Judi’s Reviews > A Reader's Book of Days: True Tales from the Lives and Works of Writers for Every Day of the Year > Status Update
Judi
is on page 170 of 448
May 31
1889 ... and the success of his absorbing account of the disaster—the deadliest in American history to that point—and the scandalous negligence of the wealthy Pittsburgh resort owners that caused it gave him the courage to set out as a full-time writer of history. Not wanting to become "Bad News McCullough," though, he declined immediate offers to write about the Chicago fire and the San Francisco earthquake.
— 3 hours, 46 min ago
1889 ... and the success of his absorbing account of the disaster—the deadliest in American history to that point—and the scandalous negligence of the wealthy Pittsburgh resort owners that caused it gave him the courage to set out as a full-time writer of history. Not wanting to become "Bad News McCullough," though, he declined immediate offers to write about the Chicago fire and the San Francisco earthquake.
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Judi’s Previous Updates
Judi
is on page 169 of 448
May 30
1961 ... Africa, the fukú thrived through the generations as a contagion of calamity and injustice, and when JFK okayed the assassination of the murderously ferocious Trujillo, the Curse of the New World became the Curse of the Kennedys, or so Junot Diaz suggests in the dread-soaked overture to The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Was, a novel he offers as a sort of counter spell to his island's legacy of doom.
— May 31, 2026 07:45AM
1961 ... Africa, the fukú thrived through the generations as a contagion of calamity and injustice, and when JFK okayed the assassination of the murderously ferocious Trujillo, the Curse of the New World became the Curse of the Kennedys, or so Junot Diaz suggests in the dread-soaked overture to The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Was, a novel he offers as a sort of counter spell to his island's legacy of doom.
Judi
is on page 168 of 448
May 29
1895 ... he pleaded ill health and requested a better one; the chief librarian replied, "If he was so weak that he was unable to endure five hours of work every other day, he was wrong to apply." Proust made just a few appearances in the library before being granted a series of sick leaves that lasted until 1900, after which no more pretence was made that he would have any career other that a literary one.
— May 30, 2026 03:44PM
1895 ... he pleaded ill health and requested a better one; the chief librarian replied, "If he was so weak that he was unable to endure five hours of work every other day, he was wrong to apply." Proust made just a few appearances in the library before being granted a series of sick leaves that lasted until 1900, after which no more pretence was made that he would have any career other that a literary one.
Judi
is on page 167 of 448
May 28
1948 ...Gilbert sailed on the Empire Windrush for England, funded by the prudent savings Hortense had offered along with her hand. Six months later, in Andrea Levy's Small Island, Hortense too left their island of Jamaica to join him on the larger one of Great Britain in an immigrants' alliance in which their disappointment at what why find in their idealized England is leavened by their ability to adapt.
— May 30, 2026 06:14AM
1948 ...Gilbert sailed on the Empire Windrush for England, funded by the prudent savings Hortense had offered along with her hand. Six months later, in Andrea Levy's Small Island, Hortense too left their island of Jamaica to join him on the larger one of Great Britain in an immigrants' alliance in which their disappointment at what why find in their idealized England is leavened by their ability to adapt.
Judi
is on page 166 of 448
May 27
1963 After a series of profiles of Malcolm X, including a prominent interview in Playboy, Alex Haley, despite his mainstream career and integrationist politics, and gained enough of the trust of the Nation of Islam's fie4y spokesman that Malcolm agreed to collaborate with him on a book. On this day they agreed to split the proceeds of what became The Autobiography of Malcolm X equally, with Malcolm ...
— May 29, 2026 06:50AM
1963 After a series of profiles of Malcolm X, including a prominent interview in Playboy, Alex Haley, despite his mainstream career and integrationist politics, and gained enough of the trust of the Nation of Islam's fie4y spokesman that Malcolm agreed to collaborate with him on a book. On this day they agreed to split the proceeds of what became The Autobiography of Malcolm X equally, with Malcolm ...
Judi
is on page 165 of 448
May 26 1911 ...and the appearance of being pampered. Mann too once arrived in Venice (on this day) and saw a beautiful boy, who has since been traced to Wladyslaw Moss, ten at the time (Mann was only thirty-five then, not the fifty-plus of Aschenbach) and who can be seen in a photograph on the beach in Gilbert Adair's The Real Tadzio, his delicate features almost obscured by the gigantic bow of his beach costume.
— May 28, 2026 06:35AM
Judi
is on page 164 of 448
May 25
1910 The best-known note James sent to another of his notable students, Gertrude Stein—the one that said, "Dear Miss Stein—I understand perfectly how you feel," excusing her from the philosophy final she had abandoned in favor of a nice print day and giving her the top grade in the class—may have been apocryphal, but the great pragmatist did write to her on this day, just months before he died. He had ...
— May 27, 2026 04:57PM
1910 The best-known note James sent to another of his notable students, Gertrude Stein—the one that said, "Dear Miss Stein—I understand perfectly how you feel," excusing her from the philosophy final she had abandoned in favor of a nice print day and giving her the top grade in the class—may have been apocryphal, but the great pragmatist did write to her on this day, just months before he died. He had ...
Judi
is on page 163 of 448
May 24
1945 ... he wrote—first on a sheet of toilet paper in his cage and then on a typewriter he was granted as a privilege—what became known as the Pisan Cantos, ten new sections in his ongoing poetic project that reflect on his imprisonment and the lost poetic friends of his past and that contain some of his most lyrical passages, particularly the promise that "What thou lovest well remains, / the rest is dross."
— May 25, 2026 07:14AM
1945 ... he wrote—first on a sheet of toilet paper in his cage and then on a typewriter he was granted as a privilege—what became known as the Pisan Cantos, ten new sections in his ongoing poetic project that reflect on his imprisonment and the lost poetic friends of his past and that contain some of his most lyrical passages, particularly the promise that "What thou lovest well remains, / the rest is dross."
Judi
is on page 162 of 448
May 23
1980 ...Hugo in New York, and Pole in Los Angeles. (When she died, the New York Times listed Hugo as her husband in her obituary, while the Los Angeles Times listed Pole.) Both men, of course, had accommodated other lovers of hers at times—Henry Miller not the least of them—and when Hugo died a few yers after their belated meeting, it was Pole who, at Hugo's request, scattered his ashes in Santa Monica Bay.
— May 25, 2026 06:42AM
1980 ...Hugo in New York, and Pole in Los Angeles. (When she died, the New York Times listed Hugo as her husband in her obituary, while the Los Angeles Times listed Pole.) Both men, of course, had accommodated other lovers of hers at times—Henry Miller not the least of them—and when Hugo died a few yers after their belated meeting, it was Pole who, at Hugo's request, scattered his ashes in Santa Monica Bay.
Judi
is on page 161 of 448
May 22
...countries by war, the letters begin with Emily's wariness at the early signs that some Canadians think the Japanese families among them are enemies and end abruptly when the family packs to leave their home on this day for a tiny abandoned town in the interior, the first step in an odyssey of exclusion that lasts well beyond the war in Joy Kogawa's novel Obasan, based in part on her own family's history.
— May 24, 2026 06:34AM
...countries by war, the letters begin with Emily's wariness at the early signs that some Canadians think the Japanese families among them are enemies and end abruptly when the family packs to leave their home on this day for a tiny abandoned town in the interior, the first step in an odyssey of exclusion that lasts well beyond the war in Joy Kogawa's novel Obasan, based in part on her own family's history.
Judi
is on page 160 of 448
May 21
1813....Of the battle, in which over 200,000 soldiers clashed and 20,000 were lost, he wrote, "We see quite well, from noon to three o'clock, everything that can be seen of a battle, which is to say, nothing," a vision he doubtless recalled when, writing under his pen name of Stendhal two decades later, he described the chaos of Waterloo in the early pages of The Charterhouse of Parma.
— May 22, 2026 10:18AM
1813....Of the battle, in which over 200,000 soldiers clashed and 20,000 were lost, he wrote, "We see quite well, from noon to three o'clock, everything that can be seen of a battle, which is to say, nothing," a vision he doubtless recalled when, writing under his pen name of Stendhal two decades later, he described the chaos of Waterloo in the early pages of The Charterhouse of Parma.
