Stopping By Wood… Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow. 

  

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.  

  

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.

 

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

On this day in 1923 Robert Frost poem was published, Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Edgar Allan Poe: Death in a Gutter

I thought you-all might like to know a bit more about Mr. Poe on this blustery, October day!
Christine

On the 7th of October 1849 Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore, America. He was one of the world’s most renowned crime and horror writers, credited also with inventing the detective and science ficti… Source: Edgar Allan Poe: Death in a Gutter | A R T L▼R K

(the gif was taken from tumblr.com)

via Edgar Allan Poe: Death in a Gutter | A R T L▼R K — First Night Design

Goldilocks Author’s Birthday

Today is the birthday of The Story of the Three Bears author, Robert Southey, born August 12th, 1774  in Bristol, England, died in 1843.

He was poet laureate for 30 years. He was also a scholar, historian and biographer. It is said that he corresponded with Charlotte Bronte and told her at one point: “Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life.” Good thing she ignored him!

Interesting that such a learned man is best known for a children’s story (at least in this country).

No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other’s worth.

                                             Robert Southey

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Phriday – In a sleeping bag in Kumbh Mela

Interesting to see the old and the new together. Another nice image from Joshi.

Joshi Daniel Photography

Man inside a sleeping bag | Kumbh Mela | Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India

Read more: Kumbh Mela

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Alan Rickman (AKA Professor Snape to many)

I didn’t post about the passing of David Bowie, though I enjoy his music and his creative style, but I couldn’t be silent about Alan Rickman. I so enjoyed him in the Harry Potter films, but he was in many many more (Die Hard, Love Actually, Sense and Sensibility, Sweeny Todd, Galaxy Quest – one of my most favorites…)  and I enjoyed him in any that I saw.

So hold up your wands, all you Snape fans out there. And if you want to hear a bit more about Mr. Rickman, listen to this piece about him from NPR.

(Thanks to Michele from thatswhatsheread.net for the wand photo)

Photo Phriday – Rowing a shikara in Dal Lake

Nice perspective and color, don’t you think?

Joshi Daniel Photography

An old man rowing a shikara | Dal Lake, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Mohammed, who has been rowing shikaras since his childhood, showing me the beauty of Dal Lake.

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What Was Said About “To Kill a Mockingbird” in 1960

PBS NewsHour did a piece about how To Kill a Mockingbird was talked about in 1960 when it first came out.

Harper Lee said:

“I would like to be the chronicler of something that I think is going down the drain very swiftly. And that is small town middle-class southern life,” Lee told Roy Newquist of the New York radio station WQXR. “There is something universal in it. There’s something decent to be said for it and there’s something to lament when it goes, in its passing.”

photo by James Hansen courtesy of PBS NewHour (Harper Lee is on the right, James Flynt – who assists Ms Lee – is on the left)

Flynt said he and many others initially thought “the book was really about race.”

“As time went by, I think the book transcended race,” Flynt said, adding that he had asked Lee the very question that many critics, columnists, essayists and civil rights leaders have debated over several decades: What is the book about?

“‘Oh, you know what the book’s about,’” Flynt said he remembers Lee telling him. Flynt said Lee then asked him the same question.

“I think it’s about power,” Flynt said.

“Of course,” Lee said.

Here is the whole report: PBS NewsHour

Photo Phriday – The Reader

I really like the color and context of this photo. Nice job Pat!

Pat Callahan Photography

This man hunches over his book as he walks our neighborhood in 11th Arrondissement of Paris.

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Suess’s Birthday

Today, in 1904, Theodor Geisel or who most people know as Dr. Suess was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He took the name Suess from his mother, Henreitta Suess.  Geisel died September 24th, 1991

A Christmas Carol Anniversary

It was 171 years ago today that Dickens self-published – yes, he self-published – our beloved Christmas Carol. And if that wasn’t enough, he wrote it in just six weeks!

from David Perdue’s Charlesdickenspage.com

John Leech was the illustrator.

There have been 8 films made of the story since starting in 1938 with Jim Carrey doing the latest one in 2009.

Preface to the Original Edition
A Christmas Carol

I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.

Their faithful Friend and Servant,
C. D.
December, 1843.