Tweet us today with author birthdays!
Sunday January 10
| Fran Walsh (b. 1959) – New Zealand screenwriter – The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001); The Lovely Bones (2009) |
Read Anne Thompson’s interview of Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh about The Lovely Bones
Listen to a 2003 interview of Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens talking about Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring and King Kong
http://www.warofthering.net/pafiledb/index.php?act=view&id=544
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Monday January 11
| Siti Nurhaliza (b. 1979) – Malaysian singer / songwriter |
Watch the music video of Bukan Cinta Biasa / No Ordinary Love, lyrics by Siti Nurhaliza
Read a biography here
http://tripatlas.com/Siti_Nurhaliza
Visit Siti Nurhaliza’s website
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Tuesday January 12
| Ferenc Molnár (originally Ferenc Neumann) (b. 1878) – Hungarian novelist, playwright - The Play at the Castle |
Read this 1929 Time magazine article about Molnar’s plays
Read amusing anecdotes about Molnar
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Wednesday January 13
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Flora Nwapa (Florence Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa) (b. 1931) – Nigerian novelist, poet, publisher, activist – Efuru (1966) |
Read the Authors Calendar biography of Flora Nwapa
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/nwapa.htm
Read the Oxford Encyclopedia article about Flora Nwapa
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Thursday January 14
| Emily Hahn (b. 1905) – U.S. journalist, adventure writer, feminist - |
Read a biography of Emily Hahn here
http://www.trotamundas.com/travelers.htm
Read China To Me by Emily Hahn at Google Books
Read Emily Hahn’s New York Times obituary
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/19/arts/emily-hahn-chronicler-of-her-own-exploits-dies-at-92.html?pagewanted=1
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Friday January 15
 |
Martin Luther King, Jr. (b. 1929) – U.S. civil rights activist, Christian minister |
… Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
Read the entire speech here
http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html
Watch Dr. King deliver the speech on the steps of the
Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, 1963
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Saturday January 16
| Robert W. Service (b. 1874) – Scottish-Canadian poet (the bard of the Yukon) |
Visit the poet’s website
http://www.robertwservice.com/
Comfort
Say! You’ve struck a heap of trouble –
Bust in business, lost your wife;
No one cares a cent about you,
You don’t care a cent for life;
Hard luck has of hope bereft you,
Health is failing, wish you’d die –
Why, you’ve still the sunshine left you
And the big, blue sky.
Sky so blue it makes you wonder
If it’s heaven shining through;
Earth so smiling ‘way out yonder,
Sun so bright it dazzles you;
Birds a-singing, flowers a-flinging
All their fragrance on the breeze;
Dancing shadows, green, still meadows –
Don’t you mope, you’ve still got these.
These, and none can take them from you;
These, and none can weigh their worth.
What! you’re tired and broke and beaten? –
Why, you’re rich — you’ve got the earth!
Yes, if you’re a tramp in tatters,
While the blue sky bends above
You’ve got nearly all that matters –
You’ve got God, and God is love
Read the HipWriterMama blog post
about Service’s The Battle of the Bulge
http://hipwritermama.blogspot.com/2007/03/poetry-friday-battle-of-bulge-by-robert.html
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