Friday

Sep. 17, 1999

Song of Myself (excerpt)

by Walt Whitman

Broadcast Date: FRIDAY: September 17, 1999

Poem: From "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman, available in many collections.

Today the Monterey Jazz Festival gets underway in Monterey, California—its 42nd year in the same horse arena.

It's the birthday of cartoonist Jeff MacNelly, born in New York City (1947). He began drawing for the Richmond News Leader, and, by 1981, was such a success he quit cartooning to enjoy his pastime of painting watercolors. But he missed the action and resumed the next year, drawing 3 cartoons a week for the Chicago Tribune.

It's the birthday of novelist Ken (Elton) Kesey, born in La Junta [lah HUHN-tah], Colorado (1935)—whose first and best-known novel is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. At a California veterans hospital, Kesey had been a paid volunteer in an experiment for which he took mind-altering drugs and reported their effects. He also worked as an aide at the hospital, which gave him empathy for its mental patients—some of whom, like Randle Patrick McMurphy in his novel, were less insane than some of the people taking care of them.

It's the birthday of country music legend Hank Williams (Hiram King Williams), born in Georgiana, Alabama (1923). He received his first guitar at 8, helped support the family by selling peanuts and newspapers and shining shoes. He died on New Years Day, 1953, in the back seat of a Cadillac, 29 years old.

It's the birthday of British mystery writer John Creasey, born in Southfields, Surrey (1908), who wrote most of his 600 titles under at least 25 other names, including Abel Mann, Norman Deane, and Charles Hogarth—the most prolific writer of crime fiction in the English language.

It's the birthday of doctor and poet William Carlos Williams, born in Rutherford, New Jersey (1883). He practiced medicine for 40 years—saw a million and a half patients, and delivered 2,000 babies—and all the while wrote verse, novels, essays, short stories, plays, an opera libretto—and the 5-volume verse narrative Paterson.

In 1862, this day was among the bloodiest of the Civil War—called the Battle of Antietam by the Union side, Sharpsburg by the Confederates. Badly outnumbered, General Lee made his stand in Maryland; McClellan attacked, using Union troops piecemeal and failing to bring up his reserves. 25,000 men were killed or wounded; Lee's forces held. After the battle a Pennsylvania soldier wrote, "No tongue can tell, no mind conceive, no pen portray the horrible sights I witnessed this morning."

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