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The Writer's Almanac from Sunday, December 10, 2000
“A Song for Muriel,” by Carolyn Kizer, from Cool, Calm & Collected: Poems, 1960-2000 (Copper Canyon Press); and “Some keep the Sabbath going to church,” by Emily Dickinson.
It's the birthday of mystery writer Philip R. Craig, born in Santa Monica, California (1933). For the last ten years he's come out with a new murder mystery a year, all featuring a retired Boston cop named J.W. Jackson, and all placed on Martha's Vineyard. Jackson works as a tourist guide, and in his free time fishes and cooks his catch. His titles include A Beautiful Place to Die (1989), Cliff Hanger (1993), A Shoot on Martha's Vineyard (1998), and Vineyard Blues (2000). "Most readers of mysteries... are actually more interested in characters and locale than in plot, puzzle solving, or other traditional aspects of crime stories."
It's the birthday of poet Carolyn Kizer, born in Spokane, Washington (1925). Her collection Yin: New Poems (1984) won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. Other books include Knock Upon Silence (1965), Mermaids in the Basement: Poems for Women (1984), and Cool, Calm & Collected: Poems, 1960-2000 (2000)
It's the birthday of novelist and children's author Rumer Godden, born in Eastbourne, Sussex (1907). Author of Black Narcissus (1939) The Greengage Summer (1958), China Court (1961), and many other books.
It's the birthday of children's writer Mary Norton, born in London (1903). She turned out the enchanting Borrowers tales, featuring the Clock family: six inches tall, they are non-doctrinaire utopians who own nothing, share everything, and borrow what they need from humans.
It's the birthday of German poet and playwright Nellie Sachs, born in Berlin (1891). A Jew, she fled Germany for Sweden in 1940, at which point her early, romantic style turned to more psalmlike forms. She is best known for her lyrical lament "O the Chimneys," about the death camps. She shared the Nobel Prize for Literature with S.Y. Agnon (1966).
It's the birthday of poet Emily Dickinson, born in Amherst, Massachusetts (1830). She lived most of her 55 years in the house built by her Grandfather in Amherst. During her last 20 years she never strayed beyond the property.
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