Whittier College English Department

Happy 209th Birthday to Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862), American author, philosopher-poet, abolitionist, social critic, and leading figure in the Transcendentalist movement of the middle nineteenth century.

Thoreau is best known for his essay Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience) (1849), wherein he argues for peaceful resistance in opposition to a morally corrupt, unjust state; and his book Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854), an account of his attempt to live a simple life at Walden Pond in contradistinction to a harried life of conformity and complacency in an increasingly industrialized and urban United States.

Thoreau wrote copiously and widely, and he influenced diverse fields, including history, science, philosophy, and comparative religious studies. However, his most lasting and profound impacts can arguably be traced back to the ideas about personal freedom, simplicity, non-conformity, and social responsibility expressed in the aforementioned works; as Thoreau admirer and Walden scholar Ken Kifer has written, "Thoreau's careful observations and devastating conclusions have rippled into time ... Events that seem to be completely unrelated to his stay at Walden Pond have been influenced by it, including the national park system, the British labor movement, the creation of India, the civil rights movement, the hippie revolution, the environmental movement, and the wilderness movement."

For an excellent account of Thoreau's life and work, see this hour-long lecture by Join Laura Dassow Walls, author of Henry David Thoreau: A Life, presented at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City on July 26, 2017: https://youtu.be/kOlrKRjT1Vg ... and if you have access to PBS, check out the three-part documentary about Thoreau that aired earlier this year. You can see an 8-minute introduction/preview here: https://youtu.be/pwoKwdXHDMo?si=fWpeHWQTvutPFJSg

Today we celebrate the birthday of English novelist, journalist, and essayist Eric Arthur Blair (June 25, 1903 – January 21, 1950), known best by his pen name George Orwell. Orwell is most famous for his dystopian novel 1984 (1949) and allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945), but also for his literary non-fiction works like Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)—a memoir of his experiences living in poverty in the two capitals in the early 1930s—and Homage to Catalonia (1938)—a memoir of his experiences fighting for the Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (i.e., the “Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification”) during the Spanish Civil War—as well as for his essays on culture and politics.

As Wikipedia notes, Orwell’s work “is marked by clarity, intelligence and wit, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and commitment to democratic socialism.” It is no doubt for these reasons (as well as the ways in which he has entered the English lexicon via words like “Orwellian,” “Big Brother,” and “Cold War”) that in 2008 the Times of London ranked Orwell second on a list of the fifty greatest British writers since 1945.

For an absolutely first-rate account of George Orwell’s life and work, see George Orwell: A Life in Pictures (2003), starring Chris Langham as Orwell and online in its entirety here: https://youtu.be/s6txpumkY5I

Tony on Nepalese TV. Enjoy!

In conversation with TONY BARNSTONE and RAVI SHANKHAR || AGRIM ADHIKARI Kathmandu during the Himalayan Literature Festival carried more tha...

Happy 100th Birthday to Allen Ginsberg (June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997), American poet and leading Beat Generation figure best known for "Howl" (1955), the focus of a 1957 obscenity trial that resulted in City Lights Publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti winning the case when Judge Clayton Horn decided the epic poem was of "redeeming social importance." As an openly gay writer whose work treated q***r desire as part of public, literary, and political life, Ginsberg also became an important figure in the longer struggle against sexual repression and for gay liberation.

Today "Howl" is recognized as a classic Beat poem and widely regarded as one of the greatest works of twentieth century American literature. Especially if you've never heard or read the poem, there are worse ways to commemorate Ginsberg's birthday; you can listen to the poet reading "Howl" in 1959, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkNp56UZax4

Check out this amazing musical by Whittier English grad Daisy Villegas!

Reply to “Opening Night: Chameleon A New Musical” Open the invitation to see details and reply.