Writings
Ohio and Ohio Valley writers and writing, literary and cultural history with occasional ventures into the greater Midwest and Upper South.
Thomas Merton’s Christmas-themed poem “The Flight Into Egypt”
The great spiritual writer and Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote a number of poems in connection with various liturgical days, saints, and Biblical themes and figures. Merton (1915-1968) was a member of the Trappist monastery at the Abbey of Gethsemani near Bardstown, Kentucky. It has been seventy years now since Merton’s first collection of poetry—Thirty…
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A Christmas poem by Vachel Lindsay
Here’s a Christmas poem from Vachel Lindsay’s The Congo and Other Poems, published one hundred and three years ago in 1914. It’s also an introductory poem to the first half of the third section of the book. It’s entitled “This Section Is a Christmas Tree.” “This Section Is a Christmas Tree” This section is a…
CONTINUE READINGPublished A Century Ago: Vachel Lindsay’s “The Congo and Other Poems.”
It was 100 years ago that Midwestern poet Vachel Lindsay achieved prominence with his collection The Congo and Other Poems. Lindsay, born in Springfield, Illinois in 1879, had published a volume in 1913 called General William Booth Enters Into Heaven and Other Poems that garnered attention along with his dramatic public recitations. The Congo and…
CONTINUE READINGHappy Birthday to Harriet Monroe, founder of “Poetry: A Magazine of Verse.”
Harriet Monroe, who founded Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, was born in Chicago on December 23, 1860. She was determined to make her mark in the literary world, and founded Poetry in her native city–which she hoped to establish as an important literary center– in 1912. She wanted the journal to “open its pages to…
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“The Prairie-Lawyer, Master of Us All”: Vachel Lindsay’s “When Abraham Lincoln Walks At Midnight”
One of the better known poems from Vachel Lindsay’s The Congo and Other Poems is his poem about the legacy of President Abraham Lincoln amidst the onset of World War One in Europe. The poem is entitled “Abraham Lincoln Walks At Midnight.” Lindsay, born in Springfield, Illinois in 1879 and a popular poet of the…
CONTINUE READINGPublished 110 Years Ago: Gene Stratton-Porter’s “Freckles”
For the book-reading public of 1904, the name Gene Stratton-Porter was as familiar to them as the names Jodi Picoult, Stephen King, and Nora Roberts are to the one of today. In her time, Stratton-Porter, an Indiana native, was a best-selling novelist who later recognized the profit potential of film adaptations and moved to Los…
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From “Good Old Columbus Town:” James Thurber born December 8, 1894
It’s been fifty-three years since James Thurber died, but his work is still very much with us, as attested to by the recent remake of “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” featuring Ben Stiller. Thurber, one of our best twentieth century American humorists, was born on December 8, 1894 in Columbus, Ohio. His family life…
CONTINUE READINGNero Wolfe creator Rex Stout born December 1, 1886.
Rex Todhunter Stout, creator of the famous detective Nero Wolfe, was born on December 1, 1886 in Noblesville, Indiana. After a stint in the U.S. Navy (serving aboard the Presidential yacht during Teddy Roosevelt’s administration), Stout worked a series of odd jobs and wrote four novels of contemporary life before turning his hand to detective…
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Wendell Berry’s Elegy for John F. Kennedy: “November Twenty Six Nineteen Hundred Sixty Three.”
It is fifty-one years now since President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. It was one of the greatest shocks the American people have ever experienced, one of those beautiful sunlit days like 9/11 in which everything suddenly went wrong. In the days that followed there was a massive outpouring of commemoration and…
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