“Between Elizabeth and Charlotte there was a restraint which kept them mutually silent on the subject; and Elizabeth felt persuaded that no real confidence could ever subsist between them again.”
(from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice)
After Charlotte accepts the foolish Mr. Collins’ proposal to Elizabeth after her rejection of him, and after all the two women suddenly, unreservedly, say to each other immediately afterward.
Happy doggies being walked,
smushed bunnies on the roads.
A jet’s white trail ascending
ever higher on the
large morning blue.
Cyclist, strange bike and huge tires,
being asked by a passing driver
“Where can I get one of those?”
“You can’t. There’s only one
in the world and this is it.”
Best though, all the streams
and fountains flowing, bubbling
springly on campus
and few dogs and mortals there
to enjoy them.
(example of front and back cover)
(this one had a different picture on the inner hardcover)
(again front and back cover)
(the company did 4 poetry editions–1 on Frost based on his first and third books; the first book shown here has a glassine wrapper)
(these were without djs as issued; the Dickinson has all the rejigged lines, capitalization, and punctuation as done by her editors in the original; the Whitman is his first short version of his classic.)
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Collectors Reprints published 112 titles in exact facsimile dust jacket editions of 2500 copies each. Each book was housed in a slipcase which had the same back and front pages from the book as well. An identification, information card was also included with each title. The series ran from 1987 into the early 1990s with Easton Press reproducing some of the titles. These books have a unique value of their own worth hundreds of dollars because of the small runs.
Happiness is in the imagination. What we perform, is always inferior to what we imagine.–Cyril Connolly, The Unquiet Grave
You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences.–W. Somerset Maugham, The Circle
Art attempts to find in the universe, in matter as well as in the facts of life, what is fundamental, enduring, essential.–Saul Bellow, “Nobel Prize Speech”
Recognizableness is an artistic quality which most people find profoundly thrilling.–Aldous Huxley, “Music at Night”
Art enlarges by admitting us to the inner life of others.–Walter Lippmann, A Preface to Politics
Half of art is knowing when to stop.–Arthur William Radford
A work of art is good if it is has sprung from necessity.–Rainer Maria Rilke, “Letter to a Young Poet”
The proper study of mankind is books.–Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow
Civilization is an exercise in self-restraint.–W.B. Yeats
Verbal communication about music is impossible, except among musicians.–Virgil Thompson, The State of Music
The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts, but of values.–W.R. Inge, The Church in the World
Genius is talent provided with ideals.–W. Somerset Maugham, A Writer’s Notebook
Impropriety is the soul of wit.–W. Somerset Maugham, A Writer’s Notebook
Men die but an idea does not.–Alan Jay Lerner, The Street Where I Live
Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.–Simone Weil, Gravity and Grouse
Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile.–Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness
The limits of language stand for the limits of my world.–Ludwig Wittgenstein, quoted Harry Zohn, Karl Kraus
Literature is not about something: it is the thing itself, the quiddity.–Vladimir Nabokov, Lectures on Literature
In memory everything seems to happen to music.–Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
Music is the best means of digesting time.–W.H. Auden, quoted Robert Craft, Stravinsky: The Chronicle of a Friendship
Poetry is a perfectly reasonable means of overcoming chaos.–I. A. Richards, Science and Poetry
Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness.–George Santayana, Little Essays
Human kind/Cannot bear much reality.–T.S. Eliot, Burnt Norton
Most of one’s life is a prolonged effort to avoid thinking.–Aldous Huxley, “Green Tunnels”
(on my desk, a signed performance photo of GL in his more youthful prime, from a concert most likely in the late 60s or early 70s)
For the past four years thereabouts, I have had infrequent dreams about people who have interested me, often music people. In them, I have ‘met’ Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and others–all interesting encounters with a chance to talk to these people, ask them questions, and to find out more info. (For me, a key part of my daily life is getting or receiving whatever info on a variety of topics and experiences. An influential book was The Information which came out about 3-4 years ago and is a ‘different’ history of information, human interest and technology with regard to information. For me, info is pretty basic in any case, often growing out of ever-morphing personal curiosity and whatever the day’s topics of interest turn out to be.)
Anyway, I spent some time with Gordon Lightfoot out of the blue last night (possibly triggered by my T.O.-born friend I dined with last evening. I gave him a 1952ish T.O. subway map of the city which immediately took him on a journey to the end of town then where he lived, him pointing this out on the map–his home 3 blocks from the Lake Ontario). In the dream, I talked with GL about how his early songs (album 2–The Way I Feel) had been significantly connective; e.g., you are in that room he describes in “A Song for a Winter’s Night”, or that 1967’s “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” was both timely and mythically connective for many Canadians–E.J. Pratt epic-poem style set to music.
But eventually I asked him about something that had put me off in two concerts in two different cities–Wpg & Edm–that I had attended within two years, in which he had stopped the concerts, apologized for the sound, saying he and the band could do much better, took a break while the crowd in the lobby wondered what was or had been wrong, then resumed the show in top form with no apparent significant changes to the sound. Mystery.
I know he may had alcohol problems early in his career, and later attributed the stoppages to that. But whatever the case may have been, it was the sound that had been truly bothering him. In those days-the -early 70s–bands were not using monitors yet and couldn’t hear themselves; also concert halls provided the show sound, not sound crews of the performer. In the dream, he did talk at length about how the sound was not right and how he did not want to give a flawed or lesser show. In other words, GL was very much a perfectionist (reflected in later strong concerts), who was more concerned about the sound of those shows more than anyone else in those venues. Perhaps he could hear things which didn’t work for him, that he felt short-changed the fans that came to see him.
Anyway, a long way of saying you sometimes get the info, or the truth about something eventually or even much later. The answers to whatever questions will often come from within; they will ‘bubble up’–TM style–on their own when they are ready. There is often some purpose to these strange nocturnal encounters. And sometimes even truth or more accurate info may emerge.
So, a limited understanding of some sort, though I accept there’s a lot of mystery going on regardless in these highly subjective experiences. But I don’t discount the potential learning value and personal satisfaction one can ultimately derive from such ‘irrational ‘ episodes and sources.
than Glenn Gould’s Studio Outtakes CD (#38 of the Complete Bach Collection box on Sony).
Creative process. Youthful confidence. Joy and ecstasy at the possibilities of capturing and recording his Bach favorites. The entire set is a transcendent spiritual experience, but this disc is Gould starting out, ‘naked’ and alone in the studio, sharing confidences with his producer, what was never meant to be overheard and shared. An outstanding document well worth the cost of the entire set itself. Genius at work. A Great Artist and Deep Soul. Pure, idealistic Glenn.
Highly recommended for eavestrough cleaning. Fair price. Good communications. Friendly service. But only womenfolk are likely to be paying close attention to what they’re wearing under those kilts!
has been a great influence in my life.
“I am bound by my own definition of criticism: a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world.”
–“The Function of Criticism at the Present Time”
“Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.” —Literature and Dogma, preface
His main passion has been mine in my teaching and learning since age 20. Why bother with the shallow, the coarse, the stupid, the fads, and the conventional lowest common denominator? ‘Tis greatness, great minds and sensibilities, and true heroism that are truly worth idealizing, pursuing, studying, and emulating in daily life, work, and art. The rest tends toward transitoriness, limitedness, and mere dross.
Huge and undeniable. Our Last Great North American Man.
’50s civil rights started with Rosa Parks on a bus, but it was King’s first impassioned speech representing her and the citizens of Montgomery, Alabama that got a whole movement rolling. Eventually civil rights legislation and more protests against war (Viet Nam) and his success inspiring gay, women’s, and others’ protests to gain attention, equality, more freedom and respect as well as more legal rights. The wheels have rolled on through the decades yielding much positive political and social change in North America.
Yes, his fighting spirit, his willingness to march and face hatred and violence, the boldness of his example. Surely, the finest idealism of the sixties and the best of man, particularly the spirit of man (in the widest possible sense).
The idea that a person should not be judged by the color of his or her skin, but by character is still the best and noblest ideal of any true search for equality.
Oh yes, and maybe one more model deserving to be on the height with King in the wake of his inspiration–Nelson Mandela. Our Last Truly Great Men exemplifying what Johnny Clegg called “The Spirit of the Great Heart”. These were the two great heroes of the past seventy years.
