I have a photograph of the three-year-old me in the backyard of the duplex where we lived in suburban New Orleans. I’m barefoot, in shorts and a t-shirt, and I’m wearing what would always be my favorite hat – a Davy Crocket coonskin cap. I was not alone; millions of boys and likely a lot of girls wore then as well. That hat reflected the marketing power of Walt Disney’s “Davy Crockett.” Greg Daugherty at Smithsonian Magazine explains how an unlikely frontiersman killed at the Alamo became an American hero – and it was all thanks to Disney.
Poetry originated as an oral art, a form of storytelling that entertained, informed, and helped people make sense of the world. Much poetry today is written for the eye, that, is, to be read rather than spoken aloud. As the for oral tradition, what happens if you can’t hear? Poet Ilya Kaminsky describes how he discovered poetry – as a deaf child in the Ukraine. (Six years ago, I reviewed his Deaf Republic at Tweetspeak Poetry.)
My historical novel Brookhaven is infused with the poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Translate “infused” with including a Longfellow quote for every chapter, a character who memorizes and recites it, and an author who read almost everything Longfellow ever wrote. At The Imaginative Conservative, Joseph Pearce considers one of Longfellow’s epic poems – Evangeline – and discusses how it frames the quest for love.
Imagine a father and son serving on different sides in the Civil War. Imagine a naval engagement in Galveston Bay in which both were involved. The Confederacy won the naval battle, capturing two Union ships. And the father, on the Confederate side, hears that his son is aboard one the captured ships. Read "My Father is Here": A Tragedy in the Civil War.
(FYI, some of the formatting is wacko today; Blogger insists on adding extra spaces for some strange reason.)
More Good Reads
America 250
Unraveling the Mystery of George Washington’s Earliest Teacher – Richard Gardiner at the Journal of the American Revolution.
Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic by Lindsey Chervinsky – book review by Al Dickenson at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.
John Shee: A Grenadier Company Commander at Bunker Hill – Steven Baule at Journal of the American Revolution.
Faith
Egypt’s War Against the World’s Oldest Christian Monastery – Mariam Wahba at The Free Press.
Poetry
A Vision of Charity – Megan Willome at Poetry for Life.
“Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” poem by Emily Dickinson – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.
Pen Deep in the Deep End – Jerry Barrett at Gerald the Writer.
“Sailing to Byzantium,” poem by William Butler Yeats – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.
The Meter Makers – Susan Spear at New Verse Review.
Writing and Literature
Walt Whitman’s Souvenir of Anguish – Tina Daniels at Emerging Civil War.
The Austen Years: A Review in Six Movements – Tessa Carman at Mere Orthodoxy.
The Pickwick Papers: BBC Miniseries, 1985 – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.
It’s Dangerous to Go Alone. Take Books – Spencer Klavan at Rejoice Evermore.
Life and Culture
Optimizing Ourselves to Death – Bethel McGrew at Further Up.
American Stuff
“Advice to Soldiers” Goes Viral – Tim Talbott at Emerging Civil War.
American Spirit – Teddy Macker at Front Porch Republic.
We’ll Meet Again – Sydnie Christmas
Painting: A Schoolgirl, oil on canvas (1887) by Luke Fildes (1843-1927).
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