Joyce Maynard, the author of The Usual Rules and Labor Day, is born. Maynard's love affair with J.D. Salinger -- when she was 18 and he was 53 -- is the subject of her memoir, At Home in the World.
James Jones, the National Book Award-winning author of The Thin Red Line, is born in Robinson, Illinois. Jones was the only major writer to witness the attack on Pearl Harbor and his novel, From Here to Eternity, was loosely based on his recollections of those times leading up to the Day of Infamy. Jones borrowed the title of the novel from a line by Rudyard Kipling.
Joyce Maynard, the author of The Usual Rules and Labor Day, is born. Maynard's love affair with J.D. Salinger -- when she was 18 and he was 53 -- is the subject of her memoir, At Home in the World.
"At Home in the World.'.has always stayed with me,had a profound effect of feeling so must respect and admirationfor her,and her wrinting..I can still see the house,the woods,and feel what she was going through..To me a great writer like Joyce Maynard ,doesn.t come around very often for me...Vtc
Kindness,I've discovered,is everything in life...Issac Bashevis Singer
Albert Camus, the Nobel Award-winning author of The Stranger, is born in Mondovi Algeria. Although often labeled as a major practitioner of Existentialism, Camus' philosophy and writings fall into the School of the Absurd, saying that "the absurd is the essential concept and the first truth."
Bram Stoker, the Irish author of Dracula, is born in Dublin. A sequel to the great Vampire tale, Dracula: The Un-Dead, was recently written by Stoker's great-grandnephew, Dacre, and is based on Bram's own "handwritten notes for characters and plot threads excised from the original edition."
Iris Chang, the author of The Rape of Nanking, is found dead near Los Gatos, California. Chang suffered a nervous breakdown which led to severe depression, paranoia, and ultimately her suicide. Paula Kamen's Finding Iris Chang: Friendship, Ambition, and the Loss of an Extraordinary Mindis an attempt to reconcile the rise of the brilliant author and her ultimate fall into bio-polar madness.
Ken Kesey, the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and the original Merry Prankster, dies in Pleasant Hill, Oregon. If you have any interest at all in Kesey, I urge you to track down copies of his self-published literary magazine, Spit in the Ocean. Issue # 7, published after Kesey's death, is particularly moving as it gathers luminaries like Robert Stone and Paul Krassner who offer up moving tributes to the sage revolutionary.
Kurt Vonnegut, the author of Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat's Cradle, is born in Indianapolis, Indiana. Vonnegut played himself in a hilarious scene in the 1986 Rodney Dangerfield film, Back to School. Warning: the following clip contains graphic language.
