EDGAR ALLAN POE, EMILY DICKINSON, AND MARK TWAIN
Share Your Favorite Literary Pieces Of And Biographical Facts On These Major American Writers
Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809 and died in October 1849---160 years ago this month. He is credited with creating the detective story, introducing what he called "ratiocination" in detective stories such as "Murders In the Rue Morgue".
His poem "The Raven" caused fame to come to him quickly after years of impoverished struggling as a professional writer. His alcoholism and drug addiction obstructed the full expression of his deep and unique talents, and finally fore-shortened his life. He had a tremendous intellect, and also knew it.
Near the end of his life he composed a treatise he called EUREKA in which he attempted to explain the Cosmos. A portion of that manuscript anticipated one of the fundamental concepts of Special Relativity.
Personal favorites from Poe: The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, Alone, Helen, The Conqueror Worm, Israfel, and certain of his polemic literature reviews. He hated Walt Whitman's style of poetic expression and bashed it with flair.
When I began writing as a teen, Poe's work was my first infatuation.
He's become an international Halloween and Horror Story tradition.
94- Misha
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Not sure I ever heard of Emily, but the other two are quite readable
It dropped so low in my regard
I heard it hit the ground,
And go to pieces on the stones
At the bottom of my mind;
Yet blamed the fate that fractured, less
Than I reviled myself
For entertaining plated wares
Upon my silver shelf.
-- Emily Dickinson
96- Uninvited Writer
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Misha wrote:
Not sure I ever heard of Emily, but the other two are quite readable
You have never heard of Emily Dickinson? You poor deprived Russian!
Nature rarer uses yellow
Than another hue;
Saves she all of that for sunsets,--
Prodigal of blue,
Spending scarlet like a woman,
Yellow she affords
Only scantly and selectly,
Like a lover's words.Good quote Aya Katz---though Poe was my first literary idol, I have to give it to Emily when it comes to originality and depth of expression. In my sincere estimate, this plain, quiet little women out on the east coast was THE greatest published American poet ever.
She's also one of the WORLD'S greatest poets. Thanks for that quote- 94
- Misha
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Uninvited Writer wrote:
Misha wrote:
Not sure I ever heard of Emily, but the other two are quite readable
You have never heard of Emily Dickinson? You poor deprived Russian!
Nature rarer uses yellow
Than another hue;
Saves she all of that for sunsets,--
Prodigal of blue,
Spending scarlet like a woman,
Yellow she affords
Only scantly and selectly,
Like a lover's words.
I bet there are quite a few brilliant Russian poets and writers you never heard about
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Probably
Mark Twain's a super wit. I liked "Roughing It", Sawyer, Prince and the Pauper.
Anybody here read Pud'dnhead Wilson?
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Poe's lasting influence is felt in the literary world in the form of Symbolism. The French Symbolists, such as Baudelaire, were enamoured of Poe and his obsessions with dark imagery, the supernatural, insanity, religion, and death. Their works prefigure the Surrealists in the 20th c., and the Surrealist movement influenced almost everything in 20th c. art till the 1950s.
As for Mark Twain, I think my favorite book by him is "Innocents Abroad," a sort of twisted travelogue he wrote while on a world tour in the 1860s -- he pays attention to and reports about things everyone notices on a trip to "important places" but never writes down for publication; his commentary is a running sarcastic attack on the usual travelogue that makes places and events that are commonplace and, well, boring, take on mythological proportions for the folks back home.
At one point he even half-slyly mentions that the poor of Italy, and there were myriads at that time, might think about robbing the priests and the gold encrusted churches which were pretty gawdy anyway, in his opinion.
It's a vey funny, and biting, book.
I have his collected essays, as well, and they are amazing and, by and large, very serious. If that man had said those things in contemporary America, he'd have been denounced as being everything from unpatriotic to anti-religious. Worth looking up.Misha.
Quote, please
Apart from Dostoyevsky...
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Poe, hands down
But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;
Then upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking "Nevermore."
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zampano wrote:
Misha.
Quote, please
Apart from Dostoyevsky...Pushkin . Gogol. Tolstoi
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zampano wrote:
Misha.
Quote, please
Apart from Dostoyevsky...If you can read in Russian, you know them. If not, it usually loses quite a bit in translation.
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Gorky...
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LOL Not THAT one please
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Misha wrote:
zampano wrote:
Misha.
Quote, please
Apart from Dostoyevsky...If you can read in Russian, you know them. If not, it usually loses quite a bit in translation.
I bet. I haven't read much Russian literature but I loved Crime and Punishment (read it as a teenager...probably not a good idea
) and Anna Karenina. - 94
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There are quite a bunch of newer writers, too.
Misha, who is your favorite Russian poet? Quote a verse or two in the original. Then translate!
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LOL OK, gimme some time.
