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De Amerkaanse schrijfster Ann Petry werd geboren op 12 oktober 1908 in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Zie ook mijn blog van 12 oktober 2009.xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Uit: Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad
Chesapeake Bay forms the western boundary of the section of Maryland which is sometimes called Tidewater Maryland, sometimes called the Eastern Shore. Here there are so many coves and creeks, rivers and small streams, that the land areas are little more than heads or necks of land, almost surrounded by water.
In these streams the ebb and flow of the tide is visible for miles inland-hence the name Tidewater Maryland.
In 1820, much of the Eastern Shore was heavily wooded. The streams were filled with fish. Game birds -- wild duck and snipe -- abounded in all of the coves and marshes. It could truly be said that every plantation thereabout "at its garden gate, has an oyster-bed, a fishing-bar, and a ducking blind."
The plantation that belonged to Edward Brodas, in Dorchester County, was typical of this section of Maryland, for one of its land boundaries was a river-the Big Buckwater River. It was more or less isolated. The nearest village, Bucktown, was little more than a settlement composed of post office, church, crossroads store, and eight or ten dwelling houses.
There was an air of leisure about the planter's life here. Fishing and hunting were an integral part of it, just as it had been part of the life of the Indians, who had practically disappeared from the Eastern Shore by 1750.
The house in which Edward Brodas lived was very large. There had to be room for his friends, his relatives, as well as his family. Visitors came from long distances, and so usually stayed a month or two before undertaking the journey back home. There were extra rooms for travelers, who carried the proper letters of introduction, because inns andtaverns offered uncertain lodging for the night.
Edward Brodas was known as the Master to his Negro slaves. His house, which the slaves called the Big House, stood near a country road. The kitchen was a small detached building in the rear, known as the cookhouse. Not too far away from the Big House were the stables, where the riding horses and the carriage horses, the grooms and the hostlers were housed.
Ann Petry (12 oktober 1908 28 april 1997)
De Amerikaanse dichter en schrijver Paul Engle werd geboren op 12 oktober 1908 in Cedar Rapids. Zie ook mijn blog van 12 oktober 2008 en ook mijn blog van 12 oktober 2009.
Return in Autumn
The land unchanged, the cattle track,
Narrow for two split hooves to meet,
Winds to walnut grove and back
As when I walked it with bare feet,
Horses with no different eye
Brown water flowing over stone
Watch white-maned north wind running by,
Or corn from fields that they had sown.
New mood in older things must be
An inner change, mind's bone grown longer,
Nerves less blind, more quick to see,
Blood's cry for air turned stronger.
A man's age like returning rain
Mingles with flesh it knew when younger,
Raising for him that bitter grain,
Remembered things, which ease no hunger.
Through that rain beating on my face
I see the huddled shape of days
That wandered with me in this place,
But lost their old and friendly ways.
Can I hills, horses understand,
And not past self? Yet here, I know
That one tense mind, one troubled hand,
Make present self forever go,
As frozen pond, the end of food,
Drives the southward duck to flying.
Though I return in autumn wood
I can find nothing but its crying.
Paul Engle (12 oktober 1908 25 maart 1991)
Hier in 1957 met Writers Workshop studenten
De Franse schrijver Louis Hemon werd geboren op 12 oktober 1880 in Brest in Bretagne. Hemon had het voorecht onderwijs te volgen aan het Lycee Montaigne en het Lycee Louis-le-Grand in Parijs. Na zijn licentiaat in de rechten aan de Sorbonne Hemon Louis in 1901 veranderde zijn carrière van richting en ging hij naar Engeland, waar hij werkte als tweetalig secretaris. In 1911 emigreerde hij naar Canada waar hij behalve in kantoorbanen (verzekeringen, secretaris) op landbouwbedrijven in de Frans-Canadese wildernis werkte, die op dat moment ver verwijderd was van enige modernisering en industrialisatie. Hier schreef Hemon zijn bekendste werk Maria Chapdelaine.
Uit: Maria Chapdelaine
Au soir, le père Chapdelaine sassit sur le seuil pour fumer et dit pensivement:
-François Paradis va passer bientôt. Il a dit quil viendrait peut-être nous voir.
Maria répondit: « Oui » très doucement, et bénit lombre qui cachait son visage.
Il vint dix jours plus tard, longtemps après la nuit tombée. Les femmes restaient seules à la maison avec TitBé et les enfants, le père étant allé chercher de la graine de semence à Honfleur, doù il ne reviendrait que le lendemain.
Télésphore et Alma-Rose étaient couchés, TitBé fumait une dernière pipe avant la prière en commun, quand Chien jappa plusieurs fois et vint flairer la porte close. Presque aussitôt deux coups légers retentirent. Le visiteur attendit quon lui criât dentrer et parut sur le seuil.
Il sexcusa de lheure tardive, mais sans timidité.
-Nous avons campé au bout du portage, dit-il, en haut des chutes. Il a fallu monter la tente et installer les Belges pour la nuit. Quand je suis parti je savais bien que ce nétait quasiment plus lheure de veiller et que les chemins à travers les bois seraient mauvais pour venir. Mais je suis venu pareil, et quand jai vu la lumière
Ses grandes bottes indiennes disparaissaient sous la boue; il soufflait un peu entre ses paroles, comme un homme qui a couru; mais ses yeux clairs étaient tranquilles et pleins dassurance.
-Il ny a que TitBé qui ait changé, fit-il encore. Quand vous avez quitté Mistassini il était haut de même
Son geste indiquait la taille dun enfant. La mère Chapdelaine le regardait dun air plein dintérêt, doublement heureuse de recevoir une visite et de pouvoir parler du passé.
-Toi non plus tu nas pas changé dans ces sept ans-là; pas en tout; mais Maria
sûrement, tu dois trouver une différence!
Il contempla Maria avec une sorte détonnement.
-Cest que
je lavais déjà vue lautre jour à Péribonka.
Louis Hemon (12 oktober 1880 - 8 juli 1913)
Zie voor onderstaande schrijver ook mijn blog van 12 oktober 2008.
De Oostenrijkse dichteres en schrijfster Paula von Preradović werd geboren op 12 oktober 1887 in Wenen.
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