Poem: "My Edward Hopper Eye, My Claude Monet" by Veronica Patterson, from Swan, What Shores? (New York University Press).
It’s the birthday of novelist and poet Barbara Chase-Riboud, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1939)—who wrote about a slave and her relationship with President Thomas Jefferson in her best-selling novel, Sally Hemings (1979). Chase-Riboud’s findings reaffirmed the suspicion that Jefferson was Hemings’ lover and the father of her seven children.
It’s the birthday of suspense writer Thomas Boyle, born in East Stroudsburgh, Pennsylvania, (1939) author of thrillers about the modern urban experience. His novels include The Cold Stove League (1983) and Only the Dead Know Brooklyn (1985).
It’s the birthday of novelist Colin Wilson, born in Leicester, England (1931), best known for his book The Outsider (1956).
On this day in 1919, the Illustrated Daily News, the original pictorial tabloid newspaper, first rolled off the presses in New York. It is known today as the New York Daily News.
It’s the birthday of Pearl S. Buck, born in Hillsboro, West Virginia (1892). She was three months old when she moved with her missionary parents to China. She remained there until she was 16, then returned to the United States to attend college. She wrote over 85 books, plus hundreds of short stories, articles and nonfiction pieces, but she’s best known for her novel The Good Earth (1931). Among the most popular books of the 20th century, it won the Pulitzer Prize (1932) and then the Nobel Prize for Literature (1938). It made visible a side of China that is earthy, unromantic, timeless—and was, in its day, totally new to American readers.
On this day in 1483, King Richard the Third officially began his reign. Scholars argue about whether or not he was the hunchback portrayed in Shakespeare’s play—but there’s no doubting his ruthlessness. He came to power after persuading the lords and commoners of London that the marriage of his brother, Edward the 4th, had been invalid; that Edward’s children were illegitimate; and that he, therefore, was his brother's rightful successor. Just to be sure, he had his young nephews murdered in the Tower of London.
On this day, in 1284, the Pied Piper of Hamelin, Germany, lured 130 children of the town to oblivion, exacting revenge on town fathers who had refused to pay him his agreed-upon fee of 1,000 guilders for driving the rats and mice out of their city into the River Weser. The story is retold in Robert Browning’s 303-line narrative poem published in 1842.
Broadcast Date: TUESDAY: June 27, 2000
Poem: "Animals" by Frank O’Hara, from The Selected Poems of Frank O’Hara (Random House).
It’s the birthday of novelist Alice McDermott, born in Brooklyn, New York, (1953) author of A Bigamist’s Daughter (1982), That Night (1987), At Weddings and Wakes (1991), and other novels and stories. She says, "When I’m not writing—and I have considered many times trying something else—I can’t make sense out of anything. I feel the need to make some sense and find some order, and writing fiction is the only way I’ve found that seems to begin to do that.
It’s the birthday of science fiction writer James P(atrick) Hogan, born in London, England (1941). By 1979 he had written four novels, and would average a science-fiction novel a year thereafter, including Giants’ Star (1981) and The Gentle Giants of Ganymede (1978).
It’s the birthday of poet Lucille (Thelma) Clifton, born in Depew, New York (1936). Her first volume of poetry, Good Times, was cited by the New York Times as one of 1969’s ten best books.
It’s the birthday of poet, playwright and art critic Frank O’Hara, born in Baltimore, Maryland (1926). From age 25 until his death a month after he turned 40, he lived in New York City, working for Art News and the Museum of Modern Art, where he was a curator for painting and sculpture exhibitions. He was killed by a car on Fire Island. His collections include A City Winter and Other Poems (1952) and Meditations In An Emergency (1956). He said, "What is happening to me goes into my poems. I don’t think my experiences are clarified or made beautiful for anyone else, they are just there in whatever form I can find them."
It’s the birthday of Richard Bissell, born in Dubuque, Iowa (1913). His father owned a pajama factory, and he wrote about it in his novel 7 1/2 Cents (1953). With George Abbott he turned the novel into the Broadway musical The Pajama Game (1954), and won a Tony award. Bissell also wrote several novels about his experiences as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi and other American waterways: A Stretch On The River (1950), The Monongahela (1952), and High Water (1954). He said, "After you have been on the river long enough to get the disease, everything looks different: Chicago is a town 200 miles east of the river. South Dakota is someplace west of Minneiska and of no interest as it hasn’t even a mile of Mississippi River in the whole state. Lake Superior is an inferior watery deposit of some kind, northeast from Grey Cloud Landing. And as for St. Louis, Quincy, Davenport, Moline, Rock Island, Dubuque, La Crosse, Winona—what are they? River towns, of course. Not towns—river towns. And what a difference that makes."
It’s the birthday of poet Vernon P. Watkins, born in Maesteg, Glamorgan, Wales (1906). He was the author of many collections of poems, and, for many years, a close friend of Dylan Thomas.
On this day in 1847, telegraph wires were strung between New York and Boston, enabling citizens of those two cities, for the first time, to communicate electronically with one another, using short and long signals tapped out over the wire.
Broadcast Date: WEDNESDAY: June 28, 2000
Poem: "The Cobweb," by Raymond Carver from Ultramarine (Grove/Atlantic).
It’s the birthday of poet and novelist Jane Ransom, born in Boulder, Colorado (1958), author of Without Asking (1989), which includes 8 poems written for her mother as she lay dying from inoperable cancer; and the novel Bye-Bye (1997).
It’s the birthday of storywriter and novelist Mark Helprin, born in Ossining, New York (1947), author of Winter’s Tale (1983) and other books.
It’s the birthday of comedian, actor and director Mel Brooks (Melvyn Kaminsky), born in Brooklyn (1926).
On this day, in 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed by Germany and Allied nations, ending World War One.
It’s the birthday of English suspense writer Eric Ambler, born in London (1909) who wrote the first realistic stories about intelligence operations.
It’s the birthday of composer Richard (Charles) Rodgers, born in New York City (1902). While studying at Columbia University, he met lyricist Lorenz Hart; they forged a Broadway partnership that lasted 20 years and produced such hit songs as "My Funny Valentine," "Manhattan," "Blue Moon," "The Lady Is a Tramp," and "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered." After Hart’s death in 1943, Rodgers teamed up with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II; together they formed the best known song-writing team in the history of the American musical. Their first collaboration was the Pulitzer Prize winning Oklahoma! (1943).
It’s the birthday of Italian writer Luigi Pirandello, born in Agirgenti, Sicily, in (1867). Among the 20th century’s most influential playwrights, he revolutionized theater by experimenting with dramatic structure. His most famous play was Six Characters in Search of an Author, in which six people interrupt the rehearsal of another Pirandello play to demand that their stories be acted out—an approach that startled audiences and critics, and began modernist drama. Pirandello won the Nobel Prize for Literature (1934).
It’s the birthday of Henry the 8th, King of England, born in Greenwich, near London (1491). Henry stood six feet tall and was powerfully built—a tireless athlete, huntsman and dancer. He presided over the start of the English Reformation, which stemmed from his own matrimonial problems. He had been persuaded to marry his dead brother’s widow, Catherine of Aragon, in order to keep her political connections; she bore him a daughter, Mary. Lacking a son, Henry asked the Pope to annul his marriage to Catherine, but was refused—so Henry himself declared it invalid. He made himself head of the Church of England and married his pregnant mistress, Anne Boleyn—whose child, when born, was another girl: Elizabeth. Enraged, Henry had Boleyn beheaded for alleged infidelity. So it went, through 4 more wives, another of which he had executed, and another of whom he divorced. He was survived by his 6th wife, Catherine Parr.
Broadcast Date: THURSDAY: June 29, 2000
Poem: "Visiting My Mother’s College" by Sharon Olds, from The Wellspring (Alfred A. Knopf).
Today is the feast of Saints Peter and Paul—celebrated by Christians since the year 354.
It’s the birthday of one of the 19th century’s great writers, poet and scholar Giacomo Leopardi, born in Recanati, Italy (1798).
It’s the birthday of engineer George Washington Goethals, born in Brooklyn, New York (1858). In 1907 Goethals was appointed chief engineer of the Panama Canal by President Teddy Roosevelt. Seven years later the Canal was opened to commerce.
It’s the birthday of surgeon William (James) Mayo, born in Le Sueur, Minnesota (1861) a co-founder of the Mayo Clinic and the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, in Rochester, Minnesota.
It’s the birthday of aviator and novelist Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, born in Lyons, France (1900). He was a commercial pilot in the 1920s, and flew for the French Air Force in World War Two. He is best known to American readers for his children’s fable The Little Prince (1943), narrated by a pilot who has crashed in the desert and who, while trying to fix his plane before his food and water run out, meets a small boy who has traveled to earth from his own tiny planet.
It’s the birthday of historian John Toland, born in La Crosse, Wisconsin (1912) who won a Pulitzer Prize for The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 (1970).
It’s the birthday of short story writer Breece Dexter Pancake, born in Kanawha County, West Virginia (1952). He wrote stories set in Appalachia, about characters doomed to emptiness and isolation. In 1979, he shot himself to death. The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake appeared 4 years later (1983), and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Broadcast Date: FRIDAY: June 30, 2000
Poem: "The Preacher" by Louis Jenkins from The Winter Road (to be published in August by Holy Cow Press).
On this day in 1936, Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind was published. Within six months, a million copies had been sold 50,000 in one day alone. It went on to sell more copies than any other novel in American publishing history, with sales passing 12 million by 1965.
On this day in 1960, Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho had its premiere in New York City. Antohony Perkins played Norman Bates; other stars were Janet Leigh and Vera Miles. Leigh picks the wrong place to spend the night: the Bates Motel, with its 12 cabins, all vacant, and 12 shower stalls.
It’s the birthday of poet, critic, and novelist Czeslaw Milosz, born in Lithuania in the Russian Empire (1911). Among the most respected figures in 20th-century Polish literature, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature (1980) for his descriptions of the devastation of Warsaw and the Holocaust of World War Two. He was active in the Resistance during the Nazi occupation of Poland, editing and writing underground material. Later he immigrated to the United States, and joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley. He became a naturalized American citizen (1970).
It’s the birthday of suspense novelist Winston (Mawdsley) Graham, born in Victoria Park, Manchester, England (1910). Many of his books are set in the coastal countryside of Cornwall, where he lived as a young man. Graham’s heroes are often amateur sleuths troubled by fears, moral dilemmas, and guilt. One of his best known thrillers is Marnie, a story told from the viewpoint of an unconventional heroine. Also known for his historical fiction, Graham wrote the series on Ross Poldark and his descendants, adapted for television by the BBC (1975).
On this day in 1857, Charles Dickens gave his first public reading—from A Christmas Carol—at the St. Martin Hall in London. He enjoyed demonstrating his oral and dramatic skills during these performances, and gave 471 such readings in his lifetime.
It’s the birthday of author John Gay, born in Barnstaple, Devon, England (1685) best known for The Beggar’s Opera (1728), a story of thieves and highwaymen, first produced in London at the Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theater. It ran for 62 performances, the longest dramatic run up to that time. When he died at 47, Gay was buried in Westminster Abbey, under a stone that bore one of Gay's own lines: "Life is a jest, and all things show it. I thought so once, and now I know it."
Broadcast Date: SATURDAY: July 1, 2000
Poem: "My hopes retire, my wishes as before," by Walter Savage Landor (1775 - 1864).
It’s the birthday of novelist and short story writer Jean Stafford, born in Covina, California (1915). She began her literary career with the best-selling novel Boston Adventure (1944). Her Collected Stories (1969) won the Pulitzer Prize.
It’s the birthday of the ‘father of gospel music,’ Thomas Andrew Dorsey, born in Villa Rica, Georgia (1899). He combined the blues with the traditional sacred music of his religious upbringing to create a new genre: gospel. By 20 he began writing the first of more than 1,000 gospel songs, including "Precious Lord, Take My Hand," written for his first wife, who died in childbirth, and his infant son who died the following day.
It’s the birthday of novelist James M. Cain, born in Annapolis, Maryland (1892). In 1934 he published his first novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice. He also wrote Double Indemnity (1936), Mildred Pierce (1941), and other books.
It’s the birthday of teacher and editor William Strunk, Jr., born in Cincinnati, Ohio (1869). He taught English for many years at Cornell University, where he used what he called his "little book of English grammar." It was revised by his student E.B. White, and came out as The Elements Of Style (1918). Strunk’s guiding principle: "Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail, but that every word tell."
On this day in 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg began. General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia, 75,000 strong, decided to invade Pennsylvania and threaten Harrisburg, Baltimore and Washington: not only to carry the war to the enemy but to take pressure off the siege of Vicksburg. They crossed the Potomac in June; the Union Army of the Potomac 88,000 men led by General George Meade—kept itself between the rebels and Washington. The Confederates were looking for a shoe factory—they needed shoes; Union troops were looking for Confederates. On July first the two armies met near Gettysburg. It was a terrible defeat for the South: at the end of the third and final day of carnage, a woeful General Lee was heard to say, "All this is my fault. Too bad! Too bad! Oh, too bad!" But Union General Meade, failing to make the decisive killing blow, permitted the remnants of Lee’s army to retreat—in a ragged 7-mile column back to Virginia. President Lincoln despaired at Meade’s caution, saying, "We had them within our grasp. We had only to stretch forth our hands and they were ours." Vicksburg later fell on July 4, 1863. Had Lee’s army been destroyed, the twin victories might have ended the war; instead, it dragged on another 2 years.
Broadcast Date: SUNDAY: July 2, 2000
Poem: "I Will Make You Brooches" by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894).
On this day in 1961, Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway, author of A Farewell to Arms and The Old Man And the Sea, shot himself to death in his home in Ketchum, Idaho. At 7 o’clock that Sunday morning, he rose, went to the kitchen for the key to the basement storeroom, went down to the basement, unlocked the storeroom, selected a 12-gauge shotgun he had bought at Abercrombie & Fitch, pushed 2 shells into the chambers, walked upstairs to the foyer, turned the gun against his own head and fired both barrels. (Hemingway’s doctor father had shot himself to death; Ernest, not quite 29 at the time, was given the gun by his mother).
On this day, in 1941, Noel Coward’s comedy Blithe Spirit had its premiere at the Piccadilly Theater in London. The play works a clever conflict between polite, upper-class drawing room characters and the spirit world. Two wives—one living, one dead—do battle with the same hapless husband.
It’s the birthday of artist and feminist Judy Chicago (Gerowitz), born in Chicago (1939). Her best-known work, "The Dinner Party"—a multi-media symbolic history of women in Western Civilization—was completed in 1979.
It’s the birthday of English novelist Francis Wyndham, born in London, (1924). He wrote The Other Garden, a slim coming-of-age memoir of wartime England; and a story collection, Out of War (1974), which depicts the effects World War Two had on those left at home in Great Britain. He said, "I'm interested in compression, and also in suggestion. Very often, the less you say, the more you suggest. I think all good fiction suggests. People often tell me my things are too short. But I can't help that. Some of my favorite writers are like that, and that's the kind of writer I want to be."
It’s the birthday of Polish poet and Nobel Prize winner Wislawa Szymborska, born near Poznan, Poland (1923). She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996. The first collection of her work to appear in English translation was Sounds, Feelings, Thoughts: Seventy Poems (1981).
It’s the birthday of novelist Hermann Hesse, born in Calw, Germany (1877) author of Siddhartha (1922), Steppenwolf (1927), Narcissus and Goldmund (1930), and other books. He gained popularity among younger readers during the 1950s and 1960s, peaking in the 1970s, when his work sold well over six million copies in English translation. He won the Nobel Prize in for Literature in 1946.
