Abigail Adams Speaks
Joining us today is Abigail Adams, who was born in 1744, a British colonialist, and died in 1818 an American citizen. Her husband was John Adams, the second President of the United States. Their son John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States. Her most noted writings are her communications with her husband John.
Abraham Lincoln Speaks
Welcome back to our series, Interviews with the Famously Departed. Today, we talk to a man who is a twentieth of a score short of ten score years old, hails from Illinois by way of Kentucky, spent a few years in Washington D.C., and officially abolished slavery in the United States.
Born on February 12, 1809 and assassinated on April 15, 1865, we welcome President Abraham Lincoln.
Ambrose Bierce Speaks
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born June 24, 1842, in Meigs County, Ohio, and was the tenth of thirteen children whose names all began with the letter A. He worked as a journalist and a poet and wrote short stories, mostly about the Civil War. His writings include the short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and the lexicon "The Devil's Dictionary." He Left Washington, DC, in 1913 and was last heard from while he was working in Pancho Villa's army in Mexico.
Benjamin Franklin Speaks
We’re pleased to have with us a famous inventor, newspaperman, notable statesman and reportedly an early riser. Benjamin Franklin was born on January 6, 1705, in Boston, Massachusetts. He escaped to Philadelphia where he rose from a guy who could afford only 3 pennies worth of bread a day to someone wealthy enough that his heirs and the government fought over his will. Along the way, he used his great wisdom to dupe money and arms from the French, probably the key ingredient to the success of the American Revolution.
Charles Dickens Speaks
Interviews with the Famously Departed, seeks to take advantage of the wisdom of the ages. Sure, there’s Oprah, NPR’s Terri Gross, Bill Mahr, and even Martin Short’s Jiminy Glick. However, Wild River Review will not take you back to the future, instead we’ll bring the past to the present.
With great expectations, we’re delighted to start off with a well-known serial journalist, Charles Dickens, who was born February 7, 1812 in Hampshire, England, died June 9, 1870 in Gad’s Hill Place, England; and is buried in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey, England.
Chesterton and Shaw Speak
Vulgarity is a necessary part of a complete author's equipment; and the clown is sometimes the best part of the circus.
Emily Dickinson Speaks
Hey Readers, Where'd you go? Emily Dickinson's been waiting over a hundred years just to join our series.
Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Known for retiring to her family house almost before she could spell Massachusetts and for wearing different shades of white, this Belle lived and wrote poetry there until she died on May 15, 1886.
So Emily, you wrote a lot about love, death and immortality. How does it feel to be dead and immortal? Is there romance where you are?
George Bernard Shaw Speaks
George Bernard Shaw was born July 26, 1856, in Dublin, Ireland and died in England on November 2,1950. Shaw wrote sixty plays dealing with social problems but used humor as a means to lighten the message. He was a noted socialist. His play Pygmalion was made into the musical, My Fair Lady.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton Speaks
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer. His work was published in a variety of genres. Chesterton has been called the "prince of paradox" for his ability to turn ideas inside out. George Bernard Shaw, a "friendly" enemy of Chesterton's, said he wa a colossal genius. His work (including Orthodoxy and Everlasting Man) has been compared to other Victorian authors including Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, John Henry Cardinal Newman, and John Ruskin.
Happy 450th, William
William Shakespeare was born April 23, 1564 in Stratford upon Avon, England and died April 23, 1616. He is considered the best writer and certainly the best dramatist in the English language.
Jane Austen Speaks
Jane Austen was born December 16, 1775 in England and died after an unknown illness on July 18, 1817, in England, too. Austen wrote in a realistic style with biting social commentary and became, after her death, one of the most read and loved English writers. Her works continue to be made and remade into dramas, movies, and her personal life (which her family kept private) has been the subject of conjecture and fiction. WRR: So how are you getting along with your fellow deceased writers?
Lewis Carroll Speaks
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll was born on January 27, 1832 in England and died on January 14 1898. He was an all-around talent. During his life he majored in writing, math, logic and photography. He was also an Anglican deacon. He is best known for his children’s work—mainly the genre of literary nonsense. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the sequel Through the Looking-Glass and the poems—"Jabberwocky" and "The Hunting of the Snark (An Agony, in Eight Fits)."
Mark Twain Speaks
We’re pleased to have with us someone more averse to interviews than J.D. Salinger. Mr. Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known as Mark Twain, was born in Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1835. He wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, considered to be the greatest American novel. He moved to Hannibal, Missouri; traveled the Mississippi, the United States and the World. He died on April 21, 1910, in Redding, Connecticut, having come in and departed in the year of Haley’s Comet.
Miguel Cervantes Speaks
Miguel de Cervantes was born September 29, 1547 in Spain and died on April 23, 1616 in Madrid. His Don Quixote de La Mancha is considered the first novel. His influence on Spanish literature is so great that, for some, Spanish is called the language of Cervantes.
Oscar Wilde Speaks
Oscar Wilde was born, in Dublin, October 16, 1854 A successful playwright (The Importance of Being Earnest), novelist (The Picture of Dorian Gray), and poet (The Ballad of Reading Goal); Wilde was tried and convicted for “gross indecency,” because he was gay. He died at age 46, in 1900.
Sholem Aleichem Speaks
Sholem Aleichem was born Sholem Naumovich Rabinovich in 1859 outside the City of Kiev in then Imperial Russia. A writer of short stories, plays and novels Aleichem is best known for his Yiddish stories told with humor and compassion about Eastern European Jews.
One story about Tevye the Milkman was made into the successful musical, Fiddler on the Roof. Aleichem died in New York in 1916. Many refer to him as the Jewish Mark Twain. We, who know better, refer to Mark Twain as the Gentile Sholem Aleichem.
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle Speak
Today, we welcome the Greek version of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Three (3) guys whose last names have been forgotten. We start with old-man Socrates, born in the 400’s BC, a philosopher (Hey it’s better than farming) and teacher of Plato who fortunately took notes before the Gods socked it to Socrates with a little poisoned hemlock. Plato was born in Athens. He gave up his dream to be a politician and instead started a philosophy school called the Academy, considered by many to be the first University. Joining them is Aristotle, who was born in Stagira and studied at the aforesaid Academy for twenty years. Aristotle taught Alexander the Great (who couldn’t be with us today) and later started his own school, the Lyceum.
Theodore Roosevelt Speaks
Why is character so important in our leaders?
We need intellect, and there is no reason why we should not have it together with character; but if we must choose between the two, we choose character without a moment's hesitation.
Thomas Jefferson Speaks
Thomas Jefferson was born April 13, 1743 and died on Independence Day, July 4, 1826. He was the main author of the Declaration of Independence and the third President of the United Sates. The Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition were the major achievements of his Presidency. A jack and master of all trades Jefferson founded the University of Virginia.
When President John F. Kennedy welcomed forty-nine Nobel Prize winners to the White House in 1962 he said, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House — with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."