today’s birthday: Truman Capote (1924)

Truman Capote (1924)

Capote’s first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, launched a literary career that included the novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s and his innovative “nonfiction novel” In Cold Blood, a chilling account of the senseless, brutal murder of a Kansas family that is widely considered his finest work. Capote cultivated celebrity and was famous in later years for his jet-setting lifestyle as well as his writing. Capote was reportedly the inspiration for a character in what famous novel? More… Discuss

today’s birthday: Christopher Smart (1722)

Christopher Smart (1722)

A Cambridge graduate, Smart settled in London and pursued a literary career—writing poetry, editing a humorous magazine, and producing plays. His two best known works are A Song to David, an inspirational piece rife with superb imagery, and Jubilate Agno, an idiosyncratic and often anthologized paean to his cat, Jeoffry, that only survives in fragments. Both were written while he was confined in an asylum for a religious mania. What unconventional pseudonym did he sometimes use? More… Discuss

Today’s Birthday: WILLIAM ROBERTSON DAVIES (1913) – a Canadian Writer

 

William Robertson Davies (1913)

Davies was one of Canada’s most distinguished writers. Educated at Oxford, he produced more than 30 works of fiction throughout his long literary career, as well as plays, essays, and criticism. Among the themes explored in his densely plotted novels are life’s moral dimensions and the isolation of the spirit. He is best known for his three novel trilogies dealing with life and culture in fictional Ontario villages. What innovative technology, considered indispensible today, did he proudly shun? More… Discuss