Blind Horse Books

  Johanna Louise Spyri was a Swiss-born author of novels and best known for her children's stories and is best known for her book Heidi. Today her works - apart from the famous Heidi story - find probably more interest among historians trying to understand society in the 19th century than among people interested in literature. Johanna Spyri took a special interest in the situation of children and young women. In 19th Europe children were regarded, treated (and disciplined!) as small, imperfect adults. From 1871 to 1901, Johanna Spyri published 27 books and 4 booklets containing a total of 48 stories and novels. All things considered, Johanna Spyri had a rather critical view on Switzerland's society in the late 19th century. It was quite revolutionary when Johanna Spyri took sides with the children as having their own world and their own needs differing widely from the world of adults. Born in the rural area of Hirzel, Switzerland, as a child she spent several summers in the are...

  Today In Literary History: The Birth of Edward Bulwer Lytton “It was a dark and stormy night”  …..Well maybe not but Edward Bulwer-Lytton was born this day and he first wrote the phrase. He coined the phrases "the great unwashed", "pursuit of the almighty dollar", "the pen is mightier than the sword", "dweller on the threshold", as well as the well-known opening line "It was a dark and stormy night". Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton PC (1803 –1873), was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was immensely popular with the reading public and wrote a stream of bestselling novels which earned him a considerable fortune. Bulwer-Lytton's literary career began in 1820, with the publication of a book of poems, and spanned much of the nineteenth century. He wrote in a variety of genres, including historical fiction, mystery, romance, the occult, and science fiction. He financed his extravagant ...

  Owing to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. He is renowned for his multi-faceted characters; even his lesser characters are complex, morally ambiguous and fully human. Inanimate objects are imbued with character as well; the city of Paris, a backdrop for much of his writing, takes on many human qualities. His writing influenced many famous writers, including the novelists Émile Zola, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Jack Kerouac, and Henry James, filmmakers Akira Kurosawa and Eric Rohmer as well as important philosophers such as Friedrich Engels. Many of Balzac's works have been made into films, and they continue to inspire other writers. Honoré de Balzac (20 May 1799 –1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Comédie Humaine, which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus. ...

  Italian diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli is best known for writing The Prince, a handbook for unscrupulous politicians that inspired the term "Machiavellian" and established its author as the "father of modern political theory." In 1513, banished from his beloved Florence, Machiavelli drafted his masterwork, The Prince. Five centuries later his primer on statecraft remains required if unsettling reading for practitioners and students of politics. Machiavelli’s originality, and the source of his enduring, if notorious, reputation, was his blatant rejection of traditional morality as a guide to political action, and his insistence that statecraft be based on a realistic view of corrupted human nature. Get a Daily Dose of Literary History: Like and Follow Blind Horse Books. Building Great Collections, One Fine Book at a Time Visit us at BlindHorseBooks.com #Machiavellian #TodayInLiteraryHistory

  The title of one of his works, Catch-22, entered the English lexicon to refer to a vicious circle wherein an absurd, no-win choice, particularly in situations in which the desired outcome of the choice is an impossibility, and regardless of choice, a same negative outcome is a certainty. Although he is remembered primarily for Catch-22, his other works center on the lives of various members of the middle class and remain examples of modern satire.  Joseph Heller (1923 – 1999) was an American satirical novelist, short story writer, and playwright.  Although he is remembered primarily for Catch-22, his other works center on the lives of various members of the middle class and remain examples of modern satire. While sitting at home one morning in 1953, Heller thought of the lines, "It was love at first sight. The first time he saw the chaplain, [Yossarian] fell madly in love with him." Within the next day, he began to envision the story that could result from...

  Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – 1974) was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader of a jazz orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death in a career spanning over fifty years. Born in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s onward, and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. In the 1930s, his orchestra toured in Europe. Though widely considered to have been a pivotal figure in the history of jazz, Ellington embraced the phrase "beyond category" as a liberating principle, and referred to his music as part of the more general category of American Music, rather than to a musical genre such as jazz. Some of the musicians who were members of Ellington's orchestra, such as saxophonist Johnny Hodges, are considered to be among the best players in jazz. Ellington melded them into the best-known orchestral unit in the history of jazz. Some members stay...

  You probably know this but just in case….. Harper Lee based the character of Dill on the boy who lived next door to her as a child. That boy was Truman Capote. But did you know…… To Kill a Mockingbird was written when one of Lee’s friends bought her some time off work. In 1956, Harper Lee’s friend Michael Brown and a number of other friends clubbed together and gave her a year’s wages for Christmas: ‘You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.’ She used the year off work to write To Kill a Mockingbird. Or how about this….. David and Victoria Beckham named their fourth child Harper Seven; the Harper is a homage to Harper Lee. David Beckham has revealed that To Kill a Mockingbird is Victoria Beckham’s favorite book.  Building Great Collections, One Fine Book at a Time Visit us at BlindHorseBooks.com #HarperLee #ToKillAMockingbird #TodayInLiteraryHistory