Wednesday Literary Reference

    It is an excellent book, BTW.

Poe's Crayons

Happy Birthday, Edgar Allan Poe!

    Happy 212th Birthday to Edgar Allan Poe, whom I consider to be the greatest American writer of the 19th Century.  His style was original; he excelled at both novels and poetry; and he's a heckuva lot more interesting to read than Longfellow, Frost, or Whitman.  Indeed, Jason has waggishly bestowed honorary British citizenship on him, since to call him an American writer puts him in some pretty shoddy company.

    He had a rough childhood; did some strange things (like marrying his cousin when she was only 13 years old); and died prematurely under strange circumstances.  You can read all about it here.

     We'll leave you with this Trivia Teaser, that seems all too obvious but isn't :  What was Edgar Allan Poe's middle name?  Answer in the comments.

Happy Deathday, Mr. Twain

Samuel Clemens

(a.k.a. "Mark Twain")

b. : 30 November 1835

d. : 21 April 1910

. Arguably, one of the two greatest American writers of the 19th Century (the other being Edgar Allan Poe), Samuel Langhorne Clemens passed away exactly 100 years ago today. You can read the Wikipedia article about him here. He came in with Halley's Comet (two weeks after it appeared), and went out with Halley's Comet (one day after its next appearance). Freaky. . His famous novels (Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn) frankly do not impress me. But his overall wit and keen insight do. Kind of a "Will Rogers with 40 more IQ points" guy. . And if you don't agree that he's among the two greatest 19th Century authors, then who else? Nathaniel Hawthorne? Boring. Ralph Waldo Emerson? Even more boring. Herman Melville? All-time boringest. Louisa May Alcott? Only if Nancy Drew is your idea of great literature. . And the picks for greatest 19th Century American poets are even worse.