Rudyard Kipling

[Encouragement for writers facing rejection.]

"I'm sorry Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language."
~ Editor of the San Francisco Examiner, in response to a submission by Rudyard Kipling, 1889

Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936) Well-known English writer who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1907. Author of The Jungle Book, The Man Who Would be King, Gunga Din and If.

York, Grand River

York, Grand River, Front Cover. The Church of St. John the Devine painting by R. L. Moore

Local artist, R. L. Moore supplied the paintings for the cover of York Grand River, Its Early History & Directory 1834 - 1860. (290 pgs, Paperback)*

* William John Quinsey. Published by The York, Grand River, Historical Society, 1991 Available from the Society or at The Neat Little Bookshop.

Below: The Church of St. John the Devine as it appears today, Hwy. 54, Grand River, York.

R. L. Moore was invited to show his paintings in Edinburgh Square Heritage & Cultural Centre, Caledonia.

R. L. retired from farming. He now has more time to pursue his other interests. He participates in wood carving, produces exceptionally beautiful oil paintings, sings and still finds time to visit old friends. We are always pleased when R. L. comes by.

The paintings for the book, York, Grand River ~ It's History & Directory 1834 - 1860, were provided by R. L.

Published in 1991 by The York Historical Society. Text William John Quinsey.

The Ugly American

"The state in which we find ourselves is far from hopeless. We have the material, and above all the human resources, to change our methods and to win. It is not the fault of the government or its leaders or any political party that we have acted as we have. It is the temper of the whole nation. If knowledge of the problem becomes widespread,and if the enthusiasm of the people can be aroused, then we can succeed. . .

"We have been offering the Asian nations the wrong kind of help. We have so lost sight of our own past that we are trying to sell guns and money alone, instead of remembering that it was the quest for the dignity of freedom that was responsible for our own way of life.
All over Asia we have found that the basic American ethic is revered and honored and imitated when possible. We must, while helping Asia toward self-sufficiency, show by example that America is still the America of freedom and hope and knowledge of law. If we succeed, we cannot lose the struggle."

Come in. Stay a while. Read a book. The Neat Little Bookshop.
The Ugly American, 1958, Wm. J. Lederer & E. Burdick
Fawcett Publications, Inc.

Editor's Note: We hope that our online blog is like a pleasurable visit to the bookshop. Every day we meet and chat with fascinating people.

As you can imagine, people and books lead to topics of conversation that we can never predict. Or, if you like anonymity, this is your "quiet corner."

Come in. Stay a while. Read a book.

"Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration."

~ Thomas A. Edison, Amer. Inventor, Scientist (1847 - 1931) Newspaper Interview. Life
The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, London Oxford University Press, 1966 Edition.

Thought for Today:

Is there anyone who has not at one time or another felt like Winnie-the-Pooh?

"When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things,
you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it."

The House At Pooh Corner (1928) ch.VI,, A. A. Milne (1882 - 1956) English writer for children.

Your Smile for Today ~

Christopher Robin had spent the morning indoors going to Africa and back, and he had just got off the boat and was wondering what it was like outside, when who should come knocking at the door but Eeyore.
"Hallo, Eeyore," said Christopher Robin, as he opened the door and came out. "How are you?"
"It's snowing still," said Eeyore gloomily.
"So it is."
"And freezing."
"Is it?"
"Yes" said Eeyore. "However," he said, brightening a little, "we haven't had an earthquake lately."

The House at Pooh Corner, A. A. Milne, E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1928.

English Author (January 18, 1882 - January 31, 1956)

Readers of a National Magazine* were invited to send in articles that they would like to see in their favorite periodical. The editor specified, "literature that endures ~ those things that touch and pulsate with the best and noblest emotions and sentiment."

"It may be in that old school book in the attic," the announcement read. "It may be between the leaves of the family Bible; it may be in mother's scrap-book, yellow with age and hallowed by sacred memories."

The editor offered cash prizes totalling over $10,000. "Send me a clipping, a story, an anecdote, or a selection that has touched your heart~ those things that make us all kin; those things that endure ~ the classics of our own lives."

The announcement went on to say, "Heart throbs ~ yes, heart throbs of happiness, heart throbs of courage, heart throbs that make us feel better. Those things that appeal to you must appeal to others."

"Let us make a magazine that will speak the language of the heart as well as of the mind."

The articles poured in, along with touching cover-letters. Over 50,000 people responded. Award money was distributed and as a consequence of the "great apparent value of this unique collection, and a very large number of requests for their publication, the Heart Throbs were offered in a 480 page hardcover in 1905, Grosset & Dunlap. Chapple Publishing Company, Limited.

*National Magazine, Boston, Mass., 1904 - 1905. Editor: Joe Chapple.

With Valentine's Day Approaching...

Heart Throbs The Old Scrap Book, The Chapple Publishing Company, Ltd., Boston, Mass. 1905 GROSSET & DUNLAP, (Personal library ~ lwalker)

Tomorrow: The story of "Heart Throbs" Dble click on photo for larger image.

Naturalist Robert Bateman

Thought for Today:

"Back in 1967, when I prepared my first art show to mark the celebration of Canada's centennial year, I chose as subjects a series of human-made artifacts that had survived the previous hundred years. In Halton County just west of Toronto, where I then lived, such subjects were not difficult to find: old barns, Victorian farmhouses, wooden pumps and split-rail fences were there in abundance. Now, with the exception of an old chapel, everything I painted is gone."

Robert Bateman Natural Worlds, text by Rick Archbold, Wellfleet Press, 2005. Madison Press Ltd.

Robert Bateman, Canadian artist, naturalist (1930 - )

Photo: lwalker, Haldimand County

"Every Year the Snow Sets Me Dreaming..."

"Every year the snow sets me dreaming;......add logs to the stove and widen the draft. Sit in a chair looking south into blue twilight that arrives earlier every day -- as the sky flakes and densens [sic], as the first clear flakes float past the porch's wood to light on dirt of the driveway and on brown frozen grass or dry stalks of the flower border. They seem tentative and awkward at first, then in a hastening host a whole brief army falls, white militia paratrooping out of the close sky over various textures, making them one. Snow is white and gray, part and whole, infinitely various yet infinitely repetitious, soft and hard, frozen and melting, a creaking underfoot and a soundlessness. But first of all it is the reversion of many into one. It is substance, almost the idea of substance, that turns grass, driveway, hayfield, old garden, log pile...into the one white."

Donald Hall, Seasons At Eagle Pond, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987.

(To view larger image, please click on photo. Taken January 21, 2010.)

Note: The author appears to have invented some words; however, his imagery feels true ~ lw

"To ask an author who hopes to be a serious writer if his work is autobiographical is like asking a spider where he buys his thread. The spider gets his thread right out of his own guts, and that is where the author gets his writing, and in that profound sense everything he writes is autobiographical. He could not write it if he had not seen it and felt it deeply."

~ Robertson Davies (1913 - 1995) Canadian author, journalist, playwright, in a speech given at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto. Nov. 26, 1989.

Robertson Davies The Merry Heart, Pendragon Ink [An enterprise set up by RD's wife and daughter to handle his work.] McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1996

Roads~ Less~ Travelled

Roads-Less-Travelled

Taken Friday, January 21 (To view larger image, dbl. click on photo.)

Smile for Today

"A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose."*

This is not a rose, obviously. We just like it because it took years to blossom.It is what it is!

*Gertrude Stein, Sacred Emily, Geography and Plays, 1922.

For Our Robbie Burns fans:

A RED RED ROSE

O, my luv's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June,
O, my luve's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I,
And I will luve thee still, my Dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry, my Dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my Dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun!
O I will luve thee still, my Dear,
While the sands o'life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only Luve,
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile!

Robert Burns (Jan. 25, 1759 - July 21, 1796)
Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, Collins, 1955.

Robbie Burns

Charismatic Robbie Burns, eighteenth century Scottish poet, retains his appeal.
Followers continue to celebrate his work every January with Robbie Burns Night.

Let Not Women E'r Complain
[Some things never change! ~lw]

Let not women e'er complain
Of inconstancy in love!
Let not women e'er complain
Fickle man is apt to rove!
Look abroad thro' Nature's range,
Nature's mighty law is change:
Ladies, would it not be strange
Man should then a monster prove?

Mark the winds, and mark the skies,
Ocean's ebb and ocean's flow.
Sun and Moon but set to rise.
Round and round the seasons go.
Why then, ask of silly man
To oppose great Nature's plan?
We'll be constant, while we can ~
You can be no more, you know!

Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, Collins, 1955.
(b. Jan. 25, 1759; d. July 21, 1796)

Smile For Today :

On the morning of the first publication of the "Sun," an exciting new Canadian newspaper, Publisher Douglas Creighton couldn't help but notice an old sign dangling over the building. The building had housed The Eclipse Whitewear Co. A single word, "ECLIPSE" remained, shadowing the "SUN."
The lesson is, one should never be distracted by what appears to be a bad omen (or in this case, a "sign" ~ pardon the pun); the daily is going strong forty years later.

The Little Paper That Grew, Jean Sonmor, Toronto Sun Publishing Corporation, 1993.

Charles Taylor Prize

For the short list of nominees for the Charles Taylor Literary Non-Fiction Prize, go to http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/
Previous winners include Carol Shields for Jane Austen, Wayne Johnston for Baltimore's Mansion and Tim Cook for Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1917 - 1918, Vol.II and Ian Brown for The Boy In The Moon.
The 2011 winner will be announced on Monday, February 14.

Peter Etril Snyder

The Changing Seasons:

We have recently posted photographs depicting several seasons on the Grand. The following is what artist Peter Etril Snyder has to say:

"The changing of seasons offers me, as a painter, a whole new view of subjects and activities. Logic would suggest that after all the years that I have splashed the paint around, there would not, could not, be any surprises. Each season I discover previously unnoticed aspects of the land which is a real joy."

Painting The Grand River Valley, Peter Etril Snyder, Library and Archives Canada, 2005.
Visit Peter's website: http://www.snyder-gallery.com
Search your favourite landmarks including Ruthven, Caledonia Mill and the Bell Homestead.

Thought for Today:

"We've placed a lot of emphasis in this country on the idea of people's rights. (Italics the author's) That's how it should be, but it makes no sense to talk about rights without also talking about responsibilities."

The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch, Hyperion, 2008.

HELPLESS IN CALEDONIA, an interview with Christie Blatchford, Globe and Mail reporter, author of HELPLESS is available on Podcast, CBC, The Agenda with Steve Paikin.

Originally aired Thursday, January 13, 2011.

"Look-out" On the Grand River

Located on Ouse Street one block behind the bookshop. The sun came out today!

They Had A Dream, by accomplished author Harry B. Barrett, is a comprehensive and enjoyable history of the St. Williams Forestry Station, Norfolk County, Ontario. The book also documents the management or mismanagement of the early lumber industry ~ the indiscriminate logging of Canadian forests for profit.
In 1909 this labour-intensive operation was established. The handful of individuals who worked tirelessly to earn the respect of government and university officials as well as neighbouring land-owners were honoured with a commemorative plaque in 1954 ~ the last line of which reads: "...large areas of waste land have been restored to productivity." The evolution of the station into a thriving, modern operation is a fascinating read.

Barrett writes, "One wonders if their dream ever envisaged the 370 million tree seedlings that had gone to make up the plantations, forests and windbreaks of Southern Ontario."
Retired Superintendent of St. Williams Forestry Station once stated, "Anywhere you stand in Norfolk County you can see a tree that began its life at the St. Williams Forestry Station." *

This 191-page book ~ full of historical photographs ~ can prompt the reader to commit to a day-trip! http://www.forestryfarm.ca/dream.htm

*They Had A Dream, A History of the St. Williams Forestry Station, Harry B. Barrett, Port Rowan/South Walshingham Heritage Association, 2008. Available at The Neat Little Bookshop $25. Signed by author.

January On-The-Icy-Grand River ~ Ouse Street ~ a block behind the Bookshop.

For larger image, dbl. click on photo.

Key Porter Books says it has temporarily suspended publishing operations - Winnipeg Free Press

Key Porter Books says it has temporarily suspended publishing operations - Winnipeg Free Press

Key Porter Books ~

After approximately thirty-two years in business, the troubled Canadian publishing company, Key Porter Books, founded originally by Anne Porter is ceasing operations. The announcement was made today. Key Porter specialized in non-fiction books. Authors included Margaret Atwood, Conrad Black, Pamela Wallin, Farley Mowat, Jean Chretien and Allan Fotheringham.

Harry Barrett remembers visiting the St. Williams Forestry Station as a child. The man in charge would tell him to climb onto the "running-board" and hang on. Then Harry would be in for the ride of his life. He recalls being taken to the latest tree-planting area ~ beds of tiny seedlings.

In They Had a Dream, Barrett presents a well-researched, well-documented, detailed history of the origin and evolution of a forestry nursery in Norfolk County, Ontario. Photographs, names, dates and numerous interviews with descendants of workers make this a rich history of a unique operation.

Published by Port Rowan/South Walsingham Heritage Association, 2008. Approx. 8 1/2" x 11". 191 pages. Available at The Neat Little Bookshop. Author signed. $25.

Tomorrow: An insight into the business of conserving Ontario's trees.