Today's video features a complete full cast reading of Bram Stoker's classic novel Dracula. Enjoy!

IWW Members' Publishing Successes For The Week Ending 5/24/26

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Petersen) — Mon, 25 May 2026 10:30:00 +0000

Pamelyn Casto

Carmina magazine accepted my poem on the ancient Aztec god, Tlaloc. The editor says she loves it and will run it in her September issue. She also asked me to write a short piece on how the poem came to be.

I collect gods and goddesses from all times and places and like to write poetry about them.

Notes For May 22nd, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Petersen) — Fri, 22 May 2026 10:30:00 +0000

This Day In Literary History

On May 22nd, 1859, the legendary English writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. The son of a drunkard, his father's only accomplishment in life was siring an intellectually gifted child.

At the age of eight, Arthur Conan Doyle was sent to a Jesuit prep school called Hodder Place. From there, he attended a Jesuit university, Stonyhurst College, but after graduating in 1875, he cast off the yoke of Christianity and became an agnostic.

For the next five years, Conan Doyle studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. During this time, he began writing short stories. He sold his first story to Chambers's Edinburgh Journal before his 20th birthday.

In 1882, he joined his classmate George Budd in a Plymouth medical practice, but their relationship soon soured. Conan Doyle left for Portsmouth, where he set up his own medical practice. Unsuccessful at first, he began writing stories again while waiting for patients.

After many rejections, his debut novel A Study In Scarlet was published, first in 1887 by Beeton's Christmas Annual magazine, then in book form a year later, with illustrations by his father, Charles.

The novel's main character was a detective called Sherlock Holmes. The brilliant, analytical, and laid-back Holmes was assisted by his friend, Dr. John Watson, who also served as narrator for the duo's adventures.

When he wasn't solving crimes, Holmes' passions included playing the violin and enjoying a good game of chess. He was also fond of cocaine and morphine, which he used to escape from "the dull routine of existence."

As a detective, Holmes wasn't above deceiving the police or concealing evidence if necessary to solve the crime. His main nemesis was the evil Professor Moriarty, who possessed an intellect comparable to Holmes.

A Study In Scarlet was the first of four novels and 56 short stories to feature Sherlock Holmes, who would become one of the greatest iconic literary characters of all time.

Conan Doyle himself would later become a real life sleuth, investigating closed cases where he believed that the defendants had been wrongfully convicted.

In 1906, his first case, that of a half-English, half-Indian lawyer named George Edalji who had been wrongfully convicted of writing threatening letters and mutilating animals, led to the establishment of England's Court of Criminal Appeal one year later.

In addition to the Sherlock Holmes novels and stories, Conan Doyle's large body of work also included a series of science fiction writings featuring the character of Professor Challenger.

Though he possessed a brilliant mind like Sherlock Holmes, he was far from laid-back and described as "a homicidal megalomaniac with a turn for science." Conan Doyle's first work to feature Professor Challenger, a novel called The Lost World, was published in 1912.

In it, Professor Challenger claims to have discovered a South American plateau where dinosaurs still exist. A skeptical reporter, Edward Malone, accompanies Challenger on an expedition and finds that the irascible scientist was right. Not only are there dinosaurs in the Lost World, but a race of ape-men as well.

Conan Doyle was a believer in the supernatural world and wrote two nonfiction books on it, The Coming Of The Fairies (1921) and The History Of Spiritualism (1926).

In the 1920s, he became friends with the legendary American magician Harry Houdini, but Houdini's work as a prominent debunker of spiritualism soon led to a bitter falling out between the two men.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was knighted in 1902, an honor he believed was bestowed on him as the result of The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct, a pamphlet he had written justifying England's role in the Boer War to an outraged world.

He later wrote a nonfiction book on the conflict called The Great Boer War. He died in 1930 of a heart attack at the age of 71. He will always be remembered as one of the greatest mystery writers of all time.

Quote Of The Day

"My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation."

- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Vanguard Video

Today's video features the only filmed interview with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle known to exist - an early talkie shot for a 1929 Movietone News newsreel. Enjoy!

Notes For May 21st, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Petersen) — Thu, 21 May 2026 10:30:00 +0000

This Day In Literary History

On May 21st, 1688, the legendary English writer and scholar Alexander Pope was born in London. As a young boy, Pope's education was complicated by the anti-Catholic laws enacted to establish the Church of England as the British empire's official clerical body.

Unable to attend public school, he was taught to read and write by his aunt. Pope began his formal education at Twyford School in Hampshire. Twyford was a Church of England public school, but its administrators chose to ignore the law and allow him to attend.

He would later attend Catholic schools which, though technically illegal, were tolerated in some towns. When he was twelve years old, Pope contracted Pott's disease, a rare form of tuberculosis that attacks the bones and deforms them.

The disease left him a hunchback and stunted his growth. He would grow no taller than 4'6", or 1.37 meters. Already a social pariah because he was Catholic, Pope's deformities alienated him further from society.

He would never marry, but he had many female friends, and wrote them witty letters. One woman, his lifelong friend Martha Blount, was allegedly his lover.

Pope's health problems, which also included respiratory trouble, high fevers, inflammation of the eyes, and stomach pain, didn't affect his mind. He gained a reputation for his intellect, his rapacious wit, and his satirical verse.

When his first poetry collection, Pastorals (1709), appeared in the sixth part of publisher Jacob Tonson's anthology Poetical Miscellanies, it made him an overnight sensation. He soon struck up friendships with fellow writers Jonathan Swift, John Gay, Thomas Parnell, and John Arbuthnot.

Together, they formed the Scriblerus Club, which was dedicated to satirizing ignorance and pedantry via a fictional scholar named Martinus Scriblerus. Pope continued on his path of literary success with his poems The Rape of the Lock (1712) and Windsor Forest (1713).

The Rape of the Lock was one of Pope's most popular poems. The mock-heroic epic poem satirized the high society quarrel between Arabella Fermor (named Belinda in the poem) and Lord Petre, (the Baron) who had cut off a lock of her hair without her permission.

Pope mocks the conflict in an epic style; after Belinda's hair is stolen, she tries to get it back but it flies through the air and turns into a star. He later became friends with poet and playwright Joseph Addison and contributed to Addison's classic play, Cato.

He also wrote essays for magazines of the day such as The Guardian and The Spectator. His classic epic poem An Essay on Criticism was first published anonymously in 1711.

A satirical attempt to declare and refine his views as a poet and critic, the poem was said to be Pope's response to an ongoing debate on whether poetry should be a natural product of the poet's mind and heart or written according to predetermined, traditional rules like meter.

In his inimitable style, Pope deliberately leaves the poem unclear and full of contradictions. His own position was that while rules were necessary, so was the passion and imagination that gave poetry its mysterious, sometimes baffling qualities.

An Essay on Criticism featured the famous line, "For fools rush in where angels fear to tread." Pope's most ambitious projects were his English translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Beginning in 1717, his translation of the Iliad appeared in one volume a year over a six year period.

For his translation of the Odyssey, Pope, confronted with the arduousness of the task and his increasingly frail health, employed his friends William Broome and Elijah Fenton to work on the translation with him.

The entire translation was published under Pope's name; when word got out that he hadn't translated the entire work himself, his reputation took a hit, but the translation of the Odyssey still sold well. It first appeared in 1726.

Before he began work on the Odyssey, a volume of Shakespeare's plays transcribed and edited by Pope was published. The volume had been commissioned by Pope's publisher. It was hugely controversial - more like a revision of Shakespeare's plays than a transcription.

Pope cut over 1,500 lines and relegated them to footnotes, believing them to be of such poor quality that he doubted Shakespeare had ever written them. These lines, he thought, were the result of actors' interpolations. Poet Lewis Theobald wrote a scathing pamphlet denouncing the volume called Shakespeare Restored.

Among Pope's last great works were a series of poems called Imitations of Horace. Appearing between 1733-38, they were satires of life under King George II and the corruption of Robert Walpole's ministry, which Pope believed was tainting Britain. By the time he completed the series in 1738, his health began to deteriorate.

He planned to write an epic blank verse poem called Brutus, but he abandoned it and only a few lines have survived. Instead, he devoted his remaining years to revising his final masterwork, The Dunciad.

The four-book satirical epic poem told the story of how the goddess Dulness and her servants plunge Britain into a quagmire of imbecility, tastelessness, and ultimately, decay. Originally written in three books, Pope revised it and added a fourth book, which was published in 1742.

Alexander Pope died two years later, on May 30th, 1744. He was 56 years old.

Quote Of The Day

"If you want to know what God thinks about money, just look at the people He gives it to."

- Alexander Pope

Vanguard Video

Today's video features a complete reading of Alexander Pope's classic satirical epic poem, The Rape of the Lock. Enjoy!

Notes For May 20th, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Petersen) — Wed, 20 May 2026 10:30:00 +0000

This Day In Literary History

On May 20th, 1937, the legendary English writer George Orwell (the pseudonym of Eric Blair) was wounded in action while fighting the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. He was shot in the throat by a sniper.

Orwell fought alongside the POUM, (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista - the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification) which was allied with Britain's Labour Party, of which he was a member.

The POUM was one of several leftist factions which had formed a loose coalition to fight General Franco's fascists. Another member of this coalition was the Spanish Communist Party, controlled by the Soviet Union.

At the Soviets' insistence, the Spanish Communist Party denounced the POUM as a Trotskyist organization and falsely claimed that they were in cahoots with the fascists. Near the end of the war, the POUM was outlawed, and the Spanish Communist Party attacked its members.

Tragically, this infighting would break apart the coalition and give the fascists the opportunity to win the war. While George Orwell recovered from his injuries in a POUM hospital, he had a lot of time to think, and he came to hate Soviet communism.

Orwell would later become famous for his novels Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), both of which were brilliant allegorical satires of Stalinism. Animal Farm was a modern cautionary fable, while Nineteen Eighty-Four was a work of dystopic science fiction.

In the years since their publication, the right in the United States and Europe embraced these novels as the bibles of anticommunism. George Orwell became their hero, and this led to a popular misconception that he had been a staunch conservative - perhaps even a fascist - though he was really a lifelong socialist.

Just before leaving for Spain, he had written a nonfiction book called The Road To Wigan Pier. After publisher Victor Gollancz encouraged Orwell to investigate and write about the depressed social conditions in Northern England, he went to the poor coal mining town of Wigan, where he lived in a dirty room over a tripe shop.

He met many people and took extensive notes of the living conditions and wages, explored the mine, and spent days in the town's library researching public health records, working conditions in mines, and other data. The result was The Road To Wigan Pier (1937).

The book is divided into two parts. The first part is a straightforward documentary about life in Wigan. The second is Orwell's philosophical attempt to answer the question that if socialism can improve the appalling conditions in Wigan and such places around the world - which it can - then why aren't we all socialists?

Orwell places the blame on the ferocious prejudices of the white Christian middle class against the lower working class, the poor, and other people they associate with socialism, such as blacks, Jews, atheists, hippies, pacifists, and feminists.

He concludes that:

The ordinary man may not flinch from a dictatorship of the proletariat, if you offer it tactfully; offer him a dictatorship of the prigs, and he gets ready to fight.

The lesson Orwell teaches us in Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four is that even an idea as noble as socialism can become corrupted and twisted into something far worse than the ills it seeks to cure, and we must not let that happen.

He remained a lifelong socialist and always hoped for a better world free of poverty, inequality, and social injustice. George Orwell died of tuberculosis in January of 1950 at the age of 46.

Quote Of The Day

"In our age, there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia."

- George Orwell

Vanguard Video

Today's video features rare newsreel footage of George Orwell during the Spanish Civil War - demonstrating how to make tea in a trench! Enjoy!

Notes For May 19th, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Petersen) — Tue, 19 May 2026 10:30:00 +0000

This Day In Literary History

On May 19th, 1930, the famous African-American playwright Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago, Illinois. Her father, Carl Hansberry, was a prominent real estate broker.

In 1938, when Lorraine was eight years old, her father moved the family to an all-white neighborhood where a majority of homeowners had formed a covenant that banned blacks from buying homes in the neighborhood. So, he had a white friend buy the house for him.

After the Hansberrys moved into their new home, they were attacked by an angry mob. A brick was thrown through Lorraine's bedroom window, and she just barely avoided being struck by it.

Her father later sued the white homeowners for discrimination, and in the case of Hansberry v. Lee, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision banning homeowners' associations from discriminating against home buyers and renters on the basis of their race.

Although Lorraine's father had prevailed in court, the family was still subjected to harassment from their racist white neighbors. She later quipped that she had lived in a typical "warm and cuddly white neighborhood."

Ironically, after her death, her family home would be designated by the city of Chicago as a historical landmark. The climate of racism she grew up with would inspire her to write her first and most famous play, A Raisin in the Sun (1959).

The title comes from a line in the poem Harlem by legendary African-American poet Langston Hughes. Set in the 1940s, A Raisin in the Sun tells the story of the Youngers, a poor black family living in a small apartment in Chicago's South Side.

The family patriarch has died, and his survivors will soon receive an insurance check for ten thousand dollars. His widow, Mama, wants to fulfill the dream she shared with her husband and buy a house.

Her grown son, Walter, wants to use the money to invest in a liquor store with his friends - an investment he believes will provide the whole family with long term financial security. Beneatha, Walter's sister, wants to use the money to pay for her medical school tuition.

Walter's wife, Ruth, agrees with Mama, believing that a new house would provide more living space for themselves and their son, Travis. As the play progresses, the Youngers fight over their conflicting dreams.

When Ruth becomes pregnant, she considers having an abortion, as she and Walter really can't afford another child. Walter doesn't object, which drives Mama to put a down payment on a nice house in a white neighborhood.

Beneatha is not happy about her family mixing with whites. She's not the only one. When the Youngers' soon-to-be new neighbors find out that the black family is moving in, they send Mr. Lindner from the Clybourne Park Improvement Association to bribe them to stay out of the neighborhood.

They refuse the deal, even after Walter loses the rest of the insurance money when his friend Willy runs off with it instead of investing it in the liquor store. In the play's third act, Beneatha's Nigerian boyfriend wants her to move to Africa with him after she graduates.

Meanwhile, the rest of the family prepares to move out of their apartment and into their new house, fulfilling their dream but also exposing them to a dangerously racist environment. When A Raisin in the Sun opened in 1959, it became the first play written by an African-American to be produced for the Broadway stage.

The original cast featured Sidney Poitier as Walter, Ruby Dee as Ruth, and Claudia McNeil as Mama. It would be adapted as an acclaimed feature film in 1961, with the entire original Broadway cast reprising their roles - including a young Louis Gossett Jr. as George Murchison.

The play would also be adapted as a hit Broadway musical called Raisin in 1973. The musical would be nominated for nine Tony awards and run for 847 performances. Original cast members included Joe Morton as Walter, Debbie Allen as Beneatha, Ernestine Jackson as Ruth, Ralph Carter as Travis, and Virginia Capers as Mama.

Lorraine Hansberry wrote several other plays, including her second most famous play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. After 110 performances, the play closed on the day she died, January 12th, 1965. She was 34 years old and had lost a long battle with cancer.

Despite her illness, she continued to work as an activist for civil rights, women's rights, and other causes. Her other writings were turned into an acclaimed play called To Be Young, Gifted, and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words. It would be the longest running off Broadway play of the 1968-69 season.

Quote Of The Day

"Write if you will: but write about the world as it is and as you think it ought to be and must be — if there is to be a world. Write about all the things that men have written about since the beginning of writing and talking — but write to a point. Work hard at it, care about it. You have something glorious to draw on begging for attention. Don’t pass it up. Use it."

- Lorraine Hansberry

Vanguard Video

Today's video features a rare recording of Lorraine Hansberry speaking in New York City, circa 1964. Enjoy!

Notes For May 15th, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Petersen) — Fri, 15 May 2026 10:30:00 +0000

This Day In Literary History

On May 15th, 1890, the famous American writer Katherine Anne Porter was born. She was born Callie Russell Porter in Indian Creek, Texas. The fourth of five children, she was a descendant of the legendary frontiersman Daniel Boone. The famous writer O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) was her father's second cousin.

When Callie was two years old, her mother died of complications following the birth of her last child. Callie's father sent his children to live with his mother, and the children, especially Callie, adored their grandmother.

Seven years later, Callie's grandmother died suddenly. She and her siblings lived with various relatives or in rented rooms paid for by their father. At the age of 16, Callie ran off to marry her boyfriend John Henry Koontz, the son of a wealthy rancher.

In order to marry Koontz, Callie, a Methodist, had to convert to Catholicism, which she did. Her devout Catholic husband turned out to be an abusive drunk who once threw her down the stairs, breaking her ankle.

After suffering for nine years in a rotten marriage, Callie divorced her husband - a shocking thing for a woman to do in 1915. As part of her divorce decree, Callie had the court legally change her name to Katherine Anne Porter, which was the name of her beloved grandmother.

From there, Katherine fled Texas for Chicago, where she tried her hand at acting and singing, but that was cut short when she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She spent two years in a TB sanitarium before it was discovered that she'd been misdiagnosed; she actually had bronchitis.

During her stay at the sanitarium, Katherine decided to become a writer. She began her writing career as a newspaper drama critic and gossip columnist. Then, during the 1918 flu pandemic, she contracted the virus and nearly died from it.

She was left in a frail state; her hair turned white and would remain white for the rest of her life. After regaining her health, Katherine moved to New York City's Greenwich Village, where she made her living as a ghostwriter and movie company publicist. She also wrote children's stories.

By 1920, she met some Mexican revolutionary leaders, including legendary painter Diego Rivera, and traveled to Mexico to cover the leftist revolution. She would split her time between Mexico and New York City, where she continued to write short stories and would become a master of the form.

One of her best known stories was The Jilting of Granny Weatherall. In it, the sick, elderly Granny lies on her deathbed. Her daughter Cornelia has been serving as her caregiver, but Granny considers herself a much better housekeeper than Cornelia.

The delirious Granny is still obsessed with George, the man who jilted her at the altar when they were a young couple. She later married her late husband John, and it was a happy marriage, but Granny never got over George and still loves him.

Meanwhile, she's visited by her priest, Father Connolly, whom she chides for being more interested in drinking tea and gossiping than in the welfare of her soul. She's also visited by her son, Jimmy.

What she really wants is to see her daughter Hapsy, who never comes to visit. It's suggested, but not directly implied, that Hapsy died at birth. Granny has a vision of Hapsy visiting her and holding a baby, but it's really another daughter, Lydia, who has come to visit.

Realizing that she's dying, Granny doesn't want to go yet and worries what will happen if she can't find Hapsy. She looks for a sign from God. No sign comes, and Granny, believing that she's been jilted again, dies in despair.

Katherine married her second husband, Ernest Stock, in 1926. The marriage would only last a year, ending when the philandering Stock gave her venereal disease. During both her marriages, she had tried to conceive children, only to suffer miscarriages and at least one stillbirth.

After divorcing Stock, she had a hysterectomy. During the 1930s, Katherine spent several years in Europe, continued writing short stories, and endured two more disastrous marriages. She continued to receive acclaim for her short story collections.

In the 1940s and 50s, she taught at several universities, including Stanford, the University of Michigan, and the University of Texas. Her very unconventional method of teaching endeared her to her students.

As a short story writer, Katherine Anne Porter loved to delve into the dark side of human nature. Though she was best known for her short stories, she also wrote four novellas (she hated the term novella) and one full length novel, which would become a classic.

Ship of Fools, published on April 1st, 1962, (April Fool's Day) took Porter over twenty years to write. She was never really satisfied with it, calling it "unwieldy" and "enormous."

The novel received mixed reviews at the time of its publication, but has since been recognized for its brilliance and prescient insight into the human condition. It was an existentialist character study rather than a standard plot driven story.

It's the summer of 1931, and a cruise ship has left Mexico, bound for Germany. The ship contains a variety of passengers. Many are German expatriates, but there is also a drunken lawyer, an American divorcee, a Spanish noblewoman, two Mexican Catholic priests, and others.

In following these characters, Porter explores the nature of nationalism, racism, xenophobia, and human frailty in general as she examines the attitudes that would enable Hitler to come to power, maintain dictatorial control, and plunge Europe into a devastating war. The story is full of passion, duplicity, and treachery.

Ship of Fools became the best selling novel of 1962 and a Book of the Month Club selection. The movie rights were snapped up immediately for $500,000 - the equivalent of about five million dollars in today's money. It provided Katherine with financial security for the rest of her life.

The feature film adaptation of Ship of Fools premiered in July, 1965. It was directed by Stanley Kramer, best known for classic films such as The Defiant Ones (1958), On The Beach (1959), and Judgement At Nuremberg (1961).

Featuring a screenplay by Abby Mann, Ship of Fools starred Vivien Leigh in her last film role. The film won an Oscar for Best Cinematography and was nominated for several other Academy Awards. It is rightfully considered one of the most acclaimed films of the 1960s.

In 1965, The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter was published. It would win the author a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Twelve years later, in 1977, Porter, then 87 years old, published her last book, The Never-Ending Wrong.

The Never-Ending Wrong was a work of nonfiction - an account of the infamous trial and execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, which Porter had protested against when it took place fifty years earlier.

Sacco and Vanzetti were two Italian immigrant anarchists who had been tried, convicted, and executed for robbery and murder in Massachusetts. Their politically charged trial, controversial to this day, was tainted by racism and malicious prosecution, including coerced false testimony.

Katherine Anne Porter died in 1980 at the age of 90.

Quote Of The Day

“A story is like something you wind out of yourself. Like a spider, it is a web you weave, and you love your story like a child.”

- Katherine Anne Porter

Vanguard Video

Today's video features Katherine Anne Porter being interviewed by James Day on the 1970s PBS TV show, Day At Night. Enjoy!

Notes For May 14th, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Petersen) — Thu, 14 May 2026 10:30:00 +0000

This Day In Literary History

On May 14th, 1962, A Clockwork Orange, the classic novel by the famous English writer Anthony Burgess, was published in London. The title comes from the British slang expression, "queer as a clockwork orange."

An antifascist parable set in a dystopic England of the future, it examined a major problem facing Britain at the time of its publication - skyrocketing juvenile delinquency and the government's inability to deal with it effectively.

The novel was also inspired by the vicious gang rape of the author's pregnant wife by four American soldiers while he was away serving in the British Army during World War II. She lost the baby and, to add insult to injury, the Army denied the author leave to see her.

The novel is narrated by its main character, Alex, who refers to himself as "Alexander the Large." A highly intelligent but psychopathic teenager, he leads the Droogs, a violent street gang comprised of his friends Pete, Georgie, and Dim. Alex introduces everyone and sets the scene in this unforgettable opening paragraph:

There was me, that is Alex, and my three Droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry. The Korova Milkbar was a milk-plus mesto, and you may, O my brothers, have forgotten what these mestos were like, things changing so skorry these days and everybody very quick to forget, newspapers not being read much, neither. Well, what they sold there was milk plus something else. They had no licence for selling liquor, but there was no law yet against prodding some of the new veshches which they used to put into the old moloko, so you could peet it with vellocet or synthmesc or drencrom or one or two other veshches which would give you a nice quiet horrorshow fifteen minutes admiring Bog and All His Holy Angels And Saints in your left shoe with lights bursting all over your mozg. Or you could peet milk with knives in it, as we used to say, this would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of dirty twenty-to-one, and that was what we were peeting this evening I'm starting off the story with.

The dazzling poetic prose is written in Nadsat, a language invented by Anthony Burgess for this novel. It's a dialect that combines standard English with British, Slavic, and Russian slang expressions and made-up words. Alex speaks this language as he tells his horrific story.

The novel opens with Alex and his gang at a milk bar, where they drink drugged milk to get themselves high and ready for committing random acts of violence. First, they gleefully beat an old, homeless drunkard. One night, while joyriding in a stolen car, the gang breaks into an isolated cottage.

They terrorize the occupants, beating the husband and raping his wife. When he's not out with his gang, Alex passes the time in his dreary home, escaping his poor excuse for parents by blasting the works of his favorite composer, "Ludwig Van," (Beethoven) and masturbating to violent sexual fantasies.

When Georgie challenges Alex for leadership of the gang, he puts down the rebellion by beating Georgie in a fight and slashing open Dim's hand. Then he takes them out for drinks at the milk bar.

Georgie and Dim have had enough, but Alex demands that the gang follow through with Georgie's plan for a "man-sized job" and rob a rich old woman who lives alone. The robbery is botched when the victim calls the police - but not before she is assaulted and knocked out.

The gang then turns on Alex, attacking him and leaving him to take the fall when the police arrive. The old woman later dies from her injuries and Alex is accused of murder.

After spending a couple of years in prison, Alex becomes an involuntary participant in an experimental rehabilitation procedure called the Ludovico Technique, which is supposed to remove all violent and criminal impulses from the human psyche.

The prison chaplain is opposed to the Ludovico Technique. He argues that conscious, willing moral choice is a necessary component of humanity. Nevertheless, Alex is forced to undergo the procedure.

For two weeks, his eyes are wired open and he is forced to watch violent images on a screen while being given a drug that induces extreme nausea. It's basically a horrific form of aversion therapy.

When Alex recognizes the soundtrack to the violent film presentation as Beethoven's fifth symphony, he begs the doctors to turn off the sound, telling them that's a sin to take away his love of music, and Beethoven never did anything wrong. They refuse.

After the procedure is completed, Alex is brought before an audience of prison and government officials and declared successfully rehabilitated. To demonstrate this, they show how Alex is unable to react with violence even in self defense, and becomes crippled by extreme nausea when sexually aroused.

The outraged prison chaplain again protests the Ludovico Technique, accusing the state of taking away Alex's God-given ability to choose good over evil. "Padre," a government official replies, "There are subtleties. The point is that it works."

Alex is released from prison, but his life plunges into a downward spiral. He finds that the Ludovico Technique has rendered him physically unable to listen to his Beethoven and unable to defend himself from attack. He is promptly beaten up by a former victim.

The police arrive, and they're Alex's former gang member Dim and former rival gang leader Billyboy. They beat him savagely and leave him for dead. Later, he's befriended by a political activist who turns out to be the man whose wife Alex had raped during the home invasion.

When the activist finally recognizes Alex as the gang leader, he tortures him with the classical music he once loved. His life destroyed by the therapy that was supposed to make him a model citizen, a desperate Alex attempts suicide, but survives.

A huge scandal erupts and the embarrassed government officials agree to reverse the Ludovico Technique in order to quell the bad publicity. Afterward, they offer Alex a cushy job at a high salary, but he looks forward to returning to his violent ways.

He forms a new gang, but after watching them beat a stranger, Alex finds that he has tired of violence. He contemplates giving up gang life, becoming a productive citizen, and doing what he secretly always wanted to do - start a family of his own. He wonders if his children would inherit the violent tendencies he once had.

In the U.S. first edition of the novel, the last chapter was cut. The publisher wanted the story to end on a dark note, with Alex looking forward to resuming his violent ways. He believed that the original UK edition ending, with Alex deciding on his own to reform, was unrealistic.

Anthony Burgess resisted the idea at first, but gave in because he needed the money. He would always regret allowing the final chapter of A Clockwork Orange to be cut from the U.S. edition. In America, the novel would not be published in its original version until 1986.

When legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick adapted it as an acclaimed feature film in 1971, he based his screenplay on the U.S. first edition of the novel, ending the film on a dark note, with Alex smirking wickedly and saying, "They cured me all right!"

A huge success at the box office and widely praised by critics, A Clockwork Orange was one of the few X-rated films to be nominated for Academy Awards. The movie did have its detractors, due to its relentlessly dark tone and violence.

Passed uncut for release in the UK, the film sparked outrage when several violent juvenile offenders claimed that their crimes were inspired by it. After he and his family received death threats and their London home was picketed, Stanley Kubrick withdrew the film from circulation in the UK, where it would remain out of print until after Kubrick's death in 1999.

I've read both versions of the novel, and I prefer the U.S. first edition because its grim ending really brings home the main theme of the novel - that fascism is an evil far greater than the societal ills it promises to cure.

The cut final chapter makes for interesting reading, but it does seem unlikely that all the damage done by the horrific Ludovico Technique could be reversed, which leaves the reader wondering if Alex's ultimate rejection of violence was really the product of his own free will.

Today, both editions of A Clockwork Orange are available in the U.S., and it remains a classic work of literature.

Quote Of The Day

"It seems priggish or pollyannaish to deny that my intention in writing the work was to titillate the nastier propensities of my readers. My own healthy inheritance of original sin comes out in the book and I enjoyed raping and ripping by proxy. It is the novelist’s innate cowardice that makes him depute to imaginary personalities the sins that he is too cautious to commit for himself."

- Anthony Burgess on A Clockwork Orange

Vanguard Video

Today's video features a rare, 60-minute spoken word album of Anthony Burgess reading from his classic novel, A Clockwork Orange. Enjoy!

Notes For May 13th, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Petersen) — Wed, 13 May 2026 10:30:00 +0000

This Day In Literary History

On May 13th, 1907, the famous English writer Daphne du Maurier was born in London, England. Her father, Sir Gerald du Maurier, and her mother, Muriel Beaumont, were both prominent actors. Her grandfather was the famous writer and cartoonist, George du Maurier.

The Llewelyn-Davies boys, befriended by writer J.M. Barrie and used as the inspiration for the Lost Boys in Barrie's classic play, Peter Pan (1904) were her cousins.

Daphne du Maurier's first novel, The Loving Spirit, was published in 1931, but it would be her fourth novel, Jamaica Inn (1936) that made her name as a writer. Set in Cornwall in 1820, the novel told the story of Mary Yellan, a young woman forced to live with her Aunt Patience after her mother dies.

Her aunt's husband Joss is the keeper of the Jamaica Inn. When Mary arrives, she finds her aunt under the thumb of her vicious, domineering husband. Mary senses that something is definitely wrong at the gloomy, ominous Jamaica Inn, which has no guests and is never open.

Mary soon falls in love with Joss' younger brother Jem, who, although a thief, is not evil like Joss. As she tries to solve the mystery of the Jamaica Inn, Mary discovers that her uncle Joss is the leader of a murderous criminal gang.

She turns to the town vicar for help. After her aunt and uncle both turn up murdered, Mary finds a shocking clue that reveals the killer's true identity, placing her life in danger. Jamaica Inn would be adapted as a feature film by legendary English director Alfred Hitchcock in 1939.

The screenplay took great liberties with the novel, and du Maurier hated the film. Alfred Hitchcock would adapt more of her writings as feature films, including her next novel, which is considered her masterpiece.

Part suspense thriller, part Gothic romance, Rebecca (1938) is narrated by an unnamed woman who tells the story of her marriage to Maxim de Winter, a wealthy Englishman. She met him while working as a companion to a rich American woman on vacation in the French Riviera.

They fall in love, and after a courtship of two weeks, the narrator accepts de Winter's marriage proposal. After their wedding, they return to live at de Winter's beautiful West Country estate, Manderley.

The narrator soon realizes that her husband is haunted by the death of his first wife, Rebecca. Their sinister, controlling housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, was deeply devoted to Rebecca, and is determined to undermine her employer's new marriage by any means necessary.

She even manipulates the narrator into wearing a replica of one of Rebecca's dresses. After her attempt at manipulating the narrator into committing suicide fails, the narrator's husband makes a shocking confession.

Rebecca was an evil woman who tortured Maxim with her affairs and illegitimate pregnancy. Finally, Maxim could stand no more. He killed Rebecca and disposed of her body on her boat, then sunk the vessel.

After Rebecca's boat is raised, an inquest is held and Maxim is cleared of suspicion due to lack of evidence. Unfortunately, Rebecca's cousin (and lover) Jack tries to blackmail Maxim with evidence of his guilt...

Rebecca was adapted several times, first as a feature film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940. The film, which starred Sir Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The novel was also adapted as a play by its author. The play opened in London in 1940 and ran for over 350 performances.

In addition to her novels, Daphne du Maurier was famous for her short story collections. Her second short story collection, The Apple Tree (1952) contained six stories, including one of her most famous - The Birds.

Told from the viewpoint of Nat Hocken (a farm worker in coastal Cornwall) and his family, the story chronicles the inexplicable attacks on humans by birds in the area. The Birds would be adapted by Alfred Hitchcock as a classic horror film in 1963, starring Tippi Hedren.

In the title story, The Apple Tree, a widower believes that the old apple tree in his garden is possessed by the spirit of his neglected wife. du Maurier's 1971 short story collection Not After Midnight, features her second most famous story, Don't Look Now.

In it, married couple John and Laura Baxter are vacationing in Venice, trying to recover from the sudden and devastating death of their five-year-old daughter, Christine, which has strained their marriage.

In a restaurant, Laura meets two odd looking women - elderly identical twin sisters who have psychic knowledge of Christine. Meanwhile, John encounters a little girl who bears a striking resemblance to his dead daughter. Don't Look Now would be adapted as an acclaimed horror film in 1973 by the famous English director Nicolas Roeg.

du Maurier also wrote several works of nonfiction, including memoirs both of herself and her family members. She married Sir Frederick "Boy" Browning, a Lieutenant General in the British Army, and bore him a son and two daughters.

Biographers have noted that as a wife and mother, she was sometimes warm and loving, and sometimes cold and distant. Writer Margaret Forster, who worked with the approval and assistance of the du Maurier family, revealed in her biography that Daphne had a few affairs with women.

She vigorously denied being bisexual. Personal letters released after the author's death revealed, according to Forster, that Daphne was terrified that she might be a lesbian. She had been raised to hate homosexuals with a passion by her father, a virulent homophobic bigot.

Daphne du Maurier died in April 1989 at the age of 81.

Quote Of The Day

"When one is writing a novel in the first person, one must be that person."

- Daphne du Maurier

Vanguard Video

Today's video features a complete reading of Daphne du Maurier's classic short story, The Birds. Enjoy!

Notes For May 12th, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Petersen) — Tue, 12 May 2026 10:30:00 +0000

This Day In Literary History

On May 12th, 1883, Life on the Mississippi, the classic memoir by the legendary American writer Mark Twain, (the pseudonym of Samuel Clemens) was published simultaneously in Boston and London.

In this great book, Twain combines autobiography with history. He begins with the discovery of the Mississippi River by Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in 1542. Twain's personal history with the river began in childhood.

As a young man, while traveling by steamboat down the Mississippi to New Orleans, he befriended the pilot, Horace E. Bixby, who inspired him to become a steamboat pilot himself.

At the time, steamboat piloting was a very prominent and respected position. It paid handsomely - around $3000 per year, which is equivalent to about $72,000 in today's money. That's because the job required lots of training.

As he chronicles his own personal history with that of the river, Twain tells of his training and career as a steamboat pilot before the Civil War, discussing the science of navigating the Mississippi River.

To become a steamboat pilot in those days was a daunting task - you had to learn everything about the piloting and mechanics of a steamboat and also memorize the geography of the entire river, from St. Louis to New Orleans, which changed course frequently.

Later in his life, Twain and some of his friends traveled the same path by steamboat, and the author discusses how the river boating industry had changed since he was a pilot, including the competition it faces from the railroad.

Interspersed through the straightforward documentary are numerous anecdotes and commentaries, as Twain offers his perspective on the people who live on the Mississippi and their culture - everything from the architecture of homes to local customs and folklore.

The narrative is classic Mark Twain, often tongue-in-cheek and filled with self-deprecating humor. A good example of the narrative can be found in the following passage:

In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oölitic Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upwards of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing rod. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have joined their streets together, and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.

Life on the Mississippi is a fascinating read that paints a colorful, detailed portrait of life in the 19th century American South. To write the book, Twain used a then newfangled instrument called a typewriter. Life on the Mississippi is believed to be the first book submitted to a publisher in the form of a typewritten manuscript.

In 1980, Life on the Mississippi was adapted as a movie for American public television. Starring David Knell as Samuel Clemens, the film weaves folklore from the book into a fictional narrative of the author's life.

Quote Of The Day

"Words are only painted fire; a book is the fire itself."

- Mark Twain

Vanguard Video

Today's video features a complete reading of Mark Twain's classic book, Life on the Mississippi. Enjoy!

Notes For May 8th, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Petersen) — Fri, 08 May 2026 10:30:00 +0000

This Day In Literary History

On May 8th, 1956, Look Back in Anger, the classic first play by the famous English playwright John Osborne, opened in London at the Royal Court Theatre. It introduced a character whose volatile nature would define a generation in England.

Look Back in Anger opens in a grim and seedy one-bedroom flat in the Midlands where Jimmy Porter, his wife Alison, and their friend Cliff Lewis live. Though college educated, Jimmy is of the lower class, his only means of support the candy counter that Cliff helps him run.

Jimmy's wife Alison comes from an upper-middle class family - more upper than middle class. Jimmy loathes them. When he's not reading the newspaper, he's ranting and raving about Alison's family and friends.

What really drives Jimmy's rage is Alison and Cliff's taciturn acceptance of their lot in life and the world around them. The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West is at its apex.

British citizens are conditioned through right wing propaganda to be thankful for their so-called freedom, but Jimmy is anything but thankful for his lot in life. An intelligent university graduate, he sells candy for a living because that's best work he can get.

England's so called welfare program is a failure, thanks to the conservative government which serves the interests of the rich. Unable to provide a better life for himself and his wife, Jimmy's rage has reached the boiling point.

Struggling to find meaning in a meaningless existence, at one point he says:

I've an idea. Why don't we have a little game? Let's pretend that we're human beings and that we're actually alive. Just for a while. What do you say?

When Alison becomes pregnant with their first child, she's terrified to tell Jimmy, who, not knowing she was pregnant, said to her:

If only something — something would happen to you, and wake you out of your beauty sleep! If you could have a child, and it would die. Let it grow, let a recognizable human face emerge from that little mass of India rubber and wrinkles. Please — if only I could watch you face that. I wonder if you might even become a recognizable human being yourself. But I doubt it.

Meanwhile, Jimmy flies into a rage when Alison announces that her snobbish best friend Helena is coming to visit. Helena, shocked by the squalid surroundings, calls Alison's father, a retired colonel, and urges him to take Alison away from the flat. Which he does - while Jimmy is visiting a friend's mother.

The Colonel is also distressed by his daughter's living conditions. She tells him "You're hurt because everything's changed, and Jimmy's hurt because everything's stayed the same." Although he's out of touch with the modern world, the Colonel becomes a sympathetic character - he feels sorry for Jimmy.

After Alison is taken away, Helena moves in with Jimmy and Cliff. She and Jimmy still despise each other and come to physical blows, but they ultimately become friends, and when the curtain falls on the second act, they end up kissing passionately and falling on the bed.

In the third act, Jimmy and Helena have another fight, and she decides to leave. Cliff also decides to get his own flat, so Jimmy plans a final night out for the three of them. That night, Alison shows up out of the blue. Jimmy dismisses her coldly at first, but then she tells him about her pregnancy - and that she lost their baby.

Ashamed of her affair with Jimmy, Helena reconciles with Alison. As the final curtain falls, Jimmy and Alison reconcile with each other, taking up an old game they used to play together.

Look Back in Anger received fiercely mixed reviews after its premiere in London. Some critics were shocked and appalled by the searing play's anti establishment themes and nihilism, while others praised it as the breakthrough work it was. Critic Kenneth Tynan wrote the following in his rave review:

All the qualities are there, qualities one had despaired of ever seeing on the stage - the drift towards anarchy, the instinctive leftishness, the automatic rejection of 'official' attitudes, the surrealist sense of humour (Jimmy describes a [gay male] friend as 'a female Emily Bronte'), the casual promiscuity, the sense of lacking a crusade worth fighting for and, underlying all these, the determination that no one who does shall go unmourned...

...I agree that Look Back in Anger is likely to remain a minority taste. What matters, however, is the size of the minority. I estimate it as roughly 6,733,000, which is the number of people in this country between the ages of 20 and 30. And this figure will doubtless be swelled by refugees from other age-groups who are curious to know precisely what the contemporary young pup is thinking and feeling. I doubt if I could love anyone who did not wish to see Look Back in Anger. It is the best young play of its decade.

The hugely influential play defined an entire genre of anti establishment plays, novels, and films in 1950s and 60s England - the "angry young man" genre, named after the volatile character of Jimmy Porter. Look Back in Anger would be adapted in 1959 as an acclaimed feature film.

Directed by Tony Richardson and starring Richard Burton and Claire Bloom, the screenplay was written by John Osborne and Nigel Kneale. The film would earn four BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Award) nominations.

John Osborne would write more classic plays, including The Entertainer (1957), Epitaph for George Dillon (1958), and Luther (1961). He died in 1994 at the age of 65.

Quote Of The Day

"I never deliberately set out to shock, but when people don't walk out of my plays I think there is something wrong."

- John Osborne

Vanguard Video

Today's video features a rare, complete BBC radio play adaptation of Look Back in Anger. Enjoy!

Notes For May 7th, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Petersen) — Thu, 07 May 2026 10:30:00 +0000

This Day In Literary History

On May 7th, 1812, the legendary English poet Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, London, England. His liberal, intellectual family had a passion for literature; his father, a clerk for the Bank of England, had amassed a collection of around 6,000 books, most of them rare.

Browning wrote his first poetry collection at the age of twelve. Unable find a publisher, he destroyed the manuscript. He attended private schools and quickly developed a fierce hatred of institutionalized education. He was then educated at home by tutors.

An outstanding student, he became fluent in French, Greek, Italian, and Latin by the age of fourteen. At sixteen, he enrolled at University College, London, but left after his first year. In 1845, Browning met the famous English poet Elizabeth Barrett.

Also a literary critic, Elizabeth was one of the very few critics who had given Browning's first poetry collection, Dramatic Lyrics (1842), a good review. A glowing review, in fact. So he wrote to thank her, and they began corresponding frequently.

Six years his senior, Elizabeth's health problems (chronic lung disease) had left her a semi-invalid. She lived in her father's house on Wimpole Street. She finally agreed to let Browning visit her in person, and it was love at first sight for both of them.

The following year, the couple secretly eloped. They fled to Italy, living first in Pisa, then in Florence. They had to elope because Elizabeth's father had forbidden all of his children from marrying under penalty of disinheritance.

Unlike his liberal, intellectual daughter, Edward Barrett, an ignorant, racist conservative, believed that he was most likely the illegitimate son of his plantation owner father and a black slave, and feared that his children, who were white, could produce black offspring.

Three years later, Elizabeth gave birth to her only child, Robert Barrett Browning Jr., known by his childhood nickname, Pen. Robert Browning Sr. loved Italy and was fascinated by its art and literature.

While living in Florence, he worked on the poems that would appear in his first major poetry collection, the two-volume Men and Women (1855). The collection would include classic poems such as Love Among the Ruins and Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.

Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came would inspire American horror master Stephen King to write his classic Dark Tower series of dark fantasy novels featuring the iconic knight errant Roland of Gilead, the Last Gunslinger.

Around this time, while Robert Browning's name was known by the cognoscenti, (he had written plays in verse and dramatic monologues) he remained an obscure poet until 1861, when he returned to England following the death of his wife.

He became part of the London literati and his reputation took off. By 1868, after five years of work, he completed and published The Ring and the Book, an epic blank verse poem comprised of twelve "books." It was based on a real crime that took place in Rome in 1698.

The story, which is narrated by various characters, tells of an impoverished nobleman, Count Guido Franceschini, who is convicted of murdering his wife and her parents. The Count supposedly committed the murders as an act of revenge for his wife's infidelity.

His wife Pompilia was having an affair with a young priest, Father Giuseppe Caponsacchi. Despite the Count's protests of innocence, he is found guilty and sentenced to death. He appeals to Pope Innocent XII to overturn the conviction, but the pontiff denies his request.

Steeped deep in philosophy, psychology, and spiritual insight, The Ring and the Book was rightfully considered a work of genius - a masterpiece of dramatic verse. Browning's best selling work during his lifetime and a huge critical and commercial success, it brought him the renown he'd sought for 40 years.

Browning spent his last years traveling extensively. He continued to write, publishing a series of long poems, then returning to collections of shorter verse. His last major work, Parleyings with Certain People of Importance In Their Day, was published in 1887.

In it, the poet speaks in his own voice as he engages in a series of dialogues with long forgotten figures from the worlds of art, literature, and philosophy. Regarded as a masterpiece today, Parleyings baffled Browning's Victorian readers.

For his last published work, Asolando, Robert Browning returned to traditional form and wrote another collection of short poems. The book was published on the day he died, December 12th, 1889. He was 77 years old.

Quote of the Day

"Ignorance is not innocence, but sin."

- Robert Browning

Vanguard Video

Today's video features a reading of Robert Browning's classic poem, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.

Notes For May 6th, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Petersen) — Wed, 06 May 2026 10:30:00 +0000

This Day In Literary History

On May 6th, 1868, the legendary French writer Gaston Leroux was born. He was born in Paris, but grew up on the Normandy coast, where his grandparents owned and operated a ship building business.

As a boy, Leroux loved sailing, swimming, and fishing, but he longed to be a writer. He began by writing poetry for his own amusement and reading voraciously, studying the works of legendary writers such as Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas.

After completing his secondary education, Leroux went to Paris to study law. He became an outstanding student and seemed destined for a successful career as a lawyer, but writing was still his passion.

He was 21 and still at university when he inherited a large sum of money from his father. By the time he turned 23, he had squandered most of it away on wine, gourmet food, women, and gambling.

Gaston Leroux did earn his law degree and began his practice, but he considered the legal profession a dead end job. He began a writing career to supplement his income. First, he became a drama critic for L'Echo de Paris, which had previously published his poems.

He soon switched to reporting and covered criminal trials. His legal expertise was a valuable asset, and the quality of his work earned him positions at more prominent newspapers. He became an investigative reporter.

His exploits, such as disguising himself to sneak into jails to interview prisoners made him famous - one of the earliest celebrity journalists. His name on a magazine article guaranteed sales.

He was given an international beat, and he traveled throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia, either anonymously or in disguise, reporting on wars around the world and other important events. He played a part in exposing the scandal surrounding the anti-Semitic prosecution of Captain Alfred Dreyfuss.

Eventually, Leroux switched from journalism to writing fiction. His first novel, The Seeking of the Morning Treasures, was published in 1903, first as a serialization in Le Matin. Leroux's fictionalized tale of the life and legacy of the legendary bandit Cartouche became a huge sensation.

The critical acclaim continued. In 1907, Leroux published The Mystery of the Yellow Room, the first in a series of detective novels featuring reporter / sleuth Joseph Rouletabille. The success of the novel allowed the author to quit journalism and write full time.

Gaston Leroux didn't write detective fiction exclusively. Fascinated with the dark side of life, he explored his interest in the macabre by writing horror and dark fantasy. His most famous horror novel, an all-time classic work of literature, established him as one of the greatest novelists of his generation.

The Phantom of the Opera (1911) was inspired by Leroux's visit to the Paris Opera House and tour of its cellars. The Gothic horror novel told the story of Christine Daae, a young, aspiring opera singer whose strange music teacher, Erik, she hears but never sees.

Christine believes that Erik is the "Angel of Music" from the folktales told to her by her father, a famous violinist. Erik is really the Phantom of the Opera, the "ghost" who supposedly haunts the Paris Opera House.

The dancers are terrified, and a stagehand ends up murdered. Erik terrorizes everyone who stands in the way of his protege Christine becoming a star. Later, Christine is called upon to replace the lead singer and gives an impressive performance.

One of the concertgoers who hears her sing turns out to be her childhood sweetheart Raoul, who falls in love with her all over again. This outrages her music teacher, Erik. Born physically deformed but musically gifted, he lives in the cellar of the Paris Opera House.

Erik, who hides his disfigured face behind a mask, is also in love with Christine. He captures her and Raoul and locks them in the cellar. Mad with jealous rage, Erik gives Christine an ultimatum: either marry him or he'll blow up the Opera House with explosives, killing everyone - including her, Raoul, and himself...

The Phantom of the Opera would be adapted numerous times as a feature film. The first version, released in 1925, featured legendary silent film star Lon Chaney as Erik. The 1943 and 1962 film versions featured Claude Rains and Herbert Lom as Erik, respectively.

These film adaptations, which were also memorable, made a major change to the story - instead of being born deformed, Erik was disfigured after having acid thrown into his face. A gruesome horror film adaptation, made in 1989, starred horror legend Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund as Erik.

In 1986, Andrew Lloyd Webber adapted The Phantom of the Opera as an acclaimed and hugely successful Broadway musical. It would become one of the longest running musicals in history, surpassing Webber's Cats as the longest running Broadway show of all time.

Unfortunately, Webber's sequel, Love Never Dies (2010), a loose adaptation of Frederick Forsyth's 1999 novel The Phantom of Manhattan, was widely panned by critics and theatergoers. A huge flop on the London and Australian stages, a Broadway production was planned but canceled after all the bad press drove away the show's backers.

Gaston Leroux wrote over two dozen novels, short stories, and a play. He died in 1925 of surgical complications following a urinary tract infection. He was 58 years old.

Quote Of The Day

"An author really ought to have nothing but flowers in the room where he works."

- Gaston Leroux

Vanguard Video

Today's video features a complete reading of Gaston Leroux's classic novel, The Phantom of the Opera. Enjoy!

Notes For May 5th, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Petersen) — Tue, 05 May 2026 10:30:00 +0000

This Day In Literary History

On May 5th, 1816, O Solitude, the first published poem by the legendary English poet John Keats, appeared in The Examiner, which at the time was England's leading liberal magazine.

Keats, the son of a bartender, began writing poetry at the age of eighteen. In 1815, he was studying medicine at Guy's Hospital, (now part of King's College, London) but his true passion was writing.

The hospital was more interested in Keats' medical skills - they offered him a position as junior surgeon. This increased his workload and cut into his writing time, causing him to fall into a depression.

Determined to become a poet, Keats spent his precious spare time honing his writing skills and studying the works of others. In May of 1816, his sonnet O Solitude was accepted for publication by The Examiner.

This was a milestone in Keats' career and a great source of encouragement, as The Examiner's editor was poet Leigh Hunt, one of Keats' literary idols. O Solitude introduced Keats' distinctive style and helped establish him as one of the greatest Romantic poets of all time:

O SOLITUDE! if I must with thee dwell,
Let it not be among the jumbled heap
Of murky buildings; climb with me the steep,
Nature’s observatory - whence the dell,
Its flowery slopes, its river’s crystal swell,
May seem a span; let me thy vigils keep
’Mongst boughs pavillion’d, where the deer’s swift leap
Startles the wild bee from the fox-glove bell.
But though I’ll gladly trace these scenes with thee,
Yet the sweet converse of an innocent mind,
Whose words are images of thoughts refin’d,
Is my soul’s pleasure; and it sure must be
Almost the highest bliss of human-kind,
When to thy haunts two kindred spirits flee.

Five months after his poem was published, Keats was introduced to the man who published it, his literary idol Leigh Hunt, by his friend, writer Charles Cowden Clarke. Impressed by Keats, Hunt brought him into his literary circle, which included such legendary poets as Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron.

After Keats' first poetry collection, Poems, was published in 1817, he gave up medicine and devoted himself exclusively to writing. In his short life, he would become one of the greatest poets of his generation, writing many classic poems. Sadly, he contracted tuberculosis and died in 1821 at the age of 25.

During his short life, Keats' works were trashed by critics, which drove him to despair. It wasn't until after his death that he was finally recognized as one of the greatest English Romantic poets of all time. His works remain hugely influential to this day.

Quote Of The Day

"Poetry should be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one's soul, and does not startle it or amaze it with itself, but with its subject."

- John Keats

Vanguard Video

Today's video features a reading of John Keats' classic poem, Ode to a Nightingale. Enjoy!

Notes For May 1st, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Petersen) — Fri, 01 May 2026 10:30:00 +0000

This Day In Literary History

On May 1st, 1923, the legendary American writer Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn, New York. As a young boy, he was given a children's edition of The Iliad, Homer's classic epic poem. Enthralled by the power of words, he was determined to become a writer.

After graduating high school in 1941, Heller worked at various jobs, serving as everything from a blacksmith's apprentice to a filing clerk. The following year, with America now involved in World War II, Heller enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps.

He was sent to the Italian Front, where he flew 60 combat missions as a B-25 bombardier; When the war ended, he took advantage of the G.I. Bill and began his college education, first enrolling at the University of Southern California as an English major.

He would ultimately earn a Master's degree in English and spend a year as a Fulbright scholar at St. Catherine's College, Oxford. From there, Heller served as an English professor, teaching composition at Penn State and creative writing at Yale.

For a time, he worked as an advertising copywriter alongside future bestselling suspense novelist Mary Higgins Clark. He still determined to become a writer, and wrote at home when he wasn't working.

Joseph Heller's first short story, published in 1948, appeared in The Atlantic magazine. In 1955, he published the first chapter of what was originally intended to be a novella called Catch-18 in New World Writing magazine.

The planned work turned out to be novel length. When he was one third finished with the manuscript, Heller decided he would complete it only if he could find an interested publisher. Simon and Schuster bought the work, paying the author a $1500 advance.

He would receive half of it immediately and half when he delivered the finished manuscript. It took him five years to complete his first novel, but the wait was worth it. To avoid confusion with Leon Uris' then new novel Mila 18, Heller changed the title of his novel from Catch-18 to Catch-22.

The novel, published in 1961, would become a classic, and its title would be added to the English lexicon as a term meaning "a problematic situation for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem or by a rule."

Catch-22 uses an experimental third person omniscient narrative to tell the story, describing events from different characters' points of view. The main character, Captain John Yossarian, is a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier stationed at the Italian Front during World War II. He belongs to the fictional 256th squadron.

As Yossarian witnesses the horrors of war, he comes to fear his own commanding officers more than the enemy. The American military leadership is a monstrous, corrupt bureaucracy that operates on dangerously flawed circular logic. The "Catch-22" of the title is their sinister golden rule. Here's how it works:

Yossarian and his men must fly a certain amount of combat missions for their service to be considered complete. The military leadership keeps increasing the number of missions. The added stress is pushing them - especially Yossarian - to the breaking point.

Under military rules, he would be considered insane for willingly flying so many combat missions without regard to his health. Yet, it would be pointless if Yossarian were to make a formal request to be relieved of duty for reasons of severe psychological stress.

Under military rules, he would be considered sane and cleared for duty because he had the presence of mind to make that request. This is what's known as a Catch-22.

Although the novel is set during World War II and satirizes the absurdity of war, Heller actually wrote it as an indictment of McCarthyism - the U.S. government's relentless and mostly illegal persecution of suspected communists and communist sympathizers during the early years of the Cold War.

The first edition hardcover of Catch-22 received mixed reviews and sold only 30,000 copies. When it debuted in paperback, it captured the imagination of a new generation of young people who shared in its antiwar sentiments. The paperback release would sell 10,000,000 copies and bring the novel its rightful recognition as an all time classic work of literature.

In 1970, a feature film version of Catch-22 was released. Although Paramount sunk $17 million into the picture, which was directed by Mike Nichols and featured Alan Arkin as Captain Yossarian, the film was a critical and commercial failure.

Some blame its failure on the fact that it was released at the same time as another, far superior antiwar black comedy called M*A*S*H, but this writer places the blame squarely on Catch-22's awful screenplay, which butchered the novel, changing the story considerably.

It would be thirteen years before Joseph Heller published his second novel. Something Happened (1974) is even more experimental than Catch-22; it's a relentlessly bleak and blistering satire of the American dream.

Middle aged executive Bob Slocum has it all: money, a beautiful wife, three great kids, and a big house. He has achieved the American dream. Unfortunately for Bob, his American dream is a nightmare.

He no longer loves his wife and cheats on her. His children are dysfunctional. He believes that his co-workers are out to get him. He finds no meaning in life and worries that he might be going insane.

In the novel's stream of consciousness narrative, Bob recalls events in his life (in random order) and tries to figure out when and how it all went wrong.

Heller continued to write great novels. Good as Gold (1979), a dark comedy, tells the story of Bruce Gold, a middle aged English professor who is determined to become America's first Jewish Secretary of State.

His ruthless ambition costs him his marriage and alienates him from his children and family - a price he considers steep, yet doesn't mind paying considering the return on the investment.

God Knows (1984) is a scathing, raunchy parody of the Bible, narrated by none other than David, the biblical King of Israel. The novel takes the form of David's deathbed memoirs as he gives a hilariously fractured yet moving account of his life, from cocky kid to warrior hero to King - and typical Jewish father.

Heller would author two memoirs of his own, No Laughing Matter (1986), which chronicled his battle with Guillain-Barré syndrome, and Now and Then (1998), which told of his early life, including his war experiences and determination to become a writer.

In 1994, Heller published Closing Time, a sequel to Catch-22, with an elderly Captain Yossarian up to his old tricks. After the war ended, he became a wealthy, successful corporate executive while remaining fiercely liberal. Now retired, he's a dirty old man obsessed with sex - and death.

Joseph Heller died of a heart attack in 1999 at the age of 76. When legendary writer Kurt Vonnegut heard of his passing, he said, "Oh, God, how terrible. This is a calamity for American literature."

Heller's last novel, Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man, was published in 2000. It told the story of an aged writer struggling to write one last great novel, which could be his magnum opus.

Quote Of The Day

“Mankind is resilient: the atrocities that horrified us a week ago become acceptable tomorrow."

- Joseph Heller

Vanguard Video

Today's video features a rare recording of Joseph Heller giving a lecture at UCLA in 1970. Enjoy!

Notes For April 30th, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Petersen) — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 10:30:00 +0000

This Day In Literary History

On April 30th, 1945, the famous American writer Annie Dillard was born. She was born Annie Doak in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The oldest of three daughters, Annie's parents were affluent, but liberal and non-conformist.

They believed in nurturing their children's creativity, curiosity, and sense of humor; as a young girl, Annie took piano and dance lessons, collected rocks and insects, and read voraciously.

Her father taught her about everything from plumbing and economics to Jack Kerouac's classic novel, On The Road (1957). Though her parents weren't churchgoers, Annie attended a local Presbyterian Church and went to a Presbyterian youth camp.

When as a teenager she told her minister she was rejecting her religion because of its hypocrisy, he gave her a collection of books by C.S. Lewis, which changed her mind about Christianity.

After graduating from high school, Annie attended Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia, where she studied literature and creative writing. She married her writing professor, poet R.H.W. Dillard.

By 1968, she earned a Master's degree in English, writing her thesis on Henry David Thoreau's Walden (1854), focusing on Walden Pond as "the central image and focal point for Thoreau's narrative movement between heaven and earth."

Annie Dillard began her writing career by publishing poetry and short stories. In 1971, after recovering from a near-fatal case of pneumonia, she began work on what would be her most famous book.

For eight years, she'd lived near Tinker Creek, a suburban area where she was surrounded by woodlands, creeks, mountains, and many different species of animals. It took her eight months to complete her book.

Cut off from the outside world and having no interest in the events of the time, such as the Watergate scandal, she would sometimes write for up to 15 hours a day. Annie's finished book, published in 1975, won her a Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is a Walden-esque collection of essays about Tinker Creek and its inhabitants. Dillard combines nature studies, philosophy, and spirituality to create a deeply introspective work of nonfiction.

It sold more than 37,000 copies in the first two months of publication and go through eight separate printings the first two years. Dillard was compared to Thoreau, and her book became required reading during the environmentalist movement of the 1970s.

At the time, Annie's spiritual outlook was a combination of elements from various religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Sufism, and Inuit spirituality, much like the transcendentalism of Thoreau and Emerson.

After making a name for herself with Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard moved to the state of Washington and became the writer-in-residence at Western Washington University. She divorced, remarried, and had a daughter named Rosie.

She continued to write and publish both fiction and nonfiction, including a memoir about growing up in Pittsburgh called An American Childhood (1987). For 21 years, she taught in the English department at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

Annie Dillard's most recent book, The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old & New, was published in 2017.

Quote Of The Day

"Your work is to keep cranking the flywheel that turns the gears that spins the belt in the engine of belief that keeps you and your desk in midair."

- Annie Dillard

Vanguard Video

Today's video features a reading from Annie Dillard's classic book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Enjoy!

Notes For April 29th, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Petersen) — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 10:30:00 +0000

This Day In Literary History

On April 29th, 1933, the legendary American poet, singer, and songwriter Rod McKuen was born in Oakland, California. In 1944, when he was eleven, he ran away from home to escape his violent alcoholic stepfather.

He drifted throughout the West Coast, working at various jobs; he was a logger, a ranch hand, a railroad worker, and even a rodeo cowboy. Despite his lack of formal education, McKuen kept a journal and wrote frequently.

This would lead him to become a poet and writer of song lyrics. He also became a newspaper columnist. During the Korean War, he served his two-year tour of duty as a propaganda scriptwriter. After the war ended, he settled in San Francisco.

His first poetry collection, And Autumn Came, was published in 1954. He was soon reading his poems alongside fellow Beat writers such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Around this time, Rod McKuen began performing as a singer at the Purple Onion.

The Purple Onion was a famous cellar club in San Francisco where legendary comics such as Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Mort Sahl, Phyllis Diller, Richard Pryor, and the Smothers Brothers would also perform.

At first, McKuen performed traditional folk songs, then he began writing and performing his own songs. This led him to win a recording contract with Decca Records, for whom he recorded several pop albums.

He tried to start a career as an actor, and appeared in rock n' roll themed movies such as Rock, Pretty Baby (1956) and Summer Love (1958).

McKuen's acting career failed to take off, so in 1959, he moved to New York City to work as a composer and music conductor for the TV show CBS Workshop. In the early 1960s, he moved to France, where he met many of the country's top songwriters.

He struck up a close friendship with legendary Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel and embarked on a project to translate all of Brel's songs into English. His translation of Brel's song If You Go Away became a pop standard. British singer Scott Walker recorded many of McKuen's translations.

When Canadian singer Terry Jacks adapted and recorded McKuen's translation of Brel's classic song Seasons in the Sun, it became a #1 hit. McKuen also translated the works of other prominent French songwriters.

In the late 1960s, McKuen published more collections of poetry including Listen to the Warm (1967), Lonesome Cities (1968), and In Someone's Shadow (1969). He also returned to singing and songwriting.

With arranger Anita Kerr and the San Sebastian Strings, he recorded a series of pop albums, including The Sea (1967), The Earth (1967), The Sky (1968), Home to the Sea (1969), For Lovers (1969), and The Soft Sea (1970).

Legendary singer Frank Sinatra, impressed with McKuen's talents, then commissioned an album of his poems and songs, which was released as A Man Alone: The Words and Music of Rod McKuen.

In the 1970s, McKuen tried his hand at classical compositions, writing concertos, suites, symphonies, and chamber pieces for orchestra. He also wrote film scores and collaborated with legendary composers such as Henry Mancini and John Williams. He earned two Academy Award nominations.

He continued publishing great poetry collections, including Caught in the Quiet (1970), Fields of Wonder (1971), Moment to Moment (1972), and Come to Me in Silence (1973).

In 1977, he published a nonfiction book called Finding My Father, which was a chronicle of his search for his biological father. He became an activist, helping to make information about biological parents available to adopted children.

When he embarked on a concert tour of South Africa, which was segregated under the oppressive apartheid regime, McKuen demanded mixed seating for every one of his concerts, or else he wouldn't perform there.

He retired from live performance in 1981. A year later, he was diagnosed with clinical depression, which he would battle for nearly a decade. He continued to write poetry and appeared as a voice actor in movies and TV shows.

Rod McKuen died in January of 2015 at the age of 81. It has been estimated that he wrote over 1,500 songs during his remarkable career, most of them for other singers. All together, his songs account for over 100,000,000 records sold.

Quote Of The Day

"I try not to put messages in my songs. My only message is man's communication with his fellow man. I want to narrow the gap of strangeness and alienation."

- Rod McKuen

Vanguard Video

Today's video features Rod McKuen being interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air in 1978. Enjoy!

Notes For April 28th, 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Petersen) — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 10:30:00 +0000

This Day In Literary History

On April 28th, 1926, the legendary American writer Harper Lee was born. She was born Nelle Harper Lee in Monroeville, Alabama. The youngest of four children, her father, Amasa Coleman Lee, was a lawyer.

He also served in the Alabama State Legislature from 1926 to 1938 and was a former newspaper editor. As a child, Harper Lee was a precocious tomboy and a voracious reader. Her best friend, neighbor, and classmate was the legendary writer Truman Capote.

After graduating from Monroe County High School, Harper Lee enrolled in the Huntingdon College for women, then transferred to the University of Alabama to study law.

She wrote for several student newspapers and edited the campus humor magazine, Rammer Jammer. After studying for a year in Oxford, she left college without obtaining a law degree.

In 1950, Harper moved to New York City and took a job as reservation clerk, first for Eastern Airlines, then BOAC. She divided her time between her cold water flat in New York and her family home in Alabama, where she cared for her ailing father.

By 1956, determined to become a writer, she began writing stories and found herself an agent. In December of 1956, she received a year's wages and time off from work as a Christmas present.

The gift came with a note that said, "You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas." Harper Lee used her time off to write a novel. Within a year, she completed the first draft.

Working with Tay Hohoff, an editor for J.B. Lippincott & Co., she completed her final draft in the summer of 1959. A year later, in July of 1960, her novel was published. It was called To Kill A Mockingbird.

Set in 1930s Alabama, the semi autobiographical novel is narrated by eight-year-old Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, a precocious tomboy. She lives with her older brother Jeremy "Jem" Finch and their widower father, Atticus Finch, a prominent, liberal attorney.

Scout's best friend is Charles Baker "Dill" Harris, who, although small for his age, has a big imagination. Together, they spend their days fantasizing about a mysterious neighbor - an enigmatic recluse named Arthur "Boo" Radley who never comes out of his house.

Wondering if Boo really is a monster, the kids try to draw him out. Meanwhile, a poor black man named Tom Robinson is falsely accused of raping a white woman, and Atticus Finch agrees to defend him. His determination to see justice done inflames the community against him.

As the trial progresses, the once respected and loved Atticus becomes the most hated man in town. As Scout's big brother Jem reaches adolescence, the climate of violent racism and the injustice meted out by a bigoted all-white jury disturbs him greatly.

Tom Robinson is convicted of rape despite the truth uncovered by Atticus Finch: when Tom's accuser, the lonely, abused Mayella Ewell, was caught making sexual advances to a black man, she falsely accused him of rape out of fear of her father Bob, a violent racist and alcoholic.

Later, Tom Robinson is shot and killed while trying to escape from prison. (Earlier, Atticus, Scout, Jem, and Dill had prevented a mob from lynching him.) Meanwhile, Bob Ewell, humiliated by Atticus' public revelations about his daughter, vows revenge.

He spits in Atticus' face and later attacks his children on their way home from a school Halloween pageant. Jem defends his little sister and gets his arm broken. Suddenly, someone appears out of the shadows and saves the kids.

Bob Ewell is attacked and killed by a strange, silent man who then scoops up the injured Jem and carries him home. Scout realizes that their savior is none other than Boo Radley. He finally came out of his house.

When they get home, Atticus calls the Sheriff, who convinces him that, given Radley's mental issues and what the publicity would do to him, justice would be best served by declaring Bob Ewell's death an accident.

To Kill a Mockingbird became an overnight sensation - an immediate bestseller that received rave reviews from both readers and critics. The following year, Harper Lee was stunned when her novel won her the Pulitzer Prize.

She moved on to her next project, accompanying her childhood friend Truman Capote to Kansas for what they had originally planned to be an article about a small town shocked by the murders of a local farmer and his family.

Capote later turned the true story into an acclaimed nonfiction book, In Cold Blood (1966). In 1962, a feature film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird was released. The highly acclaimed film starred Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and featured an incredible performance by eight-year-old newcomer Mary Badham as Scout Finch.

Harper Lee loved the film and called playwright Horton Foote's screenplay "one of the best translations of a book to film ever made." The movie would win Gregory Peck the Best Actor Oscar and Horton Foote an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Peck and Harper Lee would become lifelong friends; his grandson Harper Peck Voll is named after her. In June of 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson named Harper Lee to the National Council on the Arts.

That same year, she experienced one of the first attempts at censoring her novel. A school board in Richmond, Virginia voted to ban To Kill a Mockingbird from classroom study and school libraries, denouncing the novel as "immoral literature."

Lee wrote the following response in a letter to the editor of Richmond's largest newspaper:

Recently I have received echoes down this way of the Hanover County School Board’s activities, and what I’ve heard makes me wonder if any of its members can read.

Surely it is plain to the simplest intelligence that “To Kill a Mockingbird” spells out in words of seldom more than two syllables a code of honor and conduct, Christian in its ethic, that is the heritage of all Southerners. To hear that the novel is “immoral” has made me count the years between now and 1984, for I have yet to come across a better example of doublethink.

I feel, however, that the problem is one of illiteracy, not Marxism. Therefore I enclose a small contribution to the Beadle Bumble Fund that I hope will be used to enroll the Hanover County School Board in any first grade of its choice.

Over the years, To Kill a Mockingbird, which is a staple of study for eighth grade English classes, has faced similar attempts by disgruntled would-be censors to remove it from school libraries and classrooms.

Harper Lee originally planned to write another novel, but her manuscript for The Long Goodbye would be filed away unfinished. During the mid 1980s, she began writing a nonfiction book about an Alabama serial killer, but she gave up on that as well.

Her writing output since To Kill a Mockingbird consisted of just a few essays and articles. In 2006, she wrote a letter to legendary talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey, which would be published in O, the Oprah Magazine.

In it, she spoke of her childhood love of books and her dedication to the written word. She wrote: "Now, 75 years later, in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books."

In November of 2007, Harper Lee was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush at a ceremony in the White House. It appeared that To Kill A Mockingbird would be her only novel.

Then, on February 3rd, 2015, Harper Lee announced that she would be publishing another novel. The book, titled Go Set A Watchman and published a few months later in July, was a sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird that follows Scout as a grown woman.

Watchman was actually written before Mockingbird, which was originally intended to be its prequel. Lee thought the manuscript had been lost forever, but it was found by her lawyer in a safe deposit box in 2011. The manuscript was published exactly as written, with no revisions.

It's 20 years later, and the Civil Rights movement is just starting to become a major force for change. With racial tensions escalating across the country, especially in Scout Finch's home state of Alabama, she can't help but recall the lessons she learned in childhood.

Scout, now going by her proper name Jean Louise, joins the Civil Rights movement and is stunned to discover that her now elderly father Atticus, whom she idolized and who risked everything to defend an innocent black man from racist injustice, is opposed to civil rights.

What's more, he's determined to fight school integration and has been consorting with the Ku Klux Klan! For the first time, Jean Louise begins to see her father through the eyes of an intelligent grown woman instead of the rose colored glasses of a naive, adoring little girl.

She finds that Atticus is flawed like any other person and, like other white Southerners, fears the sudden end of the only way of life he's ever known. Can it be true? Will Jean Louise's relationship with her father be shattered forever?

The announcement of a second Harper Lee novel came as quite a shock to the literary community. The 88-year-old author had been residing in a nursing home, having suffered a stroke a while back. Her vision and hearing were deteriorating.

The timing of Watchman's publication made some wonder if Lee, perhaps senile, was being exploited by her publisher. Suspicion of elder abuse led the state of Alabama to conduct an investigation. They interviewed Lee and determined that no abuse had taken place.

Her longtime friend, historian Wayne Flynt, said that the "narrative of senility, exploitation of this helpless little old lady is just hogwash. It's just complete bunk."

Needless to say, the publication of Go Set A Watchman caused quite a stir. Many readers believed that Lee had betrayed them and soiled the legacy of one of America's most beloved literary characters.

Others, like this writer, found Watchman to be a powerful read and a worthy successor to To Kill A Mockingbird that truthfully explores the insidious nature of intolerance.

Harper Lee died in February 2016 at the age of 89.

Quote Of The Day

"Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends."

- Harper Lee

Vanguard Video

Today's video features an 83-minute PBS documentary on Harper Lee, part of the American Masters series.