Smile for Today:
Humorist, Robert Benchley, tells a story about his friend Ernie (Ernest Hemingway):
'He took my first edition of A Farewell to Arms and filled in each blank in the text where Scribner's had blushed and put a dash instead of the original word. I think that he supplied the original word in every case. In fact, I am sure of it."
On the fly-leaf of this he wrote:
To R. (G). B from E. ( --- ), H.
Corrected edition. Filled-in blanks.
Very valuable. Sell quick.
~Essay 1934
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
HARVEST TIME by Pauline Johnson
Pillowed and hushed on the silent plain,
Wrapped in her mantle of golden grain,
Wearied of pleasuring weeks away,
Summer is lying asleep to-day, ~
Where winds come sweet from the wild-rose briers
And the smoke of the far-off prairie fires;
Yellow her hair as the goldenrod,
And brown her cheeks as the prairie sod;
Purple her eyes as the mists that dream
At the edge of some laggard sun-drowned stream;
But over their depths the lashes sweep,
For Summer is lying to-day asleep.
The north wind kisses her rosy mouth,
His rival frowns in the far-off south,
And comes caressing her sunburnt cheek,
And Summer awakes for one short week,~
Awakes and gathers her wealth of grain,
Then sleeps and dreams for a year again.
~ Flint and Feather The Complete Poems of E. Pauline Johnson
Native Mohawk Indian (1861 - 1913) Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1912.
Pillowed and hushed on the silent plain,
Wrapped in her mantle of golden grain,
Wearied of pleasuring weeks away,
Summer is lying asleep to-day, ~
Where winds come sweet from the wild-rose briers
And the smoke of the far-off prairie fires;
Yellow her hair as the goldenrod,
And brown her cheeks as the prairie sod;
Purple her eyes as the mists that dream
At the edge of some laggard sun-drowned stream;
But over their depths the lashes sweep,
For Summer is lying to-day asleep.
The north wind kisses her rosy mouth,
His rival frowns in the far-off south,
And comes caressing her sunburnt cheek,
And Summer awakes for one short week,~
Awakes and gathers her wealth of grain,
Then sleeps and dreams for a year again.
~ Flint and Feather The Complete Poems of E. Pauline Johnson
Native Mohawk Indian (1861 - 1913) Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1912.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
The Fish Quill Poetry Boat will set out today from Elora for a ten-day canoeing/camping trip on the Grand River. Comprised of eight poets from Toronto and Quebec, the group will hold poetry readings each evening at 7:00 p.m. Stops in Kitchener, Cambridge, Paris and Brantford.
Honouring the 150th anniversary of Pauline Johnson's birth, the flotilla will end the journey at Chiefswood, the home of the famous Canadian poet.
~ Pauline Johnson (1861 - 1913) Canadian writer and performer
Honouring the 150th anniversary of Pauline Johnson's birth, the flotilla will end the journey at Chiefswood, the home of the famous Canadian poet.
~ Pauline Johnson (1861 - 1913) Canadian writer and performer
Photo: Wikipedia
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Thought for Today ~
With the upheaval of moving the bookshop the last two weeks, an essay titled "Unpacking My Library" naturally caught my eye. Add a few paint rags ~ and the following by Walter Benjamin describes the bookshop.
"I am unpacking my library. Yes, I am. The books are not yet on the shelves, not yet touched by the mild boredom of order. I cannot march up and down their ranks to pass them in review before a friendly audience. You need not fear any of that. Instead, I must ask you to join me in the disorder of crates that have been wrenched open, the air saturated with the dust of wood, the floor covered with torn paper, to join me among piles of volumes that are seeing daylight again after two years of darkness, so that you may be ready to share with me a bit of the mood ~ it is certainly not an elegiac mood but, rather, one of anticipation ~ which these books arouse in a genuine collector."
A Passion for Books edited by Harold Rabinowitz & Rob Kaplan,
Three Rivers Press, 1999
With the upheaval of moving the bookshop the last two weeks, an essay titled "Unpacking My Library" naturally caught my eye. Add a few paint rags ~ and the following by Walter Benjamin describes the bookshop.
"I am unpacking my library. Yes, I am. The books are not yet on the shelves, not yet touched by the mild boredom of order. I cannot march up and down their ranks to pass them in review before a friendly audience. You need not fear any of that. Instead, I must ask you to join me in the disorder of crates that have been wrenched open, the air saturated with the dust of wood, the floor covered with torn paper, to join me among piles of volumes that are seeing daylight again after two years of darkness, so that you may be ready to share with me a bit of the mood ~ it is certainly not an elegiac mood but, rather, one of anticipation ~ which these books arouse in a genuine collector."
A Passion for Books edited by Harold Rabinowitz & Rob Kaplan,
Three Rivers Press, 1999
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Thought for Today:
"I have friends, whose society is extremely agreeable to me; they are of all ages, and of every country. They have distinguished themselves both in the cabinet and in the field, and obtained high honors for their knowledge of the sciences. It is easy to gain access to them; for they are always at my service, and I admit them to my company, and dismiss them from it, whenever I please. They are never troublesome, but immediately answer every question I ask them. Some relate to me the events of past ages, while others reveal to me the secrets of nature. Some, by their vivacity, drive away my cares and exhilarate my spirits, while others give fortitude to my mind, and teach me the important lesson how to restrain my desires, and to depend wholly on myself. They open to me, in short, the various avenues of all the arts and sciences, and upon their information I safely rely, in all emergencies. In return for all these services, they only ask me to accommodate them with a convenient chamber in some corner of my humble habitation, where they may repose in peace: for these friends are more delighted by the tranquillity of retirement, than by the tumults of society."
~ Petrarch (1304 - 1374) Italian scholar
"I have friends, whose society is extremely agreeable to me; they are of all ages, and of every country. They have distinguished themselves both in the cabinet and in the field, and obtained high honors for their knowledge of the sciences. It is easy to gain access to them; for they are always at my service, and I admit them to my company, and dismiss them from it, whenever I please. They are never troublesome, but immediately answer every question I ask them. Some relate to me the events of past ages, while others reveal to me the secrets of nature. Some, by their vivacity, drive away my cares and exhilarate my spirits, while others give fortitude to my mind, and teach me the important lesson how to restrain my desires, and to depend wholly on myself. They open to me, in short, the various avenues of all the arts and sciences, and upon their information I safely rely, in all emergencies. In return for all these services, they only ask me to accommodate them with a convenient chamber in some corner of my humble habitation, where they may repose in peace: for these friends are more delighted by the tranquillity of retirement, than by the tumults of society."
~ Petrarch (1304 - 1374) Italian scholar
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