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A Writer's Wit: Mark Twain

11/30/2022

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A man who is ostentatious of his modesty is twin to the statue that wears a figleaf.
​Mark Twain
Author of ​Life on the Mississippi
​Born November 30, 1835
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M. Twain
Coming Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Yusuf Hamied | World AIDS Day
FRI: My Book World | Sarah Moore Wagner's Swan Wife
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A Writer's Wit: Sue Miller

11/29/2022

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I always write my first draft in longhand, in lined notebooks. I move around the house, sitting where I like, and watch the words spool out in front of me, actually taking a lot of pleasure in the way they look in my strange handwriting on the page.
​Sue Miller
Author of ​The Lake Shore Limited
​Born November 29, 1943
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S. Miller
Coming Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Mark Twain

THURS: A Writer's Wit | Yusuf Hamied, World AIDS Day
FRI: My Book World | Susan Moore Wagner's Swan Wife
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Oh, Strout Wins with 'William'

11/18/2022

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A WRITER'S WIT
Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy—which many believe goes hand in hand with it—will be dead as well.
​Margaret Atwood
Author of ​The Handmaid's Tale
​Born November 18, 1939
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M. Atwood

My Book World

Strout, Elizabeth. Oh William! New York: Random, 2021.

“Oh William!” becomes, before this novel is over, rather a poetic refrain uttered by the female narrator, Lucy Barton—a longtime figure in Strout’s fiction. Lucy and William marry when they are very young, then divorce after a number of years. They both remarry, and yet both remain in the lives of the children they’ve brought into the world as well. Strout travels back and forth through time so seamlessly that one is never lost in or by the narrative. It turns out that Lucy, like her creator, is also a successful writer, but Lucy carries a lot of baggage with her. So does William. Poor parenting they received in developmental years. Poverty of various kinds. And it is a good thing that they remain friends because after Lucy’s second husband dies and after William is left alone, they turn to each other to help the other through life’s difficulties as they age into their seventies. A very affecting book by one of my favorite authors.

​Coming Next:
TUES 11/29: A Writer's Wit | Sue Miller
WEDS 11/30: A Writer's Wit | Mark Twain

THURS 12/01: A Writer's Wit | World AIDS Day Observance
FRI 12/02: My Book World | Sarah M. Wagner's Swan Wife 
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A Writer's Wit: Lee Strasberg

11/17/2022

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If we cannot see the possibility of greatness, how can we dream it?
​Lee Strasberg
Author of ​A Dream of Passion
​Born November 17, 1901
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L. Strasberg
Coming Next:
FRI: My Book World | Elizabeth Strout's Oh William!
TUES 11/29: A Writer's Wit | Sue Miller
WEDS 11/30: A Writer's Wit | Mark Twain

THURS: 12/01: A Writer's Wit | World AIDS Day Quote
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A Writer's Wit: George S. Kaufman

11/16/2022

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At dramatic rehearsals, the only author that's better than an absent one is a dead one. 
​George S. Kaufman
Playwright: You Can't Take It with You
Born November 16, 1889
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G. S. Kaufman
Coming Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lee Strasberg
FRI: My Book World | Elizabeth Strout's ​Oh William!
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A Writer's Wit: Georgia O'Keeffe

11/15/2022

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Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest.
Georgia ​O’Keeffe 
Visual Artist: Oriental Poppies
Born November 15, 1887
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G. O'Keeffe
Coming Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | George S. Kaufman

THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lee Strasberg
FRI: My Book World | Elizabeth Strout, Oh William!
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Pat Conroy: No Exaggeration Needed

11/11/2022

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A WRITER'S WIT
The only way to know what is possible is to venture past impossible.
​Mary Gaitskill
Author of ​This Is Pleasure
​Born November 11, 1954
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M. Gaitskill

My Book World

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Clark, Katherine. My Exaggerated Life: Pat Conroy. As Told to Katherine Clark. Columbia: U of South Carolina P, 2018.

I don’t usually care for “as told to” books, but this one is too intriguing to pass up. Clark spends a number of years communicating with author Pat Conroy either by direct interviews or by way of written communications. He declares early on that his spoken language is much different from the prose he uses in his fiction. And his fiction (for those who don’t know Conroy)? The Great Santini. The Lords of Discipline. Beach Music, to name only a few. 
 
Each book that Conroy writes is his way of transforming the mess that is his autobiographical material. The Great Santini is essentially about his bully of an abusive father who cows Conroy’s mother and all his siblings. The Lords of Discipline is about his four years as a miserable cadet at the Citadel, in South Carolina. But his writing is also about his three marriages. His parents. His children. He writes, by the way, The Water Is Wide, the novel about a young man who teaches on an island with an all-Black classroom of children—made into a successful movie, Conrack, starring Jon Voight. In fact, Conroy makes a great deal of his income from selling the film rights to his works and getting a successful result—a rarity among novelists. 
 
I am much more encouraged to read Conroy’s oeuvre, in part, because I can now sense how difficult it is for him to arrive at each finished product. He is one of those persons who must fight for every minute of happiness, every inch of success, and Clark’s book relates his story plainly and with great sensitivity.

​Coming Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Georgia O'Keeffe
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | George S. Kaufman

THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lee Strasberg
FRI: My Book World | Elizabeth Strout's Oh, William!

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A Writer's Wit: John P. Marquand

11/10/2022

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When I'm writing a novel, I'm dealing with a double life. I live in the present at the same time that I live in the past with my characters. It is this that makes a novelist so eccentric and unpleasant.
John P. Marquand
Author of ​Point of No Return
​Born November 10, 1893
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J. P. Marquand
Coming Next:
FRI: My Book World | My Exaggerated Life: Pat Conroy
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Georgia O'Keeffe
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | George S. Kaufman

THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lee Strasberg
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A Writer's Wit: Carroll Quigley

11/9/2022

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The history of the last century shows, as we shall see later, that the advice given to governments by bankers, like the advice they gave to industrialists, was consistently good for bankers, but was often disastrous for governments, businessmen, and the people generally.
​Carroll Quigley
Author of ​A Tragedy of Hope
​Born November 9, 1910
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C. Quigley
Coming Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit |John P. Marquand
FRI: My Book World | My Exaggerated Life: Pat Conroy
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A Writer's Wit: Marianne Wiggins

11/8/2022

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Because music is a language unto itself, when I'm writing, I need silence. I need to hear the music and the rhythms of the words inside my thoughts.
​Marianne Wiggins
Author of ​Properties of Thirst
​Born November 8, 1947
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M. Wiggins
Coming Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Carroll Quigley

THURS: A Writer's Wit | John P. Marquand
FRI: My Book World | My Exaggerated Life: Pat Conroy
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Lone Star Short Stories: Two Books

11/4/2022

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A WRITER'S WIT
I'm not an artist. I tell inappropriate stories and jokes and I try to make people laugh.
​Kathy Griffin
For Your Consideration (CD)
​Born November 4, 1960
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K. Griffin

My Book World

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Byrd, Bobby, and Johnny Byrd, editors. Lone Star Noir. New York: Akashic, 2010.

These fourteen stories, though set in the singular locale of Texas, are about the same things that noir is about in the other forty-nine states: avarice, greed, murder. Thus, making the collection rather universal. Divided into three parts—rural Texas, urban Texas, and Gulf-Coast Texas—each story brings to life those three qualities. Noir allows readers to experience this thrilling but illicit word vicariously so that we never ever have to commit such crimes ourselves. Title is part of the Akashic Noir Series.

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Peery, William, Editor. 21 Texas Short Stories. Austin: U of Texas P, 1954.

These twenty-one stories written by Texans (either by birth or by successful transplantation) were published between the early 1940s and the mid-1950s. But many of them chronicle earlier times, calling to mind rural-agrarian, nineteenth century Texas, calling to mind Texas’s involvement in the Civil War and slavery. Editor Peery features some famous names: O. Henry, Katherine Anne Porter, J. Frank Dobie, and Fred Gipson. But he also includes many fine writers who do not possess that kind of fame. Margaret Cousins, for example, may write the best, non-sentimental Christmas story I’ve ever read. “Uncle Edgar and the Reluctant Saint” tells the tale of a little girl who almost doesn’t get to celebrate Christmas with her family due to her train getting stuck in a freakish Texas snow storm. Her curmudgeon of an uncle happens to be on the train, a man who detests marriage, Christmas, and almost everything else that is part of civilization. He manages to come through for her and everyone else on the train without changing his character too much. All the stories reveal diction and dialog that are no longer used (probably), sort of Huck Finn meets the Texas State Fair. Worth the time, especially if you are interested in Texas folklore.

​Coming Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Marianne Wiggins
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Carroll Quigley

THURS: A Writer's Wit | John P. Marquand
FRI: My Book World | Elizabeth Clark's Biography: My Exaggerated Life: Pat Conroy

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A Writer's Wit: Walker Evans

11/3/2022

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Color tends to corrupt photography and absolute color corrupts it absolutely. Consider the way color film usually renders blue sky, green foliage, lipstick red, and the kiddies' playsuit. These are four simple words which must be whispered: color photography is vulgar.
​Walker Evans
Author of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
​Born November 3, 1903
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W. Evans
Coming Next:
FRI: My Book World | Lone Star Short Stories: Two Books
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Marianne Wiggins
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Carroll Quigley

THURS: A Writer's Wit | John P. Marquand
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A Writer's Wit: Thomas Mallon

11/2/2022

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Of all Americans who have appeared on the nation's postage stamps, Ayn Rand is probably the only one to have thought that the United States government has no business delivering mail. 
​Thomas Mallon
Author of Fellow Travelers 
​Born November 2, 1951
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T. Mallon
Coming Next:
THURS: A Writer's Wit |Walker Evans
FRI: My Book World | Lone Star Short Stories: Two Books
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A Writer's Wit: Jessica Valenti

11/1/2022

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I think motherhood has made issues all feel much more urgent than they did before. So it didn't necessarily change how I feel about certain things—it just fired me up to be even more active on behalf of my daughter.
​Jessica Valenti
Author of ​The Purity Myth
​Born November 1, 1978
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J. Valenti
Coming Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Thomas Mallon

THURS: A Writer's Wit | Walker Evans
FRI: My Book World | Lone Star Short Stories: Two Books
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    AUTHOR
    Richard Jespers is a writer living in Lubbock, Texas, USA.

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