Sunday

Dec. 22, 1996

The Life and Character of Dean Swift

by Jonathan Swift

SUNDAY 12/22

Today's Reading:From "The Life and Character of Dean Swift" by Jonathon Swift (1667-1745).

In 1946 George Bernard Shaw wrote: "Christmas is for me simply a nuisance. Fifty years ago I invented a society for the abolition of Christmas. So far I am the only member."

Novelist Nathaniel West died in a car accident on this day in 1940 near El Centro, California. He was 37 years old.

Poet and translator Kenneth Rexroth was born in South Bend, Indiana, 1905.

On this day 1895, German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen took the first X-ray, of his wife's hand.

Researcher Camille Guerin, who helped to develop a vaccine against tuberculosis, was born in Poitiers, France, 1872.

Poet Edwin Arlington Robinson ("Richard Corry," "Miniver Cheevy," "For a Dead Lady"), was born in Head Tide, Maine, 1869.

Philadelphia baseball manager Connie Mack was born on this day in East Brookfield, Massachusetts, 1862.

Composer Giacomo Puccini (LA BOHEME; TOSCA; MADAME BUTTERFLY) was born on this day in Lucca, Italy, 1858.

In 1849 on this day, Fyodor Dostoyevsky was sentenced to death for taking part in a radical discussion group. His sentence was commuted and he was sent to a Siberian prison instead.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®

 

«

»

  • “Writers end up writing stories—or rather, stories' shadows—and they're grateful if they can, but it is not enough. Nothing the writer can do is ever enough” —Joy Williams
  • “I want to live other lives. I've never quite believed that one chance is all I get. Writing is my way of making other chances.” —Anne Tyler
  • “Writing is a performance, like singing an aria or dancing a jig” —Stephen Greenblatt
  • “All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • “Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up.” —John Edgar Wideman
  • “In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.” —Denise Levertov
  • “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Let's face it, writing is hell.” —William Styron
  • “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” —Thomas Mann
  • “Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials.” —Paul Rudnick
  • “Writing is a failure. Writing is not only useless, it's spoiled paper.” —Padget Powell
  • “Writing is very hard work and knowing what you're doing the whole time.” —Shelby Foote
  • “I think all writing is a disease. You can't stop it.” —William Carlos Williams
  • “Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck.” —Iris Murdoch
  • “The less conscious one is of being ‘a writer,’ the better the writing.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is…that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is my dharma.” —Raja Rao
  • “Writing is a combination of intangible creative fantasy and appallingly hard work.” —Anthony Powell
  • “I think writing is, by definition, an optimistic act.” —Michael Cunningham
Current Faves - Learn more about poets featured frequently on the show