Nicholas Vachel Lindsay was born November 10, 1879, in the family home at 603
South 5th Street, Springfield, Illinois.
His father, Vachel Thomas Lindsay, was a doctor; his mother, Esther
Catharine Frazee Lindsay, was a civic and religious leader. After a rather ordinary grade school career,
Vachel, as he was called in later years, entered Springfield High School in
1892. Here he met teacher Susan Wilcox,
and she became a guiding light for the rest of his life. His high school academic career, contrary to
some accounts, was quite successful; and he was the champion walker on his high
school track team, even participating in the state track meet in Champaign during
his senior year. In keeping with his
era, he was expected to follow in his father's footsteps and thus matriculated
into the premedical program at Hiram College (Hiram, Ohio) in fall, 1897. After three years, during which time he
excelled in literature and philosophy and failed in premedical and language
courses, he convinced his parents that college was interfering with his
education, and he was allowed to enroll in art courses at the Chicago Art
Institute (1901-1903). Weary of Chicago,
Vachel moved on to William Chase's New York School of Art, where the primary
instructor, Robert Henri, suggested to his student that he was more a poet than
a painter. Following Henri's advice,
Vachel began taking his poetry seriously and even attempted to sell poems to
individuals on New York City street corners.
Then, in 1906, he joined a friend and sailed to Florida on a tramp
steamer. The friend took a train back to
New York; Vachel tramped from Florida to a cousin's home just south of
Louisville, Kentucky, attempting to trade a poem-booklet, “The Tree of Laughing
Bells,” for a meal and a night's lodging.
After a family trip to visit European art galleries, Vachel returned to
New York to lecture on art and poetry in various YMCAs. Then, in 1908, he left New York on foot,
tramping across New Jersey and Pennsylvania to Hiram, Ohio, where he joined his
younger sister Joy for a train ride back to Springfield. Both of these early tramps are recounted
in A Handy Guide for Beggars (1916). In 1925, he met Elizabeth Conner, who
was 23 years his junior but who was enamored with his work and reputation. Within two weeks they were married; and the
next two years saw birth of a daughter, Susan Doniphan, and a son, Nicholas
Cave. In 1929, Vachel and his family
returned to the old Springfield homestead, the house where the poet was born,
the house that had once belonged to Abraham Lincoln's sister-in-law, the house
where Vachel knew his hero, the Great Emancipator, had visited on numerous
occasions. He died on December 5, 1931
and is buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery, with his hero Abraham Lincoln; on his
tombstone we read his name and a single word:
Poet. http://www.vachellindsay.org/bio.html
Nicholas
Vachel Lindsay (/ˈveɪtʃəl ˈlɪnzi/; 1879–1931) was an
American poet. He is considered a founder of modern singing
poetry, as he referred to it, in which verses are meant to be sung or
chanted. While in New York in
1905 Lindsay turned to poetry in earnest.
He tried to sell his poems on the streets. Self-printing his poems, he began to barter a
pamphlet titled "Rhymes To Be Traded For Bread", which he traded for
food as a self-perceived modern version of a medieval troubadour.
From March to May, 1906, Lindsay traveled roughly 600 miles on foot
from Jacksonville, Florida,
to Kentucky, again trading his poetry for food
and lodging. From April to May, 1908,
Lindsay undertook another poetry-selling trek, walking from New York City to Hiram, Ohio.
From May to September 1912 he traveled—again on foot—from Illinois to New Mexico, trading his poems for food and lodging. Going
through Kansas, he was supposedly so successful that "he had to send money
home to keep his pockets empty". On his return, Harriet Monroe published in Poetry magazine first his poem
"General William Booth Enters into Heaven" in 1913 and then "The
Congo" in 1914. At this point,
Lindsay became very well known. The massive Vachel Lindsay Archive resides at
the Albert and Shirley Small Special
Collections Library at the University
of Virginia, and comprises his
personal papers, manuscripts of his works, correspondence, photographs,
artworks, printing blocks, books from his personal library, and a comprehensive
collection of books by and about Lindsay. The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College holds a small collection of manuscripts and
other items sent by Lindsay to Eugenia Graham.
Link to a selection of poems including The Dandelion at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vachel_Lindsay
In public service announcements for My Brother’s
Keeper, an initiative aimed at
helping boys and young men of color succeed in life, NBA star Steph Curry is
joined by former president Barack Obama, who launched the initiative in
2014, as well as Chance the Rapper. In
each spot, Curry is seen at the Warriors’ practice facility, looking at a video
on a smartphone and saying, “We’re the ones …” He appears to be repeating words spoken early
in the videos by a young man who says, “We’re the ones to inspire our
generation, to rise up and stand for the idea of opportunity for
everyone.” The longer spots begin with
a message delivered
by Obama in 2015, at the launch of the My Brother’s Keeper (MBK)
Alliance. “I want you to know: you
matter,” he said. “There’s nothing, not
a single thing, that’s more important to the future of America than whether or
not young people all across this country can achieve their dreams.” In the recent videos, which began rolling out
shortly before Christmas 2017, Obama is shown looking at a smartphone and
saying, “I am my brother’s keeper.”
Chance the Rapper says the same thing to the camera in the 90-second
version. Des
Bieler Read more and see pictures at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/12/27/steph-curry-joins-barack-obama-in-psa-for-initiative-to-help-young-men-of-color/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-sports%3Ahomepage%2Fcard&utm_te
Two-Ingredient Pizza Dough—And
Two Easy Pizza Recipes
1 cup Greek yogurt and 1–1
½ cups self-rising flour Note: If you
can’t find self-rising flour, you can substitute 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, 1
½ tsp. baking powder, and ¾ tsp. of salt.
Find instructions and recipes at https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/two-ingredient-pizza-dough-and-two-easy-pizza-recipes-100002596796.html
Thank you, Muse reader!
Billy Crudup explains how he becomes 19 characters
in David Cale’s play “Harry Clarke,” which follows a shy Midwesterner as he
reinvents himself as a Cockney Englishman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k-tk1FY13I 2:51
Sue Grafton,
whose best-selling “alphabet series” of detective novels featuring Southern
California detective Kinsey Millhone made her one of the most popular mystery
novelists of her time, died Dec. 28, 2017 in Santa Barbara, Calif. She was 77.
Ms. Grafton began her “alphabet series” in 1982 with “ ‘A’ Is for Alibi”
and reached the 25th letter of the alphabet with her final book, “ ‘Y’ Is for
Yesterday,” which was published in August, 2017. Ms. Grafton published her first two novels,
both set in Appalachia, in the late 1960s. She later wrote screenplays before breaking
through in the 1980s with her popular mystery series. Matt Schudel https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/sue-grafton-whose-alphabet-mysteries-became-best-sellers-dies-at-77/2017/12/29/395e95f0-ecd9-11e7-8a6a-80acf0774e64_story.html?utm_term=.aa6a91c7f477
These days, “musical piracy” can mean anything from illegal MP3 files downloaded
from the internet to bootleg Bruce Springsteen compact discs pressed in China. But back in 1878, the smash success of the
Gilbert and Sullivan operetta “HMS Pinafore” resulted in a flurry of
unauthorized “pirate” productions in the United States. The two resourceful Englishmen decided the
best way to put a stop to it was to premiere their next collaboration in New
York, thereby establishing its copyright under American law. On December 31, 1879, it was Arthur Sullivan
himself who conducted the pit orchestra of the Fifth Avenue Theater in
Manhattan for the first full performance of their latest creation, entitled,
perhaps not coincidentally, “The Pirates of Penzance.” Composers Datebook
Brooklynite noun A native or inhabitant of Brooklyn, New York. On New
Year’s Day in 1898, Brooklyn was consolidated with other cities, boroughs,
and counties to
form what is now New York City. Wiktionary
These are the 10 recipes our readers loved most this
year by Kara Elder Links include Trinidad Black Cake (#8) and
Anthony Bourdain's Boeuf Bourguignon (#9) at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2017/12/29/these-are-the-10-recipes-our-readers-loved-most-this-year/?utm_term=.de5a240cc959
New Year's Resolutions Get regular
physical and dental examinations. Get
enough sleep. Eat more fruits and
vegetables. Eat less sugar. Read more books. Use mobile devices less. Be kind--do not mock or shame others. Be civil--do not resend messages that are
hurtful. Help rather than hinder.
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1819
January 2, 2018 On this date in 2000,
“Concert de Gaudi” for guitar and
orchestra premiered in Hamburg, Germany, commissioned by guitarist Sharon Isbin
from the American composer Christopher Rouse.
In one of his letters, the German poet Goethe dropped this memorable and
frequently quoted line: “I call
architecture frozen music.” If that’s
the case, then this music might be accurately described as “unfrozen
architecture,” since it was music inspired by work of famous Spanish architect
Antonio Gaudi, whose unfinished Temple of the Holy Family in Barcelona is an
internationally famous landmark of that city. Composers Datebook “Concert
de Gaudi” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXofelsbU 26:55
See picture of Gaudi's masterpiece, Cathedral Sagrada Família. Thought for Today There is a cult of
ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of
anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our
political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means
that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." - Isaac
Asimov, scientist and writer (2 Jan 1920-1992)
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