Greg Fields

Sean McBride (1904-88). Won of Maud Gonne, who rejected Yeats's proposals, and John McBride, executed by the British after the Easter Rising. After a stint with the IRA, he became a human rights lawyer and founded Amnesty International. He won the 1974 Nobel Peace Prize.

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The birthday today of Patti Smith, singer-songwriter, poet, and visual artist. Her memoir, 𝑱𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝑲𝒊𝒅𝒔, won the 2010 National Book Award for non-fiction.

"Why can’t I write something that would awake the dead? That pursuit is what burns most deeply."

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Henry Miller (1891-1980) Anais Nin's lover and the author of 𝑻𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒄 𝒐𝒇 𝑪𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓, which was banned in the US for 30 years until the Supreme Court overturned charges of obscenity.

"Whatever I do is done out of sheer joy; I drop my fruits like a ripe tree."

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Samuel Pepys' diary, 1666:

"25. Christmas day. I go to church.Then home, and dine well on some good ribs of beef roasted and mince pies; and plenty of good wine of my own; and my heart full of true joy and thanks for the goodness of my condition."

Peace, always

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Maud Gonne, Yeats's lifelong muse. He fell in love with her immediately and remained so the rest of his life.

Upon his asking her to marry, she told him: "You make beautiful poetry out of your unhappiness and you are happy in that...Poets should never marry."

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Today in 1843 Charles Dickens published 𝑨 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒎𝒂𝒔 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒍.
His previous novel, 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒏 𝑪𝒉𝒖𝒛𝒛𝒍𝒆𝒘𝒊𝒕, was a flop and he was strapped for cash. Dickens thought a heartwarming tale with a holiday theme might be profitable. He worked hard to finish it by Christmas.

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Jane Austen (1775-1817). Her work was largely unrecognized during her lifetime, but today there are thousands of members of the Jane Austen Society, known as 'Janeites'.

"I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature."

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In 1950 William Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize. When called with the news, Faulkner was working on his farm in Mississippi. “It’s too far away. I'm a farmer down here and I can’t get away.” He ultimately relented under pressure from his daughter.

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Maybe, but I'm not sure that if I disappeared anyone would come looking for me. Except maybe creditors.

In 1926 Agatha Christie disappeared from her home, her car abandoned miles away. She was later found in a luxury hotel staying under a different name, claiming she couldn't remember a thing. Whether amnesia or a publicity stunt, her market soared afterwards.

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Today in 1860 Charles Dickens' magazine published the first installment of 𝑮𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝑬𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔, a product of need rather than art. He had purchased a mansion and left his wife, requiring him to pay her separate expenses. It sold well, and Dickens became solvent.

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William Blake (1757-1827) Poet, printmaker and mystic. When he was four, he told his parents that he saw God put his head in the window. And at age nine, he said that he saw a tree filled with angels.

"For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life."

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In a world littered with Trumps, Vances, Hegseths and Bondis, let's never forget that there's also Snoopy, Linus and Charlie Brown.

Charles Schultz, born this day in 1922, in St. Paul, Minnesota

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Arundhati Roy, born in 1961. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒐𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝑺𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 (1997) won the Booker Prize. Her second novel, 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝑼𝒕𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝑯𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔, did not appear until twenty years later.

"Being a writer is the thing that comes closest to not having a profession."

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Thank you for such kind thoughts. I've always believed that the best writing connects us by sharing the unsteady steps of our collective humanity. Sometimes it works.

French writer, satirist and philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778), who helped spark the Enlightenment. His wit and criticism of Christianity and his advocacy of freedoms of speech and religion and church-state separation earned him both exile and literary immortality.

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South African writer and activist Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014), 1991 Nobel Prize

"What is the purpose of writing? For me it is to explain the mystery of life [which] includes, of course, the personal, the political, the forces that make us what we are."

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Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, born this day in 1939. Multiple winner of the Booker Prize, whose signature work 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒅'𝒔 𝑻𝒂𝒍𝒆 has become all too relevant.

"The facts of this world seen clearly are seen through tears."

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Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94)
𝑻𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝑰𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅 and 𝑫𝒓.𝑱𝒆𝒌𝒚𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑴𝒓. 𝑯𝒚𝒅𝒆 (which he wrote in three days after a vivid dream). He collapsed while opening a bottle of wine, asking his wife 'Does my face look strange?', and died of a brain hemorrhage at age 44.

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Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-81)
He gave his first novel, 𝑷𝒐𝒐𝒓 𝑭𝒐𝒍𝒌, to some friends, who stayed up all night reading it. They pounded on his door at 4:00 AM to tell him that he'd written a masterpiece. He later said that was the happiest moment of his life.

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In 1960, after a jury finds publisher Penguin Books not guilty in an obscenity trial, the uncensored version of D. H. Lawrence's 𝑳𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒚'𝒔 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 finally goes on sale in the UK.

Sales were brisk.

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Albert Camus (1913-60)
Born in Algeria, he moved to Paris in 1940 and finished 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 as tanks rolled into the city.

"A writer cannot put himself today in the service of those who make history; he is at the service of those who suffer it."

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In 1996 Spalding Gray's one-man play 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒂 𝑺𝒍𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝑺𝒍𝒐𝒑𝒆 opened.

One critic wrote of Gray's style:

"Spalding the storyteller. Spalding the mystical. Spalding the hilarious. Spalding the self-exposed, the professionally puzzled, the scared, the brave."

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John Keats (1795-1821) He apprenticed in a hospital and even worked as a surgeon before turning to poetry. Tuberculosis forced him to Italy, where he fell in love with Fanny Brawne and did his best work. He died just as a poor review for 𝑬𝒏𝒅𝒚𝒎𝒊𝒐𝒏 was published.

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James Boswell (1740-95) He loved gossip and drinking, so he went to London, met his hero Samuel Johnson in the back of a bookshop and followed him around for the next 20 years. In 1791 he published 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑺𝒂𝒎𝒖𝒆𝒍 𝑱𝒐𝒉𝒏𝒔𝒐𝒏, the first truly personal biography.

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Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (1914-53), born this day

"I hold a beast, an angel and a madman in me, and my enquiry is as to their working, and my problem is their subjugation and victory, downthrow and upheaval, and my effort is their self-expression."

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The birthday of Pat Conroy (1945-2016) 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑻𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒔, 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝑺𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒊, etc.

Brilliant, lyrical, evocative and intense, he loved the written word unlike anyone I've ever read, and fostered the careers of so many writers, including my own.

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Poet John Berryman (1914-72) As treatment for his mental struggles he logged his dreams. These became 𝑫𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔, his best work. A professor at the time, he committed suicide by jumping off a bridge at the U. of Minnesota as students walked by him to class.

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If you can, find a writers' group where you can share your work. Doesn't have to be local. (I'm part of a group in Dublin via Zoom). They're out there, and they're hugely valuable.

In 1958 Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) was awarded the Nobel Prize. Enraged, the Soviet Union's Communist Party
forced him to decline it. His son finally accepted the award on his father's behalf in 1989. 𝑫𝒐𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓 𝒁𝒉𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒈𝒐 is now part of the Russian school curriculum.

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