American Poet Jack Prelutsky 1940

Jack Prelutsky (born September 8, 1940) is an American author of children's literature. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife, Carolynn.

Jack Prelutsky was born on September 8, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York to Charles, an electrician, and Dorothea, a homemaker. While he was still a baby, a fire burned his family's apartment and he was saved by his Uncle Charlie, who was a stand up comic who played the Borscht Belt. He was poor growing up, and he said he was "...a sensitive kid in a working class neighborhood. I got beat up a lot. I was a skinny kid with a big mouth. A bad combination."

He attended local public schools in the Bronx, hated it, and was bored in class. Prelutsky claims to have hated poetry when he was younger. He stated that "sometime in elementary school I had a teacher who, in retrospect, did not like poetry herself. She was determined to inflict her views on her captives. The syllabus told her she had to recite a poem once a week. She would pick a boring poem from a boring book and read it in a boring voice, looking bored while she was doing it."

After teachers discovered he had musical talents, they suggest he attend The High School of Music & Art. While there, he was happy and was able to train his beautiful singing voice and even took part in the musicals. He graduated in 1958, and went on to Hunter College for two years. He studied philosophy, psychology, and flunked English three times before dropping out.

Before becoming a writer, he worked odd jobs including driving a cab, moving furniture, busboy, potter, woodworker, and door-to-door salesman. In the late 1960's, he was working in a bookstore in Greenwich Village and singing in coffeehouses, and while doing the latter he met Bob Dylan, became friends, and Dylan even stated that Prelutsky sounded "like a cross between Woody Guthrie and Enrico Caruso".

Prelutsky also loved to draw imaginary animals, and a friend of his encouraged him to send it to a publisher in New York. He wrote poems to go with the drawings last minute. He met with Susan Hirshman, and was amazed when they wanted his work; not the drawings that took six months to draw, but the poems which took two hours. He was 24 at the time, and the poems appeared in his first book, A Gopher in the Garden and Other Animal Poems. Hirshman told him he was a natural poet, published his book, and remained his editor until she retired 37 years later.

Poetry

Prelutsky has written more than 50 poetry collections, including Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep (1976), It's Halloween (1977), The Mean Old Mean Hyena (1978), and Something BIG Has Been Here (1990). Nilsen, A. P. and Nilsen, D.L.F. (2000). Encyclopedia of 20th-Century American Humor [Electronic version]. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press. He has also compiled numerous children's anthologies comprising poems of others.

He has also set his poems to music on the audio versions of his anthologies. He often sings and plays guitar on most of them.

In 2006, the Poetry Foundation named Prelutsky the inaugural winner of the Children’s Poet Laureate award.

He appeared on the popular animated television series Arthur, in the episode "I'm a Poet."

His book Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems (illustrated by Carin Berger) won the 2007 Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award of the Washington State Book Awards in the Picture Book category.

In 1993, "The New Kid on the Block" was made into an interactive story book by Brøderbund's Living Books series.

Personal life

Prelutsky married his wife Carolynn in 1979. They met when he was on a book tour in Albuquerque, New Mexico and she was a children's librarian who was tasked with showing him around town. He claims it was love at first sight and even asked for her hand in marriage the first day he met her. They have lived in Arizona, Boston, New York, and Olympia, Washington. They currently live in downtown Seattle and have an apartment on Bainbridge Island.

Bibliography

• A Gopher in the Garden and Other Animal Poems (1967) (illustrated by Robert Leydenfrost)
• The Terrible Tiger (1970) (illustrated by Arnold Lobel)
• Toucans Two and Other Poems (1970) (illustrated by José Aruego)
• Circus (1974) (illustrated by Arnold Lobel)
• Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep (1976) (illustrated by Arnold Lobel)
• It's Halloween (1977) (illustrated by Marylin Hafner)
• The Mean Old Mean Hyena (1978) (illustrated by Arnold Lobel)
• The Queen of Eene (1978) (illustrated by Victoria Chess)
• The Headless Horseman Rides Tonight: More Poems to Trouble Your Sleep (1980) (illustrated by Arnold Lobel)
• Rolling Harvey Down the Hill (1980) (illustrated by Victoria Chess)
• It's Christmas (1981) (illustrated by Marylin Hafner)
• The Sheriff of Rottenshot (1982) (illustrated by Victoria Chess)
• Kermit's Garden of Verses (1982) (illustrated by Bruce McNally)
• The Baby Uggs are Hatching (1982) (illustrated by James Stevenson)
• It's Thanksgiving (1982) (illustrated by Marylin Hafner)
• Zoo Doings: Animal Poems (1983) (illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky)
• It's Valentine's Day (1983) (illustrated by Yossi Abolafia)
• The Random House Book of Poetry for Children (1983) (illustrated by Arnold Lobel)
• It's Snowing! It's Snowing! (1984) (illustrated by Jeanne Titherington)
• The New Kid on the Block (1984) (illustrated by James Stevenson)
• Ride a Purple Pelican (1984) (illustrated by Garth Williams)
• My Parents Think I'm Sleeping (1985) (illustrated by Yossi Abolafia)
• Read Aloud-Rhymes for the Very Young (1986) (illustrated by Marc Brown)
• Tyrannosaurus Was a Beast: Dinosaur Poems (1988) (illustrated by Arnold Lobel)
• Beneath a Blue Umbrella (1990) (illustrated by Garth Williams)
• Something BIG Has Been Here (1990) (illustrated by James Stevenson)
• There'll Be a Slight Delay: And Other Poems for Grown-ups (1991) (illustrated by Jack Ziegler)
• A. Nonny Mouse Writes Again! (1993) (illustrated by Marjorie Priceman)
• The Dragons Are Singing Tonight (1993) (illustrated by Peter Sís)
• Monday's Troll (1996) (illustrated by Peter Sís)
• A Pizza the Size of the Sun (1996) (illustrated by James Stevenson)
• The Beauty of the Beast: Poems from the Animal Kingdom (1997) (illustrated by Meilo So)
• Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! (1998) (with Dr. Seuss; illustrated by Lane Smith)
• Dog Days: Rhymes around the Year (1999) (illustrated by Dyanna Wolcott)
• The Gargoyle on the Roof (1999) (illustrated by Peter Sís)
• The 20th Century Children's Poetry Treasury (1999) (illustrated by Meilo So)
• It's Raining Pigs and Noodles (2000) (illustrated by James Stevenson)
• Awful Ogre's Awful Day (2001) (illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky)
• The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders (2002) (illustrated by Petra Mathers)
• Scranimals (2002) (illustrated by Peter Sís)
• If Not for the Cat (2004) (illustrated by Ted Rand)
• Wild Witches' Ball (2004) (illustrated by Kelly Ashbury)
• Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems (2006) (illustrated by Carin Berger)
• I'm Glad I'm Me: Poems About You (2006)
• What a Day It Was at School! (2006) (illustrated by Doug Cushman)
• Good Sports: Rhymes about Running, Jumping, Throwing, and More (2007) (illustrated by Chris Raschka)
• In Aunt Giraffe's Green Garden (2007) (illustrated by Petra Mathers)
• Me I Am! (2007) (illustrated by Christine Davenier)
• The Wizard (2007) (illustrated by Brandon Dorman)
• Awful Ogre Running Wild (2008) (illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky)
• My Dog May Be a Genius (2008) (illustrated by James Stevenson)
• Be Glad Your Nose Is on Your Face and Other Poems (2008) (illustrated by Brandon Dorman)
• Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry: How to Write a Poem (2008)
• The Swamps of Sleethe: Stories from Beyond the Solar System (2009) (illustrated by Jimmy Pickering)
• The Carnival of the Animals (2010) (illustrated by Mary GrandPré)
  

French Poet Frederic Mistral 1830 - 1914

Frédéric Mistral (Occitan: Frederic Mistral, 8 September 1830 – 25 March 1914) was a French writer and lexicographer of the Occitan language. Mistral won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1904 and was a founding member of Félibrige and a member of l'Académie de Marseille. He was born in Maillane in the Bouches-du-Rhône département in southern France.

His name in his native language was Frederi Mistral (Mistrau) according to the standard mistralienne or Frederic Mistral (/Mistrau) according to the traditional standard.

Mistral's fame was owing in part to Alphonse de Lamartine who sang his praises in the fortieth edition of his periodical "Cours familier de littérature", following the publication of Mistral's long Mirèio poem. He is the most revered writer in Occitan literature.

Alphonse Daudet, with whom he maintained a long friendship, devoted to the "Poet Mistral" one of his "Lettres de mon moulin", in an extremely eulogistic way.

Several schools bear Frédéric Mistral's name.

Biography

Statue of Frédéric Mistral in Arles.

Mistral was the son of wealthy landed farmers (François Mistral and Adelaide Poulinet, both of whom were related to the oldest families of Provence: Cruvelier, Expilly, Roux (originally Ruffo, from Calabria), themselves very closely related to each other; Marquis d'Aurel). Mistral was given the name "Frederi" in memory “of a poor small fellow who, at the time when my parents were courting, sweetly ran their errands of love, and who died shortly afterward of sunstroke.”^[1] Mistral did not begin school until he was about nine years, and quickly began to play hooky, leading his parents to send him to a boarding school in Saint-Michel-de-Frigolet, run by a Monsieur Donnat.

After receiving his bachelor's degree in Nîmes, Mistral studied law in Aix-en-Provence from 1848 to 1851. He became a champion for the independence of Provence, and in particular for restoring the “first literary language of civilized Europe” -- Provençal. He had studied the history of Provence during his time in Aix-en-Provence. Emancipated by his father, Mistral resolved: “to raise, revive in Provence the feeling of race ...; to move this rebirth by the restoration of the natural and historical language of the country ...; to restore the fashion to Provence by the breath and flame of divine poetry”. For Mistral, the word race designates “people linked by language, rooted in a country and in a story”.

For his lifelong efforts in restoring the language of Provence, Frédéric Mistral was one of the recipients of the 1904 Nobel Prize for Literature. The other winner that year, José Echegaray, was honored for his Spanish dramas. They each received one-half of the total prize money. Mistral devoted his winnings to the creation of the Museum at Arles, known locally as "Museon Arlaten". The museum is considered to be the most important collection of Provençal folk art, displaying furniture, costumes, ceramics, tools and farming implements.

In 1876, Mistral was married to a Burgundian woman, Marie-Louise Rivière (1857–1943) in Dijon Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Bénigne de Dijon). They had no children. The poet died on 25 March 1914 in Maillane, the same village where he was born.

Félibrige

Plaque on the rue Louis Pasteur in Avignon where Joseph Roumanille taught such brilliant future poets as Anselme Matthieu and Frédéric Mistral

Mistral joined forces with one of his teachers, Joseph Roumanille, and five other Provençal poets and on 21 May 1854, they founded Félibrige, a literary and cultural association, which made it possible to promote the Occitan language. Placed under the patronage of Saint Estelle, the movement also welcomed Catalan poets from Spain, driven out by Isabelle II.

The seven founders of the organization were (to use their Provençal names): Jóusè Roumaniho, Frederi Mistral, Teodor Aubanel, Ansèume Matiéu, Jan Brunet, Anfos Tavan and Paul Giera. Félibrige exists to this day, one of the few remaining cultural organizationas in 32 departments of the "Langue d'Oc".

Mistral strove to rehabilitate the language of Provence, while carrying it to the highest summits of epic poetry. His works were of the highest quality. He redefined the language in its purest form by creating a dictionary and transcribing the songs of the troubadours, who spoke the language in its original form.

Lexicography: Lou Tresor dóu Felibrige

Mistral is the author of Lou Tresor dóu Félibrige (1878–1886), which to date remains the most comprehensive dictionary of the Occitan language, and one of the most reliable for the precision of its definitions. It is a bilingual dictionary, Occitan-French, in two great volumes, with all of the dialects of oc, including mistralienne.

Mirèio – Mireille

Mistral during his career.

Mistral's most important work is Mirèio (Mireille), published in 1859, after eight years of creative effort. Mirèio, a long poem in Provençal consisting of twelve songs, tells of the thwarted love of Vincent and Mireille, two young Provençal people of different social means. The name Mireille (Mirèio in Provence) is a doublet of the word meraviho which means wonder.

Mistral uses the occasion not only to promote his language but also to share the culture of an area, speaking about, among other things, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, where according to legend the dragon, Tarasque, was driven out, and of the famous and ancient Venus of Arles. Mistral prefaced his poem with a short notice about Provençal pronunciation. Occitan is unique among the Romance languages in having women's names ending in "o", rather than "a".

The poem tells how Mireille's parents wish her to marry a Provençal landowner, but she falls in love with a poor basket maker named Vincent, who loves her as well. After rejecting three rich suitors, a desperate Mireille, driven by the refusal of her parents to let her marry Vincent, runs off to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer to pray to the patrons of Provence to change her parents' minds. Having forgotten to bring a hat, she falls victim to the heat, dying in Vincent's arms under the gaze of her parents.

Mistral dedicated his book to Alphonse Lamartine as follows:

“To Lamartine:

To you, I dedicate Mireille: It is my heart and my soul; It is the flower of my years; It is bunch of grapes from La Crau, leaves and all, a peasant's offering.”

Lamartine wrote enthusiastically: “I will tell you good news today! A great epic poet is born ... A true Homeric poet in our time; ... Yes, your epic poem is a masterpiece; ... the perfume of your book will not evaporate in a thousand years.”

Mirèio was translated into some fifteen European languages, including into French by Mistral himself. In 1863, Charles Gounod made it into an opera, Mireille.

Quotations

• « Les arbres aux racines profondes sont ceux qui montent haut. »
• « Les cinq doigts de la main ne sont pas tous égaux. »
• « Quand le Bon Dieu en vient à douter du monde, il se rappelle qu'il a créé la Provence. »
• « Chaque année, le rossignol revêt des plumes neuves, mais il garde sa chanson. »
• « Le soleil semble se coucher dans un verre de Tavel aux tons rubis irisés de topaze. Mais c'est pour mieux se lever dans les cœurs. »
• « La Provence chante, le Languedoc combat »
• « Qui a vu Paris et pas Cassis, n'a rien vu. (Qu'a vist París e non Cassís a ren vist.) »

“Trees with deep roots grow tall.”

“The five fingers of the hand are not all equal.”

“When the Good Lord comes to doubt about the world, he remembers that he created Provence.”

“Each year, the nightingale dresses with new feathers, but it keeps the same song.”

“The sun appears to set with iridescent ruby tones of topaz in a glass of Tavel. But it is to rise stronger in the hearts.”

“Provence sings, Languedoc fights”

“He who has seen Paris and not Cassis has seen nothing.”

Works

• Mirèio (1859) - Classical orthography online - Mistralian orthography online - French version
• Calendau (1867) - online
• Lis Isclo d’or (1875) - en ligne : part I, part II
• Nerto, short story (1884) - online
• La Rèino Jano, drama (1890) - en ligne
• Lou Pouèmo dóu Rose (1897) - online
• Moun espelido, Memòri e Raconte (Mes mémoires) (1906) - online
• Discours e dicho (1906) - online
• La Genèsi, traducho en prouvençau (1910) - online
• Lis óulivado (1912) - online
• Lou Tresor dóu Felibrige ou Dictionnaire provençal-français embrassant les divers dialectes de la langue d'oc moderne (1878–1886) - online
• Proso d’Armana (posthume) (1926, 1927, 1930) - online
• Coupo Santo (1867)

Italian Poet Ludovico Ariosto 1474 - 1533

Ludovico Ariosto (8 September 1474 – 6 July 1533) was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic Orlando Furioso (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, describes the adventures of Charlemagne, Orlando, and the Franks as they battle against the Saracens with diversions into many sideplots. Ariosto composed the poem in the ottava rima rhyme scheme and introduced narrative commentary throughout the work.

Birth and early life

Access to the villa where Ariosto was born

Ariosto was born in Reggio Emilia, where his father Niccolò Ariosto was commander of the citadel. He was the oldest of 10 children and was seen as the successor to the patriarchal position of his family. From his earliest years, Ludovico was very interested in poetry, but he was obliged by his father to study law.

After five years of law, Ariosto was allowed to read classics under Gregorio da Spoleto. Ariosto's studies of Greek and Latin literature were cut short by Spoleto's move to France to tutor Francesco Sforza. Shortly after this, Ariosto's father died.

Education and patronage

Memorial statue and park, Ferrara.

After the death of his father, Ludovico Ariosto was compelled to forgo his literary occupations and take care of his family, whose affairs were in disarray. Despite his family obligations, Ariosto managed to write some comedies in prose as well as lyrical pieces. Some of these attracted the notice of Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, who took the young poet under his patronage and appointed him one of the gentlemen of his household. Este compensated Ariosto poorly for his efforts; the only reward he gave the poet for Orlando Furioso, dedicated to him, was the question, "Where did you find so many stories, Master Ludovic?" Ariosto later said that the cardinal was ungrateful, that he deplored the time which he spent under his yoke, and that if he received some small pension, it was not to reward him for his poetry — which the prelate despised — but for acting as a messenger.

The cardinal went to Hungary in 1518, and wished Ariosto to accompany him. The poet excused himself, pleading ill health, his love of study, and the need to care for his elderly mother. His excuses were not well-received, and he was denied even an interview. Ariosto and d'Este got into a heated argument, and Ariosto was promptly dismissed from service.

New patronage and diplomatic career

Titian, A Man with a Quilted Sleeve, long believed to be Ludovico Ariosto

Ariosto's play I Suppositi was first published in verse form in 1551.

The cardinal's brother, Alfonso, duke of Ferrara, now took Ariosto under his patronage. By then, Ariosto had already distinguished himself as a diplomat, chiefly on the occasion of two visits to Rome as ambassador to Pope Julius II. The fatigue of one of these journeys brought on an illness from which he never recovered, and on his second mission he was nearly killed by order of the Pope, who happened at the time to be in conflict with Alfonso.

On account of the war, his salary of 84 crowns a year was suspended, and it was withdrawn altogether after the peace. Because of this, Ariosto asked the duke either to provide for him, or to allow him to seek employment elsewhere. He was appointed to the province of Garfagnana, then without a governor, situated on the Apennines, an appointment he held for three years. The province was distracted by factions and bandits, the governor had not the requisite means to enforce his authority and the duke did little to support his minister. Ariosto's government satisfied both the sovereign and the people given over to his care, however; indeed, there is a story about a time when he was walking alone and fell into the company of a group of bandits, the chief of which, on discovering that his captive was the author of Orlando Furioso, apologized for not having immediately shown him the respect due his rank.

In 1508 Ariosto's play Cassaria appeared, and the next year I Suppositi was fist acted in Ferrara and ten years later in the Vatican. A prose edition was published in Rome in 1524, and the first verse edition was published at Venice in 1551. The play was translated by George Gasciogne and acted at Grays Inn in London in 1566 and published in 1573, which was later used by Shakespeare as a source for The Taming of the Shrew.

In 1516, the first version of the Orlando Furioso in 40 cantos, was published at Ferrara.

The third and final version of the Orlando Furioso, in 46 cantos, appeared on September 8, 1532.

Poetic style

Statue of the poet in Reggio Emilia

Throughout Ariosto's writing are narratorial comments dubbed by Dr. Daniel Javich as "Cantus Interruptus". These sections are short breaks in the text in which the narrator destroys the fourth wall and talks directly to the audience. Ariosto uses it throughout his works.

For example, in Canto II, stanza 30, of Orlando Furioso, the narrator says:

But I, who still pursue a varying tale,

Must leave awhile the Paladin, who wages

A weary warfare with the wind and flood;

To follow a fair virgin of his blood.

Some have attributed this piece of metafiction as one component of the "Sorriso ariostesco" or Ariosto smile, the wry sense of humor that Ariosto adds to the text.

In explaining this humor, Thomas Greene, in Descent from Heaven, says,

the two persistent qualities of Ariosto's language are first, serenity - the evenness and self-contented assurance with which it urbanely flows, and second, brilliance - the Mediterranean glitter and sheen which neither dazzle nor obscure but confer on every object its precise outline and glinting surface. Only occasionally can Ariosto's language truly be said to be witty, but its lightness and agility create a surface which conveys a witty effect. Too much wit could destroy even the finest poem, but Ariosto's graceful brio is at least as difficult and for narrative purposes more satisfying.