The following is an updated list of the Verse and Vision videos. I am always open to suggestions about poets, poems or topics for videos. I’ve received several and would love to have more. Meanwhile, here’s the complete list of videos I have made since the beginning of April: Lines Written a Few Miles above […]
Henry Timberlake, his adventure and his sad end, part 2
When Henry Timberlake floated from the Holston River into the Tennessee in December 1761 and saw a small band of Cherokees on the bank, his first emotion was fear. He was in the middle of a harrowing journey where he had come close to freezing to death, starving, and being eaten by a bear. He […]
A better lexicographer than Webster, tools of the fiction writer, and what we think we see: newsletter, September 6, 2019
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,674) on Friday, September 6, 2019. Summer has drifted into September in East Tennessee with the temperatures unduly hot and the land remaining dry. Despite that, the bees seem to be thriving. We have been feeding them since July when we took our share of […]
Joseph Emerson Worcester produced a better dictionary than Noah Webster
If any American name is associated with dictionaries, it is Noah Webster. The name we should remember, however, is Joseph Emerson Worcester. Webster, whom I wrote about last year, made a fortune by producing the Blue Back Speller and by his determination, in the early days of the Republic, to produce a dictionary that put […]
What we see, and what we think we see
One of my favorite artists — and YouTube video star — is James Gurney, who produces amazing paintings on-site (plein-air is the artistic term) and videos the process so that he can share them with his thousands of subscribers. Gurney also has a website on which something new appears just about every day. This past […]
The Grapes of Wrath, written in 100 days, by a man with a mission
It took John Steinbeck less than 100 days in 1937 to write one of the 20th century’s great novels, The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck was a writer and resident of Salinas, California, at the time. It was a town located near a migrant worker camp, and Steinbeck had witnessed the poverty, degradation, and oppression of those […]
Women and true crime: a new book examines the archetypes
True crime fascinates many of us, but are women more drawn to it than men? Yes, says journalist Rachel Monroe, who has recently authored a book examining in-depth case studies of four archetypes: Detective, Victim, Defender, and Killer. The book is Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession. Monroe was recently interviewed […]
Robert Sherwood, wordman for FDR
When Franklin Roosevelt was president during World War II, the words he spoke publicly took on a heightened importance and had to be weighed carefully. When he had to give a speech or a radio address, he turned to the people he trusted the most to help him weigh those words. One of the people […]
‘In Cold Blood’ murderers may have committed a similar crime in Florida
Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Smith murdered four members of a Kansas family — Herb, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon Clutter — in November 1959. Their crime, for which they were both hanged in 1965, was the subject of Truman Capote‘s most famous book, In Cold Blood. In Cold Blood became iconic because, after extensive interviews […]
Henry Timberlake, his adventure and his sad end (part 1)
Henry Timberlake‘s short life came to a sad end. He died in 1765 in debtor’s prison in London, there because of some unfortunate but well-meaning decisions and some truly bad luck. He was somewhere between 30 and 35 years. We’re not exactly sure when he was born. We probably wouldn’t remember Timberlake at all except […]
FDR’s wordman, an adventure into Cherokee territory, and a Mozart myth: newsletter, Aug. 30, 2019
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,680) on Friday, August 30, 2019. My comments last week about the difficulties of traveling brought reactions from some of you, and I appreciate your responses. Many people still enjoy traveling despite the hassles. If you’ve been someplace interesting in the last few weeks, let […]
Ken Burns, Klaus Fuchs, Wesley on money, and the time it took to write Grapes of Wrath: newsletter, Aug. 23, 2019
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,689) on Friday, August 23, 2019. Summer is the traditional time for travel and vacations, and many of the people we know have taken flight, either literally or figuratively. But traveling seems to be more difficult than it has been in a long time. Airline […]
One of TR’s many foes: the banana peel
Before Theodore Roosevelt battled the Spanish on San Juan Hill, before he fought the trusts in Congress, he had a more obscure but just as dangerous arch-enemy: the banana peel. Roosevelt was police commissioner of New York City in the 1890s when there was little or no garbage service. People simply threw their garbage in […]
John Wesley, the history of Methodism, and the clash of biographies
Most of what happened to Methodism after John Wesley‘s death in 1791 was highly predictable. Wesley had created Methodism, a religious movement within the Anglican Church, in the 1740s by his interpretative theology, his going outside the church walls to preach to those neglected by the church, and by forming “classes” of his followers who […]
Joseph Campbell: beginning at the library
If you have studied anything about the art of — storytelling — you have run headlong into the name and work of Joseph Campbell. Campbell made the study of stories, their structure, and their purpose the focus of his life, and his 1949 book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, is still considered a seminal […]
The demise of ‘Mad’ magazine – and the nation that it satirized
Many laments were sounded out earlier this summer with DCComics’ announcement that it would no longer be producing Mad magazine with any original content. Typical of those is Jeet Heer‘s article in The Nation magazine: Mad was often rude, tasteless, and childish—which made it all the more potent as a tributary of youth culture. The […]
Nigel Hamilton’s FDR, where Joseph Campbell began, John Wesley, and banana peels: newsletter, Aug. 16, 2019
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,696) on Friday, August 16, 2019. Two big events this week: the publication of two books that we had been working on for the Friends of the Blount County Library. One is Loyal Mountaineers: The Civil War Memoirs of Will A. McTeer, which we mentioned in the newsletter several […]
Newsman Bob Considine, the semicolon, the demise of Mad, and another Longfellow poem:newsletter, Aug. 9, 2019
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,707) on Friday, August 9, 2019. Thanks much to those who signed up for a free subscription to American Watercolor magazine on my behalf. I reached the appropriate number and have been offered the possibility of an “ambassadorship,” which means my stuff will be […]
On the line with Bob Considine
Bob Considine, who achieved international fame for his World War II reporting was the consummate journalist: he loved traveling, he loved talking to people, he loved finding information, and — most of all — he loved writing. In his late 60s, he was still working and still writing — mostly on a nationally syndicated column […]
Walking, Arthur Ashe, and a new video: newsletter, Aug. 2, 2018
This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,716) on Friday, August 9, 2019. Living well, as any sensible person knows, is not just a matter of diet and exercise. It’s a whole range of behaviors, attitudes, habits, and choices. Susan Saunders and Annabel Streets, two women who have looked deeply into the science […]
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