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  The Poetry of Damon Runyon - We...

  Damon Runyon

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  Alfred Damon Runyan was born on 4th October 1880, in Manhattan, Kansas.  
   
  When Runyon was two his father was forced to sell his newspaper and the family moved eventually settling in Pueblo, Colorado where Runyon spent his youth.  
   
  By most accounts, he attended school only through the fourth grade and then worked for his father in the newspaper trade.  
   
  In 1898 Runyon enlisted in the U.S. Army to fight in the Spanish–American War. After his service he returned to Colorado and worked for the local newspapers.  
   
  By 1910 he had moved to New York to work for Hearst newspapers, writing a daily column.  He was soon promoted to be the Hearst newspapers' baseball columnist and developed his trademark viewpoint of writing up the eccentric and the unusual, whether on the field or in the stands. 
   
  But Runyon also wrote poetry, plays, essays and, of course, his short stories with his famous ‘Runyonesque’ characters who were funny, gritty and instantly memorable, all distilled into black and white type. 
   
  Of course, the cliché about newspapermen and writers is that they are heavy drinkers, chain-smokers, gamblers and obsessively chase women with a sideline in gathering info and only getting something written just before the deadline hits.  And that, pretty much, was Runyon’s life. 
   
  In 1938 he developed throat cancer which would leave him unable to speak but he continued to work at a ferocious pace, pursuing a Hollywood career as writer and producer at MGM, Universal and RKO studios. 
   
  Alfred Damon Runyon died in New York City on 10th December 1946 from throat cancer.  He was 66. 
   
  His ashes were scattered from a plane over Broadway.   
   
  In his early short Story ‘The Defense of Strikerville’ Runyon takes up the cause of workers’ rights as it comes up against the nasty tactics of big-dog capitalism.  
   
  Runyon’s poems brilliantly illustrate his style and ideas with works that are individual, observational, heavy on the vernacular and bring a rarely seen poetic talent to our attention.  
   
  1 - The Poetry of Damon Runyon - An Introduction 
  2 - The Song of the Strike-Breakers by Damon Runyon 
  3 - Song of the Steel Worker by Damon Runyon 
  4 - The Song of the Bullet by Damon Runyon 
  5 - A Song of the Panama Canal by Damon Runyon 
  6 - A Song of the Rails by Damon Runyon 
  7 - The Song of King Barleycorn 
  8 - The King of Moo by Damon Runyon 
  9 - The Song of Silence by Damon Runyon 
  10 - Song O' the Lost Trains by Damon Runyon 
  11 - The Song of the Saddle by Damon Runyon 
  12 - The Ghosts of the Great White Way by Damon Runyon 
  13 - The Softest Town by Damon Runyon 
  14 - The Ballad of the Big Town by Damon Runyon 
  15 - Ballads of a Beach Comber by Damon Runyon 
  16 - When the Ships Go Home by Damon Runyon 
  17 - Dream of a Drowsy Day by Damon Runyon 
  18 - Ballad of Hop Looey 
  19 - The Ladies in the Trenches - a Solider Song of the Sulu Isles by Damon Runyon 
  20 - Nostalgia by Damon Runyon 
  21 - A Divorce Problem by Damon Runyon 
  22 - The Boy She Used to Know by Damon Runyon 
  23 - Roses of a Dream by Damon Runyon 
  24 - Homeward Bound by Damon Runyon 
  25 - The Spirit of You by Damon Runyon 
  26 - Ghosts by Damon Runyon 
  27 - Ballad of Lonely Graves by Damon Runyon 
  28 - Pal, Algeria 1910 by Damon Runyon 
  29 - Requiem by Damon Runyon

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  The Frozen Earth & Other Poems -...

  Winifred Holtby

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  Winifred Holtby was born on 23rd June 1898 to a prosperous farming family in the village of Rudston in Yorkshire.  
   
  A governess provided her early education before she went to Queen Margaret's School in Scarborough.  After passing the entrance exam for Somerville College, Oxford in 1917, she decided to join the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in early 1918.  However, soon after her arrival in France, the War ended. 
   
  She returned to study at Oxford and met fellow student Vera Brittain.  After graduating from Oxford, in 1921, Winifred and Vera moved to London, hoping to establish themselves as authors. 
   
  Her early novels met with only moderate success but as a journalist she was both prolific and increasingly well-known.  Her articles graced more than 20 newspapers and magazines, including the Manchester Guardian newspaper.   
   
  Winifred was a committed feminist, socialist and pacifist.  She gave many lectures for the League of Nations Union.  She was also active in the Independent Labour Party and was a campaigner for the unionisation of black workers in South Africa. 
   
  In 1931 the symptoms of high blood pressure, recurrent headaches and bouts of lassitude brought forth a diagnosis of Bright's disease.  She was given two years to live and now put all her efforts into what was to become her crowning achievement: South Riding.  Released posthumously it received lavish praise and enormous sales.  Her canon of works tackle difficult subjects head on, many in unusual ways, brimming with verve and usually strong female protagonists. 
   
  Winifred Holtby died on 29th September 1935 in London.  She was 37. 
  01 - The Frozen Earth & Other Poems by Winifred Holtby - An Introduction 
  02 - The Frozen Earth by Winifred Holtby ''Edwards's Funeral March'' 
  03 - Two Early Poems (No Mourning by Request & The Debt) by Winifred Holtby 
  04 - The Foolish Clocks by Winifred Holtby 
  05 - Prayer by Winifred Holtby 
  06 - Hills in the Transvaal by Winifred Holtby 
  07 - The Grudging Ghost by Winifred Holtby 
  08 - Trains in France by Winifred Holtby 
  09 - The Frozen Earth Symphony by Winifred Holtby - The Dead Musician 
  10 - For the Ghost of Elinor Wylie by Winifred Holtby 
  11 - House on Fire by Winifred Holtby 
  12 - Happy Ending by Winifred Holtby

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  Oh! Where do the Fairies Hide...

  Thomas Haynes Bayly

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  Librivox volunteers bring you 12 readings of Oh! Where Do the Fairies Hide Their heads by Thomas Haynes Bayly. Oh! Where do the fairies hide their heads,When snow lies on the hills,When frost has spoiled their mossy beds,And crystallized their Rills?Beneath the moon they cannot tripIn circles o’er the plain;And draughts of dew they cannot sip,Till green leaves come again.This was the weekly poetry project for February 15, 2015.

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  The Fireside Poets - A...

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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  This group of 19th Century American poets was the first to rival their British counterparts in popularity. 
   
  Gathered around their New England roots they were also known as the Schoolroom or Household poets,  and comprised of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, John Greenleaf Whittier, James Russell Lowell and Olivier Wendell Holmes Senior. Occasionally Ralph Waldo Emerson was included although his poetic philosophy differed in some key aspects.   
   
  Each of these poets lived long and productive lives ensuring the longevity of the movement into the early 20th century. Their activities in the academic world, newspapers, the diplomatic service and lecture tours ensured they were constantly in the public eye.   
   
  Their essential discipline was focused on domestic themes and morality. At the time one of the primary sources of entertainment for the family was to be gathered around the fireplace whilst poems were read. 
   
  The Fireside Poets did not write for the sake of other poets or critics or for posterity. Instead they wrote for a contemporary audience of general readers.  They were mass communicators. Today the Fireside Poets, along with the equivalent British poets of Victorian times, is still regarded as essential verse.

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  Smilin' Through - Hollywood Stage

  Hollywood Stage Productions

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  Hollywood is indelibly printed in our minds as the ‘go-to’ place for entertainment and has been for decades.  When there really did seem to be more stars in Hollywood than in Heaven Hollywood Stage had them performing films as radio plays – on the sponsors dime of course.  Classic films now become audiobooks with many featuring the original stars from way back when. Here's Smilin' Through starring Jeanette MacDonald & Gene Raymond.

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  The Small Things (NHB Modern Plays)

  Enda Walsh

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  A fierce and devastating fable about enforced silence - commissioned and premiered by Paines Plough, one of Britain's leading new-writing companies, to open their This Other England season at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London.
  Two houses, each perched on a mountain top, stare at each other across a deep valley. A man and a woman talk about the small things - parquet floor zigzagging down corridors, the memory of mother's breasts, brown sauce and soggy chips. But these minutiae disguise a bigger story of brutality and unfaltering loyalty which emerges horrifically through the chit chat.
  'Walsh once again proves himself an inspired wordsmith' - Daily Telegraph
  'Walsh's beautiful, terrible play... is a small play about the big things and the writing is harrowingly precise and poetic' - Guardian

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