"THE BOOK SHELF"

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IMPORTANT WRITERS
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ROBERT ALLAN CARO (B. October 30, 1935)

This writer has won two Pulitzer Prizes for Biography and so many other important awards that they would fill half a typed page. He began with the highly acclaimed "The Power Broker," in 1974, about Robert Moses, New York urban planner. This book was chosen by Modern Library as one of the 500 greatest non-fiction books of the 20th Century.

Caro then set out to write a biography of President Lyndon B. Johnson, and found out he needed more than one volume; consequently it turned into a lifetime  of incredibly interesting, informative, and compelling research and writing, not only just about LBJ, but also the American history that was a by-product of his study. So rest assured, even if you have a different political persuasion, not to worry, you will be totally caught up in Caro's  books! Listed, they are:

"The Path to Power"--1982
"Means of Ascent"--1990
"Master of the Senate"--2002
"The Passage of Power"--2012

 The final LBJ book in this set is being written.

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DAVID GAUB MC CULLOUGH (B. July 7, 1933)

A man I have always admired so much for his openness, honesty, and his narrative skills, as well as being  twice a Pulitzer Prize winner, a recipient of the National Book Award, many other awards...including the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom. How can I describe his importance to Ken Burn's first big television documentary, "The Civil War," (narrated by McCullough) ? There was, in his voice, a certain pride, sincerity, and resignation to that great historic conflict. An unforgettable narration.

In bios he is described as an American author, narrator, historian, and lecturer. He graduated from Yale with honors, in English; then attended Shady Side Academy. A teacher and mentor was the famed Thornton Wilder. McCullough has been called "master of the Art of Narrative History," and "incapable of writing a page of bad prose." All this will be evident to you when you read your first McCullough book; he writes serious scholarly history but makes it very readable and interesting. The first one I read was "Mornings On Horseback"---about Theodore Roosevelt's younger life. I wanted to lend it to everyone, it was so interesting.

I really liked "The Path Between the Seas," the story of the Panama Canal---a must read. "John Adams" was so engrossing that I noted every highlight  by page number and quote in the back of the book. Here are most of McCullough's books.

"The Johnstown Flood"--1968

 "The Path Between the Seas"--1977

"Mornings On Horseback"--1981
"Truman"--1992

 "Brave Companions"--1992

  "John Adams"--2001

"1776"--2005
"The Greater Journey"--2011

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ANNIE PROULX (B. August 22, 1935)
("That Old Ace in the Hole")(2002)

I would have to say, that as far as unusual, creative, and extremely talented writing goes, this book has to rank high on my list of favorites. This Pulitzer Prize winning author can write! If we think it's easy to do what she does, we should try it! She has won the Dos Passos Prize, and the O. Henry Prize twice for "best short story," as well as numerous other awards.

The book, a loaner from a friend, interested me so much I had to run down my own "used" copy @ $6.50.  I just couldn't read this author and not have her excellent writing to re-read from time to time.

Like: "The ranches were so far back from the main road, and now and then he passed an abandoned house, weather-bound, surrounded by broken cottonwoods. In the fallen windmills and collapsed outbuildings he saw the country's fractured past scattered about like the pencils on the desk of a draughtsman who has gone to lunch. The ancestors of the place hovered over the bits and pieces of their finished lives."

The plot briefly is:  about mid-century, our hero, a young man, Mr. Dollar, is hired by "Global Pork Rind Co. in Denver, to go into the Texas/Oklahoma panhandles, a very rural area, to seek out prospective sellers-of-property for the hated (stinking)  Pig Farms. He goes, posing under a  false occupation and meets these people: Rella Mooncaster, Freda Beautyrooms, Parmentia Boyce, Vera Twombley, Mrs. Stenchcomb, Brother Mesquite, Francis Scott Keister, Robert Bodfish, Coolbroth, Brother Hashychast, and Ribeye Clute. The town is Woolybucket.

I think you will love this book. (Publisher is Scribner, N.Y., N.Y.)

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"THE CREATIVE WRITING COURSEBOOK," edited by Julia Bell and Paul Magrs

For persons who like to write, a really good book is noted above. "Forty authors share advice and exercises for fiction and poetry." That previous line should tell you something. This book contains a lot of advice and secrets from writers and teachers of writing. I am only a fourth of the way through it and can see already its interesting and  refreshing ideas, not only for a person interested in writing, but maybe for a fresh approach to "looking at life."

Credit Esther Morgan: "By using objects, I am trying to help students (and myself) recapture a sense of wonder, which in turn helps us rediscover or strengthens an excitement in the possibilities of language....and to become like children again, exploring the world with a child's curiosity and immediacy."

Someone in the book noted that, as we pass through life, and get older, we just "edit out" a good percent of the many natural beautiful things all around us; these things are the writer's "fodder."

It is said that a couple of good helpful new ideas  are worth the price of a book. There are dozens of thought-provoking ideas in this book!


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BY MIL
6/23/12
Sent from my iPad