Archive for Writers

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Jonathan Swift

Posted in St. Patrick's Cathedral (Ireland) with tags , on July 10, 2018 by Cade

November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745

Author, satirist and all-around political rabble-rouser, Jonathan Swift, is most widely known for his creation: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts, by Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships…which is colloquially and mercifully shortened as: Gulliver’s Travels. Born in Ireland, Swift received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Trinity College in Dublin. He spent a lot of time in England involving himself in the rise and fall of the Tory government in the early 18th Century. He wrote some of his most scathing satire during this period and eventually ticked off Queen Anne enough that he was effectively “banished” back to Ireland, where friends were able to get him appointed as the Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Continue reading →

Leave a comment »

Christy Brown

Posted in Glasnevin Cemetery with tags , , on June 18, 2018 by Cade

June 05, 1932 – September 07, 1981

Christy Brown was a writer and artist who, due to having cerebral palsy, wrote and painted with the toes on his left foot. His autobiography, aptly named “My Left Foot” was adapted into the 1989 Academy Award-winning film starring Daniel Day-Lewis. One of 13 (surviving) children, Brown’s family was instrumental in nurturing his talent despite pressure to send him off to a hospital to be raised. In all, Christy wrote several novels, memoirs, poetry collections and painted dozens of stylized paintings. He was married in 1972 and his life and health began to fall apart. Continue reading →

Leave a comment »

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Posted in Glasnevin Cemetery with tags , , on June 12, 2018 by Cade

July 28, 1844 – June 08, 1889

“And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.”

God’s Grandeur – Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins was temporally a Victorian poet, but due to his innovative use of language, alliteration, meter and rhyme, he is widely considered one of the first modernist poets. His use of “sprung rhythm” – a term he coined to shake off the restrictive nature of the conventional meters in English poetry at the time – varied the accent syllables in his verses and allowed him to construct and rhyme freely. His work was a precursor to the free verse movements of the 20th century. A Jesuit priest who grew up in an incredibly artistic family, Hopkins’ work regularly focused on religion and nature…often at the same time.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment »

Dr. Seuss

Posted in Cremated with tags , on February 7, 2017 by Cade

seuss1March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991

Theodor Seuss Geisel…was a writer of books.
And he wrote of wubwuzzles and bumblers and jooks.
Fancy made-up creations with stars and striped hats.
There were cats in those hats and little Who acrobats.
He made foxes in sockses, a grinch and a turtle.
With names like the Lorax and Horton and Yertle.
Fish of all colors and beetles that battled
In puddles in bottles on poodles with paddles.
Dr. Seuss gave us oodles of tales to adore.
And he made ham and eggs much more green than before.
More than 70 works, beloved and clever.
A talent so rare, it should go on forever.
Except when it can’t.
Because, sometimes, cancer. Continue reading →

Leave a comment »

Arthur Miller

Posted in Central Cemetery (CT) with tags , , on May 31, 2016 by Cade

miller4

October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005

Perhaps one of the most influential and prolific playwrights in American history, Arthur Miller explored themes such as family relationships, personal legacy and social responsibility in his plays – all set against the backdrop of the individual vs. society at-large. The masterpieces within his body of work look like a one-man anthology of the greatest American Dramas ever written:

Death of a Salesman
All My Sons
A View from the Bridge
The Crucible

Continue reading →

Leave a comment »

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Posted in Phillips Academy Cemetery with tags , on August 17, 2015 by Cade

stowe2June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896

Harriet Beecher was a very well-educated writer from a very religious family who wrote dozens of books. But, none are as well-known or had as much of an impact as her landmark 1852 work, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Originally produced as a serial for the abolitionist newspaper, The National Era, the story’s popularity (and accompanying controversy) demanded it be released in novel form. Cabin‘s depiction of the daily, oppressed life of slaves in America both enrapt a sympathetic people in the North and enraged Southerners whose very way of life depended on the slaves Stowe portrayed. The book sold outrageous amounts of copies. Continue reading →

Leave a comment »

James Fenimore Cooper

Posted in Christ Churchyard (NY) with tags , on July 20, 2015 by Cade

cooper1September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851

James Fenimore Cooper was one of the most popular American writers of the 19th century. His quasi-Romantic  writings tended toward the political especially in the sphere of Post-Revolutionary land rights and Native American relations. This is more than evident in his 5 novel series, the Leatherstocking Tales (which includes his masterwork, 1826’s The Last of the Mohicans.) Groundbreaking for the time, these stories were the first of their kind to feature Native American characters to the degree they did – for better AND worse. Continue reading →

Leave a comment »

L.M. Montgomery

Posted in Cavendish Cemetery with tags , on August 3, 2014 by Cade

montgomery1November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942

How much power and influence can one woman have? In Lucy Maud Montgomery’s case, enough to single-handedly transform a 19th Century idyllic seaside farm town into the Canadian version of Branson, Missouri – complete with amusement parks, go-karts and a Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Thanks to Montgomery’s classic “Anne of Green Gables” book series, the titular house and the surrounding area have become Prince Edward Island’s top tourist attraction and stand in stark contrast to the rest of the still-mostly-rural island province.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment »

Honoré de Balzac

Posted in Père Lachaise Cemetery with tags , on April 2, 2014 by Cade

balzac1May 20, 1799 – August 18, 1850

A noted pioneer of the Realist movement in European literature, Honoré de Balzac was a highly influential novelist and playwright. Balzac’s work was known for its flawed characters and minute detail that outlined life in his native France (specifically, Paris) in the time after Napoleon. The energy that drove his characters and stories wasn’t just creation. The man, himself, lived life at a torrid pace. Many of his finished novels and plays are the result of meticulous – borderline obsessive – revision and gallons upon gallons of coffee. Continue reading →

Leave a comment »

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Posted in Mt. Auburn Cemetery with tags , , on February 28, 2014 by Cade

longfellow1February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a popular American Romantic poet whose lyrical poems often depicted historic or mythological narratives. Perhaps his most famous work is “Paul Revere’s Ride.”

Longfellow was born in Portland, ME and attended Bowdoin College. He spent many years abroad in Europe and learned a number of languages. This would lead to him becoming one of the more important translators of the 19th Century. In fact, he was the first American to translate Dante’s Divine Comedy. Though his works were met with popular success, his life was filled with tragedy. Continue reading →

Leave a comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »