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Tag Archives: Richard Ellmann
“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.” — Oscar Wilde
It’s his birthday today. One of my heroes. His mother, Jane Speranza Francesca Wilde (aka Lady Wilde, aka “Speranza”) was an incredible woman – also in the canon of Irish literary history certainly, not to mention its politics and social … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, Theatre, writers
Tagged Ireland, Irish poetry, Oscar Wilde, Richard Ellmann, Seamus Heaney
22 Comments
“That is no country for old men.” — William Butler Yeats
“I thought we might bring the halves together if we had a national literature that made Ireland beautiful in the memory, and yet had been freed of provincialism by an exacting criticism, a European pose.” — W.B. Yeats William Butler … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Algernon Charles Swinburne, Camille Paglia, Edmund Spenser, Elizabeth Bishop, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Harold Bloom, Ireland, Irish poetry, Jeanette Winterson, John Millington Synge, Jonathan Swift, Louis MacNeice, Maud Gonne, Michael Schmidt, Philip Larkin, poetry, Rebecca West, Richard Ellmann, Seamus Heaney, T.S. Eliot, Ted Hughes, Ulysses, W.B. Yeats, W.H. Auden
15 Comments
Recommended: Biographies
For starters: My recommended Fiction books My recommended Non-Fiction books BIOGRAPHIES: American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, by Joseph Ellis I’ve written a lot about Joseph Ellis’ work here. While I love David McCullough’s work so much, Ellis is … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books, Directors, Founding Fathers, James Joyce, Theatre, writers
Tagged A. Scott Berg, Abigail Adams, Alexander Hamilton, American Sphinx, Benjamin Franklin, Biography, Bruce Springsteen, Charles Lindbergh, Charlotte Bronte, David McCullough, Dean Martin, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ellen Terry, Elvis Presley, Emily Bronte, George Washington, Henry Irving, His Excellency, Howard Hawks, Howard Hughes, James Dean, Jerry Lee Lewis, John Adams, John Wayne, Joseph Cornell, Joseph Ellis, Marlon Brando, Mitford sisters, Montgomery Clift, Nick Tosches, Nureyev, Orson Welles, Oscar Wilde, Patricia Bosworth, Patricia Highsmith, Richard Ellmann, Ron Chernow, Sam Cooke, Simon Callow, Tennessee Williams, Thomas Jefferson, Truman Capote, W.B. Yeats, Zelda Fitzgerald
9 Comments
Bookshelf Tour #7
Moving on to biographies. Please ignore my wretched ceiling. I had nothing to do with it. I also lost the top shelf of my bookshelves when I moved here in February. Still room for a row of books though. I … Continue reading
The Books: Oscar Wilde, by Richard Ellmann
Daily Book Excerpt: Biography Next biography on the biography shelf is Oscar Wilde, by Richard Ellmann Of late I have been studying with diligence the four prose poems about Christ. At Christmas I managed to get hold of a Greek … Continue reading
The Books: James Joyce, by Richard Ellmann
Daily Book Excerpt: Biography Next biography on the biography shelf is James Joyce, by Richard Ellmann You were bred, fed, fostered and fattened from holy childhood up in this two easter island … and now, forsooth, a nogger among the … Continue reading
Richard Ellmann, in the flesh
Legends, indeed. Richard Ellmann’s biography of James Joyce is a towering achievement, a highwater-mark in the art of biography. Why bother write another bio of Joyce after that?? Of course people still do – but they all need to contend … Continue reading
Books: History List
Taking my cue from Critical Mass, here is my compilation of favorite history, biography, and historical fiction. Criteria for books chosen is thus: The books chosen must be well written, and one does not need to have a lot of … Continue reading
Posted in Books, James Joyce
Tagged A. Scott Berg, A.S. Byatt, Biography, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Charles Lindbergh, David McCullough, England, France, Germany, Going After Cacciato, Group Theatre, Hitler, Ireland, Jeanette Winterson, John Adams, nonfiction, Possession, Rebecca West, Richard Ellmann, Ryszard Kapuściński, Tennessee Williams, The Passion, The Soccer War, Tim O'Brien, Vietnam, William Shirer, Yugoslavia
5 Comments
Thoughts on Biography: Savage Beauty, by Nancy Milford
I am now reading Savage Beauty, the most recent biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay, by Nancy Milford, the same author who wrote the biography of Zelda Fitzgerald I referenced a couple weeks ago. I enjoy Milford’s biographical writing style … Continue reading
Posted in Books, James Joyce
Tagged Biography, Edna St. Vincent Millay, F. Scott Fitzgerald, family, poetry, Richard Ellmann, Ulysses
3 Comments