Monday

Sep. 11, 2000

For the Young Who Want to

by Marge Piercy

Broadcast date: MONDAY, 11 September 2000

Poem: "For the young who want to," by Marge Piercy, from Circles on the Water (Alfred A. Knopf)

It's the birthday in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, 1934, of Canadian writer and novelist, Leon Rookem, author of Shakespeare's Dog, the story of Shakespeare's life as told by his dog, Mr. Hooker.

It's the birthday in 1885, Nottinghamshire, England of writer D.H. Lawrence, author of Sons and Lovers (1913), Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928) and other books. Lawrence lived in Italy, Germany, Sri Lanka, Australia, and for a short while in Taos, New Mexico. Then he moved to Mexico, where his tuberculosis flared up and nearly killed him. He returned to Europe and wrote his best-known book, Lady Chatterley's Lover: the story of Constance Chatterley and her affair with the gamekeeper on her husband's estate. The book was published first in Italy and France, and only after 30 years in England. Lawrence said,

"Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot."

It's the birthday in 1862 of short story writer William Sydney Porter, born in Greensboro, North Carolina, who began writing stories in a Columbus, Ohio penitentiary around the turn of the century under the pen name O. Henry. He was doing time for embezzling funds from a bank. He made his way in 1902 up to New York, and over the next three years turned out a story a week for the New York World. His best known stories include: "The Gift of the Magi," "The Furnished Room," "The Last Leaf," -- all set in New York. His last years were spent in an alcoholic cloud, but one of his very last stories was his funniest: "The Ransom of Red Chief," from 1910.

It's the birthday in Roxburgh, Scotland, 1700 of the poet James Thomson, famous in particular for one long poem, "The Seasons"--the first long nature poem in the English language. The poem was published in four sections, beginning with "Winter," in 1726, and wrapping up in 1730 with Autumn. It presented a new theology for its day: that humans weren't necessarily cut off from God and in need of redemption, but could get closer to God by contemplating the wonders of Creation. Seventy years later, Franz Joseph Haydn made an oratorio out of it, The Seasons.

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

 

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