Time Magazine and the writers who actually made the cover, 1930s edition

As should be obvious, Time Magazine is a news source, most famous these days for naming their Person of The Year every late December and...not much else. Ask your grandfather what it was like to read Time back in the 1950s. It was something then.

To be on the cover was almost considered an honor years ago when the magazine started in 1923, only for the most noteworthy, notable, and noted individuals in the world. Politicians, religious figures, scientists, dictators, athletes, business leaders, and celebrities the world over all made the weekly cover. And, occasionally, so did writers. It's true! Writers were once famous and important.

Previously, we noted the famous authors, playwrights, and journalists--writers in general--who made the cover of Time in the 1920s and made writing seem important, briefly, during that decade.

So, now, we continue with the 1930s:


1.)  We now know the trivia answer to "What was Willa Cather's middle name?" Apparently it's Sibert, which I didn't see coming. If that's asked at your local bar trivia night, they're going deeeeeeep.

Willa Cather, August 3, 1931

2.)  Making his THIRD cover appearance in under a decade, Eugene O'Neill gets the sketched/drawn treatment, which keeps his typical boyish charm and broad smile apparent  vacant death stare that suggests you better not take a nap around him.

I'm not certain what blackmail material O'Neill had on the editors at Time to warrant THREE covers, but he wasn't done in years to come.

Eugene O'Neill, November 2, 1931

3.)  You know it was the 1930s because men wore pocket squares as big as their head and they could casually smoke a cigarette on the cover, as Noel Coward does here.

Sitting on an end table is timeless, though.

Noel Coward, January 30, 1933

4.)  It's quite possible everyone in the 1930s was simply miserable, as Gertrude Stein sees Eugene O'Neill's general unhappiness and raises him a mild depression.

Bonus points for the sweater vest, though. Stein looks like she's a costar to any Johnny Depp or Winona Ryder movie, circa 1992. She was ahead of her time. (See what I did there?? Ehh??)

Gertrude Stein, September 11, 1933

5.)  While not an author, Alice saw a resurgence in popularity some seventy years after it was first published by Lewis Carroll.

Seeing as it isn't an author, this is as enthusiastic as anyone related to writing gets on the cover of Time in the 1930s.

Alice in Wonderland, December 25, 1933

6.)  Next upon the cavalcade of joy general disdain for humanity is James Joyce, who in the coming years will not only take over Eugene O'Neill's penchant for dourness, but become the dominant face of writers appearing on Time.

Apparently the editors at Time wanted to make sure Americans immersed themselves in lengthy, bleak, gloomy works the whole family could enjoy!

James Joyce, January 29, 1934

7.)  Put up yer' dukes, because Upton Sinclair is ready for some action!

Upton Sinclair, October 22, 1934

8.)  I've always wondered why photos would show posed subjects staring off to the side. Did Virginia Woolf get distracted? Did she just think up another 2,500 word sentence or five page paragraph to write? What's going on here?

Virginia Woolf, April 12, 1937

9.)  I can't tell you why Ernest Hemingway's first appearance on the cover looks like it was a 10th grade art project, or why his face is skinny but his torso looks like he's pushing three bills.

Ernest Hemingway, October 18, 1937

10.)  William Faulkner really wants you to count how many variations on beige you can make out on his cover.

William Faulkner, January 23, 1939

11.)  Admittedly, at first I thought James Joyce's second cover appearance was him asleep while reading, which would have been very laid back of him.

James Joyce, May 8, 1939

12.)  You're probably saying, "Who now?" But regarded by some as "The First Lady of Journalism," Dorothy Thompson was so popular a writer that the Nazis kicked her out of Germany before America became involved, and Katharine Hepburn based one of her most famous movie roles on her.

Anytime you're irking Adolf Hitler is a sign your writing has power. It's a good thing.

Dorothy Thompson, June 12, 1939

13.)  Unless you're a theater snob, you just asked, "Who now?" a second time.

George S. Kaufman was all the rage in theater for a time. In the 1930s he won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for a drama and another for a musical he wrote. Years later, he'd win a Tony Award as director for Guys and Dolls.

This is all to say I just prepped you for that obscure Jeopardy! category someday.

George S. Kaufman, November 20, 1939

14.)  That's a borderline smile I see from Carl Sandburg! I think the lips are slightly curled upward! We're ending the decade with the slightest hint of happiness!!

Carl Sandburg, December 4, 1939

Famous Writers with Dogs: Gertrude Stein

Writers need inspiration somewhere in life, and for many that inspiration comes from their pet dogs.

This is a running series where we post pictures of famous writers with their canine companions--the cute, the cuddly, the creepy. And that's just the writers.


Today: Gertrude Stein

Everything looks uncomfortable here. The dog, that living room chair, Gertrude herself. Hell, even Gertrude's shoes and socks look like something Tiny Tim would take a pass on.

I want to say that's some sort of poodle in Stein's lap, but there's a 72% shot that's one of those IKEA sheepskin carpets thrown over a golden Labrador.

Where Dead Writers Reside, Part Five: Rudyard Kipling, Gertrude Stein, Ayn Rand, T.S. Eliot

It's October, and that requires obligatory Halloween-inspired posts. And nothing is more obligatorily macabre than looking at the tombstones of those who have died.

Now through Halloween we'll occasionally post collections of tombstones to see where famous writers are hanging out today.


Today:  Rudyard Kipling, Gertrude Stein, Ayn Rand, T.S.Eliot


Rudyard Kipling

The winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907, Kipling would spend the next two decades still writing with some regularity. By the 1930s and in his mid-60s, Kipling's output slowed. You know how they say "60 is the new 40!"? Yeah, not in Kipling's case. 60 was still 60 then.

On January 12, 1936, Kipling suffered a hemorrhage in his small intestine. He underwent surgery, but died six days later on January 18th of a perforated duodenal ulcer. Whatever that is, perforated-anything is never good, and isn't the most pleasant of endings. Kipling was 70-years old.

His funeral included his body lying in a marble casket adorned with a Union Jack, after which his body was cremated and his ashes buried in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey.

Tombstone Notes:
Kipling's remains at Westminster Abbey are surrounded by a who's-who of British literary history, including Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy. It's tough when, in death, you're probably the third most famous person in the immediate neighborhood.

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Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein lived a wealthy life as the child of Daniel Stein, a businessman who owned real estate and street car lines in San Francisco. After her mother and father died while she was a teenager, Stein and her two brothers largely lived off a trust supplied by their parents--using that money, in part, to purchase vast sums of artwork from the likes of Picasso, Matisse, Renoir, and Cézanne. In time, that trust was also used to pick up their lives and move to Europe. A scrappy, ramshackle bunch, those Stein kids.

In was in France she met her life partner, Alice B. Toklas, and it was in France where Stein would die. Such is the yin and yang of life. By 1946, Stein developed stomach cancer--and when wheeled into an operating room for surgery famously asked Toklas, "What is the answer?" Toklas, apparently not a fan of opaque riddles, didn't speak. Stein followed-up, asking, "In that case, what is the question?"

If this all sounds like Stein was impersonating her inner Alex Trebek, you're right. The answer--and question--is how old was Gertrude Stein when she died shortly after this surgery? She was 72, having died in the French town of Neuilly-sur-Seine.

Tombstone Notes:
Stein's headstone references Alice B. Toklas on the back, continuing in perpetuity the years Toklas always spent in Stein's shadow.

Stein's remains are buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, where the likes of Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, Georges Bizet, Molière, Frederic Chopin, Richard Wright, and Jim Morrison are buried. And, yes, that's the only time Jim Morrison and Gertrude Stein are ever mentioned together in the same breath.

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Ayn Rand

The creator of the Objectivist philosophical movement, Rand loved smoking cigarettes fiendishly. One can only assume the chain smoking came out of stress, because she was usually busy offending large swaths of citizenry--from calling homosexuals "immoral," Vietnam War draft dodgers "bums," citizens of Arab nations "savages," and claiming that western European nations had every right to take land of Native Americans. A lover of humanity, that Ayn Rand!

That love of nicotine led to a battle with lung cancer in 1974, for which she underwent surgery. While slowly pulling away--and eventually retiring--from writing, Rand held on for another eight years. She eventually died of heart failure (also not helped by smoking) in 1982 at the age of 77 while living in her home in New York City, proving once and for all that even Death is objective, too.

Tombstone Notes:
Rand is interred at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, NY, where the likes of Danny Kaye, Lou Gehrig, Rachmaninoff, and a who's who of B-grade celebrities from the 20th-century are buried.

Fun Fact: At Rand's funeral, a 6-foot floral arrangement in the shape of a dollar bill was placed near her casket. I've always said that nothing keeps a funeral classy quite like subtly obnoxious floral displays that channel your inner backwoods hillbilly just yearning to breathe free.

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T.S. Eliot

Continuing on the chain smoking parade...

Eliot was in declining health in the final decade of his life, but that didn't stop him from getting married (for a second time) at the age of 68 to his 30-year old secretary. Nothing turns on young women quite like nebbish academics with wheezing lungs.

And wheezing lungs Eliot indeed had, from habitual bronchitis to tachycardia caused by his heavy smoking. That addiction led to emphysema, which eventually took his life. Eliot's remains were cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, where the likes of Bram Stoker, Sigmund Freud, H.G. Wells, Amy Winehouse, and Keith Moon were also cremated.

Best collection of potential dinner guests ever? Best collection ever of potential dinner guests ever.

Tombstone Notes:
Eliot's ashes were taken to St. Michael's Church, in East Coker within the village of Somerset, where a plaque commemorates and quotes his poem "East Coker."

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" just didn't fit apparently.

The Friday Poem: Negligible Old Star, by Gertrude Stein

As another week concludes, we end with a random poem. Famous poets, obscure poets, amateur poets, whatever poets--just a poem to cap off the week.

Like this one:


Negligible Old Star,  by Gertrude Stein

NEGLIGIBLE old star.
Pour even.
It was a sad per cent.
Does on sun day.
Watch or water.
So soon a moon or a old heavy press.