Mud pies and bibliobituaries

One of our favorite books, especially for Spring, is Mud Pies and Other Recipes: A Cookbook for Dolls by Marjorie Winslow, illustrated by Erik Blegvad, whose Great Hamster Hunt, also out-of-print, is still on my shelves.
So I was delighted to see it receive a lengthy “salute” from independent bookseller Alison Morris on her blog, Shelftalker. [...]

Poetry Friday: Remembering Dr. King

who was assassinated 40 years ago today.
Lift Every Voice and Sing
by James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)
Lift ev’ry voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing [...]

Our Maggie and Our Anne

Still plowing through weekend papers:
In The Guardian, Margaret Atwood’s salute to Anne of Green Gables and “Annery”:
Nor is this process at an end: from the Anne of Green Gables Licensing Authority that gives the nod to all collateral products, expect more Anne boxed sets, Anne notepaper and Anne pencils, Anne coffee mugs and Anne [...]

Robert Fagles (1933-2008)

From Chris Hedges’s article in The New York Times, “A Bridge Between the Classics and the Masses”, April 13, 2004:
On his deathbed, the Roman poet Virgil asked that the manuscript of his greatest work, The Aeneid, be destroyed. It was, after a decade of writing, still flawed. And perhaps, as some have suggested, this gentle [...]

Richard Widmark (1914-2008)

Hollywood actor Richard Widmark died on Monday at the age of 93; he was also Sandy Koufax’s father-in-law for a time. The New York Times obituary, by Aljean Harmetz, is here. From which,
In reality, the screen’s most vicious psychopath was a mild-mannered former teacher who had married his college sweetheart, the actress Jean [...]

A good life

I don’t normally get obituaries in my Google Alerts, but the one below, from The St. Petersburg Times turned up over the weekend, and I find it moving and inspiring, even without death, dying, and obituaries on my mind.
Books took her wherever she wanted to go
by Stephanie Hayes, Times Staff Writer
Published March 8, 2008
TAMPA - [...]

Poetry Friday and Big Birthday Bash week #2: George Washington

A letter and a poem written in 1775 or 1776 to General George Washington (born on this date in 1732) from Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784):
To His Excellency
George Washington
Sir,
I have taken the freedom to address your Excellency in the enclosed poem, and entreat your acceptance, though I am not insensible of its inaccuracies. Your being appointed [...]

Looking and finding

I was beginning to despair of finding anything new and, well, unauthorized, to celebrate in this year of the Anne of Green Gables centennial, but perked up considerably earlier today upon discovering that next month will bring the publication of Looking for Anne: How Lucy Maud Montgomery Dreamed Up a Literary Classic by Irene Gammel [...]

Big Birthday Bash week: February 14

In between bites of chocolate today, spare a thought for George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., born on this date in 1859.

Ferris, of course, invented the Wheel, his great gift to the world for the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition.

* * *
The Great Wheel by Robert Lawson (1957, Newbery Honor)
More literary Ferris Wheel riding:
Charlotte’s [...]