Tuesday

Jun. 8, 1999

Night Journey

by Theodore Roethke

Broadcast Date: TUESDAY: June 8, 1999

Poems: "Night Journey," by Theodore Roethke, from The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke (Doubleday).

It's the birthday of mystery writer Sara Paretsky, born in Ames, Iowa (1947). She earned a Ph.D. in history (1977), but during the month preceding her oral exams she read 24 mysteries which, she said, should have given her a clue about what her real interests were. Her detective books Deadlock (1984), Blood Shot (1988), and Tunnel Vision (1994) all feature detective Victoria Iphigenia Warshawski, known as V.I. Warshawski, or "Vic,"—a Cubs fan who is good with a Smith & Wesson and adept at karate.

Today is the birthday of Andrew Weil, born in Philadelphia (1942), the author of Spontaneous Healing (1995) and other alternative health books.

Today is the birthday of actor Robert Preston, born in Newton Highlands, Massachusetts (1918), best known for playing Professor Harold Hill in Meredith Wilson's musical comedy The Music Man.

It's the birthday of biophysicist Francis Crick, born in Northampton, England (1916). With James Watson and Maurice Wilkins he made one of the most important discoveries of 20th-century biology, determining the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA.

Today is the birthday of "the father of science fiction," John W. Campbell, born in Newark, New Jersey (1910). His first published story, "When the Atoms Failed" (1930), contained one of the earliest versions of a computer to appear in fiction.

It's the birthday of American architect Frank Llloyd Wright, born in Richland Center, Wisconsin (1869).

It's the birthday of novelist Charles Reade, born in Ipsden, Oxfordshire, England (1814), whose best known historical romance was The Cloister and the Hearth (1861), and whose motto was "Make 'em laugh; make 'em cry; make 'em wait."

On this day in 1790, the first book to be submitted for an American copyright, The Philadelphia Spelling Book, was registered in Philadelphia.

Today is the birthday of engineer Robert Stevenson, born in Glasgow (1772), the grandfather of novelist Robert Louis Stevenson and a great man in his own right, renowned for the many lighthouses he designed.

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

 

«

»

  • “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
Current Faves - Learn more about poets featured frequently on the show