Arthur RIMBAUD

Arthur Rimbaud est un poète français, né le 20 octobre 1854 à Charleville  et mort le 10 novembre 1891 à  Marseille Bien que brève, son œuvre poétique est caractérisée par une prodigieuse densité thématique et stylistique, faisant de lui une des figures majeures de la littérature française. 

Des poèmes comme « Le Bateau ivre », « Le Dormeur du val » ou « Voyelles » comptent parmi les plus célèbres de la poésie française. La précocité de son génie, sa carrière littéraire fulgurante, sa vie brève et aventureuse contribuent à forger sa légende et faire de lui l’un des géants de la littérature mondiale.

ARTHUR MILLER (1915-2005)

Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955). He wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his work on The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman is considered one of the best American plays of the 20th century.

Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, ’50s and early ’60s. During this time, he received a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and married Marilyn Monroe.

OSCAR WILDE

The world became a more colorful and interesting place on October 16, 1854 when Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland. (Later in life he dropped “Fingal O’Flahertie Wills”, explaining his name was far too long for a person who would be as famous as he.) Known for his barbed and clever wit, he was one of the most successful playwrights, novelists, poets and crítics of late Victorian Era.

In his lifetime he wrote nine plays, one novel, and numerous poems, short stories, and essays: Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), and his most famous play, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). Although these plays relied upon relatively simple and familiar plots, they rose well above convention with their brilliant dialogue and biting satire. Wilde published his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, before he reached the height of his fame. When the first edition appeared in the summer of 1890 in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, it was hardly criticized as scandalous and immoral.

He was accused of homosexuality, arrested and tried for gross indecency. He was sentenced to two years of hard labor for the crime of sodomy. During his time in prison he wrote  De Profundis, a dramatic monologue and autobiography, which was addressed to Bosie, his lover.

Upon his release in 1897, he wrote The Ballad of Reading, revealing his concern for inhumane prison conditions. He spent the rest of his life wandering Europe, staying with friends and living in cheap hotels. He died of cerebral meningitis on November 30, 1900, penniless, in a cheap Paris hotel.

E.E. CUMMINGS

Today is the anniversary of poet Edward Estlin Cummings or better known as E.E. Cummings. He was an American poet, painter, essayist and playwright. He was known for his poetry, despite Cummings first book being a novel. He is believed to be one of the greatest American poets of the 20th century.

ELMORE LEONARD

Elmore John Leonard Jr. (October 11, 1925 – August 20, 2013) was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.

Among his best-known works are Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Swag and Rum Punch (adapted by Tarantino as Jackie Brown)

Two especial events to observe this day: National Poetry Day and National Mad Hatter, the lattest in homage to the character in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

Today is English Language Day. Then we ought to celebrate the beautiful language which is English.

EDGAR ALLAN POE

The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe’s Death

Theories abound about Poe’s death, but there has yet to be one that proves definitive—a fittingly mysterious end for the master of mystery.

After suffering from mysterious hallucinations for four days straight, Edgar Allan Poe died of unknown causes in Baltimore at age 40 on October 7, 1849.

 

The eerie tale of how Edgar Allan Poe died is like something out of one of his own stories. The year is 1849. A man is found delirious on the streets of a city in which he does not live, wearing clothes that are not his own, incapable or unwilling to discuss the circumstances under which he arrived.

Poe’s death—shrouded in mystery—seems ripped directly from the pages of one of his own works. He had spent years crafting a careful image of a man inspired by adventure and fascinated with enigmas—a poet, a detective, an author, a world traveler who fought in the Greek War of Independence and was held prisoner in Russia. But though his death certificate listed the cause of death as phrenitis, or swelling of the brain, the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death have led many to speculate about the true cause of Poe’s demise. “Maybe it’s fitting that since he invented the detective story,” says Chris Semtner, curator of the Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia, “he left us with a real-life mystery.”