Archive for February 2014
Resources for Thomas Merton
There’a a wealth of material on Thomas Merton, so I’m going to list some of the better known biographies and critical works here for anyone who might be interested in learning more about Merton. Here are some important biographies: Living With Wisdom: A Life of Thomas Merton by Jim Forest (Orbis Books, 1991). Merton: A…
Read MoreRemembering Erma Bombeck: 1927-1996
Erma Bombeck was born on this date–February 21–in 1927 in Bellbrook, Ohio. She was a best-selling author, humorist, and newspaper columnist whose syndicated columns were popular throughout the United States. She wrote about the challenges of daily life, family, and motherhood with wit and compassion in a straightforward and low-key style that resonated with readers…
Read MoreThe Long Journey of Thomas Merton
He was born in France and died in Thailand. But when he was laid to rest it was in the soil of the Abbey of Gethsemani near Bardstown, Kentucky where he had lived for 27 years as a monk of the Trappist order, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. Thomas…
Read MoreHappy 83rd Birthday to Toni Morrison!
Happy Birthday to Toni Morrison, born in Lorain, Ohio on February 18, 1931, and one of only six Americans to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Toni Morrison will be profiled on the pages of this blog in the coming week along with Thomas Merton and Erma Bombeck. Please stay tuned!
Read MoreFamous Last Words
I don’t see anything in this to convince me you can write either narrative or fiction.” –Harper’s editor Ripley Hitchcock to Zane Grey regarding Grey’s book The Last of the Plainsmen.
Read MoreZane Grey and the Western Dream
Zane Grey. The name itself can conjure images of dusty arroyos, gunfighter villains, square-jawed cowboys and frontier heroines. And yet one of the most prolific and financially successful American writers of western novels—in fact, one of the creators of the western as we know it—was born in Zanesville, Ohio on January 31, 1872. His works…
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