[WILL-AM-FM] Writers Almanac (April 24-30)
Denise Perry
From: PRI
Date: 4/21/00
Re: The Writer's Almanac, poetry
Program Rundown: The Writer's Almanac
Poetry and Highlights for the Week of April 24, 2000
[WILL-FM/90.9 and FM 106.5 (Danville) and 101.1 FM (Champaign-
Urbana) air this program at 7:55AM (CDT) Monday through Sunday;
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Friday]
************ALL SEGMENTS 5:00*************
Broadcast date: MONDAY, 24 April 2000
Poem: Sonnet 102, by William Shakespeare (1564-1616).
On this day in 1800, THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS CREATED THE
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 3,000 volumes had been collected between
1800-1814 when the library was set on fire by the British during
the War of 1812 (August 24, 1814). The loss was mitigated by
the purchase of former President Thomas Jefferson's 6,000 volume
private library (January, 1815). The Library has begun to
digitize many of its images and documents, bringing over one
million items from the Library's holdings to the World Wide Web.
It's the birthday of American crime novelist SUE GRAFTON, born
in Louisville, Kentucky (1940). She's the author of a series of
mystery novels, starting with "A" Is For Alibi," and "B" Is For
Burglar. She delivers a completed manuscript for another letter
of the alphabet to her publisher every August 15th. She figures
she will be sixty-eight years old when "Z" Is For Zero is
published; her hero, Kinsey Millhone, will only be forty.
On this day in Dublin in 1916, a force of 2,000 IRISH
NATIONALISTS stormed the General Post Office, seized it, and
DELARED IRISH INDEPENDENCE FROM GREAT BRITAIN. The leaders of
the rebellion, Patrick Pearse, Joseph Plunkett, and James
Connolly, proclaimed a provisional Republican government. It
was the day after Easter Sunday, and the uprising lasted less
than one week. By Thursday, the British army had established
positions around the Post Office. By Saturday, Pearse had
surrendered. Sir John Maxwell, the British Commander in Chief,
ordered the peremptory execution of 15 insurrectionists while he
continued to hunt down and incarcerate members of Sinn Fein,
whom he assumed was behind the uprising. Maxwell's harshness
inspired a newfound patriotism, and drove Irish citizens in
droves to join Sinn Fein, the nationalist organization
against British rule. George Bernard Shaw said, "It is
absolutely impossible to slaughter a man [Pearse] in this
position without making him a martyr and a hero even though the
day before the rising he may have been only a minor poet."
It's the birthday of American poet and political activist GEORGE
OPPEN, born in New Rochelle, New York (1908). He was one of the
foremost Objectivist poets, emphasizing the poem as an object in
itself, not as a vehicle of meaning or association.
It's the birthday of poet and novelist ROBERT PENN WARREN, the
nation's first Poet Laureate, born in Guthrie, Kentucky (1905).
He's the author of the novel, All the King's Men (1946).
It's the birthday of English novelist, ELIZABETH GOUDGE, born in
Wells, Somerset, England (1900). Although she wrote several
successful novels, she remained most proud of her plays.
"Plays, just because they are so difficult and I never have any
success with them, are still my first love."
Its the birthday of English novelist ANTHONY TROLLOPE, born in
London, England (1815), who wrote novels of Victorian country
life. His best-loved and most famous work is Chronicles of
Barsetshire, set in an imaginary cathedral community, full of
the social and political intrigue of Victorian England. He also
wrote He Knew He Was Right (1869), Kept In The Dark (1882), and
the satirical Eustace Diamonds (1872).
TIME: 5:00
Broadcast date: TUESDAY, 25 April 2000
Poem: "April 25th, California," by Tom Clark, from Easter Sunday
(Coffeehouse Press).
It's the birthday of novelist PADGETT POWELL, born in
Gainsville, Florida (1952). His book, Edisto (1984) is the story
of a 12 year old boy growing up in a rural, backwater section of
South Carolina's Coastline. He says, "My interest remains with
those who fail deliberately and those who can't help it."
It's the birthday of author J(ay) ANTHONY LUKAS, born in New
York City (1933). He's best known for reporting on controversial
issues and social unrest. As a correspondent in the late 60s and
early 70s, he produced several critically acclaimed books,
including Don't Shoot--We Are Your Children, and Common Ground:
A Turbulent Decade In The Lives of Three American Families.
It's the birthday of American blues musician ALBERT KING, born
in Indianola, Mississippi (1923). He created a unique string-
bending guitar style because he was left-handed and taught
himself how to play a right-handed guitar upside down by pulling
the strings down. This technique would influence three
generations of musicians. He made his first record in 1953, Bad
Luck Blues, and later joined Stax Records in Memphis where he
released Born Under a Bad Sign (1967), and Live Wire/Blues Power
(1968).
It's the birthday of radio and television broadcaster EDWARD R.
MURROW, born in Greensboro, North Carolina (1908), but reared in
the lumber community of Blanchard, Washington. After college,
Murrow went to work for the CBS radio network and was appointed
"Director of Talks" for all 100 of its stations. Two years
later, he was sent to Europe as European Director to transmit
special events to America. His crisp, measured, and detailed
eyewitness reports of Hitler's arrival in Vienna established
Murrow's style.
It's the birthday of Italian physicist and inventor of a
successful system of radio telegraphy, GUGLIELMO MARCONI, born
in Rome, Italy (1874). In 1900, Marconi filed his now famous
patent No. 7777 for "Improvements in Apparatus for Wireless
Telegraphy." Then, a year later, he succeeded in receiving
signals transmitted from Cornwall, England, at St. Johns,
Newfoundland. This event was the beginning of the expansion of
radio communications and broadcasting.
It's the birthday of British poet and novelist WALTER de la
MARE, born in Charlton, Kent, England (1873).
On this day in 1816, LORD BYRON LEFT ENGLAND for permanent exile
in Europe amid rumors about his relationship with his half-
sister Augusta Leigh, and his bisexuality.
It's the birthday of English soldier OLIVER CROMWELL, born in
Huntingdon, Huntingdonshire, England (1599). He led
parliamentary forces during the English Civil Wars, helping to
overthrow the Stuart monarchy, and became lord protector of
England from 1653 to 1658 during the republican era. Cromwell
strongly believed in religious toleration, and permitted all
Christians to practice their own religion. He loved music, was
known to smoke, to drink sherry and small beer, and permitted
dancing at the marriage of his youngest daughter.
TIME: 5:00
Broadcast date: WEDNESDAY, 26 April 2000
Poem: "Grandson," by Anne Nicodemus Carpenter, from Ma's Ram and
Other Poems (Saturday Press).
It's the birthday of American novelist and short-story writer
BERNARD MALAMUD, born in New York City (1914). From the 1940s to
1986, Malamud taught in high schools and colleges, all the while
writing. He wrote The Natural (1952), a fable about a baseball
hero who is gifted with miraculous powers, and The Fixer (1966),
which won a Pulitzer Prize. He also wrote short stories,
including The Magic Barrel (1958), Idiots First (1963), Pictures
of Fidelman (1969), and Rembrandt's Hat (1973).
Its the birthday of A(braham) H(enry) RASKIN, born in Edmonton,
Canada--(1911). He wrote for the New York Times for four
decades, and was an authority on labor and industrial relations.
In 1953 he won the George Polk Memorial Award for his articles
exposing racketeering in labor unions.
It's the birthday of the "mother of the blues," MA RAINEY, born
in Columbus, Georgia (1886). She is considered by many to be
the first great black professional blues singer. From 1904
throughout the 1920s, she and her husband, William ("Pa")
Rainey, a comedian, toured southern tent shows, camps, and
cabarets as a song-and-dance team. Rainey recorded more than 90
songs with country blues musicians and black jazz players,
finally retiring in 1933.
On this day in 1877, the RESIDENTS OF MINNESOTA OBSERVED A
STATEWIDE DAY OF PRAYER, asking for deliverance from a plague of
grasshoppers that had been ravishing their farm crops that year.
On April 27th and 28th, Minnesota was hit by a violent
snowstorm, and the grasshoppers froze.
It's the birthday of ornithologist, artist, and naturalist JOHN
JAMES AUDUBON, born in Les Cayes, Saint-Domingue, West Indies
(1785). Young Audubon developed an interest in drawing birds
during his boyhood in France. In 1827 the engraver Robert Havell
of London published Audubon's illustrations as The Birds of
America in 4 volumes with 435 hand-colored plates. In 1866 the
National Audubon Society, dedicated to the conservation of birds
in the USA, was founded in his honor.
TIME: 5:00
Broadcast date: THURSDAY, 27 April 2000
Poem: Sonnet 75, by William Shakespeare (1564-1616).
On this day in 1989, students from more than 40 universities
ignored the warnings of violent suppression and MARCHED ON
BEIJING'S TIANANMEN SQUARE IN CHINA. They were there to protest
the Communist Party's newspaper editorial which accused a "small
handful of plotters" of stirring up student unrest.
It's the birthday of American playwright AUGUST WILSON, born in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1945). He dropped out of high school,
but spent a lot of time in the public library where he read
works by Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright. His
first major play, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, was inspired by the
great blues singer Bessie Smith. It opened at the Court Theater
on Broadway and ran for 275 performances. From this success, he
went on to write Fences, for which he won his first Pulitzer
Prize for drama. The Piano Lesson earned his second Pulitzer
Prize.
It's the birthday of Irish poet, critic and detective-story
writer, C(ecil) DAY LEWIS, born in Ballintogher, Ireland (1904).
He published some 20 books of verse, four novels, an
autobiography, and a number of books of literary criticism. He
also wrote several sophisticated detective novels under the
pseudonym Nicholas Blake.
It's the birthday of animator WALTER LANTZ, the creator of Woody
Woodpecker, born in New Rochelle, N.Y. (1900). Woody Woodpecker
made his first appearance, uttering his machine-gun laugh, in
Knock Knock (1940). Lantz's wife Grace was one of those who
supplied Woody Woodpecker's voice.
It's the birthday of the 18th president of the United Sates,
ULYSSES S. GRANT, born in Point Pleasant, Ohio (1822). Grant
attended West Point, and later distinguished himself at
Monterrey, Mexico. He eventually resigned from the army after
being censured for intoxication. When the Civil War broke out,
he answered President Lincoln's call to volunteer, and had a
number of important successes in eastern Tennessee. President
Lincoln made him commander of the Union armies in 1864. A
brilliant strategist, he devised a military maneuver against
Sherman's army which brought about the Confederate surrender at
Appomattox in 1865.
It's the birthday of American artist and inventor, SAMUEL
F(inley) B(reese) MORSE born in Charlestown, Massachusetts--
(1791). He started his career as an accomplished painter of
historical portraits, but always remained curious about
electricity and the possibility of transmitting information by
electric impulses. He conceived an idea for a code based on
dots and dashes to send and receive messages. These would
become known as the "Morse code." Congress gave him the money to
build a telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
(1843). By the time of his death in 1872, his invention was in
use throughout the world.
TIME: 5:00
Broadcast date: FRIDAY, 28 April 2000
Poem: "This is Where," by Mary Oliver, from House of Light
(Beacon Press).
Today, the last Friday in April, is ARBOR DAY, first observed in
Nebraska (1872), where it is still a state holiday. Arbor Day
was originated by Julius Sterling Morton, president of the
American Forestry Association. He came up with the idea of a
day for planting trees in his home state of Nebraska -- and the
idea seemed to capture people's imaginations, because on the
first Arbor Day, in 1872, Nebraskans planted one million
trees. Today, there's a 200,000-acre national forest in
Nebraska planted with Arbor Day trees, and seedlings have been
taken from it for planting in other, tree-depleted countries.
Morton once wrote, "Other holidays repose upon the past; Arbor
Day proposes for the future."
It's the birthday of American poet CAROLYN FORCHE, born in
Detroit, Michigan (1950), author of Gathering the Tribes, and
Burning the Tomato Worms.
On this day in 1947 THOR HEYERDAL AND FIVE COMPANIONS SAILED OFF
IN THE "KON-TIKI," a balsa wood raft they named for a legendary
Incan god. They left the western coast of South America and
headed for the islands east of Tahiti, to prove Heyerdahl's
theory that ancient people from the Americas could have
colonized Polynesia. The crew was afloat for three and a half
months, traversing some 5,000 miles of ocean.
It's the birthday of HARPER LEE, born in Monroeville, Alabama
(1926). In 1957 she submitted a manuscript to the J.B.
Lippincott Company; she was told that it seemed more like short
stories than a novel, and was asked to re-write it. She did, and
in 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird was published.
It's the birthday of author and editor BILL BLACKBEARD, born in
Indianapolis, Indiana (1926). He's the author of numerous books
about cartoons, comic strips, and pulp fiction, and has compiled
the works of early cartoonists. He founded The San Francisco
Academy of Comic Art in 1967. In 1978, he was nominated for the
National Book Award for history, for The Smithsonian Collection
of Newspaper Comics, a sampling of American comic strips from
1896 to 1950.
It's the anniversary today of the most famous naval mutiny of
all time--THE MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY. Fletcher Christian, the
master's mate, seized control of the ship from the tyrannical
William Bligh. Christian and his followers went ashore in
Tahiti, where they picked up 6 men and 12 women and set sail
again. They took the Bounty to Pitcairn Island, burned it, and
remained undiscovered for eighteen years. By that time, only
one member of the mutinous crew survived, but the colony
thrived, and their descendants still live there today.
TIME: 5:00
Broadcast date: SATURDAY, 29 April 2000
Poem: Sonnet 94, by William Shakespeare 1564-1616.
On this day in 1975, the final 1,000 AMERICANS WERE EVACUATED
FROM SAIGON, SOUTH VIETNAM, using 81 American helicopters.
Eleven marines, waiting atop the roof of the American Embassy,
were the last to leave, ending the American military involvement
in Vietnam.
It's the birthday of American poet YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA, born in
Bogalusa, Louisiana (1947). He won a number of awards for
poetry including a Pulitzer Prize for Neon Vernacular: New and
Selected Poems.
It's the birthday of French-Canadian author and editor GILBERT
La ROCQUE, born in Rosemont, Quebec (1943). He's the author of
the novel Les Masques (1980).
It's the birthday of conductor ZUBIN MEHTA, born in Bombay,
India (1936). His father was a musical genius who taught himself
how to play the violin and founded the Bombay Symphony
Orchestra. Zubin learned to play the violin and the piano by the
age of seven, and by the age of sixteen was conducting full
orchestral rehearsals. At the age of twenty-six, he was offered
the post of musical director with the Los Angeles Philharmonic -
the youngest man ever to hold that title.
It's the birthday of editor ROBERT GOTTLIEB, born in New York
City (1931). As an editor at Simon & Schuster he made his mark
with his first major project, a Joseph Heller manuscript titled
Catch 18. He accepted the book on the strength of a few
chapters, but because Leon Uris had a book in the works called
Mila 18, Gottlieb suggested the now famous title: Catch-22. In
1987 he succeeded William Shawn as editor of The New Yorker
magazine.
It's the birthday of conductor, composer and bandleader DUKE
ELLINGTON, born in Washington, D.C. (1899). He began to study
the piano when he was seven and was much influenced by ragtime
pianists. In his early twenties he formed the Washingtonians, a
ten-piece orchestra. During the late 20s and early 30s, the band
grew to 12 musicians, and played at the Cotton Club in Harlem.
The success of Mood Indigo, which he wrote in 1930, brought
Ellington worldwide fame, and he began to experiment with more
extended composition -- Creole Rhapsody, Reminiscin in Tempo and
Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue.
It's the birthday of American chemist HAROLD UREY, born in
Walkerton, Indiana (1893). He discovered heavy hydrogen, which
opened the possibility of the nuclear bomb. Urey did wartime
research for the Manhattan Project, but he strongly opposed
nuclear weapons. He said he thought that heavy hydrogen might
eventually have practical use in "something like neon signs."
It's the birthday of publishing baron William Randolph Hearst,
born in San Francisco, California (1863). Hearst bought the
failing New York Morning Journal when he was in his thirties. He
added daily black-and-white comic strips and colored Sunday
supplements to his paper as well as sensational reporting of
crime, sex, scandal, sports, and human-interest stories. "A
Hearst newspaper is like a screaming woman running down the
street with her throat cut," one of his writer's said. Within a
year the circulation had risen from 77,000 to over a million.
TIME: 5:00
Broadcast date: SUNDAY, 30 April 2000
Poem: "Locomotion," by Philip Bryant, from Sermon on a Perfect
Spring Day (New Rivers Press.
On this day in 1844, during a fishing trip near Concord, HENRY
DAVID THOREAU and Edward Hoar went on a rowboat excursion up the
Sudbury River. They stopped about a mile up the river to cook
their catch of fish, and STARTED A FIRE in an old stump to make
chowder. The fire quickly went out of control and spread through
the neighboring woods, burning 300 acres and causing $2,000 in
damages. Many residents never forgave Thoreau for his
carelessness. Nor did Thoreau forgive himself, for six years
later, he wrote five pages in his journal about the affair.
It's the birthday of American author ANNIE DILLARD, born in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1945), best known for her most popular
book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, for which she won the 1975
Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction. Dillard says the book is
"really a book of theology," and the desire to know and
experience God. She's also the author of Ticket for A Prayer
Wheel (1974) and Holy The Firm (1977).
It's the birthday of American science fiction writer LAURENCE
VAN COTT NIVEN, born in Los Angeles, California (1938). A
prolific writer, Niven's novels speculate about the technologies
of the future. He said, "I wait for the scientists' [research]
results and then write stories about them...I try to make my
stories as technically accurate as possible." Ringworld tells
of creating artificial planets that would provide mankind with
more room for its expanding population.
It's the birthday of American poet JOHN CROWE RANSOM, born in
Pulaski, Tennessee (1888). After graduating from Vanderbilt
University in 1909 with a Rhodes Scholarship, he studied at
Christ Church College, in Oxford, where met Christopher Morley,
who introduced him to modern poetry. He eventually returned to
Vanderbilt, where he taught English for 23 years, and became a
member of an informal seminar of students and teachers opposed
to the genteel sentimentality of popular Southern writing - a
group known as "The Fugitives".
It's the birthday of American writer and literary confidant,
Alice B. Toklas, born in San Francisco, California (1877). At
age 30, after years of caring for her mother and male relatives,
Alice B. Toklas moved to Paris where she met her life-long
partner, Gertrude Stein. She became Stein's personal secretary,
typing, editing, and organizing manuscripts, and there is some
evidence that she was Stein's co-author for Ada (1908-1912) and
A Novel of Thank You (1925). She wrote a volume of memoirs, What
is Remembered (1963), and The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook, a
collection of recipes and stories of her travels. In 1957 she
joined the Catholic Church in order to insure an afterlife with
Stein.
TIME: 5:00