Samuel Taylor Coleridge, b. 1772
Sir, I admit your general rule,
That every poet is a fool,
But you yourself may serve to show it,
That every fool is not a poet.
Ursula K. LeGuin b. 1929. Does this brief piece by LeGuin on “What Makes a Story?” make sense to you? Ms. LeGuin has written some fine fantasy, including the Earthsea novels.
Ann Cameron, b. 1943. Author of easy-to-read chapter books for children. I like the Julian books very much, especially the story in which Julian and his little brother, Huey, eat their father’s special lemon pudding, a pudding that tastes “like a whole raft of lemons, like a night on the sea.” When Father wakes up from his nap to find the pudding gone and Julian and Huey hiding under the bed, he hauls them out and makes the punishment fit the crime.
Janet Ahlberg, b. 1944.
Also on this date in 1879, Thomas A. Edison first demonstrated his incandescent lamp. And it’s the birthday of Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite, who left his fortune to endow the Noble Prizes.
We love Janet & Allen Ahlberg’s books! We also have several written by Allen, but not illustrated by Janet. I think I like her illustrations the best.
Did you know she died of breast cancer in 1994?
Of her books we have Each Peach, Pear, Plum; The Baby’s Catalogue; Peek-a-boo!; The Jolly Postman; The Jolly Pocket Postman; The Jolly Christmas Postman; Bye-Bye Baby; Yum-Yum; Starting School; and The Ha Ha Bonk Book. We have several copies of The Baby’s Catalogue because all of our children loved that one to pieces, so we kept buying more copies.
Sherry, I think Le Guin’s explanation of story makes sense. Generally speaking, “you want to ‘find out what happens next'” in a story, even a slow moving one. If you enjoy the writing style or characters, you want to experience more. What happened to her next? Where is she going? What will she do about that problem?
I agree, Phil. I wasn’t implying that I didn’t agree with her. Justa sentence/question upon which to hang a link.