Autobiographies are by far the most popular genre in literature. My experience mentoring over 150 adults in completing and sharing a “Life Map” project in a supportive group reinforces this fact. For many of these adults, their Life Map turned out to be one of their best learning experiences. And that in spite of the fact that for about eight percent of adults this “experiment” in self-writing and exploration came up against a “darkside event” or difficult life-chapter that put up a real roadblock. [Read more…] about Teachable Moments Launch A New Book
Writing
The Strange Life & Death of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe’s death in 1849 has been surrounded in enigmas, which seems apt for the writer who originated the mystery and horror genres.
Discovered half-conscious in the streets of Baltimore (when he was supposed to be in Philadelphia), wearing another man’s clothes and supposedly calling out for someone who has never been identified, Poe was to end his life with friends offering wildly conflicting accounts of what had happened, and enemies publishing relentless smears of him.
[Read more…] about The Strange Life & Death of Edgar Allan Poe
PAFF! Becomes the International Museum of Comic Art
PAFF! (Palazzo Arti Fumetto Friuli) in Italy has announced it is becoming the International Museum of Comic Art. This innovative cultural hub based in Pordenone organizes, promotes and hosts national and international temporary exhibitions featuring the great masters of comic art from around the globe. [Read more…] about PAFF! Becomes the International Museum of Comic Art
Sadakichi Hartmann: A German-Asian-American Artist’s Struggle for Identity
In response to the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the founding of a new federal agency, the War Relocation Authority (WRA), which began forcibly removing Japanese Americans from the West Coast and relocate them to isolated inland areas. Around 120,000 people were detained in remote camps for the remainder of the Second World War. [Read more…] about Sadakichi Hartmann: A German-Asian-American Artist’s Struggle for Identity
Russell Shorto: The Dutch-American Perspective
The work that historians do influences their lives, especially if they spend a considerable time in a foreign land that they write about. Slowly, their topic of choice becomes an essential part of their identity. Russell Shorto, a renowned writer of narrative history, writes about his own evolution at the intersection of Dutch-American history.
This essay concerns itself with the intersection of Dutch and American history. Previous posts have explored slavery in New Amsterdam, the naming – and renaming – of that city, and John Adams’ role as unofficial ambassador to the Netherlands during the American war of independence. As I pondered the task of contributing to that lineup, and scrolled through a mental list of possible topics, it occurred to me that, as I have lived at the intersection of Dutch and American history for more than twenty years, my own identity, and its evolution over that time, might be a relevant topic. [Read more…] about Russell Shorto: The Dutch-American Perspective
‘Ever & Affectionally your Daughter’: The Flora Jewett Letters
Over 200 years ago a young woman picked up a quill and wrote of her happiness, success, sadness, and loss as she embarked on a new life far from family and friends. The woman was 24-year-old Flora Jewett and the place was Galway, a small community in rural Saratoga County, New York.
Flora Baldwin had married Thaddeus Jewett in early 1807 and soon after they left Newtown, Connecticut for Galway where Thaddeus’ family resided. It was shortly after arriving in Galway that the letters begin. [Read more…] about ‘Ever & Affectionally your Daughter’: The Flora Jewett Letters
Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences
What follows is a humorous essay by Mark Twain (1835 – 1910), written in 1895 as satire and literary criticism of the work of James Fenimore Cooper (1789 – 1851). Not included here are quotes from Yale University’s Thomas Lounsbury (1838 – 1915), Columbia University’s James Brander Matthews (1852 – 1929); and English novelist and playwright Wilkie Collins (1824 – 1889) which preceded the essay and raved about Cooper as a great novelist. Note that some of the language reproduced here is offensive.
It seems to me that it was far from right for the Professor of English Literature in Yale, the Professor of English Literature in Columbia, and Wilkie Collins to deliver opinions on Cooper’s literature without having read some of it. It would have been much more decorous to keep silent and let persons talk who have read Cooper.
Cooper’s art has some defects. In one place in Deerslayer, and in the restricted space of two-thirds of a page, Cooper has scored 114 offences against literary art out of a possible 115. It breaks the record.
There are nineteen rules governing literary art in the domain of romantic fiction—some say twenty-two. In Deerslayer Cooper violated eighteen of them. [Read more…] about Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences
Documentary: The Great American Novel, Truman Capote & Che Guevara
In 1868, just a few years after the end of the Civil War, novelist John William De Forest published an essay in The Nation, a political magazine that had been founded in July 1865 in Nassau Street, Manhattan. His contribution was titled “The Great American Novel.” [Read more…] about Documentary: The Great American Novel, Truman Capote & Che Guevara
Fort Ticonderoga Museum’s Journal Call for Papers
Fort Ticonderoga has announced an open call for submissions for The Bulletin of the Fort Ticonderoga Museum. Published since 1927, the Bulletin has been a resource for historians, scholars, and the public for over 90 years, publishing a wide range of articles on North American military history. After a 15-year hiatus, The Bulletin returned to print in 2016 as an illustrated, annual publication. [Read more…] about Fort Ticonderoga Museum’s Journal Call for Papers
Adirondack Correctional Facility Writing Anthology Published
In the spring and summer of 2022, with a grant from New York State Council on the Arts and the support of the creative aging experts at Lifetime Arts Inc, Adirondack Center for Writing (ACW) created a writing workshop program at Adirondack Correctional Facility, a state prison located in Ray Brook, Essex County, NY, populated mostly by older adults. [Read more…] about Adirondack Correctional Facility Writing Anthology Published