Happy 84th birthday to esteemed Canadian novelist and poet Margaret Atwood! She is pictured here attempting to burn an 'unburnable' copy of her novel "The Handmaid's Tale" with a flamethrower. A single unburnable copy was created last year to raise awareness about increasing censorship; her dystopian science fiction novel, which centers around one woman's quest for freedom in a totalitarian theocracy where women's rights are completely suppressed, has been the subject of numerous censorship challenges since its publication in 1985. The unburnable copy was auctioned off after Atwood's flamethrowing attempt, raising $130,000 for PEN America, a literary and free expression advocacy organization. As Atwood famously asserted in her poem "Spelling": "A word after a word after a word is power."
Open Yesterday's Pages
Monday, November 18, 2024
Margaret Atwood
Sunday, November 17, 2024
Ellen Swallow Richards, environmentalist and chemist
Saturday, November 16, 2024
Pearl S. Buck, author
Today is the birth anniversary of
"... writer Pearl S. Buck, born in Hillsboro, West Virginia (1892). Her parents were Christian missionaries, and she was raised in China from the age of three months. She said: "I spoke Chinese first, and more easily. [...] I did not consider myself a white person in those days." She was tutored in the mornings by her mother, but spent the afternoons with her beloved Chinese nurse, who told her stories and took her to visit friends, where young Pearl listened to women gossip. She played with Chinese friends, joined their parties, and hid her blond hair underneath a hat.
Around the world in 72 days
The trailblazing American journalist Nellie Bly began her record-breaking 72-day journey around the world this week in 1889 -- a trip which made her the first person to ever complete the fictional journey depicted in Jules Verne's "Around the World in Eighty Days"! A minimalist traveler, the 24-year-old Pittsburgh native brought with her only the dress she was wearing, a sturdy overcoat, a wool cap, a few changes of underwear, and a small handbag with her toiletries and writing supplies. She started the 24,899-mile journey from a port near New York City and traveled by steamship to England. From there, she traveled by train across Europe and Asia, by ocean liner across the Pacific Ocean, and by train from San Francisco back to New York. In total, her journey lasted 72 days, six hours, eleven minutes, and fourteen seconds, setting a new world record for fastest circumnavigation.
Friday, November 15, 2024
Georgia O'Keeffe
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Thursday, November 14, 2024
Ruby Bridges
A Mighty Girl from Facebook Nov. 14, 2016
Claude Monet
Happy birth anniversary to...