Happy Deathday, Mr. Melville!

On September 28th in 1891, American author, Herman Melville passed away at the age of 72.

Melville is, of course, best remembered for his novel Moby Dick, or The Whale. But what you may not be as familiar with is his first work, Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, or Four Months’ Residence in a Valley of the Marquesas (1846), in which he described his escape from the cannibals! Melville worked in merchant shipping until 1844, documenting his unique seafaring travels all the while.

Though none of his other works ever reached the popularity as Moby Dick, they are still worth a read through. Particularly if you are a fan of realism, adventure tales  and rich description. We can recommend Redburn, His Voyage (1849) and White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War (1850).

As for “The Whale”, it would be perfectly silly for us to express the significance of this book here. It is one of the ultimate classics of American Literature that has inspired popular fiction, music, fine art, poetry, theatre, advertising and film.

Today, we encourage you all to tell the biggest “whale tale” you can possibly imagine! And please remember this wonderfully expressive writer today and everyday!

Write on in peace, Mr. Melville!

Happy Deathday Mr. Ignatow!

On this day in 1997, American poet, David Ignatow died at the age of 83. Few poets have brought us face to face with death… Ignatow is one of them.

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.

Though he has a rather large selection of poetry to browse, we always find ourselves coming back to Rescue the Dead, published in 1968. Rescue the Dead 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.  A few other collections that are not to be missed 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 the America you know. Write about the death you know. Write the truest lines you’ll ever write.

Write on in peace, Mr. Ignatow!

Happy Deathday Mr. Melville!

On this day in 1891, Moby Dick writer Herman Melville died at the age of 72.

While Melville will always be legendary for his epic novel, Moby Dick, we feel it is important to point out some of his other work which is perhaps more obscure. If you’ve never read his early work, Omoo, A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas, is a great one! It was published before Moby Dick in 1847. Another intriguing bit of writing came after Moby Dick in 1866, when Melville published a volume of poetry called Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.

His writings are extensive and often draw from personal experiences, which make reading them all the more interesting. Melville was a contemporary of Washington Irivng, Edgar Allan Poe and was said to be an intimate friend of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

FUN FACT: In 2010 a group of Moby Dick fans who happened to be paleontologists announced that they would be naming a new species of extinct giant sperm whale, which they had discovered fossilized, Livyatan melvillei, in honor of the famous author. 

Today, we encourage you all to call us Ishmael and make an attempt at your very own “big fish tale”.

Write on in peace, Mr. Melville!

Happy Deathday Ms. Parker!

On June 7th in 1967, American poet and wit, Dorothy Parker died of a heart attack in New York City. She was 73 years old.

Known for her acerbic quips, Parker is probably one of the most quotable writers of all time after Oscar Wilde! Not only was Parker a well known personality in New York, but she was a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table and a frequently featured poet and critic for The New Yorker, Vogue and a number of other prestigious literary journals. 

Her poetry is sardonic and elegant…just like her. And we highly recommend her first book of poems published in 1926, Enough Rope, if you’ve not yet read it. It was a bestseller for Parker and remains our favorite collection of her early work. As for her short stories, Here Lies is an incredible collection with an almost Hemingway-esque sharpness about it that forces the reader to question their very own humanity!

We here at Dead Writers Club think the world of Ms. Dorothy Parker and hope our readers will pay homage to her memory today by being absolutely fabulous and apologizing to no one for it.

And if you are unfamiliar with Parker’s poetry, please check her out at your local library or click here for a quick fix!

Write on in peace Ms. Parker! Wherever you are, we’re sure you and Mr. Wilde are driving everyone crazy with your witty observations about the afterlife!

Happy Deathday Mr. Aldrich!

On March 19th, 1907, poet and novelist Thomas Bailey Aldrich passed away in Boston of unspecified causes. Though born in Porstmouth, New Hampshire, Aldrich moved around a bit in his youth, living in New Orleans, New York and finally Boston. While in New York, he became a regular contributor to the various newspapers and magazines of the time - even making friends with the poets, artists and wits of the metropolitan Bohemia of the early 1860s, among them E.C. Stedman, Richard Henry Stoddard and Walt Whitman! During the Civil War, he edited for the New York Illustrated News and once he moved to Boston, held the position of editor for Ticknor & Fields for ten years.

Aldrich is best known for his 1869 novel “Story of a Bad Boy”,  for which the main character, Tom Bailey, is said to have inspired Mark Twain’s mischievous Tom Sawyer! 

Among his other works, you may have heard of “Quite So”, “The Little Violinist”, “The Stillwater Tragedy” and “An Old Town by the Sea”, which is set in Portsmouth and is still used by many as a thorough guide to the old port. 

We have found his writing to be quite a delight and rather character driven. He paints just breathtaking landscapes with his words and its easy to get lost in the realism. 

Happy Deathday Thomas Bailey Aldrich! Write on in Peace! 

(And please be sure to check out this site, which we have found to be the most comprehensive guide to both his works and life. There are some great articles about him and his influence on American literature.)