Lillian Ross, who became known as the consummate fly-on-the-wall reporter in more than six decades at The New Yorker, whether writing about Ernest Hemingway, Hollywood or a busload of Indiana high school seniors on a class trip to New York. Ms. Ross preached unobtrusive reporting and practiced what she preached. She outlined her credo in the preface to her book “Reporting” (1964): “Your attention at all times should be on your subject, not on you. Do not call attention to yourself.” And true to form, on assignment, Ms. Ross asked very few questions and never used tape recorders but filled…
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“We have an entire sky within us, our fiery strength and heavenly origin: Luna, which symbolizes the continuous motion of soul and body, Mars speed and Saturn slowness, the Sun God, Jupiter law, Mercury reason, and Venus humanity.” – Marsilio Ficino, letter to Lorenzo the Magnificent on the sacred seven planets.
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It is with a sad heart we post that Bill Roche, a former Administrator of the Sabian Assembly, has reposed. He was a wonderful man, a kind spirit and gifted author though the book he co-authored with Stanley Carnarius, has been out of print so long that I have forgotten, unfortunately, it’s title. When we get word of the official obituary we will of course post it. Our header picture is the last time I saw Bill on 1 August 2017. He was discussing his hobby of woodworking and had brought along a sample Shillelagh. He was very proud of…
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A new book has come out on the Lizzie Borden trial. We have reprinted it below for those interested in the case. Our header image is a newspaper collage of the character illustrations from the trial over 100 years ago.
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Mary Margaret McBride was born to a Missouri farming family in 1899. Her earliest education was “disorganized” because the family often relocated, but she entered a preparatory academy at six and at 16 entered the University of Missouri; she earned her journalism degree by the age of 19. Having reasonable success as a “girl journalist” with the Cleveland Press, she moved on to the larger New York Evening Mail (1867 – 1924) & did quite well contributing freelance pieces to periodicals. With the Depression, hundreds of writers found themselves unemployed, and McBride was among them. She was now in her…
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Sir Richard Francis Burton is renowned for the being the first European to penetrate Arabian culture in the 19th century so thoroughly that he was able to write sixteen volumes of their stories and folktales in The Arabian Nights. His books are here on Gutenberg.org. Click here to download sir-Richard-burton’s chart
