Thursday

Sep. 12, 1996

Sonnet 22: When our two souls stand up erect and strong

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

THURSDAY 9/12

Today's Reading: "When our two souls stand up erect and strong" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861).

The Newport International Boat Show begins today in Newport, Rhode Island.

The Northern Appalachian Storytelling Festival starts today at Mansfield University, Mansfield, Pennsylvania.

It's the birthday of poet and novelist Michael Ondaatje, born in Colombo, Ceylon, 1943.

Epidemiologist Alexander Langmuir, founder of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was born in Santa Monica, California, in 1910.

British poet and playwright Louis Macneice was born on this day in Belfast, Ireland, 1907.

American publisher Alfred A. Knopf was born today in New York City in 1892.

Writer H. L. Mencken (PREJUDICES) was born on this day in Baltimore in 1880.

It's the wedding anniversary today in 1846 of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, who were secretly married in a ceremony at London's St. Marylebone Church.

It's the birthday of newspaperman Charles Dudley Warner, born in Plainfield, Massachusetts, 1829. He's remembered for writing, "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."

It's the birthday of the inventor of the first rotary printing press, Richard Marchhoe, born on this day in New York City, in 1812.

Today in 1609 Henry Hudson sailed his Half Moon into New York Harbor and headed up to Albany, discovering the river that was later named for him.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®

 

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  • “Writers end up writing stories—or rather, stories' shadows—and they're grateful if they can, but it is not enough. Nothing the writer can do is ever enough” —Joy Williams
  • “I want to live other lives. I've never quite believed that one chance is all I get. Writing is my way of making other chances.” —Anne Tyler
  • “Writing is a performance, like singing an aria or dancing a jig” —Stephen Greenblatt
  • “All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • “Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up.” —John Edgar Wideman
  • “In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.” —Denise Levertov
  • “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Let's face it, writing is hell.” —William Styron
  • “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” —Thomas Mann
  • “Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials.” —Paul Rudnick
  • “Writing is a failure. Writing is not only useless, it's spoiled paper.” —Padget Powell
  • “Writing is very hard work and knowing what you're doing the whole time.” —Shelby Foote
  • “I think all writing is a disease. You can't stop it.” —William Carlos Williams
  • “Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck.” —Iris Murdoch
  • “The less conscious one is of being ‘a writer,’ the better the writing.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is…that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is my dharma.” —Raja Rao
  • “Writing is a combination of intangible creative fantasy and appallingly hard work.” —Anthony Powell
  • “I think writing is, by definition, an optimistic act.” —Michael Cunningham
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