{"id":10791,"date":"2010-08-04T10:40:35","date_gmt":"2010-08-04T17:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=10791"},"modified":"2010-08-04T10:40:35","modified_gmt":"2010-08-04T17:40:35","slug":"a-bit-of-literary-history-on-my-bookshelves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=10791","title":{"rendered":"A Bit of Literary History on my Bookshelves"},"content":{"rendered":"

So this is kind of cool. I have been entering my books into Sente<\/a>, a really fine bibliography software package if you’re on a Mac, and I came across these two books of poetry that I took from my grandmother’s library, Cups of Illusion <\/em>and The Upward Pass,<\/em> both by Henry Bellamann<\/a>, best known for the novel King’s Row,<\/em> which he published in 1940 and which was made into a movie<\/a> in 1942. Anyway, what drew my attention was the fact that Bellamann inscribed the books of poetry to my grandmother, calling her his “dear little friend” in Cups of Illusion<\/em> and “good friend” in The Upward Pass. <\/em>My grandmother once hinted to me that there was a story <\/em>from the time she was a girl about her and a writer–though she never actually told me the story; she tended to be very secretive about her past–and now, of course, I am wondering what that story might be. In 1928, the year Bellamann inscribed The Upward Pass,<\/em> he also published Crescendo,<\/em> about a man in love with two women. I somehow doubt that was the story my grandmother never told me, that she was one of the women in the novel, but it is fun to think about.<\/p>\n

Not much else to say about this. Just that I think it’s kind of cool. Here is a poem from Cups of Illusion<\/em> that I opened to at random:<\/p>\n

August Gardens<\/strong><\/p>\n

Falling petals and dusty leaves
\nAnd drooping flower heads
\nBeneath unpitying skies
\nUnpromising of cloud or change–
\nYet some faint life still moves
\nIn your pale veins;
\nSome dumb, unknowing courage
\nMeets each day’s mocking sun.<\/p>\n

How you keep faith with wind and rain!<\/p>\n

I watch you in your silence,
\nTouch your curled tendrils,
\nWhile my eyes
\nSearch Heaven for promise
\nOr for change.<\/p>\n

Can you know in your dim nerves
\nThe touch of one who waits like you
\nAnd still keeps faith with God
\nAs you keep faith with wind and rain?<\/p>\n

And here is one from The Upward Pass:<\/em><\/p>\n

The Gulf Stream<\/strong><\/p>\n

They say a tropic river threads the seas
\nBearing the strangest things to northern lands:
\nVermilion fish, like flowers, with silver bands,
\nAnd bronze seaweed from scarlet coral keys.
\nGreen birds that mock the moon from tall palm trees
\nWhere ghost-gray monkeys hang by cunning hands,
\nFollow the thinning blue to northern sands,
\nAnd there among the black pines scream and freeze.<\/p>\n

The while this ardent current chills and fades,
\nSplendors of ice drift slowly south, each one
\nA frozen torch of borealic fire,
\nEach one a spectral ship with rainbow sails,
\nSinking and fading as it nears the sun
\nIn this relentless river of desire.<\/p>\n

Cross-posted on It’s All Connected<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So this is kind of cool. I have been entering my books into Sente, a really fine bibliography software package if you’re on a Mac, and I came across these two books of poetry that I took from my grandmother’s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}