Thank You, Biographers!
Biography is, of the various kinds of narrative writing, that which is most eagerly read, and most easily applied to the purposes of life. –Samuel Johnson, The Idler, 84 in A Johnson Sampler, edited by…
Tag: George Eliot
Today’s One-Liner (#41)
With her formidable intellect, her wide-ranging knowledge of languages, literatures, philosophy and science, she was the greatest woman of the century. –Rosemary Ashton, George Eliot: A Life
Cheer Up: Reminders
Furnace. The first evening, about 5 o’clock, the pain from the extreme heat, exhaustion, and headaches make me completely lose control of my movements. I can’t lower the furnace damper. A coppersmith jumps up and…
Biographilia
I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful. For, not only every man has, in the mighty mass of the world,…
With Gratitude for Harold Bloom
In 1994 I purchased Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon after I had taken a leave of absence from my doctoral program in Religion and Society at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Bloom offered…
Not So Random Entries, Commonplace Moleskine/8
51. Neal looks older, Jewish, very serious and on powerful integrity drive. –Allen Ginsberg, letter to Jack Kerouac 151. In the beginner’s mind there is no thought, “I have attained something.” All self-centered thoughts limit…
Those Blasts of a Trumpet
I’ve recently finished reading Robert Richardson’s engrossing biography, Emerson: The Mind on Fire. The author regularly highlights the exuberant reading Emerson did throughout his life. Robertson not only identifies authors and titles of what Emerson…
At Café Ventana, I Daydream, Seeing…
Your hand the first to shoot up in Torts You smiling serenely at the gunners You checking off your To Do list with equanimity You noticing the unjoie de vivre jaws of your friends, knowing, sooner of…
The Last Sentence of Middlemarch
For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number…
Dear Shannon (On Ralph Nader)
Dear Shannon, I enjoyed our long conversation on Saturday afternoon at 6 North Coffee. I appreciate you taking the time to visit on such a busy weekend. After our chats, the strong impression I am left with…