Books
Classic books, the ones you read for school or because they are on some list. Are they any good? Find out for yourself. Here are some classics that have publication anniversary dates in October. Have you read these classics?
Oct. 21, 1949: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway is considered one of his best works. Hemingway got the title from poet John Donne’s Meditation XVII, in which he speaks of the unity of mankind. Robert Jordan, an American volunteer in the Spanish Civil War is attached to a guerilla unit hidden in the mountains. While planning to destroy a bridge with dynamite he falls in love with Maria, a local whose family was executed by Franco’s forces.
October 1920: Edith Wharton wrote The Age of Innocence in just seven months. It was originally serialized in four parts in Pictorial Review. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1921, making Wharton the first woman to receive the award. The novel takes place in New York City and is set in the 1870s Gilded Age. Newland Archer must choose between his quiet, socially acceptable fiancée May and her unconventional cousin Ellen, who has just left her husband. The novel has been adapted several times, including a 1993 film by Martin Scorsese.
October 1987: The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe was originally a serial in 27 installments of Rolling Stone in 1984 but was heavily revised before being published as a book. The title is in reference to the burning of objects considered sinful such as cosmetics, playing cards, and fancy clothing that took place in Florence, Italy in 1497. The book is about greed, social class, and ambition centered around a district attorney, bond tradesman, and journalist in 1980s New York City. The novel was an enormous success and was turned into a film.
Authors
These authors are celebrating birthdays in October. Have you ever read their books? If not, give one a try. Have you read all their books? Make sure you've read their latest.
Neil deGrasse Tyson was born on Oct. 5, 1958, in New York City. When he was 10, a friend gave him some binoculars and told him to look up. When Tyson saw the details of the moon's surface a lifelong love of astronomy was born. Tyson spent the rest of his youth with his telescope in astronomy clubs and spending time at the Hayden Planetarium. He went on to Harvard, the University of Texas, Columbia, and Princeton. While in Texas, Tyson met his wife, Alice Young, in a physics class. The couple has two children. While in graduate school, Tyson began writing a question-and-answer column in a science magazine. These columns were compiled into his first book in 1989. He joined the staff of the Hayden Planetarium in 1994 and became director in 1996, a job he has to this day. Tyson has been the host of several television series and documentaries. In 2009, he started StarTalk, a radio science show with actors, comedians, and scientists as guests. It became a television series for five seasons and is currently a popular podcast. In the 2000s, President Bush appointed Tyson to several commissions about space exploration and he was part of NASA’s Advisory Council. Tyson received NASA’s Distinguished Public Service Medal and has been nominated for 6 Emmys. Tyson has written over a dozen books and contributed to many more. Tyson has updated and revised his 1997 book Merlin’s Tour of the Universe. It is now subtitled A Traveler’s Guide to Blue Moons and Black Holes, Mars, Stars, and Everything Far and will be published at the end of October. (Photo of Tyson at NASA from Flickr)
Eleanor Marie Robertson, known as Nora Roberts, was born on Oct. 10, 1950, in Silver Spring, Md., the youngest of five children. Roberts attended Catholic school and credits the nuns' strict discipline with her adherence to her strict writing schedule. She writes at least eight hours a day, seven days a week, even on vacations. Roberts enjoyed reading and always created stories in her mind as entertainment. Roberts married after high school graduation when she was 17 and had two sons, Daniel and Jason. When the boys were young, Roberts was snowed in during a blizzard and when cabin fever set in, she wrote down one of the stories in her head. She knew it wasn’t great, but kept at it, writing short romances, like the ones she enjoyed reading in between mothering two active boys. In 1981, she had her first book published, Irish Thoroughbred, and used Nora Roberts as her pen name. Roberts divorced in 1983 and then in 1985, married the carpenter she had hired to build her more bookshelves. Roberts’ popularity soon grew, especially because she made herself accessible to her fans. It was a fan who in 1997, contacted Roberts about the similarities between her novel and that of Janet Dailey’s. Roberts sued Dailey, who admitted to the plagiarism, and Roberts donated the legal reward to several literary groups. In 1995, Roberts took on another pseudonym for her mystery novel series, starting with Naked in Death, which is now up to its 59th installment. She came up with the name J.D. Robb, by using her sons' initials and shortening Roberts to Robb. Roberts is almost always on the New York Times Best Seller’s List and writes multiple books each year. Some of Roberts’ romance novels have also been made into movies. Roberts and her family own a bookstore, inn, and restaurant in Boonsboro, Md. Roberts’ newest books are Passions in Death as J.D. Robb, and Mind Games. Her next book The Mirror, the 2nd in the Lost Bride Trilogy, is set to be published at the end of the year. (Roberts photo from Wikimedia)
Amor Towles was born in Boston on Oct. 24, 1964. His father Stokely was an investment banker and philanthropist. Towles has a brother and sister, Stokely Jr. and Kimbrough. His parents divorced when he was a child and he gained two stepbrothers. Towles graduated from Yale University and then got an MA in English from Stanford. He is married to Maggie and they have two children Stokely and Esme. Towles was an investment professional for 20 years. He published his first book, Rules of Civility in 2011, which received France's 2012 Prix Fitzgerald. In 2016, he published his second novel, A Gentleman in Moscow. It was on the New York Times Best Seller List for two years and was named one of the best books of 2016 by the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the San Francisco Chronicle, and NPR. In 2024, Paramount+ released a miniseries based on the novel starring Ewan McGregor. Towles published his third novel in 2021, The Lincoln Highway, which debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. President Obama included it on his annual book recommendation list. Towles has also had short fiction pieces published in the Paris Review and British Vogue. His work has sold over six million copies and been translated in to more than thirty languages. He lives in Manhattan with his family and writes full-time. Towles' newest published book is a completion of a novella and short stories, titled Table for Two. (Towles photo from Wikimedia)
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Factual information from Gale In Context: Biography and the authors' websites.