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#29982 05/31/01 06:40 AM
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Leo Mark's book "From Silk to Cyanide" tells of his life in SOE

Thanks, WOW. I picked the book up from my son on Monday amongst a load of others of interest and am about half way through (and enjoying it so far). That is what reminded me of the poem which I remember hitting me very strongly before. The book gives a slightly different slant from most books of this type.

Rod


#29983 05/31/01 03:50 PM
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The book (Leo Marks : From Silk To Cyanide) gives a slightly different slant from most books of this type.

Heard the author on BookTV and was intrigued by the drama of his work, and at such a young age. Quite amazing!
I'm useless at codes -- most things mathematical for that matter, except music -- but the narrative itself is quite compelling I thought.

As you know from reading the book, Leo was the son of the owner of Marks & Co which was the subject of Helene Hanff's book "84 Charing Cross Road" later a movie with Anthony Hopkins, Judi Dench and Mel Brooks' wife, Anne What's-her- name.
"84" is the story of a New York writer and her real letters to and from the Marks & Co. bookstore manager as she sought and he found books for her over many years, post-WWII. You might want to borrow it from library after you finish "From Silk To Cyanide." A pleasant read. There was a follow-up book to "84 Charing Cross Road" but I can't recall the title off hand.



#29984 06/01/01 12:44 AM
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Like wow I can't remember the name of the follow-up to 84, Charing Cross Road, but I do remember that it was about Helene Hanff's first trip to Britain. I think she went to the shop and met the son of the guy she'd corresponded with, and she also met Joyce Grenfell. Otherwise it was all wide-eyed US'n Anglophile tourist stuff.

Bingley


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#29985 06/01/01 01:52 AM
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wow laments> There was a follow-up book to "84 Charing Cross Road" but I can't recall the title off hand.

Looks like The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street. I just happened to have some time and the inclination to do a little research... and coincidentally turtling toward my 200th post...


#29986 06/01/01 10:59 AM
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How's the quilting, Dagny? [help-help]


#29987 06/01/01 04:30 PM
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follow-up book to "84 Charing Cross Road" but I can't recall the title off hand.....Looks like "The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street."

Thanks Fiberbabe! That's the one. As you noted it is a bit of a tourist thing but I enjoyed it because it gave a quite satisfactory ending to the story.

Speaking of books : A friend went to England recently to visit her English husband's home land and bought a book about the American Revolution (1776) as told from English point of view. She says it is "Quite interesting!"


#29988 06/01/01 09:11 PM
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bought a book about the American Revolution (1776) as told from English point of view. She says it is "Quite interesting!"

... still can't quite belive it happened?

Back to the topic ...

I saw magic on a green country road --
That old woman, a bag of sticks her load,

Blackly down to her thin feet a fringed shawl,
A rosary of bone on her horned hand,
A flight of curlews scribing by her head,
And ashtrees combing with their frills her hair.

Her eyes, wet sunken holes pierced by an awl,
Must have deciphered her adoring land:
And curlews, no longer lean birds, instead
Become ten scarlet comets in the air.

Some incantation from her canyoned mouth,
Irish, English, blew frost along the ground,
And even though the wind was from the South
The ashleaves froze without an ashleaf sound.

Michael Hartnett (from The Penguin Book of Contemporary Irish Poetry)


#29989 06/02/01 03:06 AM
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FOR THE ONE WHO WOULD TAKE MAN'S LIFE IN HIS HANDS

by Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966)


Tiger Christ unsheathed his sword,
Threw it down, became a lamb,
Swift spat upon the species, but
Took two women to his heart.
Samson who was strong as death
Paid his strength to kiss a slut.
Othello that stiff warrior
Was broken by a woman's heart.
Troy burned for a sea-tax, also for
Possession of a charming whore.
What do all examples show?
What must the finished murderer know?

You cannot sit on bayonets,
Nor can you eat among the dead.
When all are killed, you are alone,
A vacuum comes where hate has fed.
Murder's fruit is silent stone,
The gun increases poverty.
With what do these examples shine?
The soldier turned to girls and wine.
Love is the tact of every good,
The only warmth, the only peace.

'What have I said?' asked Socrates,
'Affirmed extremes, cried yes and no,
Taken all parts, denied myself,
Praised the caress, extolled the blow,
Soldier and lover quite deranged
Until their motions are exchanged.
--What do all examples show?
What can any actor know?
The contradiction in every act,
The infinite task of the human heart.'
-------------------------------------------------------------
The ending couplet is one of my all-time favorite quotations!
And, just a thought...after scores of readings, one line, as I posted, lept out at me...let's make "A vacuum comes where hate has fed" a catch-phrase for the Millennium.
If you haven't read Delmore Schwartz, check him out...I think he's one of the most underrated and overlooked American poets of the 20th century!




#29990 06/02/01 09:14 PM
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ON THE SONNET

If by dull rhymes our English must be chained,
And, like Andromeda, the sonnet sweet
Fettered, inspite of pained loveliness;
Let us find if we must be constrained,
Sandals more interwoven and complete
To fit the naked foot of poesy;
Let us inspect the lyre, and weigh the stress
Of every chord, and see what may be gained
By ear industrious, and attention meet;
Misers of sound and syllable, no less
Than Midas of his coinage, let us be
Jealous of dead leaves in the bay-wreath crown;
So, if we may not let the muse be free,
She will be bound with garlands of her own.

John Keats
(1795-1821)

chronist

#29991 06/03/01 02:33 PM
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wordcrazy, I see your sonnet sonnet, and I raise you another:

Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room,
And hermits are contented with their cells,
And students with their pensive citadels;
Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his loom,
Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom,
High as the highest peak of Furness fells,
Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells:
In truth the prison unto which we doom
Ourselves no prison is: and hence for me,
In sundry moods, 'twas pastime to be bound
Within the Sonnet's scanty plot of ground;
Pleased if some souls (for such there needs must be)
Who have felt the weight of too much liberty,
Should find brief solace there, as I have found.

William Wordsworth



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