Tuesday, August 22nd, 2017

Today marks the 97th anniversary of the birth of Ray Bradbury, the screenwriter, essayist, and novelist whose works include such classics as The Martian Chronicles and Farenheit 451.

Though his formal education ended when he graduated from high school, Bradbury was nevertheless determined to hone his skills as a writer.  While running a newstand on LA streetcorners, he spent all his free time crafting stories.  Just five years after graduating, he was a full-time writer, selling short stories to periodicals and collecting them into volumes, like his first: Dark Carnival.  Three years after this first collection came Bradbury's first novel, The Martian Chronicles, about humanity's first attempts to colonize Mars.  Though well received, it was Bradbury's second novel, published in 1953, that...

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Friday, July 28th, 2017

Beatrix Potter, best known for her beautifully illustrated children's stories featuring Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, and other animal friends, was born on today's date in 1866 in London, England.

Though never formally educated, Helen Beatrix Potter was a curious and dedicated student of the natural world.  She began drawing and painting at a young age, often using her pet rabbits Benjamin Bouncer and Peter Piper as models.  Her family summered in Scotland, and later the Lake District in northwest England, where she...

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Wednesday, July 5th, 2017

Bill Watterson, best known as the cartoonist behind the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, is 59 years old today!

Watterson grew up in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, in the 50s and 60s, and the time and place has played a major role in his work.  Though he worked as a freelance artist and cartoonist early in his career, it wasn't until 1985, when a cartoon of a six-year-old boy and his stuffed tiger made its debut, that Watterson's work caught the attention of a larger audience.

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Saturday, May 27th, 2017

Author Denis Johnson, best known for his story collection Jesus' Son and National Book Award winning novel Tree of Smoke, has passed away at the age of 67. 

Johnson's father was a U.S. State Department employee, so though Johnson himself was born in what was then West Germany, he grew up in such varied locales as Japan, the Phillipines, and the suburbs of Washington D.C.  He earned a bachelor's and then a master's degree from the University of Iowa, where he studied with Raymond Carver.  Johnson's career as a writer got off to an early and auspicious start when he published his first book, a poetry collection entitled The Man Among the Seals, at only 19 years old, but...

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