Gertrude Stein

World War I devastated everything – nothing could ever be the same again, there was no way back to what it was like before. Everybody had bought into the values of class-consciousness, the formalism of societal norms and the constraints of culture but in the end these axioms had failed humanity. Everybody had played ball and everybody had been horrifically maimed, no more would everybody be so obsequious, trusting and indeed so care-free.

In America, artists began congregating in enclaves in the major cities seeking to develop new values, new methods of living, new approaches to the way society should co-exist. Others went even further, maybe to seek more or perhaps to abandon the whole shebang- many of these seekers shored up in Paris. The Lost Generation was the moniker that they became known as, it was originally applied to them by the apparently ubiquitous Gertrude Stein. From their disillusionment, followed their aimless wanderings, followed their self-imposed exile, resulting in an original and innovative style of literature. They were marked out by their realism – romanticism, flowery idealism and dishonest clichés were abandoned.

Likewise, language was pared down and frank – no more formal, strait-laced, Victorian cloak and daggers palaver. Paris and Montparnasse in particular was the ideal location and – full of flamboyant characters immersing themselves in bohemian lifestyles disputing and debating philosophical points, historical facts and thoughts on modern living. Paris was the breeding ground of such exciting and challenging movements as Dadaism, Futurism, Expressionism and Surrealism. Picasso was there, Joyce was there, Duchamp was there, Stravinski was there, Cocteau was there, Breton was there, Apollinaire was there – Paris was the place to be.

The young American radicals – Hemingway, Pound, Fitzgerald, Miller, Anais Nin and Don Passos – flung themselves into this innovative cauldron. They played hard – plunging into the hedonistic lifestyle – but they worked even harder – producing startlingly literature of astonishing range and depth. Paris possessed other advantages – it was damn cheap and there was a plethora of small, independent publishing houses that were willing to publish unknown and innovative writers. In addition, there were many literary reviews operating out of small rooms on the Left Bank that gave exposure to these writers. Also beneficial was the fact that alcohol was legal, unlike Prohibition era America.

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Allen Ginsberg

The Beat Movement, The Beats, The Beat Generation – what exactly was it? Truth is I don’t know and I don’t think anybody else does. I mean beat generation was a moniker that Kerouac applied to his close circle of friends – it hardly defines a generation – indeed Corso saw that only three were in it – himself, Ginsberg and Orlovsky.

But then again, what a circle of friends, it often strikes me that the Beats when young where just like any other young group of people, they believe in what they believe, they might compile a half-baked manifesto – but to follow it to the letter, to keep faith in it, to see it to the end – well that’s Beat I suppose. Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs met at Columbia University, envisioning themselves as future literary figures but they were absolutely astonished when they sparked a literary movement. They didn’t even know they had, they were living in Europe, whittling away their days in the Beat Hotel, Paris immersing themselves in creative and hedonistic activity. Their circles in New York, San Francisco and Paris included people who were solely hedonists, they would be intricate cogs in the movement, providing distraction, entertainment and inspiration. Poetry by the people for the people.

Indeed, the original beats were Columbian University academics, they needed the influence of the hucksters and hipsters or they may have went the way of the formalists. Well, maybe not, the work that they produced was so fresh, raw and provoking – far from mainstream and it’s producers refused to compromise even though it appeared for years that their work would forever remain misunderstood and unpublished.

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The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dalí, 1931

“The Persistence of Memory” is one of Salvador Dalí’s most famous paintings.

Created in 1931, the well-known surrealistic painting introduced the image of the soft melting pocket watch. This image epitomizes Dalí’s theory of ’softness’ and ‘hardness’, which was central to his thinking at the time.

The painting has been owned by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City since 1934. It was, however, on display at the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida February–June 2008. The Persistence of Memory returned to the Museum of Modern Art in June 2008 as part of the exhibition Dalí and Film, on view from 29 June – 15 September 2008.

Several authors have used “The Persistence of Memory” as titles for books as well.

The Persistence of Memory is the title of a book by Tony Eprile.  The book takes place in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa, and covers the life of the main character, Paul Sweetbread, a South African man with a near-photographic memory.   The book takes a look at the injustices of the secret 1980s wars in Namibia and Angola.

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes entitled a recent novel by the same name, as well.

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Clement G. Hurd was an American illustrator of children’s books. He was born on January 12, 1908 and became best known for his collaborations with author Margaret Wise Brown, including Goodnight Moon in 1947, which has since sold more than two million copies. He also illustrated The Runaway Bunny (1942) and a number of books written by his wife Edith (a friend of Brown’s) as well as a children’s book written by Gertrude Stein, The World Is Round (1938).

The son of a New York mortgage banker, Hurd was educated at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire.  He then studied architecture at Yale University as well as painting with Fernand Léger in Paris. On seeing two of his paintings, Margaret Wise Brown asked him if he would consider illustrating children’s books.

His son Thacher Hurd is also a children’s book author and illustrator, and referred in an interview to the “wonderful aura of creativity” surrounding his father and the Vermont farm that was their home.

A doctored/altered photo of Hurd was included in the 60th anniversary republication of Goodnight Moon with a cigarette removed from his hand, causing controversy over publication standards. A New York Times article wrote “In the great green room, there is a telephone, and a red balloon, but no ashtray. “Goodnight Moon,” the children’s classic by Margaret Wise Brown, has gone smoke free.”

Hurd died February 5, 1988.

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He was also a private scholar and is believed to be one of the “greatest scholars of the time.”

His most famous work is the A Shropshire Lad, which is a cycle of his poems printed in 1896. He is also went on to publish Last Poems in 1922. He has several lectures including “Swinburne” (1910), “The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism” (1921), “The Name and Nature of Poetry” (1933) and several others.

For more information on A.E. Housman, I would recommend visiting this site.

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Now more than likely, the question relates to the old nursery song, “Monday’s Child.”  In this song, it lists each day of the week along with a fortune for that day. 

There are actually two different versions of the nursery song.  The first version is

The second version is slightly different with a few days being reversed and is believed to be the revised version with the song above being the original.  Friday and Wednesday were reversed, as well as Thursday and Saturday.  Sunday’s child still remained bonny and gay but he also became blithe and good. 

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The beloved author of the famed Harry Potter series of books was born in Gloucesthire, England on July 31, 1965.  Today, Rowling lives in Scotland with her husband, Neil Murray, and her three children.  While writing was an early ambition, her first attempts didn’t amount to much.  That all changed in 1997 when the world was introduced to Harry Potter and his friends.  Her books have sold more than 100 million copies and have been made into major motion pictures.  Success is not without rewards, and it has been written that Rowling is wealthier than the Queen of England.   

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Colette (Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette) was a nineteenth century French female writer; born in 1873 and died in 1954. She was the author of many acclaimed novels.

“Sido” was her mother’s name (her full name was Adele Eugenie Sidonie Landoy), and in Colette’s book entitled Sido, Colette writes of her childhood and her mother’s wonderful, nurturing, and powerful influence. She mixes fact with fiction to convey the influence that her mother had on her community and her daughter. Her mother was passionate about life and loved the arts, her garden, and most of all her children.

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