Nathaniel Hawthorne

Scanned by Charles Keller with OmniPage Professional OCR software donated by Caere Corporation, 1-800-535-7226. Contact Mike Lough From THE SNOW IMAGE Contents The Snow Image: A Childish Miracle The Great Stone Face Ethan Brand The Canterbury Pilgrims The Devil in Manuscript My Kinsman, Major Molineux THE SNOW-IMAGE: A CHILDISH MIRACLE One afternoon of a cold winter's day, when the sun shone forth with chilly brightness, after a long storm, two children asked leave of their mother to run out and play in the new-fallen snow. The elder child was a little girl, whom, because she was of a tender and modest disposition, and was ... Read Full Story

Here is the latest in my continuing series of dead author landmarks. During our recent visit to Salem, Massachusetts, Mary took this picture of me at the birthplace of Nathaniel Hawthorne, with whom I first became acquainted playing the card game "Authors" as a child. Other authors I recall from the game are Alfred Lord Tennyson, Charles Dickens, and Louisa May Alcott. I don't recall that playing the game inspired me to read any of their works. But I digress. In keeping with the spirit of promoting tourism, which seems to be the main concern in Salem, Hawthorne's birthplace has been moved from its ... Read Full Story

It probably has something to do with the fact that I am in my fourteenth hour of reading X-rays, CTs and ultrasounds on call today. I don't know how else to explain this post. I would do almost anything, read almost anything, Google almost anything to get away from the images of the huddled masses in the ERs and ICUs, yearning to have their brain hemorrhages, belly abscesses, and clotted veins diagnosed by yours truly. Actually, the afflicted have no idea who I am, nor will they ever, until they see my name on their bill, for radiologists labor for the most part in ... Read Full Story

Posted on July 4, 2008 Filed Under Random Thoughts | I was reading this morning about July 4th and found that there are lots of literary convergences on this day - many of them related to some of my favorite writers. For example - did you know that today is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s birthday? Yup. 1804 was the year and Salem, Massachusetts was the place (an appropriate natal spot for this talented, reclusive, and darkly haunted individual). I also found that Hawthorne had a significant NH connection, not only in the White Mountains (which figure a lot in his tales) but also on the Isles ... Read Full Story

Once in a while there is music from films that stands on its own without the movie. The soundtrack to "The Harder They Come" had a lot of examples of such music. By The Rivers of Babylon has become such a song. It is drawn directly from the Book of Psalms. On most week days, observant Jews recite the original Hebrew of this Psalm as part of the Grace after meals. I am sure that biblical narratives have some interesting resonances in African American and Afro Caribbean history. If reggae makes its place in Jewish music, I will be very happy. By contrast, I ... Read Full Story