why dave bergman is neat

1908: William Saroyan is born

William Saroyan, the son of an Armenian immigrant, is born in Fresno on this day in 1908.

Saroyan's father died when the boy was only three, and he was raised in an orphanage. His mother later reunited the family. To earn extra money for the family, Saroyan started selling newspapers on the streets of Fresno, California, at age eight. Although he left school at 15, he became an avid reader and haunted the public libraries.

Saroyan published his first collection of stories, The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, in 1934, followed by Inhale and Exhale in 1936. His first play, My Heart's in the Highlands, was produced in 1939. His play The Time of Your Life, about a group of lonely drifters in a San Francisco bar, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. Saroyan rejected the award, saying the play was no better than anything else he had written.

In his novels, Saroyan portrayed a fundamental goodness in all of his characters. His work was frequently based on his own childhood, and boys are often his main characters. The central figure in the stories of My Name Is Aram is a young Armenian-American boy, and his 1943 novel, The Human Comedy, featured a 14-year-old boy whose older brother has left to fight in World War II. Saroyan also wrote several memoirs in the 1960s and 1970s. Saroyan married Carol Marcus, and the couple had two children, a son and a daughter. The couple divorced, remarried, then divorced again. Saroyan fell into deep debt in the 1960s and was plagued by tax problems. He wrote as much as possible to regain his financial footing, and much of his later work received mixed reviews. He died in Fresno in 1981.

1904: Henry James returns to the U.S.

Henry James returns to the U.S. for a visit after living abroad for two decades.

James was born to a wealthy and eccentric philosopher father in 1843 in New York, N.Y. His older brother, William, became the country's first distinguished psychologist as well as a well-known philosopher. The brothers and their younger siblings were taken abroad by their parents for four years to study European culture during their teens. The family roamed England, Switzerland, and France, visiting galleries, museums, theaters, and libraries.

A back injury exempted James from serving in the Civil War, and he briefly attended Harvard Law School. He began writing fiction in his teens, and his first story was published when he was 21. He soon became a regular contributor of essays, reviews, and stories to Atlantic Monthly and other important periodicals. In 1873, James moved to England and continued publishing reviews while writing many more novels, including The American (1877) and the popular Daisy Miller (1878). In 1881, he published his masterpiece The Portrait of a Lady. Like many of his other works, it deals with naÝve, young Americans moving in sophisticated European circles. He wrote nonfiction as well as fiction, and the prefaces to new editions of his novels were collected in The Art of the Novel (1834).

Music to read Walker Percy to.

Just picked up Modern Times.

Can't wait.

The best radio station in the Philadelphia area, 88.5 WXPN, has been transmitting a delightful amount of Emmylou Harris tunes to our car stereo the last couple of days. First, yesterday the wiffle and I caught a chunk of a live Emmylou performance (with [I think] Buddy Miller accompanying her) on the 'Mountain Stage' program, and then today on the 'World Cafe Live' program they had Emmylou and Mark Knopfler in studio to interview and play some songs from their lately-released album of duets. They sounded really good. It's especially nice to hear those two play together because it is my opinion that Knopfler has one of the best guitar sounds and styles around and Emmylou has one of the best voices around. Of the songs I've heard from their new album All the Roadrunning, 'This Is Us', 'Beachcombing', and the title track stand out in my mind.

Also, tomorrow...new Dylan album! Nice.

The wiffle and I saw Invincible tonight. It was great. I don't care what any reviewers say. Yes, I know it stars Mark Wahlberg. Yes, I know it also stars Greg Kinnear. Yes, I know the plot is predictable and sentimental; but that's ok, because the genre of the movie calls for predictability and sentimentality. It obeys its generic constraints, and it does it well. It's supposed to pump you up and make you feel good. Also, it's got some sweet mid-70s rock, including 'Stranglehold' by Ted Nugent. And, finally, I like the little play on words between the title (Invincible) and the main character, Vince (i.e. 'the victor', 'the conqueror) Papale. One recurring motif in the movie's storyline is the accusation that Vince is a failure and always will be. But by the end, Vince lives up to his name and becomes 'invincible'.

August 25

1949 Novelist Martin Amis is born

Martin Amis, son of novelist Kingsley Amis, is born in Oxford on this day in 1949. Amis' father is a prominent novelist whose 1954 book, Lucky Jim, an academic satire, brought him international fame.

Martin Amis was the middle of three siblings. He attended 14 schools during the 1950s and 1960s as his father lectured at numerous universities in England and around the U.S. His parents divorced when he was 12, and Amis spent his teenage years hanging out in bars with the mod and hippie crowds. He went to Oxford, where he excelled. When he graduated, he became a journalist working for London's elite literary publications. He started writing fiction in his early 20s, and his first novel, The Rachel Papers, was published in 1973. His novels, including Money (1984), London Fields (1989), and The Information, all use innovative plot structure and energetic wordplay to explore, and often to satirize, grotesque and lurid topics. His 1991 book, Time's Arrow, shows the life of a former Nazi doctor in reverse, as if the doctor were living time backward. Amis married in 1984, has two sons, and is an avid pinball and snooker player.

Well, Pluto is no longer a planet. Poor guy.

My uncle, Kim Bailey, died this morning. May he rest in peace. If you think of it, please lift up his wife, Linda, in prayer.

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, 5
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell, 10
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

John Donne

Today I learned that I am not a nerd, but that I am also definitely not hip.


(LvTheTwoStroke.)

Cool new church project in North Philadelphia. Something definitely to keep in your prayers.

(LvMark Driscoll.)