October 8, 1932: Saturday Review of Literature review of Light in August: “one perfect chrysoprase.”https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/W/William-Faulkner-Day-by-Day

October 8, 1950: “Halls of Ivy Real to Many,” the headline read in Fort Worth Star Telegram. Frederick L. Horde, president of Purdue University, flew to Hollywood to present Ronald Colman with an award for “giving the American people, honest realistic stories of American college life.”

Theodore Roosevelt, the Pluralistic President How was it that TR, a man of privilege and a close friend of Henry Cabot Lodge, an antisemite whom TR does not seem to have called out for his prejudice,…

www.nysun.com/article/theo...

William Faulkner Day by Day William Faulkner has been the topic of numerous biographies, papers, and international attention. Yet there are no collected resources providing a comprehensive scope of Faulkner’s life and work befor...

10/5/45: Party with writers on their heels and knees “in a kind of circle in front of me. I’ll have to admit though that I felt more like a decrepit gaffer telling stories than like an old master producing jewels for three junior co-laborers.” www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/W/Will...

The Making of Sylvia Plath Since her death, Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) has become an endless source of fascination for a wide audience ranging from readers of The Bell Jar, her semiautobiographical novel, to her groundbreaking po...

On October 5, 1956, in the early, heady days of their marriage, she had written to Hughes that he represented the “whole male principle,” father, brother husband, son. www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/T/The-...

10/4/88: “Benita Hume owned the [Charles Addams] cartoon of a psychiatrist asking a woman patient, ‘Now in your dreams of being chased by Ronald Colman and a plumed alligator—which is in the lead?’” “Say Good Night to Chas Addams—the man who made us laugh,” The Berkshire Eagle).

Ronald Colman: Hollywood’s Gentleman Hero Amazon.com: Ronald Colman: Hollywood’s Gentleman Hero eBook : Rollyson , Carl : Kindle Store

He performed roles not his own choice but part of a necessary stage in his career kept separate from the rest of his life, which he deemed “absolutely normal…I don’t like to sit in an audience and watch my own pictures” (Reading, PA Times, 10/3/27). www.amazon.com/Ronald-Colma...

How Lincoln Restored Himself to Greatness Saladin Ambar contends that Lincoln early on understood that the obsession with race was a key way of understanding the undermining of American…

www.nysun.com/article/how-...

William Faulkner Day by Day William Faulkner has been the topic of numerous biographies, papers, and international attention. Yet there are no collected resources providing a comprehensive scope of Faulkner’s life and work befor...

October 1, 1953: Phil Stone to Robert Coughlan: “Your article, I think, has the town stewing.” Predicts a storm among the Faulkners about who supplied the family photographs. Coughlan was the first writer to publicly discuss Faulkner’s drinking. www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/W/Will...

In his dual role, Colman used mirrors to watch himself, making sure to differentiate his gestures, switching from the light-hearted yet bitter king to his adventurous, yet sober-minded kinsman (Vero Beach Press Journal, October 1, 1937).

The Making of Sylvia Plath Since her death, Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) has become an endless source of fascination for a wide audience ranging from readers of The Bell Jar, her semiautobiographical novel, to her groundbreaking po...

Sylvia returned to Cambridge on October 1, 1956, done with what had been a harrowing time in the Hughes home relieved by those country interludes that calm the spirit as in Frankenstein films. www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/T/The-...

George Washington’s Ride to the Right Side of History The author’s coupling of the terms honor and fame imply that the two concepts that drove Washington into the public arena are what ought to distinguish…

www.nysun.com/article/geor...

Faulkner On and Off the Page Though numerous biographies have been published on William Faulkner, readers are often presented conflicting interpretations of his life and work. Faulkner’s view of himself and his own family was mer...

September 30, 1943: From Oxford, reports to Ober that he is writing a new work, “a fable, an indictment of war perhaps, and for that reason may not be acceptable now.” More on A Fable: www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/F/Faul...

Sylvia Plath Day by Day, Volume 2 Since her death in 1963, Sylvia Plath has become an endless source of fascination for a wide audience, ranging from readers of The Bell Jar, her semiautobiographical novel, to her groundbreaking poetr...

9/30/62, c. 5:00-8:00: Completes “A Birthday Present”
Ruth Beuscher advises a divorce.: “You can certainly get the goods on him now while he is in such a reckless mood.” She advises Sylvia to keep Ted out of her bed and to cut contact with his family. www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/S/Sylv...

On September 30, 1938, Two days after the release of If I Were King, Ronald Colman (47) married Benita Hume (32).

Ronald Colman: Hollywood’s Gentleman Hero Amazon.com: Ronald Colman: Hollywood’s Gentleman Hero eBook : Rollyson , Carl : Kindle Store

9/29/79: Mary Paige reminisces at Scranton, PA Century Club about a party at Mary Pickford’s: “Ronald Colman…seeing her alone ‘gallantly’ asked her to dance. ‘I’m sure we talked, but all I can remember about the dance is wishing my friends could see me.” www.amazon.com/Ronald-Colma...

What tributary nations would I bring/To stoop before your sceptre and to swear/Allegiance to your lips and eyes and hair./
Beneath your feet what treasures I would fling:/The stars should be your pearls upon a string,/The world a ruby for your finger ring…If I were king

Faulkner On and Off the Page Though numerous biographies have been published on William Faulkner, readers are often presented conflicting interpretations of his life and work. Faulkner’s view of himself and his own family was mer...

9/26/48: Dallas Morning News rev of Intruder in the Dust: “it should not seem particularly strange that Faulkner…should finally come to deal explicitly with the most dispossessed and displaced of all, the Negro.”
www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/W/Will...; www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/F/Faul...

The Making of Sylvia Plath Amazon.com: The Making of Sylvia Plath (Audible Audio Edition): Carl Rollyson, Danielle Mors, University Press of Mississippi: Audible Books & Originals

9/26/52: Begins third year at Smith. Claiborne Phillips saw her “cross-legged on her bed with her hair falling down around her face in the “late afternoon sun shining in through the window,” a “companionship of loneliness together.”
www.amazon.com/The-Making-o...

Ronald Colman: Hollywood’s Gentleman Hero Amazon.com: Ronald Colman: Hollywood’s Gentleman Hero eBook : Rollyson , Carl : Kindle Store

September 26, 1925: Colman in Her Sister From Paris: “The Screen’s Most Perfect Lover” (New Castle [Pennsylvania] News). www.amazon.com/Ronald-Colma...

American Biography Amazon.com: American Biography: 9780595384327: Rollyson, Carl: Books

I put Marilyn Monroe on Mount Rushmore on the cover of my book American Biography, doing well this month as an audiobook. www.amazon.com/American-Bio...

George Washington: The First Businessman President Washington believed wholeheartedly in a republic as the best form of government, but the subtext of that belief, it seems to me, is that a strong central…

www.nysun.com/article/geor...

Faulkner On and Off the Page Though numerous biographies have been published on William Faulkner, readers are often presented conflicting interpretations of his life and work. Faulkner’s view of himself and his own family was mer...

www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/F/Faul...

Ronald Colman: Hollywood’s Gentleman Hero Amazon.com: Ronald Colman: Hollywood’s Gentleman Hero eBook : Rollyson , Carl : Kindle Store

9/25/43 episode of Command Performance ended with Colman’s paean to democracy: “Tonight the world knows that everything America stands for will live as long as there is human life on this earth, knows that all America has achieved will never be given up.” www.amazon.com/Ronald-Colma...

William Faulkner Day by Day William Faulkner has been the topic of numerous biographies, papers, and international attention. Yet there are no collected resources providing a comprehensive scope of Faulkner’s life and work befor...

September 24, 1936: Completes temporary film script for The Last Slaver. www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/W/Will...; more on WF and slavery: www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/F/Faul...

Sylvia Plath Day by Day, Volume 2 Since her death in 1963, Sylvia Plath has become an endless source of fascination for a wide audience, ranging from readers of The Bell Jar, her semiautobiographical novel, to her groundbreaking poetr...

9/24/56: Visiting Haworth: “Charlotte’s needlework,” books in “microscopic script,” contents of Charlotte’s room, slippers, shawl, “scribbled drawing on wall,” “wooden oblong cradle,” “toys—discovered under floor boards.”
www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/S/Sylv...

Selznick’s Prisoner of Zenda featured “sixty-odd breathtaking sets, including a cathedral, a castle, and sumptuous castle ballroom” (Altoona [Pennsylvania] Tribune, September 24, 1937).

Beautiful Exile: The Life of Martha Gellhorn Amazon.com: Beautiful Exile: The Life of Martha Gellhorn (Audible Audio Edition): Carl Rollyson, John Stamper, Carl Rollyson: Books

My top selling audiobook this month (so far): www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Ex...

George Washington’s Mother: Shrew or Saint? Kate Haulman provides a fascinating account of how 19th century biographers came to enshrine Mary Ball Washington, and of the development of biography…

www.nysun.com/article/geor...

YouTube video by the old curiosity podcast Some like it hot: a life in biography (part 1) with rebel biographer Carl Rollyson

A two-part interview with me not quite like anything I’ve done before:

Carl Rollyson part 1: youtu.be/KLQiFbwnSpY

Carl Rollyson part 2: youtu.be/56BoS1U_W40