Thursday

Sep. 30, 1999

Midwest

by Paula Bonnell

Broadcast Date: THURSDAY: September 30, 1999

Poem: "Midwest" by Paula Bonnell from Message, Mill Creek Press, Boston, 1999.

It's the FEAST OF ST. JEROME, commemorating the patron of scholars and librarians. Jerome was born in Croatia in 347, and was one of the earliest Biblical scholars. He completed probably the first translations of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin.

It's TRUMAN CAPOTE's birthday, born Truman Streckfus Persons, in New Orleans, 1924, author of In Cold Blood; Breakfast at Tiffany's; and several more books and short stories. Truman's mother sent the boy to be raised by her relatives in Monroeville, Alabama, because she claimed she was not suited to being a parent. Monroeville was also Harper Lee's hometown: she and Capote became fast friends and she portrayed him in To Kill A Mockingbird as the character of Dill. Capote's mother eventually remarried, and he took his stepfather's last name. He moved up to New York and left school at 17 to become a writer. His first big success came when he was 23 years old, the 1948 novel Other Voices, Other Rooms; but he's best known for In Cold Blood, which he labeled a new style of writing, the so-called non-fiction novel and for Breakfast at Tiffany's.

It's the birthday of mystery writer, J.I.M. STEWART, 1906, Edinburgh, Scotland, author of nearly 50 novels featuring Inspector John Appleby. Stewart wrote under the pseudonym Michael Innes.

The first volume of Louisa May Alcott's book LITTLE WOMEN was published on this day in 1868; a children's novel about the four March girls growing up in Civil War Massachusetts.

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

 

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