Friday

Jul. 11, 1997

Natural History

by E. B. White

FRIDAY 7/11

Today's Reading:"Natural History" by E.B. White from POEMS AND SKETCHES OF E.B.WHITE, published by Harper and Row (1981).

The Way with Words Literature Festival begins today in Devon, England, featuring 200 authors and 100 different literary events.

In Nice, France, the Nice Jazz Festival begins today.

A Bastille Day Celebration begins today in Boston, one of the largest of its type in the country.

In 1975 archaeologists in China unearthed a terra-cotta army, 8,000 clay figures sculpted and fired in the shapes of warriors and chariots in battle formation, created more than 2,000 years ago for Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi.

It's the birthday of physicist Theodore H. Maiman, whose work improving the maser device paved the way for practical applications of the microwave. He was born in Los Angeles in 1927.

It's the birthday of E(lwyn) B(rooks) White, born in Mount Vernon, New York, in 1899. He started out writing for THE NEW YORKER in 1927 and stayed there for his entire career, also turning out such classics as the children's book CHARLOTTE'S WEB, and ELEMENTS OF STYLE (co- written with William Strunk).

It was on this day in 1804 that U.S Vice President Arron Burr fought a duel with former treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton died of his wounds the following day.

It's the birthday of the sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1767.

It's the birthday of Robert the Bruce in 1274, the Scottish King who defeated the army of Edward II at Bannockburn and forced English recognition of Scottish independence.

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