biography – John Sapiro

Autumn 1818

November 12, 2021November 12, 2021Posted in booksTagged biography, books, inspiration, Keats, life, literature, music, philosophy, photography, psychology, quotes, reading, relationships, ThoughtsLeave a comment

photograph by Anthony Tran via Unsplash

Some disturbing news was waiting for him as he stopped at the Dilkes’ the night of August 18 on his way home to Well Walk, looking, said Mrs. Dilke, “as brown and as shabby as you can imagine, scarcely any shoes left, his jacket all torn at the back, a fur cap, a great plaid, and his knapsack.” He quickly guessed that further trouble had arisen. But he sat back in the unaccustomed comfort of the cushioned chair (as Joseph Severn later heard), looked up with a tired smile, and quoted from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art translated.”

— Walter Jackson Bate, John Keats

Best of Both Worlds

“There’s the thrush again…”

January 27, 2018October 5, 2020Posted in booksTagged biography, books, cars, first love, John Keats, literature, lost love, love, memories, music, photography, reading, relationships, romance1 Comment

LIFE, 1965

…as he lay trying desperately to put poetry, ambition, and Fanny Brawne out of his mind, suddenly an early thrush had appeared…

Walter Jackson Bate, John Keats

“More Than a Feeling” – Boston

A Voice of One’s Own

January 19, 2018October 5, 2020Posted in booksTagged Alice James, animation, biography, creativity, Diary, digital art, inspiration, journal, life, literature, music, reading, writers, writing3 Comments

Jean Strouse, Alice James: A Biography

“Make Your Own Kind Of Music” – Mama Cass

“Like a sick eagle looking at the sky.”

October 30, 2017December 2, 2017Posted in poetryTagged adversity, biography, books, inspiration, John Keats, life, literature, music, poetry, quotes, rainingLeave a comment

cf. video by klimkin via Pixabay

These days were filled with puzzlement, with thoughts of the hopes of the past, of the changes that life brings, of the whole “Burden of the Mystery” — the phrase that had meant so much to him for so long. And the burden was greater now than any he had ever experienced before…

—Walter Jackson Bate, John Keats

“Fire And Rain” by James Taylor

“A man so afflicted, Sir, must divert distressing thoughts, and not combat with them.”

February 7, 2017January 15, 2018Posted in booksTagged anxiety, art, biography, coping skills, depression, insomnia, inspiration, life, literature, mental illness, music, night, quotesLeave a comment

Talking of constitutional melancholy, he observed, “A man so afflicted, Sir, must divert distressing thoughts, and not combat with them.” BOSWELL: “May not he think them down, Sir?” JOHNSON: “No, Sir. To attempt to THINK THEM DOWN is madness. He should have a lamp constantly burning in his bed-chamber during the night, and if wakefully disturbed, take a book, and read, and compose himself to rest…”

—Boswell’s Life Of Johnson

James McNeill Whistler, Reading in Bed (The Slipper) (1858)

College

October 3, 2016December 4, 2017Posted in literatureTagged biography, books, college, education, inspiration, life, literature, music, photography, photos, quotes, school, vintageLeave a comment

“Dr. Adams told me that Johnson, while he was at Pembroke College, ‘was caressed and loved by all about him, was a gay and frolicksome fellow, and passed there the happiest part of his life.’ But this is a striking proof of the fallacy of appearances, and how little any of us know of the real internal state even of those whom we see most frequently…”

—Boswell’s Life Of Johnson

T. M. Weaver, “Far From The Madding Crowd” (ca. 1911)

“He had found means to get a little clavichord privately convey’d to a room at the top of the house…”

July 14, 2015January 13, 2018Posted in musicTagged art, biography, Handel, inspiration, music, quotesLeave a comment

Margaret Dicksee, The Child Handel

From his very childhood Handel had discovered such a strong propensity to Music, that his father, who always intended him for the study of the Civil Law, had reason to be alarmed. Perceiving that this inclination still increased, he took every method to oppose it. He strictly forbad him to meddle with any musical instrument ; nothing of that kind was suffered to remain in the house, nor was he ever permitted to go to any other, where such kind of furniture was in use. All this caution and art, instead of restraining, did but augment his passion. He had found means to get a little clavichord privately convey’d to a room at the top of the house. To this room he constantly stole when the family was asleep. He had made some progress before Music had been prohibited, and by his assiduous practice at the hours of rest, had made such farther advances, as, tho’ not attended to at that time, were no slight prognostics of his future greatness.

—John Mainwaring, Memoirs of the Life of the Late George Frederic Handel

Eugene O’Neill’s Chronology

January 1, 2015December 6, 2017Posted in literatureTagged biography, determination, Don't Stop Believin', drama, Eugene O'Neill, inspirational, journey, life, live theater, music, Nobel Prize, plays, playwright, theaterLeave a comment

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