Happy birthday, poet Robinson Jeffers

It is the birthday of poet Robinson Jeffers (1887), who came to prominence in the 1920s and became one of the best-selling American poets of all time, was featured with a cover story in Time magazine in 1932, wrote an acclaimed adaption of the Greek tragedy Medea that played on Broadway in 1947 with Dame Judith Anderson in the title role, and was widely criticized for his vehement and vocal opposition to America's entry into World War II. His volume Hungerfield and Other Poems, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1954. Here he reads his poem Wise Men and Their Bad Hours.

Simone de Beauvoir wrote She Came to Stay

Simone de Beauvoir

It is the birthday of French writer Simone de Beauvoir (1908), who is best known for her novels She Came to Stay (1943) and The Mandarins (1954) as well as her feminist writings, including The Second Sex (1949).

She met existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre when he was a student at Ecole normal superleure, a Paris university. De Beauvoir was not enrolled but sat in on classes anyway. Sartre proposed to her saying, "Let's sign a two-year lease." She didn't marry him but they had a close relationship for the rest of their lives. De Beauvoir never married and never had children. She had many lovers, both men and women. De Beauvoir and Sartre lived together for a time, and in 1935, two Russian sisters who were students came to live with them.

She Came to Stay is a highly fictionalized account of that episode in their lives. In the book the sisters, Olga and Wanda Kosakiewicz, are combined as one character, Xaviere. The story begins in Paris just before World War II, and concerns the open relationship of Francoise and Pierre, and their younger friend Xaviere when they form a menage a trios. It examines jealousy, freedom and angst.

The Mandarins is set in Paris at the end of World War II and into the 1950s. It is based on De Beauvoir's life with Sartre, and other intellectuals and writers in their circle, including Albert Camus, Nelson Algren, and Arthur Koestler. The title comes from the imperial Chinese civil servants. De Beauvior's group sometimes saw themselves as ineffectual Mandarins trying to discover their role in post-war society.

The Second Sex examines the role of females in other species, throughout human history and in mythology. It also covers the growth of girls into women in modern times and the conditioning of women to believe they are the inferior gender. It was considered required reading among feminists during the 1960s.

De Beauvoir also wrote Must We Burn Sade? (1955), Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (1958), Force of Circumstance (1963), The Woman Destroyed (1967), When Things of the Spirit Come First (1979), and Adieux: A Farewell to Sartre (1981).

Wilkie Collins, popular Victorian writer

Wilkie Collins

It is the birthday of Victorian writer Wilkie Collins (1824), who is best remembered for his novels The Woman in White (1860), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866),  and The Moonstone (1867). He was one of the best paid and most popular 19th century writers. He is credited with creating the sensation novel genre, which dealt with then-shocking subject matter, such as murder, seduction, adultery, kidnapping, and bigamy. Scholar see his work as a precursor of the mystery and crime novels of later generations. For many years, Collins was a close friend of Charles Dickens, though they had a falling out in later years.

Collins' father was well-known Royal Academy landscape artist William Collins. The elder Collins wanted his son to follow him in the profession but when it became clear that Wilkie wouldn't pursue that career, the father wanted him to study law so he would have a steady income. Wilkie completed law studies but never practiced law.

As a student in boarding school, young Wilkie discovered his talent for storytelling when a classmate bullied him into telling him a story before going to sleep. Wilkie said if it hadn't been for the bully, he might never have been aware of his hidden power. His first published story appeared in a magazine when he was 19 years old. It was based on his experience as an apprentice clerk to a tea merchant. His first novel, a romance set in Tahiti, was rejected because, in his youthful exuberance, he had created scenes no respectable English publisher could print.

At 28, when he was still a law student, Collins met Charles Dickens, who was nearing 40 at the time, and was well established as a popular literary celebrity. Dickens published many of Collins' short stories and serialized some of his novels, first in Household Words (which Dickens edited) and later in All the Year Round (which Dickens owned). Dickens and Collins collaborated on theatrical productions and acted in plays together. They first appeared in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's work Not So Bad As We Seem right after they met in 1851. Dickens amateur theater company produced some of Collins' plays as well.

In his mid-30s, Collins began living with a widowed woman, Caroline Graves  and her daughter. Though they were never married, Collins once listed the woman as his wife on a census report. Dickens serialized Collins' mystery novel, The Woman in White,  beginning in 1860. The title character was based on Graves. Collins later married someone else, but returned to Graves (who had also married and left her husband). Collins maintained a home with Graves and a separate one with his wife for the rest of his life.

Collins' writing career made him wealthy and well known in England and America. But success brought other problems. Collins gained weight and suffered from gout. In seeking relief from pain, he became addicted to opium. Scholars say Collins unconventional domestic arrangements and his addiction led to a split with Dickens after many years of friendship.

Happy birthday, Zora Neale Hurston

It is the birthday of Florida folklorist, anthropologist, and writer Zora Neale Hurston (1891), whose best known novel was Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), a story of a teenager's transition into womanhood set in central and south Florida in the early 20th century. One of the key events in the book is the Hurricane of 1928 that hit the Lake Okeechobee area. It is considered one of the best English language novels written since the 1920s. Here is an excerpt about Their Eyes Were Watching God from a documentary, Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun, by Tampa Bay area filmmaker Kristy Anderson. Enjoy.