Born today on November 29, 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania Louisa May Alcott is mostly known for her famous work Little Women. You may cherish the book, have a favorite film adaptation, and consider yourself a Jo, Meg, Beth, or Amy…but how much do you know about its author, Louisa May Alcott?
1. She wrote lurid, sensational stories before Little Women.
Like her heroine Jo March, Louisa May Alcott wrote, published, and supported her family with what she called “blood and thunder tales”—gothic thrillers with names like “Pauline’s Passion and Punishment” and A Long Fatal Love Chase—before turning to her autobiographical and family-savory subject material. She published under the androgynous pseudonym A.M. Barnard.
2. Little Women draws heavily from Alcott's own life.
Louisa May Alcott took inspiration from her childhood memories and family members, basing Little Women‘s Meg on her oldest sister, Anna (an actress, who met her own “John Brooke”, John Bridge Pratt, playing opposite him in local theatre production). Alcott’s third sister, the gentle Lizzie (Elizabeth), contracted scarlet fever from a poor family she was helping, and died two years later, weakened despite her recovery, like her fictional counterpart Beth March. She was just 22. The youngest, May (Abigail), was an ambitious artist like Amy. And Alcott herself was a tomboy, a writer, an independent woman, like Jo March. But it was Alcott, not her father, who went to the Civil War; she enlisted as a nurse, but sadly, contracted typhoid fever during her service, and was plagued with health problems.
3.Louisa May Alcott didn't initially want to write Little Women!
When asked by the publisher Thomas Niles to write a book for girls, she acquiesced, writing in her journal: “Marmee, Anna, and May all approve my plan. So I plod away, though I don’t enjoy this sort of thing. Never liked girls or knew many, except my sisters; but our queer plays and experiences may prove interesting, though I doubt it.”
4.She wrote Little Women in under three months.
In fact, Louisa May Alcott wrote the first half—402 pages—in less than six weeks!
5.The "marriage plot" didn't interest her…In fiction or in life!
It’s telling that the woman who famously said, “I’d rather be a free spinster and paddle my own canoe” wrote in her journal, “Girls write to ask who the little women will marry, as if that was the only end and aim of a woman’s life…”
6.Louisa May Alcott was an abolitionist.
Her father, Bronson Alcott, founded an abolitionist society in 1850, and Alcott’s childhood home, The Wayside residence in Concord, Massachusetts, was a stop for fugitive enslaved people on the Underground Railroad. Of her Civil War service as a nurse, Alcott wrote, “My greatest pride is that I lived to know the brave men and women who did so much for the cause, and that I had a very small share in the war which put an end to a great wrong.”
7.Louisa May Alcott was an early American feminist.
She was the first woman to register to vote in Concord, when women were given school, tax, and bond suffrage in Massachusetts, in 1879. In 1881, she wrote to Thomas Niles, “I can remember when Anti-slavery was in just the same state that Suffrage is now, and take more pride in the very small help we Alcotts could give than I all the books I ever wrote…”
source:https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/specialfeatures/little-women-7-surprising-facts-about-louisa-may-alcott/#
29 Kasım 2018 Perşembe
“A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known Autumn too long” e.e. cummings
[Poem /Sturm] by Frank Lepold
Ein grosses Dankeschön an Herrn Lepold für sein Kunstwerk [Poem /Sturm]. Thanks for allowing us to share your art. Please check for his further works at: http://andyamholst.com/
Ein grosses Dankeschön an Herrn Lepold für sein Kunstwerk [Poem /Sturm]. Thanks for allowing us to share your art. Please check for his further works at: http://andyamholst.com/
28 Kasım 2018 Çarşamba
“If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they'd immediately go out.” - William Blake
William Blake born on November 28, 1757-1827 was a 19th century writer and artist who is regarded as a seminal figure of the Romantic Age. His writings have influenced countless writers and artists through the ages, and he has been deemed both a major poet and an original thinker.
for more pls read: https://www.biography.com/people/william-blake-9214491
More about the Romantics and William Blake pls watch:
27 Kasım 2018 Salı
26 Kasım 2018 Pazartesi
24 Kasım 2018 Cumartesi
"What is done in love is done well." Vincent van Gogh
I would like to thank those who e-mailed and texted me. I am so proud of those who are teaching now. And since I have also senior ELT students and Anglistik students who are going to teach, I would like to pre- congrat you, too.
best,
gh
Yasuo Kuniyoshi teaching at the Art Students League, 1950. by Alfred Puhn
best,
gh
Yasuo Kuniyoshi teaching at the Art Students League, 1950. by Alfred Puhn
23 Kasım 2018 Cuma
'In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that cannot be explained' - Georges Braque
art by Artist Anthony Howe, https://www.howeart.net/
"There are things that a woman sings, and only a woman knows the full meaning." - Gayl Jones
Born to Franklin and Lucille Jones on November 23, 1949 in Lexington, Kentucky, Gayl Jones’early “connections” with the South are reflected strongly in her personal life as well as in her writing.
Much of her desire to write came from her maternal grandmother, Amanda Wilson, who wrote plays for church productions, as well as from her mother, Lucille Jones, who wrote short stories, many of them in order to entertain Gayl and her brother Franklin Jr. Jones says, “I have to say that if my mother hadn’t written and read tome when I was growing up I probably wouldn’t have even thought about it at all” (Rowell 53).
Although she has written in genres such as poetry, short stories, and critical essays, Jones is best known for her novels. Her first and perhaps most widely known novel, Corregidora was published when Jones was only 26 years old.
source: Voices from the Gaps, U Minnesota
photo: the kinté space
for further info : http://www.popflock.com/learn?s=Gayl_Jones
Much of her desire to write came from her maternal grandmother, Amanda Wilson, who wrote plays for church productions, as well as from her mother, Lucille Jones, who wrote short stories, many of them in order to entertain Gayl and her brother Franklin Jr. Jones says, “I have to say that if my mother hadn’t written and read tome when I was growing up I probably wouldn’t have even thought about it at all” (Rowell 53).
Although she has written in genres such as poetry, short stories, and critical essays, Jones is best known for her novels. Her first and perhaps most widely known novel, Corregidora was published when Jones was only 26 years old.
source: Voices from the Gaps, U Minnesota
photo: the kinté space
for further info : http://www.popflock.com/learn?s=Gayl_Jones
19 Kasım 2018 Pazartesi
"This world is but a canvas to our imagination." -Henry David Thoreau
source: https://www.geistesleben.de/Autoren/Selma-Lagerloef.html
18 Kasım 2018 Pazar
POETRY APPS FOR WRITING POETRY
Dear Students,
There are very helpful APPS for students who like to write and experiment on writing Poetry.
Please download and find out the Poet or Poetess in you.
Word Palette (iOS): Experimental writers can create poems by dragging around “palettes” of scrambled words.
Rhymers’ Block (iOS): A rhyme dictionary for your phone, for poets, rappers, and lyricists.
Poet Assistant (Android): A rhyme dictionary for Android users.
Cannonball (Android and iOS): It’s billed as a game, but Cannonball is more of a way for poets to create work using images and hashtags, and then share those poems with friends.
Poetreat (iOS): A poetry apps that suggests rhymes as you write.
ImageQuote (iOS): This isn’t exactly a poetry app—it lets users add words to pictures, but it can be used as a poetry app for Instagram. Poets can add their poems right into the app, layer them over backgrounds, and share them as images.
Textgram (Android): An Instagram text overlay app for Android-using poets.
Instant Poetry 2 (iOS): Remember refrigerator poetry? This lets you create and share poems with fridge poetry without blocking the fridge door or having to manage all those little magnets.
Be a Poet (Android): Another fridge poetry app, designed for brainstorming, creation, and meditation.
Portapoet (iOS): A social network for poets, who can write, share, and battle with their poems using the app.
by A.J. O'CONNELL
There are very helpful APPS for students who like to write and experiment on writing Poetry.
Please download and find out the Poet or Poetess in you.
Word Palette (iOS): Experimental writers can create poems by dragging around “palettes” of scrambled words.
Rhymers’ Block (iOS): A rhyme dictionary for your phone, for poets, rappers, and lyricists.
Poet Assistant (Android): A rhyme dictionary for Android users.
Cannonball (Android and iOS): It’s billed as a game, but Cannonball is more of a way for poets to create work using images and hashtags, and then share those poems with friends.
Poetreat (iOS): A poetry apps that suggests rhymes as you write.
ImageQuote (iOS): This isn’t exactly a poetry app—it lets users add words to pictures, but it can be used as a poetry app for Instagram. Poets can add their poems right into the app, layer them over backgrounds, and share them as images.
Textgram (Android): An Instagram text overlay app for Android-using poets.
Instant Poetry 2 (iOS): Remember refrigerator poetry? This lets you create and share poems with fridge poetry without blocking the fridge door or having to manage all those little magnets.
Be a Poet (Android): Another fridge poetry app, designed for brainstorming, creation, and meditation.
Portapoet (iOS): A social network for poets, who can write, share, and battle with their poems using the app.
by A.J. O'CONNELL
15 Kasım 2018 Perşembe
''To explain grace requires / a curious hand.'' - Marianne Moore
photo by André Steiner
BY DISPOSITION OF ANGELS
Messengers much like ourselves? Explain it.
Steadfastness the darkness makes explicit?
Something heard most clearly when not near it?
Above particularities,
these unparticularities praise cannot violate.
One has seen, in such steadiness never deflected,
how by darkness a star is perfected.
Star that does not ask me if I see it?
Fir that would not wish me to uproot it?
Speech that does not ask me if I hear it?
Mysteries expound mysteries.
Steadier than steady, star dazzling me, live and elate,
no need to say, how like some we have known; too like her,
too like him, and a-quiver forever.
― Marianne Moore, Complete Poems
Today is the birthday of a poet whose observations are keen, clear and precise.
Marianne Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor.
Moore’s work is grouped with poets such as H.D., T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound and Elizabeth Bishop.
please find out more about Moore:
1.MARIANNE MOORE'S MULTICULTURAL POETRY: A CASE OF RESISTANCE
https://ebuah.uah.es/dspace/bitstream/handle/10017/5012/Marianne%20Moore%27s%20Multicultural%20Poetry.%20A%20Case%20of%20Resistance.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
2.Marianne Moore's Precision
http://natalia.cecire.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/cecire-moore-article.pdf
3.Marianne Moore reads Bird-Witted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEuEkW-1oPk
14 Kasım 2018 Çarşamba
APPS FOR LISTENING TO POETRY, ANYWHERE
Dear Students,
Here is a list of APPS who have an amount number of poetry, read by the poet or great actors with nice voices. Please check out if you are fond of listening to poetry.
Poetry Everywhere (iOS): WGBH’s app features contemporary poets reading their own work.
The Poetry Hour (Android and iOS): Want to hear Charles Dance read some poetry? The Josephine Hart Poetry Foundation’s app lets you hear and see performances of classic poetry by great actors.
SlamFind (Android): Looking for a poetry slam? SlamFind connects users to the world of performance poetry, allowing then to discover and connect with live poetry venues and poets all over the world.
by A.J. O'CONNELL
Here is a list of APPS who have an amount number of poetry, read by the poet or great actors with nice voices. Please check out if you are fond of listening to poetry.
Poetry Everywhere (iOS): WGBH’s app features contemporary poets reading their own work.
The Poetry Hour (Android and iOS): Want to hear Charles Dance read some poetry? The Josephine Hart Poetry Foundation’s app lets you hear and see performances of classic poetry by great actors.
SlamFind (Android): Looking for a poetry slam? SlamFind connects users to the world of performance poetry, allowing then to discover and connect with live poetry venues and poets all over the world.
by A.J. O'CONNELL
10 Kasım 2018 Cumartesi
POETRY APPS FOR READING POETRY
Dear Students,
There is a variety of wonderful APPS that you can download easily on your phone. Please check out the following APPS if you are fond of reading poetry.
Poemhunter (Android and iOS): A portable library of 1.4 million poems. That’s a lot of poetry!
POETRY from the Poetry Foundation (Android and iOS): One of two apps from the Poetry Foundation, POETRY is a poetry library for your phone. It’s filled with old favorites, but also serves up new poems.
Wings—Poems & Poets for the Love of Poetry (Android and iOS): Wings is a sort of combination library/Wikipedia/Instagram for poetry. It lets you read poetry, read information about that poetry, list your favorites, and pair your own photos with poems.
Poetry Daily (iOS): An anthology of contemporary poetry for your phone that offers you a new poem daily.
Poetry Magazine (Android and iOS): The second app from the Poetry Foundation allows subscribers to access the digital edition of Poetry Magazine on their phones.
Pocket Poetry (iOS): One poem a day, delivered to your Apple devices.
THF Haiku (iOS): The Haiku Foundation’s portable library of haiku.
Daily Haiku (Android): Haiku from Cornell University’s Mann Library, delivered to your phone every day.
by A.J. O'CONNELL
9 Kasım 2018 Cuma
“I like you; your eyes are full of language." [Letter to Anne Clarke, July 3, 1964.]” ― Anne Sexton
Happy Birthday to Anne Sexton (November 9, 1928 – October 4, 1974) an American Poet and a Pulitzer Prize winner and one of my favourites.
In treatment, her therapist encouraged her to write and in 1957 Sexton joined writing groups in Boston that eventually led her to friendships and relationships with the poets Maxine Kumin, Robert Lowell, George Starbuck, and Sylvia Plath.
Sexton’s work is usually grouped with other Confessional poets such as Plath, Lowell, John Berryman, and W. D. Snodgrass. In an interview with Patricia Marx, Sexton discussed Snodgrass’s influence: “If anything influenced me it was W. D. Snodgrass’ Heart’s Needle.... It so changed me, and undoubtedly it must have influenced my poetry.
source: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/anne-sexton
In treatment, her therapist encouraged her to write and in 1957 Sexton joined writing groups in Boston that eventually led her to friendships and relationships with the poets Maxine Kumin, Robert Lowell, George Starbuck, and Sylvia Plath.
Sexton’s work is usually grouped with other Confessional poets such as Plath, Lowell, John Berryman, and W. D. Snodgrass. In an interview with Patricia Marx, Sexton discussed Snodgrass’s influence: “If anything influenced me it was W. D. Snodgrass’ Heart’s Needle.... It so changed me, and undoubtedly it must have influenced my poetry.
source: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/anne-sexton
“Perhaps I am no one.
True, I have a body
and I cannot escape from it.
I would like to fly out of my head,
but that is out of the question.”
― Anne Sexton
Words
Be careful of words,
even the miraculous ones.
For the miraculous we do our best,
sometimes they swarm like insects
and leave not a sting but a kiss.
They can be as good as fingers.
They can be as trusty as the rock
you stick your bottom on.
But they can be both daisies and bruises.
Yet I am in love with words.
They are doves falling out of the ceiling.
They are six holy oranges sitting in my lap.
They are the trees, the legs of summer,
and the sun, its passionate face.
Yet often they fail me.
I have so much I want to say,
so many stories, images, proverbs, etc.
But the words aren't good enough,
the wrong ones kiss me.
Sometimes I fly like an eagle
but with the wings of a wren.
But I try to take care
and be gentle to them.
Words and eggs must be handled with care.
Once broken they are impossible
things to repair.”
― Anne Sexton
“Then all this became history.
Your hand found mine.
Life rushed to my fingers like a blood clot.
Oh, my carpenter,
the fingers are rebuilt.
They dance with yours.”
― Anne Sexton
8 Kasım 2018 Perşembe
“Once again...welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring.” ― Bram Stoker, Dracula
Today is Abraham "Bram" Stoker's birthday (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912).
During his lifetime, he was also known as the manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London. Stoker spent 27 years in the service of actor Sir Henry Irving, as his manager. Stoker published his first novel, The Snake’s Pass in 1890 with Dracula appearing in 1897. The Mystery of the Sea was published in 1902.
Dracula as a gothic novel is one of the most romantic masterpieces with beautiful lines regarding love and passion.
for further gothic reading you can check:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1230.Best_Gothic_Books_Of_All_Time
Wojciech Kilar - "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992) - "Mina & Dracula" - live
5 Kasım 2018 Pazartesi
"Ein Haus ohne Bücher ist arm, auch wenn schöne Teppiche seinen Boden und kostbare Tapeten und Bilder die Wände bedecken". -Hermann Hesse
Be attentive- Be curious. This technique is what we have mentioned during the last lecture. Fore-edge painting, technique of painting the edges of the leaves, or folios, of a book, employed in the European Middle Ages. Manuscript books with gold-tooled bindings often had the edges of their pages gilded with burnished gold. They were also frequently goffered with heated tools and were occasionally coloured. From 1650 onward a number of London binders practiced a new decorative method of fore-edge painting: floral scrolls or scenes were painted upon the fanned-out fore-edge of the leaves and concealed by a normal gilt edge when the book was closed; they became visible only when it was opened. This decorative device was continued in the 18th century, but by the late 19th century fore-edge painting began to wane in popularity.
definition via: https://www.britannica.com/art/fore-edge-painting
For more Fore-edge painting please check: 40 Hidden Artworks Painted on the Edges of Books- https://twistedsifter.com/2013/09/hidden-artworks-on-the-edges-of-books/
2 Kasım 2018 Cuma
Edgar Allan Poe: American novelist of Horror and Detective Fiction
Dear Students,
Poe’s work as an editor, a poet, and a critic had a profound impact on American and international literature. His stories mark him as one of the originators of both horror and detective fiction. Many anthologies credit him as the “architect” of the modern short story. He was also one of the first critics to focus primarily on the effect of style and structure in a literary work; as such, he has been seen as a forerunner to the “art for art’s sake” movement. French Symbolists such as Mallarmé and Rimbaud claimed him as a literary precursor. Baudelaire spent nearly fourteen years translating Poe into French. Today, Poe is remembered as one of the first American writers to become a major figure in world literature.
(source: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/edgar-allan-poe)
We have read short stories and poetry by Edgar Allan Poe.
Please feel free to discover more.
you can watch Four Animations of Classic Poe Stories:
http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/edgar-allan-poe-animated-watch-four-animations-of-timeless-poe-stories.html
you can enjoy “The Raven” which is on Instagram as a Digital “Insta Novel”: It’s Free from The New York Public Library:
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4999733240380311327#editor/target=post;postID=7671748560641142658
best
gh
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