"The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible - and achieve it, generation after generation." — Pearl S. Buck (June 26, 1892 - March 6, 1973), American expatriate writer. To learn more about Buck, see Contemporary Literary Criticism: Volume 127.
Today is Ambrose Bierce’s Birthday. Read a Preview of Bierce’s Entry in Short Story Criticism: Volume 244
"Divorce: a resumption of diplomatic relations and rectification of boundaries." -- From The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce (born June 24, 1842)
From Short Story Criticism: Volume 244:
Ambrose Bierce
1842-1914?
(Full name Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce; also spelled Gwinett; also wrote under the pseudonyms Dod Grile and William Herman) American short-story writer, journalist, essayist, fabulist, and poet.
The following entry...
"How often one reads a contemporary full-length novel and thinks quietly, mutinously, that it would have worked out better at half or a third the length." — Ian McEwan, English novelist and author of Atonement. Born June 21, 1948.
“Vicious Circle,” a poem by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (today is his birthday!)
Vicious Circle (translated by Frederic G. William)
The firefly danced in the air impatiently: "Oh how I wish that I could be that yellow, That burns in the eternal blue, a candle far!" And yet the star gazed on the moon with jealousy: "If only I could copy such transparency, Which, from the Grecian column to the Gothic sill, Has contemplated lovers' faces sighingly!" And yet the moon gazed on the sun with..."I am very happy when people write that they have worn out my books, or that they are held together by Scotch tape. I consider that the ultimate compliment." - Richard Scarry (June 5, 1919 - May 30, 1994), author of Little Golden Books and the Busy Town series