Happy Deathday, Mr. Crane!

On this day in 1900, American writer, Stephen Crane died of Tuberculosis in Germany. He was only 28 years old.

Educated at Lafayette College and Syracuse University, Crane did not graduate, but opted to work as a journalist for the New York Tribune, as well as the Herald. (If only all of us writers had that opportunity just fall in our laps with no degree, these days…) Crane’s first published work was a story, Maggie, a Girl of the Streets, and was published in 1891.  However Crane’s greater success came in 1896, when he wrote  The Red Badge of Courage. Chances are, if you have made it through grade school, you have read this book. It has been used across the Nation, for decades, to teach youngsters about the American Civil War.But make no mistake, we’re not trying to say that the work is childish. The descriptions are as rich as the realism and we cannot stress enough that if you haven’t read this book yet, you are in for a linguistic treat!

Mr. Crane also authored a wonderful book of poems in 1895 entitled, The Black Riders, and a plethora of other stories. What you may not know about Crane is that he acted as a war correspondent in the Greco-Turkish War (1897) and the Spanish American War (1898).

Today… we challenge you to dwell in the world of harsh realism and follow the story of a character that is thrown right into the middle of it. Will your character earn their very own read badge of courage?

Write on in peace, Mr. Crane!

Happy Deathday Mr. Wieners!

We received a touching message from one of our readers that we had missed a deathday yesterday. And so, we would like to offer this belated deathday post to American poet John Wieners, who died on March 1st in 2002.Many special thanks to http://thesetelevisionblues.tumblr.com/, for bringing this to our attention.

Wieners was a student of the Black Mountain College and studied under fellow poets, Robert Duncan, Robert Creely and Charles Olson. He also worked in the Poet’s Theater in Cambridge, Ma. and lived in San Francisco for a stint, during which time his first book of poems, The Hotel Wentley Poems (1958), was published. In 1960, Wieners was committed to a psychiatric hospital. Though mental illness was something Wieners would struggle with all his life, it has also been said that his illness was thought by many to be “a very special reality”, by which the commonplace gave way to poetry. In fact, it was Robert Creely who once said of Wieners’ work, “His poems had nothing else in mind but their own fact.” Well put, Mr. Creely.

As a beat poet and member of the San Francisco Renaissance, Mr. Wieners was also an antiwar and gay rights activist and founder/editor of the literary magazine Measure (1957–1962). Wieners’ various honors include awards from the Poets Foundation, the New Hope Foundations, and the National Institute of Arts and Letters, as well as a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

While we have unfortunately not read much of his work, we have listened to it. And would like to share one of our favorite recordings with you here. We are looking forward to rushing down to the library and scooping up Ace of Pentacles, published in 1964, as it has been highly recommended to us. We hope you’ll do the same.

If you would like to read up on this fascinating poet, we recommend this work by Andrea Brady, “Making Use of the Pain: The John Wieners Archive”.

Write on in peace, Mr. Wieners.

Happy Deathday Mr. Ignatow!

On this day in 1997, American poet, David Ignatow died at the age of 83.

During his literary career, Ignatow worked as an editor of American Poetry Review, Analytic, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Chelsea Magazine, and as poetry editor of The Nation. His many honors include a Bollingen Prize in Poetry, two Guggenheim fellowships, the John Steinbeck Award, and a National Institute of Arts and Letters award “for a lifetime of creative effort.” He received the Shelley Memorial Award (1966), the Frost Medal (1992), and the William Carlos Williams Award (1997) of the Poetry Society of America.

Rescue the Dead, published in 1968, is one of those books every writer should have in their arsenal. It is emotionally exhausting to read but never fails to inspire.The poems in this collection are both horrifying and hopeful. Ignatow brings us face to face with death; the permanence of it, the simplicity of it… even the beauty in it. It is a masterpiece, not to be missed!

A few other collections that may interest you are, Tread the Dark, Leaving the Door Open and Living Is What I Wanted: Last Poems. Ignatow’s writing is infused with urban grit and wry humor and we just adore him for that! Whether he is writing about urban America, family relations, suicide, death or social change, he is always insightful.

Tonight, write about a death. A friend, a family member, someone you’ve never met… your own. Write the truest lines you’ll ever write.

Write on in peace, Mr. Ignatow!

Happy Deathday Mr. Vonnegut

In April of 2007, American novelist Kurt Vonnegut, took a fall in his Manhattan home and died on April 11th from serious brain injuries endured during the fall. He lived to be 84 years old.     

Kurt Vonnegut created some of the most outrageously memorable novels of our time, such as Cat’s Cradle, Breakfast Of Champions, and Slaughterhouse Five. His work is a mesh of contradictions: both science fiction and literary, dark and funny, classic and counter-culture, warm-blooded and very cool. And it’s all completely unique.

If you’ve not read any of his work, we recommend you start with his very first short story “Report on the Barnhouse Effect”. And if you’re interested in a great article about Mr. Vonnegut check out “Kurt Vonnegut’s Final Interview(s)” on observer.com

SO IT GOES…. dear readers.

Write on in peace, Mr. Vonnegut!

Happy Deathday Mr. Salinger!

On this day just last year, 2010, American author J.D. Salinger (Jerome David) died of natural causes in Cornish, New Hampshire. He was 91 years old.

Though you will have undoubtedly heard that Salinger wrote up until the very end of his long life… what you may not be aware of is the fact that The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger’s first and only published novel, took him ten years to write! If that is not encouraging to our aspiring and starving working writers out there, we do not know what is! In fact, Salinger once told the folks at The New York Times:

“There is a marvelous peace in not publishing. It’s peaceful. Still. Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.”

The controversial 1951 novel, The Catcher in the Rye has never gone out of print and if possible, has become more and more popular with America’s youth as time rolls on. This single novel has been translated into nearly every major language and has inspired every artist from Guns N’ Roses to Sylvia Plath! If you have never read it, go pick it up today at your local bookstore or library and spend a weekend of teenage rebellion with Holden Caulfield.

Oddly enough, our favorite work by Salinger is a collection of short stories/novella published in 1961 called Franny and Zooey, though the short story and novella first appeared in The New Yorker in 1955 and 1957, respectively. If you’ve not read this work, and you are a fan of Salinger’s writing, we encourage you to pick this one up as well and spend what’s left of your weekend with Holden, with the Glass Family. Trust us, you will not be disappointed!

Try, for once, not worrying about the clock ticking in your head, the rows upon rows of cheap chicklit at Barnes and Noble, the constant nagging of college professors, significant others and parents wondering why your novel is not done yet…take a page from the book of J.D. Salinger and write for yourself today. And remember this mantra… quality versus quantity.

Write on in peace, Mr. Salinger!

Happy Deathday Mr. Faulkner!

On July 6th in 1962, one of our very favorite writers, William Faulkner, died of a heart attack at the age of 64 in Mississippi.

Faulkner is commonly referred to as a “Southern Gothic” writer, and was one of the founders of Modernist American Literature and stream of consciousness writing. Though he is most often remembered as a novelist, Faulkner also wrote poetry and screenplays.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949 and he is widely considered one of the most influential Southern writers, alongside Mark Twain, Flannery O’Connor and Tennessee Williams, to name a few.

Our favorite Faulkner pieces include The Sound and the Fury, The Unvanquished and the controversial short story “A Rose for Emily”. It is interesting to note that Faulkner was responsible for the screen adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s “The Big Sleep”, which happens to be a favorite film here at Dead Writers. He also wrote the screenplay for “To Have and Have Not”, by his contemporary Ernest Hemingway.

Like Twain, Faulkner used diction and accents as a very effective character device in his works. Flannery O’Connor (the veritable queen of southern gothic literature) once said of Faulkner:

“The presence alone of Faulkner in our midst makes a great difference in what the writer can and cannot permit himself to do. Nobody wants his mule and wagon stalled on the same track the Dixie Limited is roaring down.”

The above quote certainly sums up our feeling on the man. Brilliant.

Today, we encourage our readers to pour themselves a nice glass of sweet tea and get lost in the grotesque narrative of one of Faulkner’s short stories!

Write on in peace, Mr. Faulkner!

The Merry Month of June!

Though her deathday is not officially until June 14th, we’d like to name this month June Jordan month!

If you are unfamiliar with this wonderfully vibrant and “envelope pushing” American poet, please check out her biography at Poetry Foundations. Jordan received numerous honors and awards, including a 1969-1970 Rockefeller grant for creative writing, a Yaddo Fellowship in 1979, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1982, and the Achievement Award for International Reporting from the National Association for Black Journalists in 1984. 

Though Jordan’s body of work is extensive, our favorite collections of work come from Things That I Do in the Dark and Living Room. If you like politically motivated poetry with rich literary allusions, we encourage our readers to head over to their local library and stock up on some June Jordan for the month!

Happy Deathday Mr. Silverstein!

On this day in 1999, beloved children’s poet and author Shel Silverstein died from a heart attack. He is best remembered for his classic book “The Giving Tree” and several volumes of wonderfully silly and innocently insightful poems.

Silverstein, who was born in Chicago, excelled in his youth at music and illustration, which later led him to study at the Art Institute of Chicago as well as at the Chicago College of Performing Arts. As a young man, his cartoons appeared in Sports Illustrated and even Playboy.

Because of his “quirky” style, he was encouraged to write children’s books and we’re so glad he took the editors at HarperCollins seriously, for we are all the better for it!

Some of our favorite Silverstein works include, A Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends, The Missing Piece, Falling Up and Runny Babbit, which was published posthumously in 2005.

Today we encourage our readers to honor Mr. Silverstein’s memory by reading a handful of these poems aloud to a friend or family member! (Trust us- these poems MUST be read aloud to truly appreciate)

Write on in peace, Mr. Silverstein!

A Haunting Piece from Ms. Teasdale…

The wind is tossing the lilacs,
The new leaves laugh in the sun,
And the petals fall on the orchard wall,
But for me the spring is done.

Beneath the apple blossoms
I go a wintry way,
For love that smiled in April
Is false to me in May.

-“May” , written by Sara Teasdale from “Helen of Troy and other Poems” published in 1911