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Shakespeare’s Sweet Uses of Adversity
Sweet are the uses of adversity Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds …
Prefaces, Introductions and Notices: The art of C.S. Lewis, David Quammen and Mark Twain.
Yes, quite a trio on both ends of that curious title. I have a fondness of introductions of all stripes because they are, in practice, written long after the work …
Robert Frost: The Trickster on the Road.
“If we would understand poetry, let us be informed about a poet’s experience and crises out of which he speaks honestly if painfully. For at the heart of the poem …
Writing and other relationships.
On Robert’s Frost’s 80th birthday, he was honored at a dinner at Amherst College. When he spoke, he responded to the often-quoted line; “poets die young” by saying that they …
Silence Dogood. A short story by Martin Baker
In 1959, Truman Capote appeared on David Susskind’s program, Open End to talk about writing. When the “Beat Generation” was mentioned, Capote famously replied, “None of these people have anything interesting to …
Reciprocity and Reunion with Richard Ford
I renew my faith in great writing by turning back to my usual suspects: Richard Ford, Don DeLillo, Tim O’Brien, Joyce Carol Oates, and David Long. Like most superlatives, “great” …
6655321: The Clockwork Orange Dilemma
“The ideal reader of my novels is a lapsed Catholic and failed musician, short-sighted, color-blind, auditorily biased, who has read the books that I have read. He should also be …
The Speech JFK never gave.
Speeches have not become irrelevant, but they have lost their reverence in our modern age. In an always-on world, the oratorical flourish has been replaced by the sound bite and …
Shadow. Random thoughts on Lincoln’s Greatest Speech. Part 2
‘I never knew a man who wished himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires it for himself.” A. Lincoln (March 24, 1864) In …
Shadow. Random thoughts on Lincoln’s greatest speech
The Gettysburg Address casts an understandably long shadow on Lincoln’s other oratory triumphs. It emerged from one of the most horrific battles in our history – 8,000 soldiers in a …
BakerMuse Essays 