Blind Horse Books

 TODAY IN LITERARY HISTORY: October 17 Birthday of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller. After World War II, American theater began to change dramatically—and much of that shift came from playwright Arthur Miller. Having lived through the Depression and the war, Miller gave voice to the unease many Americans felt in the late 1940s and ’50s. His plays—All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and A View from the Bridge—offered a tough look at morality, ambition, and what it meant to succeed in postwar America. Miller became as famous offstage as on. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, faced the House Un-American Activities Committee, and married movie icon Marilyn Monroe. They first met in 1951, married in 1956 after Miller left his first wife, and collaborated on The Misfits (1961), which he wrote for her. Sadly, the marriage fell apart during filming; Monroe died the following year. The Misfits was unlucky for others, too—Clark Gable suffered a fatal heart attack...

  William Tyndale was born about 1490, at North Nibley, Gloucestershire, and was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford.  He planned to begin his studies in theology, when he discovered that the study of scripture was not included in the Oxford syllabus. He became convinced that the church was covering up the truth, and that people had the right to know what was contained in scripture, and that it should be translated into English. Tyndale was burned at the stake at Vilvoorde, Belgium, on 6th October 1536. At the time of his death, several thousand copies of his New Testament had been printed, but only one intact copy survives at the British Library, London. In 1525, he published an English version of the New Testament at Cologne, but the church establishment had it suppressed. An edition printed at Worms had more success and hundreds of copies were smuggled into England and Scotland.  His translation introduced numerous new words and expressions into the English language. Exa...

  Ever wonder what happens when a novelist juggles multiple alter egos, languages, and a sharp sense of humor? That was Brian O'Nolan, the Irish writer we remember today on his birthday. O'Nolan is a cornerstone of postmodern literature. Writing under the pen name Flann O'Brien, he gave us English-language novels like At Swim-Two-Birds and The Third Policeman, both celebrated for their bizarre humor and playful, mind-bending narratives. Under the name Myles na gCopaleen, he penned satirical columns for The Irish Times and even an Irish-language novel, An Béal Bocht. Influenced by James Joyce, O'Nolan nonetheless poked fun at the literary giant’s cult-like reputation, famously declaring, "I declare to God if I hear that name Joyce one more time I will surely froth at the gob." Fun fact: his work inspired the likes of Salman Rushdie and continues to enchant readers who love metafiction with a mischievous twist. Building Your Great Collection, One Fine Book at a ...