From the 1941 John Day edition of Portrait of a Marriage by Pearl S. Buck. “Marriage is so profound an experience,” William Wrote to his grown daughter, “I should be sorry if you missed it. It takes place sometimes between two who are unsuited, but it is profound.”
Surely no two could have seemed less suited than he and Ruth — he a sensitive artist, son of a rich and proud family, widely traveled, cosmopolitan, and she the unlettered daughter daughter of a farmer. She could never come into his world, and he came into hers — giving up, for their deep love, his family and fame and almost all else he had known.
Yet at the end of nearly fifty years he could think, with gratitude to her, how rich his life had been, how little he had lost to gain happiness. Read More→
From the 1975 Dodd, Mead edition: Hercule Poirot, one of Agatha Christie’s most enduring characters, made his debut in The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920). More than a generation later, he meets his final challenge in Curtain, in which he confronts the most fiendishly clever murderer of his long career.
The little English Village of Styles St. Mary provides the setting for both adventures. In his first case, Poirot investigates the baffling death of the mistress of Styles Court, the great manor house. Her returns there for his last adventure, to find that in the years since the Great War, Styles Court has degenerated into a “guest house.” Read More→
From the 1957 John Day Company edition: Pearl S. Buck‘s Letter from Peking is a tender and suspenseful story of love in a world split apart, love struggling against the barriers of race, politics, distance, and misunderstanding. This time is modern, the setting Vermont, with flashbacks to China.
The protagonist, Elizabeth, as an American woman whose husband Gerald, half Chinese, has elected to stay in Peking under communism while she returns to live in America.
The counterpoint to their continuing love is the search of their quarter-Chinese son Rennie, who has just reached manhood, for a love that will yield happiness instead of the frustration his parents reaped. Read More→
Dear Literary Ladies,
It’s so hard to make a living at writing these days. There used to be so many more paying outlets for short stories, essays, and sketches; now everyone expects writers to contribute free content. How did you manage to earn a living while building your reputation? Do you think it’s necessary to be a “starving artist” until one’s ship comes in?
I always took little dull jobs that didn’t take my mind and wouldn’t take all of my time, and that, on the other hand, paid me just enough to subsist. I think I’ve only spent about ten percent of my energies on writing. The other ninety percent went to keeping my head above water. Read More→
Best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Yearling and her memoir, Cross Creek, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was as comfortable in the kitchen as she was at the typewriter — maybe more so, as cooking was a joy to her, whereas she belonged to the “writing is agony” school of thought.
Rawlings collected the recipes of her time and place in Cross Creek Cookery (1942).
For the most part, the recipes are simple and familiar, with a decidedly Southern accent. Still workable if not always healthful (lots of butter and sugar!), some of the dishes would now be considered a extreme and gross — Alligator-Tail Steak and Minorcan Gopher Stew among them. Read More→
In the preface to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797 – 1851), she tells the story of how she came to write her masterpiece. When it was published in 1818, Mary wasn’t yet twenty-one.
Mary’s liaison wth Percy Bysshe Shelley, the romantic poet, altered the course of her life. In the summer of 1814, at age seventeen, she eloped to Italy with Shelley, who left his distraught, pregnant wife behind.
She joined his literary circle, which included Lord Byron, and from there, the story unspools. Here, in Mary Shelley’s own words, is how it came to pass that a sheltered young woman from England came to write one of the most haunting tales of all time, with a character that continues to grip the imagination: Read More→
Dear Literary Ladies,
So many creative people are afraid to share their work with the world because they can’t risk failing. What words of wisdom can you offer to those of us who are willing to take that risk, and to bear inevitable failures with as much grace as possible?
In the working-day life of a professional writer success or failure is very likely to sum up much the same at the end. I don’t mean that failure is as pleasant as success. I’ve known both. Success stimulates the glands, revivifies the spirits, feeds the ego, fills the purse.
Failure is a depressing thing to face. The critics rip your play to ribbons, audiences refuse to come to it; reviewers say your book is dull, or trite, readers will not buy it. You read these things, you hear them, you face them as you would face any misfortune, with as good grace as you can summon. Read More→
The 1945 film version of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, adapted from the beloved, bestselling novel by Betty Smith, was widely acclaimed both by audiences and critics and won a number of awards.
However, contemporary readers who adore the book should note that the storyline in the book covers about six years in the lives of the Nolans, while the film’s actions take place within a much shorter span of time — compressed into not much more than a year.
As such, this is a film that is an interpretation of the book rather than a faithful adaptation. Despite the artistic license taken, this Elia Kazan-directed movie was nearly universally well received. Read More→
