A Child’s World: Sloane Crosley on the Short Fiction of Katherine Mansfield
“Even in Mansfield stories where children are not centered or present, this is their world. Her adults never quite grow up, only older.”
Mansfield at PG:
A Child’s World: Sloane Crosley on the Short Fiction of Katherine Mansfield
“Even in Mansfield stories where children are not centered or present, this is their world. Her adults never quite grow up, only older.”
Mansfield at PG:
James Hutton (1726–1797), father of modern geology, was born #OTD, 14 June (NS; 3 June OS). One of the first European proponents of “deep time”, the conclusion of his 1788 paper “Theory of the Earth” has been called one of the most lyrical sentences in all of science:
The result, therefore, of our present enquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning,—no prospect of an end.
1/3
https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/2808
#Scottish #literature #Enlightenment #18thcentury #DeepTime #science #geology
#OTD in 1804, Nathaniel Hawthorne was born. He was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Hawthorne
Hawthorne at PG:
This morning I watched from here
a helicopter skirting like a damaged insect
the Empire State Building, that
jumbo size dentist’s drill, and landing
on the roof of the PanAm skyscraper.
But now midnight has come in
from foreign places…
—Norman MacCaig, “Hotel Room, 12th Floor”
published in THE POEMS OF NORMAN MacCAIG (Birlinn, 2009)
https://birlinn.co.uk/product/the-poems-of-norman-maccaig/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #FourthofJuly #july4th #IndependenceDay #NewYork #USA
Mister drags off his box of fireworks to the shore.
Missiz drains her drink and hits the floor
with someone half her age…
—Liz Lochhead, “Fourth of July Fireworks”
published in THREE SCOTTISH POETS: MacCaig • Morgan • Lochhead, @canongatebooks 1992
🇺🇸 🎆
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #FourthofJuly #America250 #IndependenceDay
Burns & the Scottish Enlightenment in America
4 Aug, Robert Burns Ellisland Farm
Tickets by donation
Ian Houston will examine how the ideas that shaped Burns's world – liberty, equality, democracy, & human dignity – also influenced the emerging American republic
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/burns-and-the-scottish-enlightenment-in-america-tickets-1990854549550
#Scottish #literature #RobertBurns #poetry #Enlightenment #ScottishEnlightenment #18thcentury #America250
Woodrow Wilson’s Legacy Is Loaded With Good and Bad, but His Work to Even the Economic Playing Field Is Often Overlooked
He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in ending WWI and strove to improve the plight of American workers. Today, his blind spots shroud most of his accomplishments
by Richard Norton Smith
Books by Woodrow Wilson at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1689
“A Jacobite By Name?”: Jacobitism in the Life & Work of Robert Burns
5 July, Ellisland – £4
Patrick Jamieson explores how ideas of identity, naming & political memory shaped Burns’s engagement with Jacobitism throughout his life & writing
#Scottish #literature #RobertBurns #18thcentury #Jacobites #romanticism #poetry
Publishing Scotland Presents: Graeme Macrae Burnet
21 Aug, Waterstones, Oban. £3/£5/£12 with book
Hosted by Breege Smyth, Graeme Macrae Burnet will be reading from his new novella BENBECULA, & discussing it in the context of his other work. Followed by a Q&A
https://www.waterstones.com/events/publishing-scotland-presents-graeme-macrae-burnet/oban
#Scottish #literature #crimefiction #truecrime #Hebrides #Oban
Science, religion, and political omens: the meaning of eclipses in ancient Rome
by Javier Andreu Pintado
Romans could predict eclipses, but still interpreted them as signs from the gods.
Books about eclipses (next eclipse will take place on August 12) at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=eclipses
“The Muirs gave Kafka a distinctive voice in English for half a century: fluent, formal, enigmatic and mesmeric” – but a new, award-winning study of Kafka’s translators has almost completely erased their work from literary history, writes Boyd Tonkin
https://engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-forgotten-scots-who-gave-kafka-his-voice/
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #translation #translators #Kafka
Currently on BBC Sounds: Douglas Stuart speaks to Take Four Books about his latest novel, JOHN OF JOHN, and, together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its connections to three other works of fiction.
The best books on United States
recommended by Don Watson
As the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence, we asked historian Don Watson, author of the excellent The Shortest History of the United States, to suggest books to read to learn more about the country.
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/united-states-don-watson/
At PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69730
Nine ways of looking at rain
Beyond the clichés, rain has inspired a rich thread of Scottish culture. From myth and science to film, fashion, and fiction, Sarah Mackay, Curator at the National Library of Scotland, explores how drizzle has soaked into the nation’s imagination in nine objects. The NLS exhibition ‘Rain’ runs until April 2027 and is free to visit.
https://www.nls.uk/collections/stories/life-in-the-library/nine-ways-of-looking-at-rain/
The Odyssey is about sons questing for their fathers.
by Henry Oliver (from the archives)
Ahead of the new movie, I am reposting this essay about the Odyssey as a son’s quest for his father, which I wrote when the recent Mendelsohn translation was released last year.
https://www.commonreader.co.uk/p/the-odyssey-is-about-sons-questing
The Odyssey by Homer at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1727
#WritingPrompt: #Vox ✍️
"He's waking."
"I wonder if he can hear us..."
•••
I remember the day I started hearing the voices of those I call 'Watchers'—like sports commentators—in my head.
First, I thought it was a prank. Hahaha...it's not funny.
They could describe everything I was seeing, doing and thinking.
"They can read my thoughts!"
"Ahhhhhhhhhh!"
"What am I gonna do?"
•|••
👇 Your turn. Complete the story...
Mollie Hunter (1922–2012) was born #OTD, 30 June. Although she produced work for all ages she is best remembered as a writer of fantasy & historical fiction for children & YAs. She received numerous awards including the New York Times Outstanding Books of the Year Award, the Boston Globe Horn Book Award & the Carnegie Medal.
1/5
https://discoverkelpies.co.uk/kelpies-author/mollie-hunter/
#Scottish #literature #ChildrensLiterature #kidlit #YA #fantasy #historicalfiction #folklore
Heard ye o’ the tree o’ France,
I watna what’s the name o’t;
Around it a’ the patriots dance,
Weel Europe kens the fame o’t…
—“The Tree of Liberty”, attributed to Robert Burns (disputed). First printed in Chambers’ THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT BURNS (1838)
A poem for 🇫🇷 Bastille Day!
1/3
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #RobertBurns #BastilleDay #quatorzejuillet #18thcentury #19thcentury
“Scots poets might have a few lessons to teach the French”
In “Towards a Post-Colonial Alliance?”, Paul Malgrati offers some perspectives on Franco-Scots poetry translation, exploring questions of voice, place, & power
🇫🇷🏴
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #language #translation #French #BastilleDay #quatorzejuillet
Cinquevalli in sepia
looks at me from an old postcard: bundle of enigmas.
Half faun, half military man…
—Edwin Morgan, “Cinquevalli”
published in COLLECTED POEMS (Carcanet, 1990)
Paul Cinquevalli (1859–1918) died #OTD, 14 July
https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781857541885/collected-poems/
#Scottish #literature #EdwinMorgan #poem #poetry #19thcentury #Victorian #Edwardian #circus #juggling #Cinquevalli
Ivy Compton-Burnett’s forgotten genius
by Nigel Andrew
The unique novels of Ivy Compton-Burnett have slipped out of the canon, but this true one-off deserves a place alongside contemporaries such as Evelyn Waugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/ivy-compton-burnetts-forgotten-genius/
About Ivy Compton-Burnett:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Compton-Burnett
#OTD in 1893 Guy de Maupassant died. He "was a 19th-century French author, celebrated as a master of the short story and associated with the naturalist literary school of thought, depicting human lives, destinies, and social forces in disillusioned and often pessimistic terms."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_de_Maupassant
Books by de Maupassant at PG:
Rǫgnvaldr Kali Kolsson (c. 1100–1158), Earl of Orkney, died #OTD, 20 August.
Rǫgnvaldr was a skilled poet (& after his death – slightly surprisingly – canonised as St Ronald of Orkney – f.d. 20 August). Ian Crockatt has translated many of his poems; this one is from CRIMSONING THE EAGLE’S CLAW: The Viking Poems of Rǫgnvaldr Kali Kolsson (Arc Publications, 2014)
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#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Orkney #medieval #Viking #Norse
Writing As Spiritual Practice: Inside the World of Medieval Scribes
Joel Halldorf on the Monks Who Helped Preserve Generations of Cultural Heritage
https://lithub.com/writing-as-spiritual-practice-inside-the-world-of-medieval-scribes/
A student's history of education at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60113
Children’s books about Black people’s everyday, joyful lives are sometimes banned – but they help all kids explore what it means to be human
by Wintre Foxworth Johnson, Brooke Harris Garad, Jennifer D. Turner, Tiffany D. Meadows
Books in Children´s Literature at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/20