Thursday
Aug. 22, 2002
Condolence
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It's the birthday of E.
(Edna) Annie Proulx, born in Norwich, Connecticut (1935). She became
a novelist after many years of fishing, hunting, and foraging for food in backwoods
Vermont, a life that suited what she calls "my fondness for harshness."
She supported herself as a freelance journalist, churning out "tedious
nonfiction," including such books as Sweet and Hard Cider and The
Complete Dairy Foods Cookbook. Her first novel, Postcards (1992)
won the PEN/Faulkner Award; her second, Shipping News (1993), won both
the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
It's the birthday of science fiction writer Ray
(Douglas) Bradbury, born in Waukegan, Illinois (1920). His books include
the story collections Dark Carnival (1947) and The Martian Chronicles
(1950; filmed in 1966; TV miniseries made in 1980), and the novels Dandelion
Wine (1957), Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962), and Fahrenheit
451 (1953), about a future Earth civilization where all printed reading
material is banned-filmed in 1966 by François Truffaut, starring Julie
Christie and Oskar Werner.
It's the birthday of blues singer and guitarist John
Lee Hooker, born in Clarksdale, Mississippi (1917). His songs include
"Tupelo," "Birmingham Blues," and "I'm in the Mood"
(1951). His guitar style, widely copied, was cited as a major influence for
both the Rolling Stones and the Animals.
It's the birthday of photographer Henri
Cartier-Bresson, born in the village of Chanteloup, near Paris (1908).
He was imprisoned by the Germans during WWII, but escaped the labor camps and
joined the French resistance. After the war he became a photographer. He liked
using a tiny camera because it gave his work more spontaneity, but also allowed
him to be less visible. He covered the bright chrome parts of his camera with
black tape to make it less obvious; sometimes he hid it under a handkerchief.
It's the birthday of Dorothy
Parker, born in West End, New Jersey (1893). She wrote for Vanity
Fair (1918-20) and The New Yorker (1927-33), and was a member of
the Algonquin Round Table, dazzling wits, who included Robert Benchley, James
Thurber, and George S. Kaufman. Her poems were collected as Not So Deep as
a Well (1936); her short story collection was called Here Lies (1939).
Dorothy Parker said, "Men seldom make passes/At girls who wear glasses,"
and "Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words."
It's the birthday of cartoonist George
Herriman, born in New Orleans (1878). He wrote a comic strip called
"The Dingbat Family" that was so popular he did a spin-off of it based
on the family pets, Krazy Kat and Ignatz. The strip's main theme was unrequited
love. Kat loved Ignatz, but the mean-spirited mouse did nothing but create havoc
for the devoted cat. "Krazy Kat" was the first comic strip drawn and
written for adults.
Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®