On this date in American literary history – September 9, 1910, Alice B. Toklas becomes the lifetime house mate of Gertrude Stein. Stein, who shared a house with her brother Leo for many years, met Toklas in 1907. Toklas began staying with Stein and Leo in Paris in 1909, then moved in permanently in 1910. Stein’s brother Leo moved out in 1914. Toklas’ love and support of Stein was so important that when Stein wrote her autobiography in 1933, she titled it The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, adopting Toklas’ persona as the narrator of her own memoirs. The two women turned their Parisian home at 22 rue de Fleurus into an important artistic and literary salon, where they entertained Picasso, Matisse, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and many others. Stein’s own avant-garde writing attempted to create a Cubist literature that used words like the strokes of a paintbrush.

Stein was born in Pennsylvania in 1879 and traveled around Europe with her parents and four siblings. The family settled in Oakland when she was seven, and she spent much of her childhood raised by a governess. Very attached to her older brother, Leo, she followed him to Harvard and studied psychology with William James. She then followed Leo to Johns Hopkins, where she studied medicine for a year, then gave up. The siblings moved to Paris in 1903. Her best-known works include the novels Three Lives (1909) and The Making of Americans (1925), and Tender Buttons (1914). Stein and Toklas survived the German occupation of Paris during World War II and later befriended many American servicemen in the city. After the success of her opera, Four Saints in Three Acts (1934), Stein launched a successful U.S. lecture tour. Stein is considered one of the most influential thinkers and writers of the 20th century. She died in France in 1946. Her last words, according to Toklas, were, “What is the answer? … In that case, what is the question?”

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of six award winning books that includes the soon to be released America’s Literary Legends: The Lives and Burial Places of 50 Great Writers.

This week (September 8-14) in crime history – Senator Huey Long was shot (September 8, 1935); Boston police department went on strike (September 9, 1919); Serial killing couple Gerald Gallego and Charlene Williams met for the first time (September 10, 1977); Silent film actor Fatty Arbuckle was arrested for murder (September 11, 1921); Tyco International executives were indicted for embezzlement (September 12, 2002); Attica Prison riots ended (September 13, 1971); President William McKinley died from gunshot wounds (September 14, 1901).

Highlighted crime of the week –

On September 8, 1935, U.S. Senator Huey Long was shot in the Louisiana state capitol building. He died about 30 hours later. Called a demagogue by critics, the populist leader was a larger-than-life figure who boasted that he bought legislators “like sacks of potatoes, shuffled them like a deck of cards.” He gave himself the nickname “Kingfish,” saying “I’m a small fish here in Washington. But I’m the Kingfish to the folks down in Louisiana.”

In 1928 Long became the youngest governor of Louisiana at age 34. His brash style alienated many people, including the heads of the biggest corporation in the state, Standard Oil. Long preached the redistribution of wealth, which he believed could be done by heavily taxing the rich. One of his early propositions, which met with much opposition, was an “occupational” tax on oil refineries. Later, Long would develop these theories into the Share Our Wealth society, which promised a $2,500 minimum income per family. Long also abolished the state’s poll tax on voting and gained free textbooks for every student. His motto was “Every Man a King.” His populism led to an impeachment attempt, but he successfully foiled the charges. In 1930, he won the election for Louisiana senator but declined to serve until his handpicked successor was able to win the governor’s seat in 1932.

Soon after vigorously campaigning for Franklin Roosevelt in 1932, Long, with his own designs on the office, began loudly denouncing the new president. In response, many of his allies in the Louisiana legislature turned against him and would no longer vote for his candidates. In an effort to regain power in the state, Long managed to pass a series of laws giving him control over the appointment of every public position in the state, including every policeman and schoolteacher. Long, who was planning to take on Franklin Roosevelt in the next election, was shot by Dr. Carl Weiss at point-blank range outside the main hall of the capitol building. Weiss was corned by Long’s bodyguards and shot to death. Weiss’ motives continue to be debated, but some believe he was angry about rumors Long had spread about the doctor’s in-laws, who had opposed Long politically.

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of numerous books that includes the award winning Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

On this date in American literary history – September 6, 1847, Henry David Thoreau moves in with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family in Concord, Massachusetts, after living for two years in a shack he built himself on Walden Pond. Thoreau graduated from Harvard and started a school with his brother. But in 1839, he decided while on a canoe trip that he wasn’t cut out for teaching. Instead, he decided to devote himself to nature and poetry. Deeply influenced by his friend Emerson’s poetry and essays, Thoreau started a journal and began publishing essays in the Transcendentalist journal The Dial. At age 25, Thoreau left Concord for New York, but detested city life and returned after a year. Two years later, at age 27, he decided to live by Transcendentalist principles, spending time alone with nature and supporting himself with his own work. He built his home and lived off his garden for two years while reading and writing. In 1854, his collection of essays, Walden, or Life in the Woods, was published. During his time at Walden, Thoreau spent a brief time in jail for refusing to pay taxes to support the war with Mexico. He later wrote “Civil Disobedience,” one of his most famous essays, based on the experience. After Thoreau’s time at Walden, he wrote magazine articles and became an avid abolitionist, working to smuggle escaped slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad. He died in 1862. Michael Thomas Barry is the author of numerous award winning books that includes the soon to be released America’s Literary Legends: The Lives and Burial Places of 50 Great Writers.

On this date in American literary history – September 5, 1957, Jack Kerouac’s On the Road was published. The novel chronicles the cross-country wanderings of a Kerouac-like hero, Sal Paradise, and his pal Dean Moriarty, and their free-ranging encounters with drugs, free love, and the budding counterculture. The book, which Kerouac wrote in just three weeks, became an instant classic. Although a credo of the Beat-inspired Hippie movement of the 1960s was “Never trust anyone over 30,” Kerouac was 35 when the book came out. He had long been associated with the Beat movement when On the Road came out, and the novel is filled with characters based on Beat figures like Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs. Kerouac was born in March 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts. The son of French-Canadian parents, he learned English as a second language. In high school, Kerouac was a football star and won a scholarship to Columbia University. In World War II, he served in the Navy but was expelled for severe personality problems. He then became a merchant seaman. In the late 1940s, he wandered the United States and Mexico and wrote his first novel, The Town and the City. His later novels included The Dharma Bums (1958), The Subterraneans (1958), and Lonesome Traveler (1960). Kerouac was a heavy drinker when he died in Florida from an internal hemorrhage, at the age of 47, on October 21, 1969.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of numerous award winning books that includes the soon to be released America’s Literary Legends: The Lives and Burial Places of 50 Great Writers.

September 1, 2014 – Readers Favorite announces that Literary Legends of the British Isles was awarded a gold medal in the historical-nonfiction category. https://readersfavorite.com/2014-award-contest-winners.htm

This week (September 1-7) in crime history: Aaron Burr was acquitted of treason (September 1, 1807); Jean-Paul Akayesu was found guilty of genocide in Rwanda (September 2, 1998); Russian school siege ends in bloody shootout (September 3, 2004); Columbian rebels attack military base (September 4, 1996); Israeli athletes were taken hostage at the Munich Olympics (September 5, 1972); President Gerald Ford survives attempted assassination (September 5, 1975); Drew Peterson was convicted of murdering his 3^rd wife (September 6, 2012); South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd was assassinated (September 6, 1966); President William McKinley was shot (September 6, 1901); Rapper Tupac Shakur was shot (September 7, 1996); Guillame Apollinaire was arrested for stealing the Mona Lisa (September 7, 1911); The James Gang was nearly wiped out in Northfield Minnesota (September 7, 1876).

Highlighted Crime of the Week –

On September 1, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford survives an attempt on his life in Sacramento, California. The assailant, Lynette Fromme, approached the president while he was walking near the California State Capitol and raised a .45 caliber handgun toward him. Before she was able to fire off a shot, Secret Service agents tackled her and wrestled her to the ground. After the assassination attempt, Ford stoically continued on to the Capitol to speak before the California legislature. The main topic of his speech was crime. Seventeen days later, another woman, Sarah Jane Moore, tried to assassinate Ford while he was in San Francisco. Her attempt was thwarted by a bystander who instinctively grabbed Moore’s arm when she raised the gun. Although she fired one shot, it did not find its target.

Lynette Fromme, nicknamed “Squeaky,” was a member of the notorious Charles Manson family. Manson and other members of his “family” were convicted and sentenced to prison for murdering former actress Sharon Tate and others in 1969. Subsequently, Fromme and other female members of the cult started an order of “nuns” within a new group called the International People’s Court of Retribution. This group terrorized corporate executives who headed environmentally destructive businesses. Fromme herself was still so enamored of Manson that she devised the plot to kill President Ford in order to win Manson’s approval.

Fromme was convicted of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in prison in West Virginia. She escaped in 1979, but was caught within 25 miles of the prison. Strangely, Ford’s second would-be assassin, Moore, was imprisoned in the same facility and escaped in 1989. She turned herself in two days later and, like Fromme, was transferred to a higher-security penitentiary. Both women were eventually released on parole.

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemgazine.com and is the author of numerous books that include Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949. The book was named the winner of the 2012 International Book Awards and a finalist in the 2012 National Indie Excellence Book Awards.

On this date in American literary history – August 29, 1962, poet Robert Frost leaves for the Soviet Union. The goodwill tour is sponsored by the U.S. State Department in an effort to thaw Cold War relations. Frost’s poetry has established his international reputation as American’s unofficial poet laureate. While his best work appeared in earlier decades, he is nevertheless seen as an elder statesman of literature. Despite his close association with New England, Robert Frost was born in 1874 in California, where he lived until his father, a journalist, died when Robert was 11. His mother brought him to Massachusetts, where he graduated as co-valedictorian of his high school class. He attended Dartmouth and Harvard, but didn’t complete a degree at either school. Three years after high school, he married his high school sweet heart, Elinor White with whom he would have four children.

Frost tried to run a New England farm, but struggled with poverty for two decades. In 1912, he moved his family to England to make a fresh start. There he concentrated on his poetry and published a collection called A Boy’s Will in 1913, which won praise from English critics and helped him win a U.S. publishing contract for his second book, North of Boston (1914). The American public took a liking to the 40-year-old Frost, who returned to the U.S. when World War I broke out. He bought another farm in New Hampshire and continued to publish books. He taught and lectured at Amherst, University of Michigan, Harvard, and Dartmouth, and read from his work at the 1961 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. While Frost never graduated from a university, he collected 44 honorary degrees before he died in 1963. His last poetry collection, In the Clearing, was published in 1962.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of numerous award winning books that include the soon to be released America’s Literary Legends: The Lives and Burial Places of 50 Great Writers.

On this date in American literary history – August 27, 1871, Theodore Dreiser, whose book Sister Carrie helped change the direction of American literature, was born in Terre Haute, Indiana. Starting in his early teens, Dreiser supported himself through menial jobs. A sympathetic teacher helped him get into Indiana University, but he stayed only one year. In 1892, he began working as a journalist for the Chicago Globe. He continued working in journalism while writing his first novel, Sister Carrie, which was published in 1900. The novel was a major break from the Victorian propriety of the time, and the printer refused to promote the book. Fewer than 500 copies were sold. The book was rereleased in 1907 and gradually grew in popularity. Dreiser then began to write full time and published several more novels between 1911 and 1915, including Jennie Gerhardt (1911), The Financier (1912), and The Titan (1914). In 1925, his novel An American Tragedy became his most commercial success. Based on a famous murder trial, the book criticized the U.S. legal system, and Dreiser became a spokesman for its reform. In 1927, he visited the Soviet Union and published Dreiser Looks at Russia in 1928 and became associated with radical politics and the Communist Party during the 1930s. He focused on political writing until his death on December 28, 1945 in Hollywood, California.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of numerous award winning books that include the soon to be released America’s Literary Legends: The Lives and Burial Places of 50 Great Writers.

August 26, 2014 – Wattpad begins serial feature on “Literary Legends of the British Isles.” A new story will be added every Friday. Click link to join – http://www.wattpad.com/60284234-literary-legends-of-the-british-isles-irish

On this day in American literary history – August 26, 1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson was first introduced to influential British writer Thomas Carlyle, with whom he would correspond for nearly four decades. Carlyle and the writing of the English romantic poets would have a great influence on Emerson’s work. He was born on May 25, 1803 in Boston and came from a long line of American ministers. He enjoyed a sheltered childhood and attended Harvard Divinity School. Although he accepted a position as pastor of a Boston Church in 1829, the death of his wife in 1831 deepened his existing religious doubts. He resigned two years later, explaining to his congregation that he had started to doubt the sacraments.

He moved to Concord, then set off for Europe where he met leading writers and thinkers of the day. During a visit to a Paris botanical garden, he decided to become a “naturalist.” In 1836, he published an anonymous booklet called Nature, which questioned traditional concepts of God and environment. Influenced by Hindu texts and English Romanticism, he argued that man can rise above the material world and discover a sense of transcendent spirituality. Nature defined the philosophy that would inform his future essays, lectures and poetry. He championed individual spirit, instinct and intellect over traditional religion, education and thought.

In the 1840s, he joined the Transcendentalist movement, and founded The Dial, with Margaret Fuller. His two volumes of essays, published in 1841 and 1844, including “Self Reliance,” made him world famous. His 1847 poetry collection, May-Day and Other Pieces included “Concord Hymn,” about the battle of Concord which included the famous line “the shot heard round the world.” In Representative Men (1850), he wrote sketches of his role models including Napoleon and Shakespeare. Emerson’s later work became less idealistic and more pragmatic. In The Conduct of Life, considered by some critics to be his most mature work, he takes a compassionate, philosophic approach to human frailty. He died in Concord on April 27, 1882, at the age of 78 and was buried on Poets Ridge within Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, near other famous writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau.

Michael Thomas Barry is the award winning author of numerous books that include the soon to be released America’s Literary Legends: The Lives and Burial Places of 50 Great Writers.