of “everyman,” while he wrote for  The Chicago Defender allowing him to discuss serious political and racial issues in a lighthearted way.

Langston Hughes, in his battle to be heard, chose to represent the plain people because he saw more truth in doing so. His works were misunderstood and disliked by many people but his passions never dwindled and he continued to write. His legacy is being a voice of his people during a period when their voices were marginalized.

He died from cancer in 1967 in New York.

Fun facts!

  1. Hughes’ father only paid for school at Lincoln University on the grounds that Hughes study engineering.
  2. The work of Langston Hughes was read by W.E.B Du Bois!
  3. The Academy of American Poets had a vote in 2002 on their favorite poet who, indeed, was Langston Hughes. Afterwards, the Academy urged the U.S. Postal Service for a Langston Hughes stamp. They did just that on his birthday, February 1sthughes
  4. His ashes lie beneath the entrance of the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black culture in Harlem.
  5. He served a brief period as a crewman on the U.S. Malone traveling to West Africa and Europe.
  6. Many people believe that he was gay and wrote unpublished poems to his lovers.
  7. In high school he was voted “class poet,” before he had ever written poetry.
  8. Apparently, Hughes and Maya Angelou were buds.

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Sources:

  1. http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/langston-hughes-187.php
  2. http://redhotjazz.com/hughes.html
  3. http://www.kansasheritage.org/crossingboundaries/page6e1.html
  4. http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/langston_hughes/biography
  5. http://www.biography.com/people/langston-hughes-9346313?page=2

 

Did you Know: Wallace Stevens

Wallace_StevensWallace Stevens was October 2, 1979 in Reading, Pennsylvania. He was educated at Harvard and then New York Law School. He was a unique poet because he began his most successful writing after the age of 60. Wallace Stevens was inspired by paintings of Paul Klee and Paul Cezanne and won a Pulitzer prize in 1955.  He was a successful lawyer and business man and had previously written under the name of “Peter Parasol.” However, what I found most interesting was Stevens’ run-ins with other famous authors. Stevens argued multiple times with Robert Frost in Key West, Florida and allegedly assaulted Ernest Hemingway at a party of a mutual acquaintance, breaking his hand on Hemingway’s jaw. Did you know Wallace Stevens may have had an anger issue?   

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Stevens#Poetry\

http://biography.yourdictionary.com/wallace-stevens

Did You Know: Robert Frost

Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, California. While studying at Dartmouth College, Frost was a member of Greek life by joining the Theta Delta Chi fraternity. In 1895, he married Elinor, at Harvard University. Together they had six children. Tragically, four of the six passed away before Frost did from sickness, a car crash, and childbirth. In 1938, his wife passed away from a heart attack. Frost died many years later, on January 12, 1963 in Boston, but is buried in Vermont. At his funeral, the epitaph contains a quote from one of his poems, stating, “I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.”
Frost was a very accomplished writer. He won the Pulitzer Prize four times: 1924, 1931, 1937, and 1943. No one had won that many before he did. He also read a poem at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. Originally he was to read a new poem he had made for the event, “The Gift Outright”, but after not reading it well, Frost recited another poem he knew well.