Almanac of Story Tellers: Truman Capote

 Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Sept. 30th

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    It is the 273rd day of the year, leaving 92 days remaining in 2022.

   
    On this date in 1924, the author Truman Capote was born.

    Capote told his stories in direct, although in complex and descriptive prose. His stories combine dread and anxiety, and he allows the emotions of his characters to play a leading role. He wrote short stories, novellas, novels, and what he called the non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood.

    He started writing at a young age, partly to escape an unhappy childhood and various relocations. He was born in New Orleans, but grew up in Mississippi, New York City, and Connecticut. He is said to have begun writing fiction at before age 10.

    His first published short story, Miriam, gained him some fame after it appeared in the magazine Mademoiselle in 1945. That led to his getting a contract to write his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, a critical success that spend three months on The New York Times best-seller list. It was described as the part-autobiographical tale of a man trying to find his father and discovering his sexual identity while living in a decadent Southern community.

    In 1957, Capote published a collection that included Breakfast at Tiffany's. It tells the story of one of his best characters, Holly Golightly, a young country girl who lives a high lifestyle in New York City. Capote called her "an American geisha." The work led Norman Mailer to term Capote as "the most perfect writer of my generation."

    After that, he spent some six years researching and writing In Cold Blood, about the 1959 murder of a Kansas family by two drifters. The book, written in a narrative, journalistic style, was an international best-seller and brought Capote lasting acclaim.

    He continued writing for magazines and living a celebrity lifestyle, but he never wrote another book.

    Capote died in 1984.

Almanac of Story Tellers: The Berenstain Bears

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Sept. 29th

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    It is the 272nd day of the year, leaving 93 days remaining in 2022.

    On this date in 1923, Stan Berenstain was born. He and his wife Jan developed, wrote, and illustrated the classic children's book series, The Berenstain Bears.

    They told their stories about traditional family situations with kindness and gentle humor. Despite the use of anthropomorphic bears, the stories often dealt with real issues that children and their families faced daily.

    For instance, the first book (1961) in the series, The Big Honey Hunt, has Papa Bear and Brother Bear going out to get honey. While Mama Bear suggests going to the store, Papa Bear wants to find wild honey. After several failed opportunities, Papa winds up buying honey at a market

    Before creating the books, the Berenstains put together a cartoon feature, It's All in the Family, that ran in McCall's and Good Housekeeping magazines from 1956 to 1989. It told humorous tales about a middle-class family of five.

    They got their inspiration for The Berenstain Bears from the books of Dr. Seuss. When they sent their first book to Random House, Theodor Geisel, who wrote as Dr. Seuss, was working as an editor. He approved their books, and worked with them to create more.

    The couple said they chose bears as their characters because they are easy to draw. Although born in Philadelphia, they lived in nearby Bucks County., Pa., and they transferred the rural setting to their children's books.

    Stan Berenstain died in 2005. Jan Berenstain died in 2012.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Rachel Carson

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Sept. 27th

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    It is the 270th day of the year, leaving 95 days remaining in 2022.

    On this date in 1962, the environmental book, Silent Spring, was published in the United States.

    In telling its story about the environmental calamity the chemical industry was causing, Rachel Carson showed the power of the written word. Her book led to a ban on the pesticide DDT, helped jumpstart the environmental movement, and served as the impetus for the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

    Carson hammered home the negative impact that human activity, particularly in its industries, has on other species and the planet earth. She showed how pesticides did not just kill the weeds and insects they were aimed at, but various plant life, birds, fish, and species up the food chain.

    Indeed, part of the book said the pesticides eventually could cause harm to people, and it was only getting worse. She wrote how the chemicals caused potential cancers in animals. She also noted how certain pests targeted by the pesticides were developing immunity, causing the industry to find more powerful and dangerous alternatives.

    To tell that whole story, Carson also gave a primer on the natural world and life is interconnected. The stories first appeared as a serialization in The New Yorker over three successive weekly issues, starting on June 16, 1962. A follow-up piece in The New York Times in late July.

    It gave the industry a heads-up, and it used that to cry foul and attack Carson and her fellow travelers. But Carson had done her research -- she was a marine biologist by training who had written numerous articles and three books about the environment of the seas and the oceans -- and had put her own work under massive scrutiny before publication.

    The book still packs a wallop after 60 years. Its science has held up. It has been called the second most important book of science since Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

    Carson died in 1964, shortly after publication, but her impact and reputation has lived on.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Jim Henson

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Sept. 24th

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    It is the 267th day of the year, leaving 98 days remaining in 2022.

 

   On this date in 1936, the puppeteer Jim Henson was born.

    He told his stories through the voices and characters of his muppets, which he invented with the portmanteau of puppet and marionette.

    They were anthropomorphic animals or persons made from foam rubber, plastic, and fabrics, manipulated by one or more muppeteers. Some costumes were worn by their human operators. 

    They were pigs and frogs, grumpy and childish, monsters or next-door neighbors. In their best known format, on the U.S. show Sesame Street, they helped teach children to sing and dance, read and count, and get along with their friends and families.

    Henson got his start while attending the University of Maryland, when he created puppets for a show he called Sam and Friends. Sam was a human-like character who performed with friends Henson created, including an early version of Kermit the Frog. The show ran from 1955 to 1961 in the Washington, D.C., area.

    He created his own company with his wife, Jane Nebel. They produced commercials for local stations and appeared on national TV programs. In 1969, Henson and his company started working with the Children's Television Workshop on Sesame Street. Henson created numerous characters for the show, including Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird, and Bert and Ernie. 

    An updated version of Kermit began appearing, along with a game show host, Guy Smiley, both voiced by Henson.

    Henson then created an adult show, The Muppet Show, for audiences in Britain after U.S. networks rejected the idea. He then transferred the muppets to the movie screen, making a series of films in the 1980s, He also helped George Lucas create the character of Yoda for the Star Wars films.

    Before he died, Henson and the Disney Company were negotiating the rights for the muppets, a deal that was finalized after his death. 

    Henson died in 1990 in New York City.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Bruce Springsteen

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Sept. 23rd

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    It is the 266th day of the year, leaving 99 days remaining in 2022.

 

  On this date in 1949, the musician Bruce Springsteen was born.

    He tells his stories through songs and albums, weaving tales into a whole. His style can be folks and slow, or it can be dramatic and hard and fast.

    His songs tell stories of heartbreak, either in love or in life, often from the perspective of a blue-collar workers down on their luck and lamenting the vicissitudes of fate.

    His albums are legendary for their artistry, cohesion, and musical intensity.

    And his live concerts, with backing from his long-time collaborators, the E Street Band, bring in legions of fans. His stage shows often are four hours or more, with a strutting, jumping, singing, dancing, guitar-playing Springsteen staying up tempo with a performance that combines plaintive folk-influenced songs and arena rock with humor, tales of his life, and pleas for humanity.

    Born in New Jersey, Springsteen has come to epitomize and embrace the state's stereotype. His early songs, and the venues of those long ago shows, were vintage New Jersey.

    His first two albums -- Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle -- showed influences of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison, and folk rock and rhythm-and-blues. 

    But his third album, Born To Run, released in 1975, highlighted the Springsteen of the future, his raucous rock 'n' roll and pulsing, throbbing guitars.

    Throughout his long career, Springsteen's talents were best exemplified by his songwriting. He has been called a rock 'n' roll poet, and the voice of the working class. His themes have been personal, social, and political. 

    His latest album, 2020's Letter to You, dealt with songs about aging and death. It re-united many members of his E Street Bank. 

    He has a concert tour scheduled for 2023 in the United States and Europe. It is expected to sell out,

Almanac of Story Tellers: Stephen King

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Sept. 21st

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    It is the 264th day of the year, leaving 101 days remaining in 2022.

   

My collection
of King's books

On this date in 1947, the author Stephen King was born.

    One of the best regarded writers in modern times, King tells his stories through realistic, everyday characters, a writing style that moved the story along without leaving readers behind, and tales that frightened a generation, piqued their imagination and brought people together.

    Basing many of his stories in his native state, King helped put Maine on the literary map.

    Although usually described as a horror writer, King dives into other literary genres. Some of his most loved stories and movie adaptions have little horror or supernatural elements. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, (filmed as The Shawshank Redemption in 1984), and The Body (filmed as Stand By Me in 1986) both originated as novellas in the collection, Different Seasons, published in 1982.  

    His more recent books in some cases abandoned horror, and the supernatural has a limited role. Instead, he has turned to detective fiction, Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, and End of Watch, and crime novels, Joyland, Later, and Billy Summers.

    His magnus opus, the eight-part Dark Tower series, begins with the unforgettable line, "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

    King is usually verbose, with at least two novels running more than 1,000 pages, and several others coming close. But he also writes novellas and short stories with the same heart and soul. His works still get snapped up, and many have been adapted for the movies, or into TV specials or series.

    His characters could sometimes be tropes, and he too often employed the idea that the handicapped person or the African-Americans had special or mystical powers. The latter sometimes is called the "magical Negro."

 

  But King also writes with sensitivity about his female characters, and seems to have a special affinity for children and young people. His first book, Carrie, is about a teenaged girl with pyrokinetic powers, and his most recent book, Fairy Tale, tells the story of a teenaged boy who finds himself in a modern-day fairy tale.

    A former high school English teacher, King has written more than 60 novels, five books of non-fiction, several novellas, and some 200 short stories. He experiments with various forms of writing -- writing a novella, Riding the Bullet, and an unfinished serial novel, The Plant, which were sold only as e-books. He did so, he said, because he once believed that e-books would be the future of publishing.

    He also wrote a serialized novel, The Green Mile, in book form. He published a volume a month between March 28, 1996, and August 29, 1996, with a collection available in May 1997 in paperback, and in October 2000 in hardcover. Each volume except the last was less than 100 pages, with the conclusion 144 pages. It was widely successful.

    The number of literary awards he has received are many, but the most notable was given to him in 2003: The National Book Award, the Medal of Distinguished Contributions to American Letters.

    King lives and writes in Bangor, Maine. 

Almanac of Story Tellers: Upton Sinclair

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Sept. 20th

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    It is the 263rd day of the year, leaving 102 days remaining in 2022.

   

    On this date in 1878, the author Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore.

    He told his stories with zeal and passion, seeking to rights the wrongs capitalism caused in the United States. He was a muckraker, an investigative journalist in the Progressive Era who went undercover to expose how big businesses and endangered workers in favor of excess profits. 

     He sometimes wrote news stories showing what he had found; just as often he wrote serialized fiction and novels with the information.

    He went into meat-packing plants, coal mines, automobile assembly lines, oil fields, and yes, even newspaper offices to expose safety hazards, labor violations, unsanitary conditions, unethical behaviors, and unsafe products caused by unsafe conditions.

    He is best known for his novel, The Jungle, serialized in a socialist newspaper during  1905, and published by Doubleday in 1906. It showed the inhumane mistreatment of immigrant workers and unsanitary conditions in the meat-packing industry.

    Public reaction and public pressure forced Congress to regulate the industry for the first time by passing the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach," Sinclair later wrote.

    Later books included King Coal, about his investigations into the Colorado mining industry; The Brass Check, in which he explored "yellow journalism" used to exploit the news in favor of circulation and profits; Oil!, which covered the Teapot Dome Scandal; and The Flivver King, about Henry Ford and his efforts to replace skilled workers in the auto industry.

    Sinclair ran for office in his home state of California numerous times, including a 1934 run for governor on the Democratic ticket, in which he received 37.8 percent of the vote in a three-way race.

    He won the Pulitzer Price for Fiction in 1943 for the novel Dragon's Teeth, about the Nazi takeover of Germany in the 1930s.

    He died in 1968 in Bound Brook, N.J.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Washington's Farewell Address

 Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Sept. 19th

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    It is the 262nd day of the year, leaving 103 days remaining in 2022

    On this date in 1796, President George Washington gave his farewell address to the nation.

    He told his story, through the words of Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, in the American Daily Advertiser, a Philadelphia publication that was the first daily newspaper in the United States. It was quickly re-published in newspapers around the country. It was then published and made available in pamphlet form.

    In the address, Washington told his "friends and fellow citizens" alliances -- both in party politics and in foreign policy. He specifically warned against forming political parties, and to avoid "entangling alliances," particularly in Europe.

    The address was issued as a way for Washington to tell the nation that he was not running for a third term. He had wanted to retire after one term in 1792, but was persuaded then that his country needed his leadership or else would be torn asunder.

    But four years later, his mind could not be changed. In the address, he assured citizens that the country would survive with someone else as their leader. He said anything he had accomplished was because of the people's commitment and support. He said any errors in judgment were his own.

    Washington told the country their safety and liberty would continue only if they stayed united.

    The address later become one of the more popular documents of the founders. Many future presidents -- who all followed Washington's two-term limit until Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to four terms during World War II -- echoed its sentiments as they neared the end of their own terms.

    The speech regained popularity as the Broadway musical Hamilton renewed interest in the Founding Fathers. Lin-Manuel Miranda and Christopher Jackson sang about it in One Last Time. 

    Later, a version was released with former President Obama speaking some of the words.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Ken Kesey

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Sept. 17th

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    It is the 260th day of the year, leaving 105 days remaining in 2022.

   

    On this date in 1935, the novelist Ken Kesey was born.

    He told his stories based on incidents he had during his early life, using metaphorical characters to show societal problems. He saw himself as a bridge between the Beat Generation and the hippies, using both in his LSD-fueled trips around the country with the Merry Pranksters, as chronicled by Tom Wolfe in The Electric Kool-Aid Test.

    Although Kesey wrote fiction and non-fiction throughout his life, he is perhaps best known for his debut novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It was a popular and critical success when published in 1962. 

    Inspired by his time talking to patients while working the night shift in a psychiatric ward, Kesey wrote the novel about such men. He believed they were not insane, but were being punished for acting differently from society's expectations. 

    It was a tribute to individual principles. Many of the patients believed society was somehow controlling their thoughts through drugs, coercion, or violence. It was written during the Civil Rights Era, when many groups were seeking greater autonomy.

    The novel was quickly adapted as a play, and in 1975, into an award-winning movie that is often considered among the best ever.

    Kesey's next novel was Sometimes a Great Notion, about a obstinate logging family in Oregon that tries to operate during a union strike. It goes into great detail about the family's history against the town, symbolized by a raging river beside their house.

    Critics loved the book, and Kesey called it his magnum opus. But after his Merry Pranksters time and a stint in jail for marijuana possession, Kesey retreated to his farm in Oregon. He continued to teach and write for various magazines. He published several more books, including Caverns, which he wrote with a creative writing class he taught at the University of Oregon.

    Kesey died in 2001 in Eugene, Ore.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Marie Vieux-Chauvet

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Sept. 16th

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    It is the 259th day of the year, leaving 106 days remaining in 2022.

   

    On this date in 1916, the Haitian author, Marie Vieux-Chauvet, was born in Port-au-Prince.

    She told her stories about class, gender, and color while under almost constant surveillance by the autocratic ruler of Haiti. But she persisted, hosting meetings of writers in her home.

    She has been called one of the greatest of Haitian writers, put in a "multi-generational triad" with Jacques Roumain and Jacques Stephen Alexis, and dubbed the "cornerstone of Haitian literature."

    Her first novel, Fille d'Haiti, (in English, Daughters of Haiti) was published in 1954 and received a literary prize from the Alliance Française. Another early and well received novel was Fonds des Nègres, which tells of a city women who discovers a taste for traditional culture when lost in a small town (from which the novel took its title.)

    But her most acclaimed book -- and ultimately, one that was difficult to find for some 40 years -- was a trilogy of novellas titled Amour, colère et folie (Love, Anger, Madness). The three stories tell how different classes of people react to a claustrophobic nature within their houses and oppression from without. 

    It was widely seen as an attack on François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, who became president of Haiti in 1957, and soon installed himself as president for life, complete with a death squad called the Tonton Macoute that attacked and killed his opponents..

    After being published in France in 1968, Amour, colère et Folie was banned in Haiti. Fearing for her life, Chauvet asked the publisher to withdraw the book, and she fled to the United States, where she settled in New York. Her husband, Pierre Chauvet, returned to Haiti where he bought up as many copies of the book he could find. Most were destroyed. Some copies of the original edition were surreptitiously sold. 

    It wasn't until 2005 when the book was published again in France that it became more widely available.

    Chauvet died in New York in 1973.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Agatha Christie

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  September 15th

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    It is the 258th day of the year, leaving 107 days remaining in 2022. 

    On this date in 1890, the novelist and playwright Agatha Christie was born in Devon, England. 

    She told her detective stories, mostly about murder, with a large cast of suspects, intricate details, simple language, and quick-paced dialogue. 

    Two of her characters appeared in most of her books: the mustached,  intelligent and egotistical Hercule Poirot, and Miss Marple, a little old lady from a small village who somehow had an intuitive knack with her deductive reasoning. 

    Christie is recognized as one of the best-selling fiction authors of all time, with some 2 billion books sold -- half of that total in English, and half translated into 100 other languages. She is the author of the longest-running play ever: Mousetrap, which has played continuously in London's West End since 1952, except for a 14-month break in 2020-21, when COVID-19 shut down all theaters.

    She wrote 66 novels and 14 short story collections, as well as six novels under a pseudonym. When she killed off Poirot in a story published after her death, The New York York Times wrote its first-ever obituary for a fictional character.

    Her first book, which introduced Poirot, was The Mysterious Affair at Styles, published in 1920. It was written on a dare from her sister. It involved the murder of a Mrs. Inglethorp at the Styles Court. She had been poisoned, a favored method of death employed by Christie, a one-time apothecary's assistant.

    Christie had some trouble publishing the book, but once she did, her career rarely stalled. She published The Secret Adversary in 1922, introducing a second detective, the couple Tommy and Tuppence. Miss Marple -- perhaps the author's favorite sleuth, although she denied any resemblance -- came onto the scene in The Tuesday Night Club, a short story published in 1927.

    Christie's several plays included Witness for the Prosecution, which premiered on Broadway in 1953, winning a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, and an Edgar Award. 

    Her other novels included And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express, and Death on the Nile. Her novels often were serialized in magazine in the United Kingdom and the United States. Many of her works were adapted for the theater or the movie screen. 

    She died in 1976.

Book Review: Learning to Talk

 

•  Authors: Hilary Mantel

• Where I bought this book: Arcadia Books, Spring Green, Wisc. 

• Why I bought this book: Her other collection was titled and included the story, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher

*******

    

    The settings in these short stories, mostly about childhood, are benign; the colors are grey; the tales are ordinary.

    But the writing is crisp. It shows off the literary style of one of the  best writers of our time. It has touches of that droll British wit. It is written mostly in the first person, and thus brings us closer to the author and the subjects.

    Indeed, the collection is pure British. Its tone, its inflections and its manner says, quite politely yet determinately, that this is a British book of British stories.

    None of that is surprising. Its author is one of the finest writers in Britain today. Mantel is a two-time winner of the Booker Prize, and her latest book -- the finale in her trilogy of the years of Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII -- was longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. 

   This is one of her earlier books, published in 2003, and her first of just two collections of short stories.

    Many of the stories appear to be almost autobiographical, and that is not an accident. In her forward, Mantel says the tales are part of her life, but are not her real life.

I would not describe these stories as autobiographical, more as autoscopic. From a distant, elevated perspective, my writing self is looking down at a body reduced to a shell, waiting to be fleshed out by phrases.

    Among my favorite tales is King Billy is a Gentleman, in which a Catholic lodger replaces the father in a household, and the tale explores some of the sectarianism in British life. The Clean Slate shows the failures of the perspectives of the past to tell a true story. It contains the great line about a couple of Irish uncles: "They drank when they had money, and prayed when they had none."

    Third Floor Rising, about a mother who gains confidence when she goes to work in a Manchester department store, and her daughter, who does not, has the stock on the floor as major characters.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Roald Dahl

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  September 13th

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    It is the 256th day of the year, leaving 109 days remaining in 2022.

 

  On this date in 1916, the writer Roald Dahl was born in Cardiff, Wales.

    He told his stories with a subversive wit, fantastical plots, and musical prose. Many of his children's books broke the traditional mode and were darkly comic, pitting mean-spirited adults against children, who ranged from greedy to stupid, but the protagonist was always noble.

    And the child usually won out in the end.

    Adaptations of his work followed a pattern: Irrelevant and inventive producers and directors would put their own spin on Dahl's work, resulting in creative and unique films and musicals.

    In addition to his well-known children's books, Dahl also wrote macabre fantasy stories for adults. He won three Edgar Awards for his mysteries. He was a screenwriter (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and You Only Live Twice, among others) and a television writer. Before there was a Twilight Zone, Dahl wrote for and hosted a science fiction/horror TV anthology series, Way Out.

    His first book was The Gremlins, tales he heard during his days as a fighter pilot, when gremlins were blamed for whatever went wrong on the planes. A later book, Kiss, Kiss, explored stormy romantic relationships.

    But it is his children's books that made his career. His first was James and The Giant Peach, about an English lad who has adventures inside a magical peach with several magical garden bugs. He followed that with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, about a boy who wins a golden ticket to tour a chocolate factory run by the eccentric and bizarre Willy Wonka. Both were adapted for movies; the latter twice.

    His other children's books include Fantastic Mr. Fox, Matilda, The Witches, and The BFG, about a giant who does not eat children.

    Dahl died in 1990.   

Almanac of Story Tellers: H.L. Mencken

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  September 12th

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    It is the 255th day of the year, leaving 110 days remaining in 2022.

 

    On this date in 1880, the journalist H.L. Mencken was born in Baltimore.

    An elitist and a curmudgeon, Mencken wrote his stories and his newspaper columns with satire and wit. He savaged those he disagreed with and had a strong disdain for politicians and religion. He was a student of the English language -- American English, to be precise -- and wrote several books, including The American Language, on the vernacular.

    He spent almost his entire career with the Baltimore Sun, serving as a reporter and columnist. He also wrote for other newspapers and publications in the area, including one he helped found, The American Mercury.

    He may be best known for his coverage of the 1925 Scopes Trail, in which a teacher in Dayton, Tenn., was tried (and convicted) for violating a state law prohibiting the teaching of evolution. The trial was a cultural touchstone in the United States, with three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan agreeing to prosecute the case, and noted defense attorney Clarence Darrow defending John Scopes.

    Mencken was at his scornful best, dubbing the case "The Monkey Trial."

    Then a syndicated columnist from a large American city, Mencken was at the top of his influence in the 1920s. He despised religion, businessmen, and the provincialism of the middle class. He fancied himself a cultural critic, excoriating writers he thought pretentious, in favor of those he liked, such as Theodore Dreiser and Sinclair Lewis.

    He lost some of that influence as times changed -- and he did not -- in the late 1930s and into the 1940s. He kept up his growing if unpopular criticism of FDR, the New Deal, and U.S. involvement in World War II.

    Mencken died in 1956

Almanac of Story Tellers: Leo Tolstoy

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  September 9th

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    It is the 252nd day of the year, leaving 113 days remaining in 2022.

 

  On this date in 1828, the Russian author Leo Tolstoy was born.

    One of the elite writers of Russian literature, Tolstoy is generally regarded as among the best novelists on the world stage. He told sprawling, detailed stories, mixing fiction with history and philosophy, and sometimes throwing in a bit of autobiography.

    But he also told shorter, tighter tales that explored the social and political issues of his times. His novels and stories have been described as greater that a work of art; they are a part of life.

 

    Born into Russian nobility on an estate some 120 miles south of Moscow, Tolstoy lived and wrote there most of his life. His early novels, including Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth, used autobiographical details to show the alienation between peasants and the wealthy landowners -- such as himself and his family.

    But as he aged and developed his belief in anarchy and the nonviolent resistance to evil, his writings became more worldly and complex.

    Although Tolstoy himself refused to call it a novel, War and Peace is often seen as a classic of the genre, but moreso. It a novel of the Napoleonic wars, told through the biographies of fictional characters, with a discussion of Tolstoy's views of the philosophy of history. Some of the dialogue between characters is written in French. As befitting his ideas of pacifism, its combat scenes show sheer chaos.

    Tolstoy's second great novel, Anna Karenina, is also long and complex. It focuses on themes of desire, love, family, betrayal, and Russian society. Its classic opening line foreshadows its tale: "All happy families resemble each other; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

    His other books are novels, plays, essays, shorter stories and novellas, which include The Death of Ivan Ilyich, about a Russian judge's suffering and death from a terminal illness.

    Tolstoy died in 1910.  

Almanac of Story Tellers: Buddy Holly

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  September 7th

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    It is the 250th day of the year, leaving 115 days remaining in 2022.

 

Buddy Holly on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1958

   On this date in 1936, the rock 'n' roll pioneer Buddy Holly was born.

    He told his stories in the new genre that was gaining ground in the 1950s, and he helped define the early sound. He was influenced mostly by rhythm and blues, along with gospel and early country and western music. 

    He was among the first to perform with the soon-to-be-traditional setup of two guitars, a bass, and a drum set.

    His sound influenced many other rock 'n' roll legends, including the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Hollies. He was in the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

    His band, the Crickets, put out their first single, That'll Be the Day, in 1957. Despite little or no promotion by the record company, Brunswick, it was an international hit. A follow-up single, Peggy Sue, reached No. 3 on the Billboard charts. 

    In 1959, Holly was married and living in New York, and his career had tapered off. So he was participating in the Winter Dance Party of 1959, with a new band, which included future country music star Waylon Jennings.

    Frustrated by the cold bus rides during the January/February tour, Holly rented a plane to fly him and others from Clear Lake, Iowa, to Moorhead, Minn. Shortly after takeoff, the plane crashed into a field, killing Holly and three others, Ritchie Valens, J.P. "Big Bopper" Richardson, and the pilot, Roger Peterson.

    Because the three artists were well-known rock 'n' roll stars, the crash was labeled as "the day the music died," in Don McLean's 1971 song, American Pie.

            Long, long time ago

            I can still remember how the music used to make me smile.

            And I knew if I had my chance, I could make those people dance

            And maybe they'd be happy for a while.

            But February made me shiver

            With every paper I'd deliver

            Sad news on the doorstep. I couldn't take one more step.

            I can't remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride

            But something touched me deep inside

            The day the music died.

Book Review: No Country for Old Gnomes

 

•  Authors: Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne

• Where I bought this book: The Book Loft, Columbus, Ohio 

• Why I bought this book: I was looking for the strange, and fantasy is weird

*******

    I now know the difference between gnomes, dwarves, and halflings. They are all short, insulated creatures who like their routines, but have their differences and individual peculiarities. They are not adverse to adventures.

    If one must go on an adventure to save the world.   

    This tale mirrors their lives. It -- and they -- starts slowly, meandering about. Indeed, I found the beginning rambling enough that I considered abandoning it.

    But then the quest -- that should be The Quest -- began. 

    And I saw it was good.

    Here's a quick summary: Halflings are attacking the gnomes, bombing their underground huts and otherwise disrupting their lives. The various leaders of Pell are either helpless to stop the attacks, or don't care. The other creatures ignore the problem, hoping it'll go away, because it does not affect them.

    You can read this as a metaphor for society if you want.

    Eventually, the various Questors -- a robot, two gnomes, a dwarf, a halfling, an ovitaur* named Agape Fallopia, and a gryphon** who eats, speaks and hears more intensely than all the others -- come together to cross the country to find the goat King Gustave. (He literally is a former goat who magically transferred to being human, which he still kind of regrets, but is diligently learning human ways.) They also need to see the kanssa-jaarli, the gnome-halfling council meant to mediate disputes.

    All of the Questors have their issues. The gnomes are trying to break out of their gnome-shells. Agape steals salt shakers, and inserts extra A's into their speech. The gryphon is particular about language and colors. (Blü is different than blue. Respect the umlaut!) The halfling, Faucon, is a pessimistic legal scholar, who says at one point: 

To find a way to make oneself heard, and to make it matter, is rarely an easy thing, even when the courts are on one's side and one's toe hair is perfectly combed.

    The tale is, of course, fantastical, told with lots of humor, wordplay, and oddball characters -- vampires who double as dentists, and a witch who dislikes apples, for instance. The authors sometimes get carried away, but it's all in good fun.

    It lives up to the reasons I bought the book.

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*Body of a sheep, head of a human,

**Head and wings of an eagle, body of a lion.

Almanac of Story Tellers: Jennifer Egan

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of  September 6th

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    It is the 249th day of the year, leaving 116 days remaining in 2022.

 

   On this date in 1962, the writer Jennifer Egan was born.

    She tells her stories in unusual, inventive ways. She plays with time and format. She explores various themes, such as how identity and reality exist in a consumer-driven culture. She released an entire short story in a series of tweets on Twitter.

    She has won a Pulitzer Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a National Book Critics Circle Award. She was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and longlisted for the National Book Award.

    Her first novel, The Invisible Circus, and an earlier short-story collection, Emerald City, were inspired by her travels through Europe while a student at St John's College in Cambridge, England.

    In Look at Me, she wrote about a model whose face had to be reconstructed after an automobile accident. The Keep is about a writing workshop in a prison, and looks at how confinement affects people.

    Her award-winning novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad, defies a concise description. It is a tale told from various perspective, wandering about in time over several decades. One chapter is written as a power point presentation. In an interview with BOMB magazine, she said, "I don't experience time as linear. I experience it in layers that seem to co-exist."

    Her most recent book is The Candy House, a sort of sequel to Goon Squad, about how memories exist and are shared on social media.

    Egan lives in New York City.