Saturday

Aug. 26, 2000

The Affect of Elms

by Reginald Gibbons

Broadcast date: SATURDAY, 26 August 2000

Poem: "The Affect of Elms," by Reginald Gibbons, from Sparrow (Louisiana State University Press).

It's the birthday of poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who may have been born in Monte Carlo or Rome (1880), but kept his origins secret. He fought for France in World War One, was wounded 3 times and died in Paris, of Spanish Influenza, a day before the Armistice was signed. He was 38.

On this day in 1883, the biggest explosion in history occurred: the eruption of the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa. Heard 3,000 miles away, the eruption created tidal waves 120 feet high, killed 36,000 people, and affected the oceans and atmosphere for years afterward.

It's the birthday of modern-art collector Peggy Guggenheim (Marguerite Guggenheim), born in New York City (1898). She was from a very wealthy family--her father went down on the Titanic--and she felt stifled by her life of luxury in New York. So she went to Europe, befriended the ex-patriot artists living in Paris (including James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Ezra Pound, and Isadora Duncan), and became an collector of art. In her home in Venice, in a palazzo on the Grand Canal, she kept work by Picasso, Chagall, Dali, Pollock, Braque and De Chirico. At the time of her death (1979), it was said to be worth $30 million. Late in her life a good many of her acquisitions came to rest at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue.

It's the birthday of memoirist Chistopher (William) Isherwood, born in High Lane, Cheshire, England (1904). He lived in Berlin in the early 1930s, then wrote an autobiographical collection of sketches, Goodbye to Berlin (1939), on which John van Druten based his play I Am a Camera (1951)--on which, in turn, the hit musical Cabaret (1966) was based.

It's the birthday of Argentine novelist Julio Cortázar, born in Brussels, Belgium (1914). After the war, his family moved to Buenos Aires. In his late thirties he moved to Paris (1951), and lived there the rest of his life. His best known novel is Hopscotch (1963).

It's the birthday of puzzle-maker Will Shortz, born in Crawfordsville, Indiana (1952). He was studying economics at the University of Indiana, in Bloomington, when he learned the place offered an independent study program. He persuaded skeptical administrators he should be allowed a second major, "Enigmatology," for which he consulted professors in English, philosophy, math, linguistics, journalism, and psychology. He not only graduated in Enigmatology; he graduated cum laude. At 26 he began working at Games magazine; by 30 he was Senior Editor; at 41 he resigned from Games and was named Puzzle Editor at the New York Times (1993). He has also, since 1987, served as puzzle-master for NPR's program "Weekend Edition."

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

 

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