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The Window of Richard Ford
Like many writers, Richard Ford is definitely a “regarder par la fenêtre” — one who “looks through the window.” In his short story Privacy and his novella-length story Occidentals, Ford’s protagonists …
A Multitude of Sins. The Stories of Richard Ford
Age bestows its many gifts with a kind of mysterious grace. My father, a witness to the many horrors of World War II, developed a passion for gardening when he …
We tell ourselves stories in order to heal.
We tell ourselves stories in order to heal. I know a writer who suffered from frequent headaches, insomnia, and bouts of depression so debilitating, he contemplated suicide. His parents sent …
A writer’s mind. Thoughts on Orhan Pamuk.
Culture grants no monopolies on great writing. While Europe has grabbed the lion’s share of the Nobel Prizes in literature — over 70% since 1901, more recent winners include writers …
John Updike, Racism and The Doctor’s Wife.
Preface 18 years ago, I spent a day at a long, scuffed wooden table in the Barbados Archives. The table was stacked with baptism records of 11 parishes – a …
Bungay Stanier and the art of Doing More Great Work.
The ghost of Albert Einstein occasionally hovers somewhere in upstate New York. Michael Bungay Stanier, the founder and senior Partner of Box of Crayons, was vacationing at a cabin that …
Surprised by the joy of Wordsworth
The very mention of the phrase “British Romantic Poetry” is bound to elicit a collective wince. A bit of literary forensics will shed some perspective and hopefully some insight into …
A short missive on Shakespeare and Sonnet #2
Typically the purveyor of Shakespeare’s Sonnets is likely to be a dewy-eyed romantic or a reedy-looking professor of English with a corduroy sport jacket with reinforced elbows. Well, since I …
Sense and Sensibility. John Updike.
In late November 1961, a 29-year-old John Updike finished the draft of his short story, In Football Season. Since we share equally aquiline noses, this story has always been among …
Mortality and wisdom. Or, I’ll take Nirvana with the points.
We all negotiate with life. As one of my literary mentors, David Quammen, elegantly wrote, “we do it invisibly, sometimes unconsciously, and alone, without benefit of collective bargaining. We come …
BakerMuse Essays 