Born March 1, 1837: William Dean Howells of Martin’s Ferry, Ohio.

Today is a big day here at Buckeyemuse. In addition to being the first day of the month when spring arrives in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s also William Dean Howells’ birthday. Howells is one of the most important of Ohio’s literary lights. Novelist, editor, poet, short story writer, dramatist, promoter of realism in literature, Howells…

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Perspective

“So many bad books get printed, why can’t my bad book get printed?” –Thomas Merton, Secular Journal.

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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…

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Remembering 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…

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The 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…

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Happy 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!

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Famous 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.

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Zane 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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Polar Vortex, Winesburg, Ohio-style

“By nine o’ clock of that evening snow lay deep in the streets and the weather had become bitter cold. It was difficult to walk about. The stores were dark and the people had crawled away to their houses. The evening train from Cleveland was very late but nobody was interested in its arrival. By…

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Louis Bromfield: The Land and The Man Were One

December 27 marks the birthday of Louis Bromfield, renowned Ohio author and conservationist. Louis Bromfield was born near Mansfield, Ohio on December 27, 1896. In his life he was not only a successful novelist, but also an agrarian spokesman who owned Malabar Farm, an experimental farm in Richland County now part of the Ohio park…

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