All posts by Joshua Sampson

Teacher, blogger, reader, and writer. A lover of all things scribbled, new and forgotten.
Blog, Literary Bios

Sir Walter Scott: Father of Historical Fiction and Folklore

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There are many legendary authors out there, and then there are authors who create legends. Sir Walter Scott is one of those authors. While he is most notable for the story of Ivanhoe, he spent years writing folklore and traditional mythology in Scotland. In this post, we will examine Sir Walter Scott’s life and writings.

A History of Sir Walter Scott

Walter Scott’s Early Years

Historians can link Sir Walter Scott to Smailholm Tower. There, under its looming shadow his family raised him on adventurous tales of heroes and villains. With this tower over his head, he read literature and poetry. This further pushed him into the world of literary titans. Similarly, on the shores of Sandyknowes, Scott honed his gift for storytelling and verse to contribute to litearry history.

Scott was born in Edinburgh’s Old Town on Aug. 15, 1771 to Anne Rutherford and Walter Scott. Scott’s father was a member of the private Scottish society Writers to the Signet. At a young age, Scott contracted polio and lost the function of his leg for the rest of his life. His family later sent him to live with his grandparents near Roxburgshire, which was some 30 miles from Edinburgh. Scott’s Aunt Janet urged him to pursue his literary interests by reciting poetry to him and teaching him to read.

As it has been stated, his grandmother, Barbara, impacted Scott through storytelling. She told him numerous tales of their ancestors and battles between the Scots and the English. In this way, Scott developed an interest in Scottish heritage, ballad writing, and folklore.

Scott’s Literary Years

As he got older, Scott’s interests in epics, poetry, and books about far away voyages did not wain. He attended the University in Edinburgh to study the classics in 1783. In 1786, Scott began to apprentice with his father to become a Writer to the Signet. Scott became a lawyer in 1792. He also translated books into English for his friend who he would open a publishing house with in 1809.

Scott later published a series of poems for the publishing house, including The Lady of the Lake, and Marmion (1808). Soon after, Scott began publishing his Waverly novels after the success of the first. He would continue writing these novels over the years. His literary career continued from there with Rob Roy (1817) and Ivanhoe (1820).

Walter Scott’s Contributions and Death

Scott is known as the father of historical fiction for his works in legend and lore. In creating Rob Roy, Waverly, and Ivanhoe, Scott transcended basic storytelling tropes and created a genre unto itself. Likewise, he injected life into Scottish folktales and history. Scott suffered a stroke in 1831 and passed away on Sept. 21st, 1832, at Abbotsford. He was buried by his wife in the border town of Melrose.

Other works by Scott

Glenfinlas (1800)

The Lady of the Lake (1810)

Rob Roy (1817)

Ivanhoe (1820)

The Pirate (1822)

Blog, Writing Craft

The Three Basic Functions of Language, Definition and Examples

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How do we use different types of language, and in what context? Today, we are going to look at the three basic functions of language. These different types of language use include informative, expressive (therefore receptive), and directive language.

Defining the three basic functions of language

Informative language

Simply put, informative language is either right or wrong, or true or false. Some have written that informative language is both “believable and valuable” language.

Here’s an example:

“ … language is used to offer opinions, give advice, make announcements, lecture, admonish, report news, solicit input, or ask questions. Everyday conversations center around information sharing.”

theclassroom.com

So, if we are stating something then we are giving some kind of “information” and, as such, it becomes “informative.”

Expressive language

Expressive language helps us communicate a mood or a feeling. Typically, it shows a communicator, reader, or writer if somebody is happy or sad, glad or mad.

“Expressive language may or may not include any real information because the purpose of expressive language is to convey emotion … the expression ‘Yuck’ connotes disgust, but the word itself isn’t necessarily used to inform.”

theclassroom.com

Expressive language is useful because it is often figurative. For instance, as onomatopoeia, it can describe the sounds we hear and the noises of every day life. BOOM! BLAM! KAPOW! Such expression is figurative language.

Conversely, receptive language, is your ability to comprehend these emotions. You are receiving information and therefore receptive to the information given to you.

Directive language

This one gets a little more complex, but it essentially is a way to get a response from somebody that you are communicating with in a typical conversation. Directive language gives a command to somebody.

“Directive language is not normally considered true or false (although various logics of commands have been developed).”

philosophy.lander.edu

Examples of this type of language include “Shut off the light,” or “You are standing where it says ‘No Loitering.’” This last one hints at a command because it is essentially saying, “Get away from there.”

Conclusion

Understanding the three basic functions of language can help us better communicate. Thus, having a grasp of informative, receptive, directive, and expressive language will teach us when it is appropriate to use each and in what context. There are other sources that can further expound on this topic, but the above information should give you a good understanding.

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Impact of the Victorian Era on Modern Literature

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Victorian literature has a romantic appeal to it these days. One can only think of Victorian culture, with the class and aristocracy firmly in place. However, we can’t forget that the Victorian movement separated from the Romantic movement, and the Transcendentalist, which lasted the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. In this post, we will understand what caused this movement and the writers involved.

Factors Generating the Movement

England grew massively during Queen Victoria’s reign (from 14 million to over 30 million people). Rapid population growth changed living conditions and person-to-person interaction. There was also the Industrial Revolution, so technology moved quickly forward. As such, social issues became more noticeable, such as living conditions for the people from low-income households, and the use of debtor’s prisons.

Additionally, when it came to intellectual changes, Darwinism was becoming a factor for the religious and science communities. Therefore, people were thinking about their impact on the world in different ways, just as they had during the Renaissance, the Neoclassical Period, the Romanticist period, etc. The ideas of realistic interpretation fell hand-in-hand with the very real nature of the world.

Outside of social factors, we have an emergence of the novel. Society saw this as the most “fashionable vehicle for the transmission of literature” and society saw “the novel as a genre” rising “to entertain the rising middle class” which depicted “contemporary life in a changing society” (englishpost.org).  Now, we already heard stories about the novel really taking off (The Theatrical Licensing Act), but now technology was really hitting its stride and books were easier for people on the last rung of the social ladder to get their hands on.

Finally, the working class suffered at the hands of all this innovation, as their working conditions were terrible. The artists of the time crafted works criticizing these conditions.

Important Victorian Literature

Considering these conditions and changing attitudes, Charles Dickens emergence makes sense. Dickens wrote many stories and novels that featured aspects of Victorian society. For example, A Christmas Carol tells the tale of a greedy, miserly old man who treats his workers terribly and who ignores the social problems of his day. In return, he his haunted by three ghosts. In fact, one can argue that Dickens’ description of Scrooge perfectly captures the attitudes of the lower class toward the wealthy elite.

“Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.”

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

George Eliot, whose real name was actually Mary Ann Evans, wrote important literature during this time. She wrote under a male pen-name similar to Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte in order to see her work published. Her novels Adam Bede (1859) and Middlemarch (1871)–which was an eight-book pastoral novel–have left a lasting impression.

Victorian Poetry

The poetry of the time differed slightly in tone from the prose writers. The major players, such as Lord Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, supported the ideas of Darwinism and were skeptical of religion. But, they understood that history was important, so connecting with olden times held maximum value to their ethos. Here, we have a small piece of a famous poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from Idylls of the King: The Last Tournament

“Then Arthur rose and Lancelot follow’d him,

And while they stood without the doors, the King

Turn’d to him saying, ‘Is it then so well?

Or mine the blame that oft I seem as he

Of whom was written, ‘A sound is in his ears’?

The foot that loiters, bidden go,–the glance

That only seems half-loyal to command,–

A manner somewhat fall’n from reverence—

Or have I dream’d the bearing of our knights

Tells of a manhood ever less and lower?

Or whence the fear lest this my realm, uprear’d,

By noble deeds at one with noble vows,

From flat confusion and brute violences,

Reel back into the beast, and be no more?”

Conclusion

The Victorian era was a marvelous time for literature. There were great strides in social criticism and a focus on the rationale moving forward. This era would inspire future generations as well and be a touchstone for literature and censure, including the trial of Oscar Wilde.

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The Legacy of Transcendentalism in Modern Literature and Thought

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When considering the profound impact of the Romanticism movement on literature history, one can see that it allowed humanity to think about its place in society. Yet, all movements evolve toward some end, as did the Romantics, and artists veered toward the Transcendentalist movement. In this post, we will look at the qualities and writers of this new movement within a movement to get a sense of what’s going on.

Background of the Transcendentalist Movement

Old and New Light

To begin, there was conflict. There was a great debate occurring in the 1800s between “New Light” theologians (who valued emotional experiences) and the “Old Light” opponent (who focused on reason). The New Light practitioners felt the lack of intuitive thought within religion should steer individuals forward on their own moral compass. The split from the “Old Light” thinkers created a more spiritual answer to the question of everything.

With this as a bedrock, Transcendentalism began to take shape.

The coming movement included multiple threads of foundation. First, individualism and self-reliance were key. Nature acting as a spiritual guide was important. The innate goodness of humans would prosper. Civil disobedience yielded good outcomes. And, lastly, materialism and industrialization were burdens.

New Ideas and a Club

As such, these new ideas embraced the thoughts of the Romantics, German Romanticism, and Eastern philosophy. Therein, the Transcendentalist movement explored the ideas of Immanuel Kant and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. They espoused the ideas of an individual spiritual experience one could attain in their journey to understand God. These writers wanted a more progressive kind of meaning in their religion, which pushed them to write differently, just like other movements before them, including the Neoclassical writers and the Romantics.

Later, ministers from the Unitarian Church, including Emerson, would meet to discuss matters of the evolution into Transcendentalism. This group would form the “The Transcendental Club.” Margaret Fuller, who was the editor of the Transcendentalist journal The Dial, was one of the first members of this club. Ralph Waldo Emerson also wrote in this club. He was writing in Massachusetts in the early 1800s about topics centered on Self-Reliance. Henry David Thoreau, budding author, eventually went off to write Walden: or, Life in the Woods.

Brook Farm and the end of Transcendentalism

Nathaniel Hawthorne would test his mettle, and beliefs, at Brook Farm in Massachusetts, where some of the club took up quarters to start a commune.

“Hawthorne had left his position at the Boston Custom House on January 1, 1841, after a Whig, not a Democrat, was elected president. Although Hawthorne was in search of gainful employment, it seems hard to understand why Hawthorn, a man who was never much of a joiner, never was a member of any church, who cherished his solitude, and who was skeptical of movements to reform society, would have been enticed to join Brook Farm” (hawthorneinsalem.org).

While Hawthorne was eager to head to Brook Farm, Thoreau never became enticed and Emerson refused to live there—but he did visit on occasion. Hawthorne thought it was the perfect place to practice Transcendentalist beliefs to see if they would hold true in application.

Eventually, issues of longevity arose due to conflicts of ideals and intellect, and Brooke farm fell apart. Hawthorne “misjudged both himself and the situation” as “he couldn’t write there. Nor could he tolerate the idea of a cold winter far from (his wife).” Yet, it was an interesting experiment of labor and spirituality, of man and earth, and one’s ability to coexist with intuitive beliefs.

Around 1850, the Transcendentalist movement waned after the death of Margaret fuller, who was one of the progenitors of the movement. The failure of Brook Farm also lent itself to the movements closure. These two blows illustrated the problems of combining idealism, application, and hubris.

Example of Transcendentalism

For context, here is the first stanza of Emerson’s “Ode to Beauty.” This should give you an idea of how Transcendentalism functions:

“Who gave thee, O Beauty,
The keys of this breast,–
Too credulous lover
Of blest and unblest?
Say, when in lapsed ages
Thee knew I of old;
Or what was the service
For which I was sold?
When first my eyes saw thee,
I found me thy thrall,
By magical drawings,
Sweet tyrant of all!
I drank at thy fountain
False waters of thirst;
Though intimate stranger,
Though latest and first!
Thy dangerous glances
Make women of men;
New-born, we are melting
Into nature again.”

Ode to Beauty

Conclusion

The Transcendentalist movement would encourage other movements to take hold in the future. These movements included abolitionism, feminism, environmentalism, and civil disobedience during the Civil Rights movement. Similarly, the movement impacted future writers, like Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, and gave way to the Realism movement.

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The Impact of Romanticism on Modern Literature

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Many literary movements have changed the face of writing forever. Some of them only stick around for a short while, while other carry on in many iterations. The Romantic Movement is an influential literary movement as it would later spawn many complimentary genres. In this post, we are going to take a closer look at the Romantic Movement.

History of the Romanticism Movement

Catalysts and Causes

The Neoclassical-era ended around 1798 with the ending of the French and American Revolutions and the publication of Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth. These were a few of the major factors moving society away from the classics. From this style, we see a relaxed view of complex diction and a need to convey literature to the common man. Therefore, complex styles were turned down for more approachable voices.

Other contributing factors to the Romantic Movement included immigration, which helped create an “American” identity due to the massive amount of foreign cultures entering the country. This was a sort of “melting pot” idea of new literature arising from the mix.

This movement challenged the ideas of the Age of Reason. That is to say, it strayed from the cold and calculating thought process in regards to man and nature. With the Romantics, we see a great reverence for nature itself and for man. Even if humanity is flawed in many ways. As society moved away from reason, order, and scientific rationalism, the artists dug deep into the human factor and who we are as a people.

Heroes of the Romantic Movement

There were many authors during the Romantic Movement. Ralph Waldo Emerson, for instance, discussed ideas of personal sovereignty in Self-Reliance (1841). Likewise, we have William Wordsworth, who published Lyrical Ballads (1798), and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who published The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798). Furthermore, Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote and published Ode to the West Wind and John Keats wrote and published Ode to a Nightingale.

Keats also wrote the poem “To Autumn” which does well to encapsulate the movement in application.

Here’s an excerpt:

Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

Among the river sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

We can also look at the female authors of this time and the women in books for an understanding of the movement. We have the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, and Mary Shelley—all who contributed great works to the movement even though they had to publish under male pseudonyms to get published.

Characters of the Romantics

In addition to authors, their characters came to life as well. One might think of James Fenimore Cooper’s Natty Bumpo, from The Last of the Mohicans, and his intuitive, ethical nature. In literature, women were often treated as the goal or pinnacle men’s passions, from Edgar Allen Poe’s lost Lenore, to Dr. Frankenstein’s wife, Elizabeth Lavenza, and so on. This era is definitely potent for feminist critique and appraisal.

Conclusion

The Romanticism movement created fertile ground for other movements to grow from. Gothic literature would supersede this movement and would have huge impact on many types of literature. Likewise, the Transcendentalists, modernists, and existentialists, all took ideas of personality and emotion from this movement. While evolved into separate genres now, it was once an important movement in writing history.

Blog, Book Reviews

Gulliver’s Travels: Adventuring in Satire and Society

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When can political satire be really engaging? Well, when it is put into a fantastically adept story! In Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, a young sailor named Gulliver goes on many adventures across the ocean. He visits a plethora of strange countries dominated by some silly societies. Along the way, he learns about certain ironies that mirror his own world. In this post, we are going to be looking at the four-part novel Gulliver’s Travels.

The Story Overview

The Lilliputians

Surgeon and sea captain Lemuel Gulliver survives a shipwreck and finds himself a captive of Lilliput, which has very small inhabitants that stand about about six inches in height. Gulliver learns all about their strange customs and the odd way they go about politics, including rope dancing and deciding one’s party affiliation based upon the type of shoes one wears. After defending the Lilliputions from an invading Blefuscu fleet, Gulliver turns down further military conquest. Oddly enough, Gulliver did not understand why they warred over how an egg should be cracked. So, Gulliver turns down the option to invade and enslave the Blefuscu nation. He flees from the Lilliputians and finds a human-sized boat that allows him to sail back to England.

The Brobdingnags

Venturing out once again as a ship’s surgeon, Gulliver finds himself in Brobdingnag, where there lives a race of giant people. After a giant discovers Gulliver, the massive people sell the young naive to the Queen of the Brobdingnags. Yet, he does well by impressing the court with his antics. However, after Gulliver describes his homeland, the king comes to the conclusion that England is a disgusting place to live filled with disgusting people. Moreover, the king of Brobdingnag becomes disturbed by Gulliver after he claims to be able to make cannons and gunpowder because it would enable unnecessary violence. Later, while Gulliver looks out over the sea from his portable room, an eagle picks him up. The bird drops him into the sea where a ship spots him and rescues him, thus ending his second voyage.

Laputa

While on route to Levant, Pirates attack Gulliver’s ship, and they leave him in a small boat to survive on his own. Here, set adrift, Gulliver discovers Laputa. Strange people dominate this country that is a flying island. They have one eye looking inwards and one eye looking upwards. While they are excellent at science and math, they become sidetracked. What they lack is practical application of these skills. The Laputans also have flappers that have to keep them focused on the present.

Gulliver then travels to Lagado, the capital city of Balnibarbri and finds the people living in ruin—the reason for this is because the most learned of them use science for the most inane practical application. He then travels to Glubbdubdrib, and learns the real history of the world from conjured historians of his own civilization and then he travels to Luggnagg where he meets the Struldbrugs, who are people who have attained immortality but are despondent because they age as mortals, which adds a certain amount of distress to their lives. He leaves for England the way of Japan to end his third journey.

Houyhnhnms

For Gullivers fourth and final voyage, he travels to Houyhnhnm after pirates and a mutinous crew strand him once again. There, Yahoos discover him, and they attack him. After he is saved by a horse creature, a Houyhnhnm, he realizes that they are indeed very kind. The Yahoos, Gulliver finds, stand in contrast, as they are wanton degenerates. The Houyhnhnms act as the masters of the Yahoos, who do their bidding as a horse would in Gulliver’s world (pulling carriages, etc.).

The Houyhnhnms eventually discover that Gulliver must be a Yahoo because of how disgusting humans are and their similarities to the Yahoos. Gulliver is sent away, venturing home in a canoe and is again discovered by another ship. Having experienced a great deal of revelations and upset throughout his journeys, Gulliver realizes that he can’t stand to be around the Yahoos anymore. Instead, he finds them disgusting and instead chooses to buy and care for some horses. His new life away from grossly immoral human creatures ends the book.

Conclusion

Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels helped kick off the novel craze during the Neoclassical Era. It’s also a heavy satire piece that mocks customs, laws, knowledge, opinions, and culture. Each travel deals with a different part of society, from the inane arguments of politicians, to the way we as humans view ourselves in the scope of intellectual thought. It can be a vicious, pessimistic look at humanity, but it’s also very imaginative. In this way, Gulliver’s Travels remains an endearing classic that was contemporary then and is contemporary now.

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A Modest Proposal Explained: Satire, Society, and Swift

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Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” is an essay worth addressing on its own because it’s a funny, shocking piece. It’s also many people’s entrance into the world of satire. For newbies, “A Modest Proposal” is an essay by Swift that advocates selling the poor children of Scotland to the rich for nourishment. The essay also does an excellent job of capturing Swift’s style succinctly. In this post, we will discuss the essay and its impact on literary history.

Historical Context for the Proposal

For an essay like “A Modest Proposal” to take life, the economic environment must be perfect for a writer to write. In Swift’s case, the environment was volatile and hostile for Scotland. Ever since joining with England in 1707, the country had been on a downward spin. Under the Acts of Union enacted that year, Scotland fell under England’s rule. Many Scottish people saw this as a blatant disgrace to their own sovereignty. The Scottish parliament dissolved and fell under Westminster.

Meanwhile, the Jacobites in 18th-century Scotland attempted to reinstate Scottish rule. As such, the Jacobite Rising of 1715 occurred, which attempted to restore James Francis Edward Stuart to the throne. The rebellion failed and England became more peremptory in their oversight.

Poverty was everywhere in Scotland, and economic growth was slow to start. In these downtrodden times, Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” came to life.

What is “A Modest Proposal”?

Written in 1729, “A Modest Proposal” is a snarky essay that Swift wrote discussing the poor conditions of the Irish people. It argues that they should sell their children as food to the wealthy elites. These elites could be the British, who Swift believe have had a negative impact on the Irish economy.

As Swift states in A Modest Proposal, “Infant’s flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March, and a little before and after,” and later, “Supposing that one thousand families in this city would be constant customers for infants flesh, besides other who might have it at merry meetings, particularly weddings and christenings …” It’s a lot funnier if you get the spirit of the thing.

Others have suggested that Swift was merely pointing out the baffling, catch-all solutions that were often offered by the ruling class. But, there are other matters in A Modest Proposal aside from just selling babies to cannibalistic elites. Swift recognizes that Irish politicians don’t benefit the Irish populace any more than the English exploit the Irish. In other words, both the Irish politicians and English politicians aren’t working for the Irish population’s benefit. As such, Swift’s proposal would (though not seriously) line the pockets of families looking to sell their babies and would therefore make children a valuable commodity.

Conclusion

It’s a grisly piece. Yet, it’s worth a read because it really draws attention to the problems of Swift’s day. It also inspired future writers like Voltaire and George Orwell in their satirical approaches to politics contemporary to them. It also furthered social and political criticism, which would continue throughout literary history in Mark Twain and Kurt Vonnegut. In addition to this, I think if one looks closely enough, they can see how the themes of “A Modest Proposal” are still relevant today in its ideas of exploitation and ineffectual representation.

Blog, Literary Bios

A Biography of Jonathan Swift: His Life and Works

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For many of us, the first time we read “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, we are either disgusted or quizzical about the nature of the text. After the text is explored, we then begin to find it funny or amusing. At the time the essay was released, the satire flew over some aristocratic heads and other were disgusted by its implications. However, Swift, an expert satirist, probably had no qualms about the reactions because that was his intention.

A Swiftian Biography

Early Life

Swift was born into poverty on Nov. 30 in Dublin, Ireland. Swift’s father, also named Jonathan, died before Swift was born. Accordingly, Swift and his family were impoverished. Similarly, Swift was sick often as a child, perhaps due to malnutrition and Meniere’s disease. With that said, he was raised by his uncle Godwin Swift who supplied a young Jonathan with an education and support. Swift attended Kilkenny College with fellow future author William Congreve, and then Trinity College Dublin in 1682. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1686 even after having numerous disciplinary issues. Then, he left for England during the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

William Temple

In England, Swift worked as a secretary for Sir William Temple. Temple, a retired diplomat and writer, gave Swift the avenue to meet numerous political elites. Temple had negotiated the Triple Alliance and was an important figure in political circles. He also helped swift enter Oxford University where the young writer graduated. Meanwhile, Swift continued to suffer from health troubles, with bouts of dizziness. It cannot be understated that Temple’s impact on Swift was magnanimous. In fact, Swift’s later political writing have a lot to lend to Temple’s education and guidance.

Further Writings and Literary Friends

Swift was later appointed as Chaplin to Lord Berkely, and he became a Doctor of Divinity. He wrote The Battle of the Books and a humorous religious piece titled A Tale of the Tub. Swift was prolific at this time and also formed some literary alliances as well. These included alliances included the group Scriblerus with Alexander Pope.

Parallel to this, Swift wrote Gulliver’s Travels (1724) under the pen name Lemuel Gulliver in 1726. Afterward, he wrote “A Modest Proposal,” which was an essay that suggested the Irish could sell their children as food to the wealthy, due to the impoverished state of the lower class. Overall, Swift’s contribution to Neoclassical Literature helped pave the way for future satirists.

Conclusion and Impact

Swift worked throughout his life in politics and through the church to bring attention to the plight of Ireland. He fought tirelessly to bring attention to the poverty and squalor of the lower classes. Whether through his essays, like “A Modest Proposal,” or through his novels, like Gulliver’s Travels, Swift made a fantastic impact on literary history. Swift died away in 1745.

Notable Works

  • A Tale of a Tub (1704)
  • The Battle of the Books (1704)
  • Gulliver’s Travels (1726)
  • The Drapier’s Letters (1724)
Blog, Literary Bios

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Modernist Influence on Fiction

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In examining the modernists, we find an emphasis on realistic description and emotional resonance. Ernest Hemingway’s descriptions of warfare, for example, ring true and are also traumatic. F Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, also created depth in his writing that mirrored an age. In addition, Fitzgerald has had a lasting impression on literary history and modern writers. In this post, we will examine his life and writings.

A Fitzgerald Biography

Early Life

Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul Minnesota on Sept. 24th, 1896. He lived in an upper-middle class family. His father, Edward, was a salesman, and his mother, Mary, was born to a wealthy Irish-Catholica household. Fitzgerald wrote a lot as a child, and attended St. Paul Academy. He published his first shorts story in the school newspaper at the age of 13 years old. Afterward, he attended Newman School.

In 1913, Fitzgerald attended Princeton University. There, he wrote for the Princeton Triangle club and the Nassau Lit. However, he later dropped out due to a focus on socializing over academics. This led to him enlisting in the U.S. Army to fight in WWI in 1917.

Fitzgerald’s Literary Fame

Afterward, he courted Zelda (his future wife) and wrote This Side of Paradise. This first novel pushed him into the literary stratosphere and gave him enough money to marry his wife. The aforementioned novel made Fitzgerald famous, as it spoke to a new generation of post-WWI disillusionment in America.

With his newfound success, he and his wife Zelda moved to Paris in 1924. Fitzgerald would publish his most well-known work, The Great Gatsby, while living there. While the novel was met with “tepid sales,” it would become one of the defining modernist pieces of literature during in subsequent years.

As Britannica writes: “The Great Gatsby is the most profoundly American novel of its time; at its conclusion, Fitzgerald connects Gatsby’s dream, his ‘Platonic conception of himself,’ with the dream of the discoverers of America.”

Fitzgerald and The Lost Generation

Sometime around 1926, Fitzgerald began to gather with “The Lost Generation” of artists. In this time, he greatly admired Ernest Hemingway, who was a relatively unknown author at the time. A great deal of creativity exploded from this group, with many of the artists trying to do something different with the medium their medium. Additionally, many of the writers of “The Lost Generation” wrote about their own lives in their stories, albeit, somewhat loosely.

Fitzgerald During the Depression

As mentioned by sources, Fitzgerald’s later life was marred by his dysfunctional relationship with his wife Zelda. Much like Fitzgerald, she had become a victim of their enriched lifestyles, from drinking to drama. Meanwhile, lingering mental health issues also worsened for Zelda, and she was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1930. Financially, Fitzgerald still supported his wife and himself by writing short stories and selling them to large magazines, such as Collier’s. According to Hemingway, this pressure to keep up with finances prevented Fitzgerald from reaching his literary zenith.

F. Scott Fitzgerald | Carl Van Vechten | 1937

Fitzgerald, meanwhile, published Tender is the Night in 1934 to low-critical acclaim. This was in part due to the depression-era and Fitzgerald’s celebrity as an elitist who lived in the throes of excess. His themes did not ring as true anymore and the modernist ideals were erring toward post-modernism.

Later Life and Death

After Zelda was institutionalized due to her violent breakdowns, Fitzgerald began a career as a scriptwriter for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1937. As mentioned by some reports: “Fitzgerald retreated to Hollywood, a defeated and more or less forgotten man. He made a precarious living as a scriptwriter and struggled to control his alcoholism. Miraculously he found the energy to begin another novel The Last Tycoon (1941), about a complex gifted movie producer.”

The morning after the premiere of This Thing Called Love, F Scott Fitzgerald fell to the floor in his apartment, passing away from a heart attack at the age of 44 with only a third of The Last Tycoon completed. He unfortunately probably thought his career was a failure even though he had written monumental works of fiction that would one day become lauded by the masses.

Notable Works

This Side of Paradise (1920)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (1921)

The Beautiful and the Damned (1922)

The Diamond as Big as the Ritz (1922)

Literary Bios

The Life of Ernest Hemingway: Modernist, Realist, Storyteller

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It should go without saying that Ernest Hemingway is an extremely important writer to literary history. For example, his novel The Old Man and the Sea is an important book for a few reasons. First, it shows a modernist at the top of his game with robust prose and a deeply thematic story. It is also just as fine an example of modernist literature as one can find. In this way, Hemingway is a fixture in literary discussion. Not only is he one of the most important writers to come out of the early 1900s, but perhaps he’s one of the most influential and important writers in American history. Yet, the life of Ernest Hemingway was a difficult one, rife in ware, trauma, and death.

Hemingway: A Biography of a Modernist

Early Life, Journalism, and World War I

Ernest Hemingway was born in 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. In his early life, Hemingway would learn to fish and hunt in Northern Michigan, which would inform his storytelling interests later in life. He was a sportswriter in High School, writing for the school newspaper Trapeze and Tabula, and later worked for The Kansas City Star. One could certainly argue that journalism contributed to his realistic approach to writing. He enlisted in the army in 1918 to fight in World War I. There, he served as an ambulance driver in the Italian Army. Through the course of duty, he earned the Italian Silver Medal of Bravery and a few battle wounds.

Hemingway and The Lost Generation

After the war, he worked at the Toronto Star and eventually moved to Paris with his first wife and worked as a foreign correspondent. In Europe, he met Gertrude Stein and became to frequent her artists boutique. As such, he became a member of “The Lost Generation,” which was a group of disenfranchised artists impacted by the Great War. It was there with Gertrude Stein that Hemingway met a plethora of famous artists, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Pablo Picasso, and James Joyce.

Hemingway’s Publishing Career

While in the throes of modernist debate, Hemingway published The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, which more or less cemented him as an important writer in literature history. Inspiration for these great works were his adventurous spirit and real-life experiences. He also wrote realistic, albeit dramatic, short stories, such as Hills Like White Elephants and The Three Day Blow.

In Farewell to Arms, Hemingway showcases his style, which is often referred to as muscular or robust prose.

In the jolt of my head I heard somebody crying. I thought somebody was screaming. I tried to move but I could not move … I pulled and twisted and got my legs loose finally and turned around and touched him. It was Passini and when I touched him he screamed. His legs were toward me and I saw in the dark and the light that they were both smashed above the knee. One leg was gone and the other was held by tendons and part of the trouser and the stump twitched and jerked as though it were not connected.

Ernest Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms

Hemingway’s Later Life and Death

Toward the end of his career, Hemingway won the Pulitzer with the publication of The Old Man and the Sea. He also won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his literary contributions. On July 2, 1961, after a battle with mental health issues that included paranoia and depression, Hemingway killed himself. In examining the life of Ernest Hemingway, one can see that he contributed a great deal to the writing craft. He also left a lasting style that is emulated and utilized even into the 21st century.

Hemingway’s Other Works

  • In Our Time (1926)
  • The Sun Also Rises (1927)
  • A Farewell to Arms (1929)
  • To Have and Have Not (1937)
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)
  • The Old Man and the Sea (1951)
Literary Bios

Maya Angelou, author of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”

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Maya Angelou had many experiences in life are both damaging and uplifting. She endured great trauma and hardship only to persevere in the end. She has also contributed to literary history with her engaging, heart-wrenching stories. Similarly, her verse about the Black American experience has been transformative. In this post, we will look at her life and times and how these difficulties shaped her history.

Biography of Maya Angelou

Angelou was born on April 4, 1928 in St. Lois, Missouri. When she turned three years old, her parents sent she and her brother to live with her grandparents in Stamps, Arkansas. There, she experienced some first-hand racism that shaped her outlook for the rest of her life. Because of her treatment, she wrote that she would feel less like a person and gravely inferior for a long time.

Eventually, Angelou moved to St. Lois with her father, who returned to take care of her. Yet, she found more hardships along the way, including experiencing rape and guilt over the rapist’s eventual murder. These experiences left her nearly mute for many years.

Later, she moved back to Stamps as a young girl and then out to San Francisco, California. There she worked a variety of odd jobs until she moved to New York City in the 1950s. In Harlem, she began writing at the Harlem Writers Guild. Moving back to California, she wrote the 10-part television series Black, Blues, Black about African American culture. She continued acting and appeared in multiple films, including Poetic Justice (1993), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), and also appeared in the television series Roots (1977).

Additionally, Angelou was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her book of poetry Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie. And, she received a Tony Award nomination for the 1973 play Look Away. In addition to this, she won multiple Grammy awards for spoken word albums. She also read poetry at former President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. President Barack Obama also presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Angelou passed away on May 28, 2014 at her home in North Carolina.

Analysis “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”

Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is an autobiography, detailing Angelou’s life and experiences. More specifically, the novel details her parents divorce, the sexual assault that changed her life, and the countless times she experienced racial discrimination while living in the South.

The book ends with an optimistic feeling that perhaps she can persevere in life after all. Through a difficult childhood and care for a newborn child, she looks to rise from the ashes of a stormy life.

In it, she writes this bit of verse:

The caged bird sings   
with a fearful trill   
of things unknown   
but longed for still   
and his tune is heard   
on the distant hill   
for the caged bird   
sings of freedom.

Maya Angelou

The book was nominated for a National Book Award and received critical acclaim from readers and critics alike.

Angelou’s Other Works

  • Just Give Me a Cool drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie (1971)
  • Now Sheba Sings the Song (1987)
  • I shall Not be Moved (1990)
Literary Bios

H.D., Poet and Imagist Writer

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Some poetry really speaks to imagery found in the world. H.D., poet and imagist, was an expert at dialing in contrasts and juxtapositions found in the world. In this post, we examine her life and contribution to poetry.

Biography of H.D.

To begin, H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She attended Bryn Mawr and the University of Pennsylvania. There, she befriended authors Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams. Afterward, she travelled to Europe and spent time abroad for most of her life.

During her life, she became heavily involved in the Imagist movement. The movement involved Ezra Pound, H.D., Richard Aldington, and F.S. Flint. As mentioned by available sources, the imagists drew inspiration from the “critical views of T.E. Hulme, in revolt against the careless thinking and Romantic optimism he saw prevailing.” These poets wrote with strict clarity and pointed visuals.

Moreover, H.D. published her first collection of poems in 1916. She named this collection Sea Garden. H.D.’s work is marked by her strong use of imagery. She gained recognition through her publications in Poetry in 1913.

H. D.’s Poem “Oread”

Perhaps one of H.D.’s most famous works, “Oread” is a masterfully conducted imagery poem:

Whirl up, sea—
whirl your pointed pines.
splash your great pines
on our rocks.
hurl your green over us—
cover us with your pools of fir.

H. D.

This poem deals with some interesting visual themes, including those of land and sea. These images provide a stark sort of visual clarity for the reader, as the “sea” comes up against “pines” while “green” is hurled over us. This contrast causes us to think of typical simile and metaphor. This is the imagist’s line of thinking in contrast and visualization.

Other Works

  • Flowering of the Rod (1946)
  • Red Roses from Bronze (1932)
  • Hymen (1921)
  • Tribute to Freud (1956)
Blog, Literary Bios

The Legacy of Gertrude Stein in Art and Literature

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For some, “The Lost Generation” immediately conjures visions of writers strolling the late-night, forlorn streets of France. For others, it may very well be ghosts of World War I. In reality, the term is a metaphor for the artists and writers who wallowed in the years between the two Great Wars. The progenitor of this expression, meanwhile, is Gertrude Stein. She was an author and flamboyant artist who was curator of the arts. She was also an important figure during the modernist movement.

Biography of Gertrude Stein

Stein was born in Pennsylvania on Feb. 3, 1874. When she was young, she lived in Oakland, California. At Radcliffe College, she studied psychology “with the philosopher William James and received her degree in 1989.” It was at Radcliffe under James that she learned of “stream of consciousness” writing.

Later, she studied at Johns Hopkins Medical School and then moved to Paris. She lived at 27 Rue de Fleurus, which would evolve into an artistic salon, visited by many notable artists. Here, Stein was an important figure for “new moderns,” who were artists working between the two World Wars. These artists included Henri Matisse, Juan Gris, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Perhaps her only commercially successful novel was The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933). Toklas was a muse for Stein and she was a crucial person for her personal and professional life. According to certain sources: “Though critical opinion is divided on stein’s various writings, the imprint of her strong witty personality survives, as does her influence on contemporary literature” (Biography).

Conclusion

Stein was an experimental writer. She spent her life in pursuit in unconventional works and with unconventional artists. In this way, she left a lasting legacy of painters, writers, and poets that continue to inspire and transform our perceptions of art.

Blog

The Beat Generation, Authors, and Their Works

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Allen Ginsberg, a beat poet, is an extremely influential and accomplished poet. His poem, “A Supermarket in California,” is an amazing poem. It details themes of loneliness, consumerism, and the search for meaning in a seemingly meaningless world. With that in mind, The Beat Generation explored these types of themes in the confines of modern society. In this post, we will explore the history of this movement. And, we will examine the authors and the works that continue to inspire future poets.

History of the Beat Generation

These revolutionary pre-baby boomers grew up in the 1940s-1950s when there existed a romantic view of suburbia in America post-WWII. As such, it was in these halls of capitalist complacency, that the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Gary Snyder emerged. Kerouac himself came up with the term “Beat Generation,” which addressed the beat down and disenfranchised with the system.

Furthermore, the home of this movement was in the prestigious schools out west (San Francisco). Here the most prominent writers could get published in journals and rebel against the intellectualism of the Enlightenment. These authors included William S. Burroughs, Kerouac, and Ginsberg. In fact, Kerouac himself coined the term “Beat,” which references both the beaten down spirit and the beatific enlightenment of spiritual reconnection.

The beat poets searched for myriad freedoms within their lives. They pushed against the constraints of capitalism, whether that be through spiritualism, sexuality, drugs, or other avenues of expression.

Major Themes and Authors

The authors from the Beat Generation focused on transgressive themes of the time. For instance, Ginsberg included homosexual musings in his poetry, and Kerouac included references to drugs and nature itself. in his novel On the Road. Burroughs, meanwhile, wrote about addiction in Naked Lunch. Other writers of this generation included references to Zen Buddhism and the culture of the Native Americans, as it reflected their perception of the natural world.

Similarly, and as sources state, Kerouac and Ginsberg had inspiration from the Romantic movement. They discussed “the New Vision,” which came from William Butler Yates, and they spent time refining their artistic purposes. The New Vision and indigenous culture helped inspire their free-form poetry and their minimalist writings.

The Beat Generation rejected traditional literary Formalism, embracing spontaneous prose and free verse to capture raw human experience. With poems like “Howl,” which saw a censorship trial, the Beat Generation advanced a more honest and evolved view of the United States that had been highly romanticized.

Blog, Book Reviews

Before the Movie: Why the Novel ‘Jaws’ Hits Differently

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The novel Jaws by Peter Benchley is a super interesting read. I remember getting a copy during the last few weeks of my senior year in high school from a library giveaway. It was an old copy and the library wanted nothing to do with it. I still own the book over a decade later. And, it’s kept together with a lot of care (and duct tape). Now, I had already seen the movie and was spending my summers dressing like Quint. As it turns out, I really enjoyed the book, too, because of the level of horror, adventure, and Benchley’s style in conveying those themes.

Background of the Novel

Peter Benchley spoke about the inception of the novel: “In 1964, I read a newspaper item about a fisherman who caught a 4,555 lb. Great White Shark not far offshore from Montauk, Long Island, and I wondered what would happen if such a huge shark were to appear in a seaside resort community. I did nothing with the idea then, but seven years later I began to weave it into the story that would become the novel Jaws.”

Other inspiration may have come from the 1916 Jersey Shore shark attacks that resulted in multiple dead swimmers.

At the time of Jaws‘ publication, Benchley was an accomplished writer but wasn’t making enough money to support his family even though he had been a junior speechwriter for Lyndon B. Johnson. He had also written as both a staff writer and freelancer for large publications. His last ditch effort involved getting together with a few publishers and pitching some ideas including a nonfiction book about pirates and one about a man-eating shark.

Writes Guardian writer Christopher Hawtree: “ In 1971, he (Benchley) was asked by Tom Congdon, an editor at the publishers Doubleday, if he had anything in mind for a book … he produced a hundred pages, and, with a $1,000 advance, he reworked it steadily, holing up to do so …”

Publishers released the book in 1974. Readers met it with delight, possibly because Benchley had “tapped into a widespread primeval fear of the deep.”

About the Book, ‘Jaws’

The novel Jaws is about Sheriff Martin Brody who oversees the small seaside town of Amity. Brody’s tenure as sheriff is a bloody one. This is due to a terrifyingly massive shark that has begun stalking and murdering the townsfolk of Amity. It is their money that keeps the little town alive during the winter months, so of course this creates more conflict.

A vile motive in the book features the mayor of Amity, Larry Vaughan, trying his best to keep the beaches open to maintain the economy of the town at the expense of lost lives. In the novel, he has some mob ties to push his character in that direction.

After becoming flummoxed as to how to defeat such a carnal, visceral machine, Brody and oceanographer Hooper take up with Quint, a shark hunter, and begin minor excursions and confrontations with the shark at sea. Together, they are able to defeat the seafaring monstrosity. However, Jaws kills Hooper and Quint in the process.

Differences Between Book and Film and Themes

The book differs greatly from the movie in its interpersonal matters. Hooper (Richard Dreyfus’s character in the movie) has an affair with Brody’s wife. The shark kills Hooper while he is trying to escape a shark cage. While the shark cage fits in the movie, his death in the cage is not.

Meanwhile, Quint (Robert Shaw in the film) is also less bloodthirsty for shark blood in book. However, he suffers a similar fate from the one in the film. The shark drags him into the depths like Captain Ahab from Moby Dick. Brody also doesn’t kill the shark with a pressurized canister. Instead, he watches from the sinking boat (The Orca) as the shark succumbs to its wounds. The million stab wounds that Quint inflicted upon it had fell the beast.

Conclusion

While there is a lot more backstory in the novel Jaws, from the mob to the affair, Jaws paints a great picture of a seaside summer town. It also sold over 20 million copies and spent 44 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. The novel also captures multiple interactions with the shark, and they are full of energy and suspense. Both the book and the film have some really great moments that are interesting and engaging, especially if the audience doesn’t mind a little shock and terror.