Page 38 "...the Welshman, John Powys"

"At the striking of noon on a certain fifth of March, there occurred within a causal radius of Brandon railway station and yet beyond the deepest pools of emptiness between the uttermost stellar systems one of those infinitesimal ripples in the creative silence of the First Cause which always occur when an exceptional stir of heightened consciousness agitates any living organism in this astronomical universe." (from JC Powys' A Glastonbury Romance)

[John Cowper Powys, one of the most important influences on my work, is mentioned frequently in "The Long Habit of Living."  Quotes from his works are everywhere in my room, in my notes, and in my dreams.  His novels "Weymouth Sands" and "Wolf Solent" made indescribable impressions on me, fueled me, drove me crazy.  Who was he?  Here is a little blurb from The Powys Society:  "John Cowper Powys (1872-1963)was a prolific novelist, essayist, letter writer, poet and philosopher, and a writer of enormous scope, complexity, profundity, and humor. He spent over 30 years as a lecturer in the U.S., during which time he wrote his first four novels. In 1930, he retired to up-state New York and turned to full-time writing: it was there [in Hillsdale, NY, which Joe Savino and I visited by the way nearly 30 years ago; and a friend Kenny Donohue, who is also a Powys fan, not only visited but bought land in the area and built himself a house there for his retirement; in fact, the Hillsdale resident who showed Kenny where Powys' small white house was situated was also Joe's and my guide when we were there] that he produced his Autobiography, A Glastonbury Romance, and Weymouth Sands. He returned to Great Britain in 1934, settling in North Wales in 1935, where he wrote the historical novels Owen Glendower and Porius, the critical studies of Rabelais and Dostoevsky, and The Brazen Head, and others."

            These are the JCPowys books I’ve read so far: After My Fashion (written 1919, published 1980); Ducdame (1925); Wolf Solent (1929); A Glastonbury Romance (1933); Weymouth Sands (1934); Maiden Castle (1936); The Brazen Head (1956); The Complex Vision (1920); Autobiography (1934).

             Here is a link to The Powys Society
             I'll be posting quotes from JCP from time to time.]

"Vaucluse--the small regional department of southern France--our new home and the new tempest."

 

From page 24 of the book:  "...We turned into the Place du Tambor d'Arcole, a quiet but busy triangle with small shops, a law office, two opposing rows of parked automobiles, a butcher, and several restaurants which were waiting to test our pallets."

                                                         

[The drummer boy served in Napoleon's northern Italy campaign of 1796.  While the Austrians and Italians battled the French for control of the Arcole Bridge, the drummer boy beat his drum so furiously that the Austrians thought it was artillery fire and retreated so that the French could capture the bridge and win the battle.]

Page 6 "...she hadn't read Scott Fitzgerald or Julian Green or"

F. Scott Fitzgerald

American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s. He finished four novels, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender Is the Night and the celebrated classic, The Great Gatsby.

Julian Green

French born American author of several novels including Léviathan and Each in His Own Darkness. He wrote primarily in French, but was not a French citizen.  Julien Green's fame rests principally not on his novels, but on his journals, published in ten volumes, and spanning the years 1926-1976. These avidly-read and well-known volumes provide a chronicle of his literary and religious life, and a unique window on the artistic and literary scene in Paris over a span of half a century. Green's style, austere and employing to great effect the "passé simple", a literary tense nearly abandoned by many of his French contemporaries, found favor with the Académie française, a fact mentioned in his election to that august body. Green resigned from the Académie shortly before his death, citing his American heritage and loyalties.

James Baldwin:  American novelist, writer, playwright, poet, essayist and civil rights activist.

Most of Baldwin's work deals with racial and sexual issues in the mid-20th century in the United States. His novels are notable for the personal way in which they explore questions of identity as well as the way in which they mine complex social and psychological pressures related to being black and homosexual well before the social, cultural or political equality of these groups was improved.

Page 247 "...rasteurs...leaped out of the way of the charging beasts"

From page 247 of the book:  "...We finished our beer and walked along the street toward the center of activity in our quarter. Shanzenbach was able to find us and brought us all to an improvised stadium, complete with bleachers, in which a bull fight had been set up and was currently in progress. We sat in the bleachers, watching as young men, dressed in white, made aggravating pantomimes at two bulls, whose horns had been capped with metal and decorated with a string of flowers. The object was to comb off as many of the flowers as possible without getting butted by the bulls. It was all done in good spirits; no one would hurt the bulls, and the men, or rasteurs as they were called, invariably leaped out of the way of the charging beasts, jumping over the wooden fence and in front of the spectators to avoid injury. Shanzenbach especially liked this form of entertainment, since it was something he could bet on."

Page 64 "And we'll have two bottles of the Domaine Tempier, added Ebert."

[In the late 1980s, when I first discovered this wine, it was selling for between $10 and $12 a bottle; now of course it's probably well out of my range.]

Page 7 "offering a house to rent in Cadenet, Vaucluse,"

[This first post card, which I received from my boss, Doris "Shammy" Shamleffer, when I worked for New York Friends Group, Inc., from 1977-1982, suggested to me the temperament of the place in which my characters would reside.  And you can see on the right half of the picture, there is a brown suit hanging.]

From page 7 of the book:  "...Owen spotted a man's brown suit hanging from a second-story drainpipe and remarked how people's indifference was the same throughout the world."

And then:

From page 123 of the book:  "...green countryside, searching for nothing in particular under that bright Sunday heat, when suddenly I spotted the brown suit Revenant had pointed out hanging from a window. Owen noticed it, too.   "It's like the Yeats poem," he said. "'Fifteen apparitions have I seen; the worst a coat upon a coat hanger.'"  "What do we do with that?" I asked. "It remains to be seen," he said tiredly."

[This second postcard, which Shammy also sent me, confirmed that this was the place.  And you can see the statue of the drummer boy smack dab in the middle.] 

Page 35 "...my religious crises...waver between St. Francis and Lao Tzu."

From page 35 of the book:  "..."I've disappointed even my ex-wife. Now, as I simmer in my old age, my religious crises tend to waiver between Saint Francis and Lao Tzu.  Put that in your diary and what a day!"  Ebert coughed as he laughed, wheezing to get back his breath."

[Saint Francis of Assisi was a Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the Franciscan Order, the woman’s Order of St. Clare, and the lay Third Order of Saint Francis. St. Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in Roman Catholic history.  Francis heard a sermon that changed his life. The sermon was about Matthew 10:9, in which Christ tells his followers they should go forth and proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven was upon them, that they should take no money with them, nor even a walking stick or shoes for the road. Francis was inspired to devote himself to a life of poverty.  Clad in a rough garment, barefoot, and, after the Evangelical precept, without staff or scrip, he began to preach repentance. He was soon joined by his first follower, a prominent fellow townsman, the jurist Bernardo di Quintavalle, who contributed all that he had to the work. Within a year Francis had eleven followers. Francis chose never to be ordained a priest and the community lived as "lesser brothers," fratres minores in Latin. The brothers lived a simple life in the deserted lazar house of Rivo Torto near Assisi; but they spent much of their time wandering through the mountainous districts of Umbria, always cheerful and full of songs, yet making a deep impression upon their hearers by their earnest exhortations. (Painting of St. Francis by the Spanish painter Zurburan; text Courtesy of Wikipedia)]

[Lao Tzu. Scholars place his birth between 600 and 300 B.C.E. Lao Tzu is attributed with the writing of the “Tao-Te Ching,” (tao—meaning the way of all life, te—meaning the fit use of life by men, and ching—meaning text or classic). Lao Tzu was not his real name, but an honorific given the sage, meaning “Old Master.”Lao Tzu believed that human life, like everything else in the universe, is constantly influenced by outside forces. He believed “simplicity” to be the key to truth and freedom. Lao Tzu encouraged his followers to observe, and seek to understand the laws of nature; to develop intuition and build up personal power; and to use that power to lead life with love, and without force. (Text and image courtesy of http://www.tuvy.com/blog/2009/07/lao-tzu/)]