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

Masochists and people with writer's block, rejoice! There's an app for that.

The Most Dangerous Writing App isn't shy about patting itself on the back with self-naming itself, and it's not shy about ruining an artistic moment of inspiration that requires a person to pause and ruminate on the possibilities of phrasing.

But that's not the point.

The Most Dangerous Writing App is an open source app that uses a fogged screen and a countdown clock, all in hopes of forcing one to write. If you pause for more than five seconds, everything you wrote is lost, deleted, gone. The fogged screen serves as a focus to simply write as well, forgiving typos and grammar in favor of decidedly placing words on screen--even hot messes in a hazy condition.

You're allowed to endlessly backspace, if you even have an idea where you are on the screen (it's fogged, remember?), but at some point you don't focus on the snafus. You channel your inner James Joyce and Virginia Woolf and slap wildly at the keys in hopes that some nugget, some string of words, a phrase, a sentence sounds like poetry, the beginning of a novel, the ending of an opus, the breaking of your heart.





photo: Wired.com

Should they sit at the kids' table or with the adults? Seventeen famous writers as children judged.

Did you grow up eating at the kids' table during Thanksgiving? You know, when your family chose to banish you into a corner with an assortment of cousins that you rarely saw and hardly liked? The cousin who's a few oats short of a Cheerio? The other cousin who lacks personal grooming habits and doesn't know the tender touch of a facecloth? Yeah--that happened to a lot of us.

We were all kids at some point though. Some of us were debonair, and some of us were a hot mess. And so were famous writers.

Here are seventeen famous writers when they were children or teenagers--and whether they should luck out and eat with the adults or be at the kids' table for Thanksgiving:

1.) Robert Frost

Even as a baby, Frost couldn't manage a smile. And it all went downhill from here.

Kids' table!

2.) Vladimir Nabokov

The snappy tie, the tube socks channeling his wannabe inner Flashdance waiting to break free, all while rocking penny loafers.

Adults' table!

3.) Virginia Woolf

She even judges while playing cricket. You don't need her judging your homemade stuffing, too.

Kids' table!

4.) Langston Hughes

Somewhere under that giant mound of baby clothes is Hughes. Is he a wizard? He might be a wizard.

Adults' table!

5.) Roald Dahl

There's a 50% chance he just walked off the set of Downton Abbey.

Adults' table!

6.) Jorge Luis Borges

It's as if baby Spock just came back from a cruise ship adventure.

Adults' table!

7.) F. Scott Fitzgerald

A whip for the toy horse?

And we all know he's going to drink all the booze anyway...

Kids' table!

8.) Franz Kafka

Is that a goat? Ram? Sheep?

Whatever it is, it has a hat. No one can deny a hat-wearing sheep is a winning look.

Adults' table!

9.) Carl Jung

That's the face of judgment. No one needs that while eating the sweet potatoes.

Kids' table!

10.) J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien and his younger brother are channeling the pilgrim look. But they're missing the stylish hats with the belt buckles.

Kids' table!

11.) Aldous Huxley

The shoes say, "I came here on the Mayflower."

The sour face says, "I need a nap."

Kids' table!

12. Arthur Rimbaud

You just kind of get the vibe that after he passes you the bowl of peas, he'll politely read you a poem.

Adults' table!

13.) Alice Munro

You try wearing a bonnet and look so cute. You can't, can you?

Adults' table!

14.) Flannery O'Connor

She might be good with small talk, but the entire time she'll be plotting a short story where she makes you a creep.

Kids' table!

15.) Noam Chomsky

Don't let the coy smile fool you. That starched white collar channels a Miles Standish quality.

Kids' table!

16.) Victor Hugo

Little Lord Fauntleroy, is that you?

Adults' table!

17.) Stephen King

You usually only see 85-year old men wearing pants that high.

Adults' table!

Famous Writers with Dogs: Virginia Woolf

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: Virginia Woolf

Oh, no! Fido read some of Woolf's work and had the same reaction as many readers.

That blank slate look on Woolf's face means she later wrote a 200 page stream-of-consciousness story that involved many curious allusions to dogs, fine linen, and gigantic flower pots.

The first known printed use of an ellipsis has been discovered.

Three little dots. Three little points of punctuation that trail off or trail in, leaving conversation in limbo or joining the chat midway.

But when did it first appear in print?

While personal handwritten letters are known to show an ellipsis by 1580 and 1585, Dr. Anne Toner of Cambridge University believes she has found the first-ever printed use of an ellipsis. It appears in the form of repetitive hyphens (instead of dots) in the Roman dramatist Terence’s play, Andria, which was translated into English for a British audience by famed translator Maurice Kyffin in 1588.

Toner's new book, Ellipsis in English Literature: Signs of Omission, dives into the history of punctuation that allows writers to create dramatic tension through grammatical vagueness.

As Toner writes, "It’s interesting to think about whose idea it was to use what turned out to be a very useful resource...was it the translator of the Terence play, or the printer? Who the agent was behind the mark is very unclear."

Apparently it's not Terence, who isn't known for much in literary history, and now he can't even claim the ellipsis. Poor guy just can't win.

17 Bands and Musical Acts Named After Something Literary-Related

Musical acts get their names from a variety of sources, and for many that comes in the way of books.

Sometimes it's as simple as the title of a book. Sometimes it's a character's name. Other times it's an object or location mentioned in the story. More often than not, though, it's an obscure reference that not even your hardcore English major is going to recognize.

So here are 17 random musical acts that named themselves after something literary-related. Consider this a chance to brush up on some obscure facts so you can kick ass at trivia night at your favorite bar.

In no order of significance:

1.) Steppenwolf

The name comes from Herman Hesse's book of the same name. The band's producer recommended a name change from what they were calling themselves: The Sparrows.

Because it's a little difficult to take a man growling "Born to Be Wild" seriously when you're called The Sparrows.




2.) Steely Dan

William S. Burrough's novel Naked Lunch is to blame for the name. And what, exactly, is a "Steely Dan" in the book?

((ahem)) It's a name for a strap-on dildo.

And references to sex toys was about as edgy as Steely Dan ever got.


3.) Modest Mouse

Virginia Woolf has her groupies, and Modest Mouse is one such collection of groupies. The name comes from Woolf's novel The Mark on the Wall, from the line, "...…and very frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-coloured people."

That line makes about as much sense as the rest of Woolf's work.


4.) The Doors

A shout-out to a sale on storm doors at Home Depot?

No, it apparently comes from Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception, which is really just quoting William Blake, "When the doors of perception are cleansed, things will appear to man as they truly are…infinite."




5.) My Chemical Romance

Everyone knows if you want inspiration in life, you have to work retail.

The bassist of the band, Mikey Way, used to work at a Barnes and Noble and was inspired to name the band he was in after a book titled Five Tales of Chemical Romance, by Irvine Welsh, which he saw on a shelf.


6.) Genesis

You get three guesses, and the first two don't count.

Yeah, the band's named after that Genesis.


7.) Silverchair

The Aussie band was apparently a big fan of young adult fiction. They named themselves after C.S.Lewis's fourth installment in the Chronicles of Narnia series, The Silver Chair. Clearly they're not a fan of The Magician's Nephew.




8.) Belle & Sebastian

A French-oriented name for a Scottish band? Sure, why not? That's what we have here, as the indie pop group went for the French children's book Belle et Sébastien, by Cécile Aubry, as their name.


9.) Veruca Salt

Can't fight the seether? Well, you can't fight the appeal of Roald Dalh's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory either, as Veruca Salt was the name of one of the bratty kids that appeared in the book.


10.) Sixpence None the Richer

Let's welcome C.S. Lewis back to the stage!

This time it's Lewis's book Mere Christianity that was the inspiration. Detailing the band's name on The Late Show with David Letterman, lead singer Leigh Nash explained, "When the father received the present, he was none the richer because he originally gave the sixpence to his son."

That's a bit roundabout of a way to get to a name, but it serves its purpose.


11.) Moby

The man's given name is Richard Melville Hall. Bonus points if you already know where this is going.

Supposedly Herman Melville was his great-great-great granduncle. If you don't know--and God help you if you don't--Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick. Hence, the name.




12.) The Airborne Toxic Event

Any time your band's name has more than three words, you're probably dipping deep to come up with it. In this case, The Airborne Toxic Event comes from the Don DeLillo novel White Noise, specifically section two of the book with the same name that lends its title as inspiration to the band.


13.) Oryx and Crake

Someday she'll win a Nobel Prize in Literature, but for now Margaret Atwood just inspires bands from Atlanta to name themselves after one of her books, as is the case here.


14.) The Velvet Underground

Michael Leigh's book of the same name examined the sexual subculture of the early 1960s.

This makes perfect sense when you consider Andy Warhol managed the band.


15.) Mott the Hoople

Famous for their hit 1972 song "All of You Dudes," the band's record producer came up with the name after cooling his heals in prison for a drug offense. There he came across a book of the same title, written by Willard Manus.

I'm as shocked as you to realize drugs were behind that name.


16.) Supertramp

Their 1979 album Breakfast in America put them on the map, but they went back over 70 years earlier to a 1908 book called The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by Welsh writer W.H. Davies to find something to name themselves after.

I'm still not certain what a Super-Tramp is though.


17.) Okkervil River

The band actually has two sources for its name. Directly, it comes from a short story by Russian writer Tatyana Tolstaya. But Tolstaya got the name for her short story from a river near St. Petersburg.

That is the most popular obscure river in all the world.

TRIGGER WARNING: This blog post might incite a fear of words.

If, in your lifetime as a reader, you've ever read Toni Morrison, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Chinua Achebe, Mark Twain, or others, and didn't feel emotionally harmed in the process, you might have escaped a horrible fate--of feeling.

According to the New York Times, colleges are struggling with requests from students (and others) to affix a 'Trigger Warning' in a syllabus regarding texts which might instigate an adverse reaction or emotional trauma to the reading material--for any reason. Colleges and universities like Oberlin College, the University of Michigan, Rutgers University, and George Washington University have all instituted rules regarding these 'Trigger Warnings,' which has some people concerned that things have gotten out of hand.

Says the Times:


"The most vociferous criticism has focused on trigger warnings for materials that have an established place on syllabuses across the country. Among the suggestions for books that would benefit from trigger warnings are Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” (contains anti-Semitism) and Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” (addresses suicide)."

Chinua Achebe realizes he just triggered himself.

As the tide toward being overly-sensitive to literary texts gets excessive, professors--who are usually overtly sensitive to texts' potential to offend--are now fighting back. Oberlin College released a guide which suggested professors mark up a syllabus with 'Trigger Warnings' in case any text might offend a student.

Continues the Times:





“Be aware of racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, cissexism, ableism, and other issues of privilege and oppression,” the [Oberlin] guide said. “Realize that all forms of violence are traumatic, and that your students have lives before and outside your classroom, experiences you may not expect or understand.” For example, it said, while “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe — a novel set in colonial-era Nigeria — is a “triumph of literature that everyone in the world should read,” it could “trigger readers who have experienced racism, colonialism, religious persecution, violence, suicide and more.”


If you've experienced racism, colonialism, religious persecution, violence, and suicide in your life, not only do you need to reexamine what you did to piss off a variety of religious deities, but you're also going to be a millionaire once you get that memoir published. But I digress.

Pause for a moment to think of Oberlin's logic regarding Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart." Achebe's novel is something "everyone in the world should read," but--hey, not everyone everyone. Just everyone with a pathological inability to feel human emotion.

Since being emotionally cold and distant to literature isn't really how reading works, some are arguing against 'Trigger Warnings,' like Jill Filipovic at London's The Guardian, who writes:


"College isn't exactly the real world either, but it's a space for kinda-sorta adults to wade neck-deep into art, literature, philosophy, and the sciences, to explore new ideas, to expand their knowledge of the cultural canon, to interrogate power and to learn how to make an argument and to read a text. It is, hopefully, a space where the student is challenged and sometimes frustrated and sometimes deeply upset, a place where the student's world expands and pushes them to reach the outer edges – not a place that contracts to meet the student exactly where they are."


Except college is becoming an intellectual vacuum--at least in the humanities departments--where professors fear the wrath of offending students with literary choices, even if those choices lead to enlightening discussion and collective examination of broader topics by the entire class.

Don't believe me? Professor Marc Blecher tells the Times:


“If I were a junior faculty member looking at this while putting my syllabus together, I’d be terrified. [...] Any student who felt triggered by something that happened in class could file a complaint with the various procedures and judicial boards, and create a very tortuous process for anyone.”


"Torture."

And, so, the triggering cycle begins.  A book triggers an unpleasant emotional response in a student...who files a complaint with the university...who sends the faculty member to meetings and judicial boards...who decide the professor was egregious with their literary selection by not realizing the depth of triggering response potential...so the board places the professor on some sort of academic probation...causing the faculty member to be traumatized (because they aren't tenured and are only making $32,000 a year without health benefits, and the rent's due)...so the following semester the teacher can't bring themselves to create a class syllabus with any meaningful text...and are frightened by the sight of stacks of blank syllabi...and, thus, incapacitated and incapable of doing their job, so their employment is terminated.

The circle of life.



photo: mije.org

Three Virginia Woolf novels to be made into full-length ballets.

The Royal Ballet in London is planning on adapting three Virginia Woolf novels--Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, and The Waves--into full-length ballets as part of the Royal Opera House's 2014-2015 season lineup.

If the ballets hold true to Woolf's form, they'll be confusing, vague, and last four hours too long.

Famous Writers Shirtless: Virginia Woolf

A fleeting internet meme happened of writers in underpants--but it passed too quickly to be truly appreciated.

So, occasionally we'll post some literary beefcake for your perusal.

Today:  Virginia Woolf  (w/ Clive Bell)

The striped romper look is très chic.

This barely qualifies as a "Famous Writers Shirtless," but apparently the only thing that frightened Virginia Woolf more than a sensible one-piece was tanned skin.

Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure I passed Clive Bell loitering outside a 7-11 late one night.

Leave it to Ernest Hemingway to cut to the point.

Graphic designer Evan Robertson takes witty or insightful lines from a variety of famous writers and creates fashionable literary poster art.

All are examples of why I wish I was an artist. But, alas, I'm a writer, and even that is suspect most days.

All work--plus 16 other writers/paintings--can be found at his Etsy shop for $24.

I don't know when I became a salesman for some random guy, but, hey, go with it.

Book Review: Jacob's Room, by Virginia Woolf

This is part of the continuing series of random book reviews that'll be nothing like a New York Times book review. Gone is the ten thousand word analysis. Instead, here is a book review like you'd tell your friends.

The book: Virginia Woolf's Jacob's Room.

Great news if you're a masochist and have always felt like James Joyce's Ulysses was a casual read that cut corners and was too approachable. Virginia Woolf is here to make sure all your dreams of incomprehensible plot are possible.

Jacob's Room reads like how a conversation with a four year old hopped-up on Swizzle Sticks goes down. One moment you're talking about Transformers and Handy Manny, the next you're suddenly stuffing 37 marshmallows in your mouth and randomly throwing toys into the toilet. And to the four year old this is a natural progression of a conversation.

That's how Jacob's Room operates. At some point your brain just tried to squeeze 37 marshmallows into it and is now ODing on the Disney Channel.

"You can finally teach without constantly worrying about what to do when there is a rocket attack."

Who hasn't been there--in the classroom on a Monday morning, going over Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" for the millionth time--when a rocket attack is unleashed, and you think, "Even the gods have mercy on people reading Virginia Woolf."

Except even rocket attacks won't save you from Virginia Woolf now--because Israel has the first rocket-proof school.

Sdereot, Israel, is a town in the south of the country, about a mile from the Gaza Strip border, and usually under threat from missiles, rockets, and other artillery from militants in Gaza. Some estimates claim 440 rockets were fired during the past year, which generally puts a damper on the day-to-day educational happenings at school.

Now there's a $27.5 million structure in place, with gigantic concrete defenses, reinforced windows, and walls angled at varying degrees to deflect projectiles as best as possible. The new school even has mini fortified bomb shelters out in the school yard that are easily accessible within the 15 second window people have to take cover from the moment a siren goes off to the moment of impact. School administrators hope this will decrease the trauma some students have felt from attending school.

Except nothing can stop the trauma of reading Virginia Woolf. Nothing.



photo: AP