Thought of the Day is where you’ll find my little snippets of daily knowledge, historical happenings and newsworthy notes; plus of course the inevitable ‘too good not to add them’ quotes.
I’ve linked them to literary quotes and the books or authors they came from. There’s no rhyme nor reason to them, if it catches my eye then it’s likely to be here, and if you know of an upcoming important happening, or historical even that we should feature on our literary calendar, let us know at;
“The sweetness of love is short-lived, but the pain endures.”
c. 1415-18 – 14 March 1471
Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author or compiler of Le Morte d’Arthur. Since the late nineteenth century, he has generally been identified as Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel in Warwickshire, a knight, land-owner, and Member of Parliament. Occasionally, other candidates are put forward for authorship of Le Morte d’Arthur, but the supporting evidence for their claim has been described as “no more than circumstantial”
“I don’t think I’d like it if people liked me, I’d think that something had gone wrong.”
July 17, 1914 – March 13, 2009
James Otis Purdy was a controversial American novelist, short-story writer, poet, and playwright who, since his debut in 1956, published over a dozen novels, and many collections of poetry, short stories, and plays.
“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969
Jack Kerouac was an American novelist, poet and a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Recognised for his method of spontaneous prose his literary works covered topics such as Catholic spirituality, jazz, promiscuity, Buddhism, drugs, poverty, and travel.
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001
Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer, humorist, and dramatist. Adams is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which originated in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a “trilogy” of five books that sold more than 15 million copies in his lifetime and generated a television series, several stage plays, comics, a computer game, and in 2005 a feature film.
Buy The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy US
Buy The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy UK
“Everything you’ve ever believed is probably a lie.”
February 14, 1933 – March 10, 1994
Robert Joseph Shea was an American novelist and former journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy Illuminatus!. It became a cult success and was later turned into a marathon-length stage show put on at the British National Theatre and elsewhere. In 1986 it won the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. Shea went on to write several action novels based in exotic historical settings.
Buy The Illuminatus! Trilogy US
Buy The Illuminatus! Trilogy UK
“The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.”
March 9, 1918 – July 17, 2006
Frank Morrison Spillane, better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American crime novelist, many featuring his signature detective character, Mike Hammer. More than 225 million copies of his books have sold internationally. Spillane was also an occasional actor, once even playing Hammer himself
Buy The Mike Hammer Collection: Volume I US
Buy The Mike Hammer Collection: Volume I UK
““For the Earth itself is a blossom, she says,
on the star tree,
pale with luminous
ocean leaves.” ”
8 March 1907 – 20 February 1994
Rolf Jacobsen could be said to be the first modernist writer in Norway. Jacobsen’s career as a writer spanned more than fifty years. He is one of Scandinavia’s most distinguished poets, who launched poetic modernism in Norway with his first book, Jord og jern (Earth and Iron) in 1933. Jacobsen’s work has been translated into over twenty languages. The central theme in his work is the balance between nature and technology – he was called “the Green Poet” in Norwegian literature.
“Life is like a typographical error: we’re constantly writing and rewriting things over each other.”
born March 7, 1964
Bret Easton Ellis is an American novelist, screenwriter, and short story writer. He was at first regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack, which also included Tama Janowitz and Jay McInerney. He is a self-proclaimed satirist, whose trademark technique, as a writer, is the expression of extreme acts and opinions in an affectless style.
“It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.”
6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo or Gabito throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century and one of the best in the Spanish language, he was awarded the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature
Buy One Hundred Years of Solitude US
Buy One Hundred Years of Solitude UK
“Home is people. Not a place. If you go back there after the people are gone, then all you can see is what is not there any more.”
born March 5, 1952
Robin Hobb is a pseudonym of Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, an American writer. She is best known for the books set in the Realm of the Elderlings, which started in 1995 with the publication of Assassin’s Apprentice, the first book in the Farseer trilogy.
“Children aren’t colouring books. You don’t get to fill them with your favourite colours.”
born March 4, 1965
Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan-born American novelist and physician. After graduating from college, he worked as a doctor in California, an occupation that he likened to “an arranged marriage”. He has published three novels, most notably his 2003 debut The Kite Runner, all of which are at least partially set in Afghanistan and feature an Afghan as the protagonist. Following the success of The Kite Runner he retired from medicine to write full-time
“The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet.”
3 March 1878 – 9 April 1917
Philip Edward Thomas was a British poet, essayist, and novelist. He is commonly considered a war poet, although few of his poems deal directly with his war experiences, and his career in poetry only came after he had already been a successful writer and literary critic. In 1915, he enlisted in the British Army to fight in the First World War and was killed in action during the Battle of Arras in 1917, soon after he arrived in France.
“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”
March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991
Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer and illustrator best known for authoring popular children’s books under the pen name Dr. Seuss. His work includes several of the most popular children’s books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.
Buy Oh, The Places You’ll Go! US
Buy Oh, The Places You’ll Go! UK
“One cannot be kind in any meaningful way over any length of time without also being good.”
born March 1, 1952
Nevada Barr is an American author best known for her Anna Pigeon series of mystery novels set in national parks in the United States.
