Washington Irving, An American Original

Washington Irving: An American Original
by Brian Jay Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This biography gave me a whole new perspective on past history and its heroes. It was slow reading at first, but I gradually found myself drawn to Washington Irving and his life. Along with his story came the history that was unfolding inthe United States and our leaders.

Some of my thoughts-
Fame is fleeting. I remember Washington Irving stories from my grade school days. I think of him as Ichabod Crane from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. However, for his time and our time he is so much more that these two stories. I wonder if other people remember him only because of them.

Notes from the book:
"Washington Irving was the first American writer to live by his pen and the first to have an international reputation." He paved the way for authors such as: James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allen Poe. Their main source of income was not their writing. Irving was constantly trying to find a way to make money. He was educated as a lawyer, but it didn't really suit him. At first he wrote under pseudonyms because he was afraid people wouldn't like what he wrote. His first book, 'A History of New York', was written by Diedrich Knickerbocker. (The New York Knicks owe him their name.)

He always had a wanderlust and headed for England where he found himself running the family trading company. He was helping his brother Peter who was sickly most of his life. He didn't return to the United State until fourteen years later. While there he wrote 'The Sketch Book' and 'Tales of a Traveller' under the name of Geoffrey Crayon. 'The Life and Voyage of Christopher Columbus' was the first publication that carried his name as the author.

He spent several years as a Minister from the United States to the Spanish Court. Finally, he returned home to stay. His crowning achievement was his five volume set, 'The Life of George Washington'. When he was five, he had met and was blessed by George Washington. He had always felt that it was his destiny to do write about his life.

Irving was born in 1783 and died at the age of 76 in 1859. Over his lifetime "Politicians, writers, actors, artists, and wannabes of every type clamored to be associated with him. A friend to six presidents, he had danced with Dolley Madison in the White House, consoled Martin Van Buren in London, flattered a young Queen Isabella in Madrid as John Tyler's minister to Spain. John Jacob Astor tapped him to be his personal biographer, Mary Shelley had a crush on him. Edgar Allen Poe flattered him. Sir Walter Scott loved him. Dickens, Longfellow, and Haw throne adored him. Even those like James Fenimore Cooper who loathed him gave his work their grudging respect." (found on page 408) Washington Irving was the 'Rock Star' of his time.

It took me several months to read this book. There was so much to absorb that I couldn't do it straight through. It was slow reading and it took me a while to warm up to Washington Irving. However, when he died and was laid to rest at Sleepy Hollow I had tears running down my face.

I highly recommend this biography it will give you a real appreciation for Irving and the times in which he lived. Thank you Mr. Jones for such a wonderful tribute.

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DISPATCHES FROM PLUTO

Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta by Richard Grant
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you want to join an American subculture hiding in the Delta of Mississippi, this is a great way to do it. Richard Grant*is a Brit who has come to live in the Delta and still lives in Mississippi at this time. He has the personality as an outsider to be able to gain the confidence of the insiders. Also, it helped that he had a British accent. At one point in the book, one black man said: "He's not white, he's British." I loved the Field Trip chapter, but couldn't really understand the significance of Chapter 5, The Oncologist's Hitmen. The chapters that went into depth about the 'Blues' music didn't interest me. I don't give out a lot of '5 stars', this book was definitely a ' five star' book . Good writing and interesting stories that kept me wanting to go to Mississippi and take the Field Trip.

This was my Book Club book for the month for July. It was my turn to lead the discussion. Since I love to know where I am when I read a book; a map was in order. This book especially needed a map for Chapter 6 - Field Trip. I marked a Mississippi map with the route and points of interest and brought copies. It put the story in perspective and helped generate a lot of discussion.
















Here are some of my notes:

p. 10 Why is it called Pluto? (Pluto is an unincorporated town and isn't on this map.) It is called Pluto because: "Pluto is the Lord of the Underworld and all of this was just a big mean hell of a swamp."

p. 46 "South whites didn't mind how close blacks got so long as they didn't get too high socially and economically". 1st paragraph

p. 87  Clarksdale was one stop on the Field Trip. Morgan Freeman, the actor, lives here. It is the 'Crossroads' where Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil. Crossroads, the movie, will give you a good look at 'the blues' in the Delta. 

p. 93 Wet Delta Salad-lettuce with olive oil and vinegar. 
           (Go to The Faded Rose in Little Rock, Arkansas, 
             to eat a really good one.) (Facebook link)

p. 104 The blacks were against the civil rights movement.

p. 159 Parchman Prison (Time ran out so we didn't get to discuss the prison and the 'Wage-Hand Program'.)

pps. 174-176 The schools/academies. They were not called private schools and were set up to avoid segregation.

p. 187 Quitman Country Elementary school was an experiment to provide quality education to the Mississippi schools. It worked, but was not continued, because the local school board felt that they were under the control of outsiders.

p. 216 Plantation mentality.

p. 235 Morgan Freeman's 'Meaning of Life'. "The meaning of life for every organism on the planet, including us, is to procreate and die."

p. 257-258 It's a habit.

p. 265 "and some of these women out here be have mo kids, and mo kids, just so they check get bigger."

p. 276 Feudal relic.

Maybe some of my notes will trigger a discussion in your book club if you select Dispatches from Pluto for discussion.


*Richard Grant is an author, journalist, and television host. He currently lives with his wife in Jackson, Mississippi. He was born in Malaysia in 1963 and spent time as a child in Kuwait before his family moved to London where he spent his childhood. He earned a history degree from University College in London and then moved to the United States. He has lived in Tucson, Arizona and New York City.

He grew up with an interest in traveling and writing as evidenced by the books that he has published.

1. American Nomads: Travels with Lost Conquistadors, Mountain Men, Cowboys, Indians, Hoboes, Truckers and Bullriders.

2. God's Middle Finger, Into The Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre (English title-Bandit Roads, Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre.) This book was written after he traveled in northern Mexico in the Sierra Madre Occidental, an area nine hundred miles long that contained cave-dwelling Indian tribes and is one of the world's largest areas for production of marijuana and heroin.

3. Crazy River: Exploration and Folly in East Africa tells the story of his travels along the Malagarasi River in Tanzania and other events in Burundi and Rwanda. 

4. Dispatches from Pluto

I'M OFFICIALLY AN OLD LADY

Therefore---

WHEN I AM AN OLD 

WOMAN I SHALL WEAR

PURPLE*

With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beer mats and things in boxes

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

When you are an old lady, you can wear purple and a red hat, too!

*No, I am not a member of the Red Hat Society. (click on link in case you want to be a member.