I was born in Maryland and spent my first thirty years living there, first in the Appalachian Mountains, then on the Eastern Shore, and later in suburban Washington. After a year in South Carolina, I moved to Georgia in 1977. I soon met another park ranger who worked in Florida. She was a wonderful woman who became my best friend. then my wife, and soon the mother of our three children. I spent over eleven years working in the historic city of Savannah, Georgia, and on the moss-draped sea islands nearby before moving to Atlanta.. In 2007, I retired from the National Park Service and a career dedicated to preserving and interpreting resources and themes in the cultural and natural history of the United States. It was a most rewarding experience. Today, I enjoy living in the rolling hills and woods of the Appalachian Piedmont east of Atlanta.
For more information on Winston Churchill go here. And here - thanks to Steven Hayward writing at Power Line - is a teachable moment from the great political philosopher, Leo Strauss, on hearing of Churchill's death in 1965. Finally, we cannot forget Churchill as a historian. He was both an extraordinary observer and compelling writer. New readers should start their journey with My Early Life: A Roving Commission, first published in 1930. It's a personal favorite and a book I believe will lead others to read more from this masterful writer.
The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Space Trilogy, Mere Christianity, Surprised By Joy. These books, known throughout the world, came from the pen of Clive Staples (C.S.) Lewis, one of the last century's leading scholars, novelists, and Christian apologists, born on this day in 1898. I was introduced to the author through a gift. My best friend gave me a copy of The Four Loves as medication for a wounded relationship with Marti, the girl of my dreams at the time. Eventually, she rekindled a friendship with a professor of English at UNC Chapel Hill and from my perspective the story of their relationship was left to Heaven. On the other hand I was left with a life-long literary relationship with Lewis.
C.S. Lewis in 1947 Arthur Strong
Lewis had a extraordinarily broad literary career immersed in a world of teaching and scholarship that included a close friendship with his colleague, J. R.R. Tolkein. Like most writers he appreciated his privacy but was by no means reclusive and fondly recalled as an excellent lecturer and conversationalist who loved humor. It's unfortunate that we have so little audiovisual material featuring Lewis but there is one brief tape from the World War II era where he discusses topics that would later be incorporated into his book, Mere Christianity:
From this writer's perspective, if you cannot enjoy a Lewis book you simply haven't read enough of his work. Readers of any age and ability will surely find something of interest among his more than eighty titles of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Choose...and enjoy.
Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.
from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis, 1950
Sources Text: title quote, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 1952
In his own time he was so eccentric his neighbors and friends perceived him to be a madman. As an engraver and illustrator he was caught between the decline of the guilds and the rise of industrialization. It was a time when men saw the value of their labors swept away from the cottage and into the factory under the watchful eye of the manager. For workers, the loss of autonomy, the shift in control and production, and the helplessness in the face of change led to a revolt against the Age of Reason and a rage against technologies it spawned. William Blake was born into this environment on this day in 1757. Two centuries later he would be recognized as both one whose vision, imagination and sensitivity were unmatched in the Age of Romanticism, and a truly unique influence in the history of the Western world.
William Blake Thomas Phillips, English, 1807
He who binds himself to a joy
Doth the winged life destroy
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in Eternity's sunrise
Eternity, William Blake, 1803
There is one certainty about Blake's work and that is its complexity. He is by far one of the most interesting visionaries to come out of the West and its traditions. I learned much from this artist and philosopher in an effort to balance my life between intellect and emotion. So far it's been a beautiful, productive, and fascinating journey. These works have been a part of that experience:
The Ancient of Days William Blake, 1793
In the following illustration Blake depicts his character, Urizen, [You rising] as reason shaping the world and its experience. This engraving is also interpreted as God the Father [and often God the Son] as divining existence. It is a prime example of the complex and often confounding world of Blake's imagination.
Newton William Blake, 1795
Here Blake depicts Isaac Newton [and the Age of Reason] at the bottom of the sea shaping (the dividers, once more) the world of humankind on the earth. Newton has turned his back on the organic beauty of God's natural world.
The Descent of Peace William Blake, 1815
Here, the Angel of Peace descends forcibly out of heaven illustrating God's reason (the dividers) brought into the world in the form of his Son to reconcile Nature (the recline female nude) and a redeemed humanity And finally we have one of Blake's most familiar pieces. his preface to Milton: A Poem in Two Books. The preface says much about Blake's philosophy opposing the Age of Reason as embodied in Greek and Roman thought and the dangers a reliance on intellect can bring to a world based equally on emotion. Furthermore, the preface is a perfect illustration of Blake's religious mysticism as well as his veneration of Milton.
The stolen and perverted writings of Homer and Ovid, of Plato and Cicero, which all men ought to contemn, are set up by artifice against the Sublime of the Bible; but when the New Age is at leisure to pronounce, all will be set right, and those grand works of the more ancient, and consciously and professedly Inspired men will hold their proper rank, and the Daughters of Memory shall become the Daughters of Inspiration, Shakspeare and Milton were curb'd by the general malady and infection from the silly Greek and Latin slaves of the sword. Rouse up, O Young Men of the New Age! Set your foreheads against the ignorant hirelings! For we have hirelings in the camp, the Court, and the University, who would, if they could, for ever depress mental, and prolong corporeal war. Painters! on you I call. Sculptors! Architects! suffer not the fashionable fools to depress your powers by the prices they pretend to give for contemptible works, or the expensive advertising boasts that they make of such works; believe Christ and His Apostles that there is a class of men whose whole delight is in destroying. We do not want either Greek or Roman models if we are but just and true to our own Imaginations, those Worlds of Eternity in which we shall live for ever, in Jesus our Lord.
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills.
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.
Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets. Numbers xi, ch. 26
Many readers are likely familiar with this piece through Sir Hubert Parry's magnificent anthem, Jerusalem, as orchestrated by Edward Elgar.
To see a world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour
from Auguries of Innocence, William Blake, 1803
Sources
Photos and Illustrations: wikipedia.com Blake portrait, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. Newton, Tate Gallery, London, U.K.blakearchive.org/Blake
Text: wikipedia.com, Blake entry blakearchive.org/Blake bartleby.com/235/284.html Jacob Bronowski, A Man Without A Mask, Seeker and Warburg, London, 1944
On this day (November 26) in 1876, Willis H. Carrier, was born into an old New England family. By the turn of the century, he developed a system of conditioning air in a stiflingly hot and humid Brooklyn printing plant. The new environment ensured stability in the paper, perfect alignment of four-color printing, and a more efficient and comfortable work force. It was soon a huge success in several industries. By the 1920s, air conditioning became popular in retail trade and entertainment, especially the movie theater. It was a small jump from commercial systems to home systems and by the 1930s air conditioning began a slow but steady increase in usage until the post World War II era when it boomed.
Carrier posing with a 1922 model chiller
Carrier's application would have far reaching impacts on the American experience. Regionally, air conditioning made the South livable during long hot summers. The result was a massive shift in population and jobs from North to South beginning in 1960's. It is a trend that not only continues today but also shows no sign of stopping. These days we take the comfort of air conditioning for granted across the nation giving it attention only when it's either time to change the filter or repair a compressor.
For interested readers, here is a link for more information on the impact of air conditioning on the American experience:
Johnny Mercer statue, Ellis Square, Savannah, Georgia
November 18, marks the 108th anniversary of the birth of John Herndon (Johnny) Mercer (1909-1976). For fans of the Great American Songbook, this is a significant event. Mercer won four Academy Awards for Best Original Song and had another twelve nominations. Indeed he was quite a music master. Born into wealth in Savannah, Mercer often recounted how his Aunt Hattie hummed to him in his crib and "he hummed right back at her." It was the beginning of a musical career that would produce more than 1500 published songs, a few thousand more unpublished songs and song fragments, scores of poems and prose pieces, an unfinished autobiography, and a major chapter in the history of American music in the twentieth century. In Mercer's Savannah, a rich Southern culture blended with a diverse and exciting port city. He spent his childhood fascinated by train and ship whistles, and the sounds and rhythms drifting from the black churches around town. He was thrilled by the chance to slip away from his mother's watchful eye and visit the black business district on West Broad Street - now MLK Boulevard - where he listened to race records. The family's summer home on the Vernon River, about ten miles south of town, immersed him in the natural world of Georgia's tidal creeks and salt marshes. By his teen years, he loved hearing the dance and jazz bands every summer at the famous Tybrisa Pavilion on nearby Tybee Island. He also began writing songs and skits for his student productions at Woodberry Forest School in Virginia. When the family business failed in the late '20s, any hope of returning to Woodberry or attending college dimmed. He grew bored at home and shipped off to New York to become a Broadway performer. The demand for singers was weak, but he began tinkering with lyric writing when he wasn't singing or working odd jobs. Here is his first published song lyric:
Lyrics are meant to be heard, but it's not always easy to appreciate them without the poetry on the page, so here is a sample of that early genius as work:
Out of Breath (1930)
lyrics by Johnny Mercer music by Everette Miller
Mine's a hopeless case, But there's one saving grace, Anyone would feel as I do; Out of breath and scared to death of you. Love was first divined, Then explored and defined, Still the old sensation is new; Out of breath and scared to death of you. It takes all the strength that I can call to my command, To hold your hand. I would speak at length About the love that should be made, But I'm afraid. Hercules and such Never bothered me much, All you have to do is say "Boo!" Out of breath and scared to death of you.
Yes, it's pretty simple, comic stuff, but it had flashes of wordplay and bouncy rhythm. It was perfect for the Garrick Gaieties Revue of 1930 on Broadwa. And it marked the beginning of an amazing career in the American music industry.
Over three decades Mercer wrote the lyrics to hundreds of songs, collaborating with the country's top music writers, including Harold Arlen, Bernie Hannigan, Hoagy Carmichael, Harry Warren, Gene DePaul, Henry Mancini, Jerome Kern, Rube Bloom, and Matty Malneck. In 1971, Mercer appeared in what he called a "parlor evening" performance as part of the 92nd Street Y's Lyrics and Lyricists Series. At the end of the program, Mercer delivered an unforgettable medley of his "bread and butter" songs. I'd say most songwriters and performers would be pleased to have five songs in such a list. Mercer had twenty-nine. Regardless of your age and interest in popular music, you may be surprised at how many of these songs you recognize:
Lazybones (1933), music by Hoagy Carmichael
Goody, Goody (1936), music by Marty Malneck
Too Marvelous For Words (1937), music by Richard A. Whiting
Jeepers Creepers (1938), music by Harry Warren
Satin Doll (1958), written with Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn
You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby (1938), music by Harry Warren
That Old Black Magic (1943), music by Harold Arlen
Accentuate the Positive (1944) music by Harold Arlen
Fools Rush In (1940), music by Rube Bloom
I Remember You (1942), music by Victor Schertzinger
Day In - Day Out (1939), music by Rube Bloom
Dearly Beloved (1942), music by Jerome Kern
Come Rain or Come Shine (1946), music by Harold Arlen
Tangerine (1942), music by Victor Schertzinger
Hooray For Hollywood (1938), music by Richard A. Whiting
Laura (1945), music by David Raksin
Dream (1944), words and music by Johnny Mercer
On the Atcheson, Topeka and the Santa Fe (1946, Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song), music by Harry Warren
Something's Gotta Give (1954), words and music by Johnny Mercer
One For My Baby (1943), music by Harold Arlen
In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening (1951, Academy Award for Best Music, Oroginal Song), music by Hoagy Carmichael
Skylark (1941), music by Hoagy Carmichael
Autumn Leaves (1950), music by Joseph Kosma
I Wanna Be Around (1962), words and music by Johnny Mercer and Sadie Vimmerstedt
Blues in the Night (1941), music by Harold Arlen
Charade (1963), music by Henry Mancini
Summer Wind (1965), music by Henry Mayer
Moon River (1961, Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song), music by Henry Mancini
Days of Wine and Roses (1962, Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song), music by Henry Mancini
That's plenty of "bread and butter" on one man's plate, but we need to keep in mind that he had seven more songs nominated for an Academy Award that never made it into the medley. What a talent, in fact, a universal talent. He not only composed melodies but also wrote lyrics, sang a wide range of songs, performed in films, kept the nation laughing with his comedy on radio and television, and would go on to co-founded Capitol Records and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Even forty years after his death, older generations in Savannah still recognize Mercer as the city's favorite son and a beloved sentimental gentleman from Georgia. We have come a long way from the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950's and its dominance in the family tree of popular music. Still, the Great American Songbook, that generation of music beginning around 1930 and continuing into the early 1960's, has found a comfortable niche among music lovers around the world. Many songs in that now-tattered "book" belong to Mercer and stand in tribute to a man described as America's folk-poet and top song lyricist in our history.
Sources
Text:
Johnny Mercer: The Life, Times, and Song Lyrics of Our Huckleberry Friend, Bob Bach and Ginger Mercer, The American Poet and Lyricists Series, Lyle Stuart, October 1982.
Skylark: The Life and Times of Johnny Mercer, Philip Furia, St. Martin's Press, December 2004.
Portrait of Johnny: The Life and Times of John Herndon Mercer, Gene Lees, Hal Leonard, February 2006.
The Complete Lyrics of Johnny Mercer, Johnny Mercer, edited by Kimball, Day, Kreuger, and Davis; Knopf 2009
Johnny Mercer: Southern Songwriter for the World, Glenn T. Eskew, University of Georgia Press, 2013
Veterans Day began as Armistice Day, marking the end of World War I on "the eleventh day of the eleventh hour of the eleventh month" of 1918. Today, this holiday honors the men and women who have defended the United States through service in the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard.
In my family I knew only three veterans, all uncles, one serving in World War I and the other in World War II.
My Great Uncle George, standing on the left with his fire brigade in Jacksonville, Florida, served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army in World War I, the Great War. To him, this day was Armistice Day. I was ten when he died and didn't know him, but much of what he was as a veteran is present in my house. His portrait hangs just off our foyer. The pocket Bible he carried is in a keepsake cabinet nearby along with his military issue binoculars and a silver-plated swagger stick - a gift from his unit - made from machine gun shells casings and the Seal of the U.S. Army. The last item is one he never saw, but it summarized everything he did as a soldier. That item is the flag that covered his coffin. To my knowledge, it's still in the original triangle fold made the day he was buried sixty years ago.
The other veterans, Uncle Hollis - better known as "Red" - and Uncle Charles both served in the Pacific during World War II. In 1943-44, Red was assigned to Barber's Point Naval Air Station in Hawaii while his brother-in-law, Charles, served at Pearl Harbor. The facilities were a mere five miles apart but almost one year passed before they knew they were so close. On hearing the news, they resolved to meet for a photograph at the first opportunity. And here it is, taken at Waikiki with Red (l) and Charles (r) together at last.
Both returned safely to their Potomac Valley hometowns in the Appalachian Mountains near Cumberland, Maryland. Hardly a decade passed before the declining economy in the region forced them to relocate to better job opportunities. Red moved his family to Akron, Ohio and a career with Goodyear Tire and Rubber. Charles took his family to the booming oil industry in Houston, Texas and work in real estate management. Both are gone now, along with their wives, Edith and Dorothy, and contact with the cousins is infrequent these days.
I am not a veteran. I'll never experience how military service shapes a person inside. But I do count many veterans of the Vietnam, Gulf. Afghanistan, Iraq wars and other military operations among my friends. They taught me more than any book that the cost of freedom is not free. Each of them paid a very personal price that enables us to enjoy life in this bountiful nation today. On this, their day of honor, I offer up to all of them my sincerest admiration and thanks for their service.
The Second Continental Congress established the Continental Marines, later designated the United States Marine Corps, on this day in 1775 in Philadelphia. Marines have served in every American armed conflict.
Thanks and best wishes to Marines everywhere, especially to my fellow historian, never-ending inspiration, and former National Park Service colleague, Edwin Cole (Ed) Bearss, who turns 95 next June.
With Thanksgiving a few weeks away it's also time to think about entertaining at those Christmas, New Year's, and Twelfth Night parties and other special events. Long-time readers know one of my favorite preparations for those occasions is Savannah's very own concoction known as Chatham Artillery Punch. If you assemble your batch this week it should be perfect for sharing on December 4 when artillerymen honor Saint Barbara, their patron saint.
This is a deliciously smooth, flavorful and potent drink to be enjoyed responsibly in an appropriate setting. Keep in mind the longer it ferments, the more powerful, deceptive and tasty it becomes. If made this week, by Christmas it should be legendary. There is a point - say after two months - at which it becomes a lightly fruited rumtopf, and a perfect topping for ice cream or bundt. I suspect however that using it in Old Savannah as something other than a beverage would be a sacrilege.
In the past I've posted a recipe for 50 servings but this year it's reduced by half for two reasons. First, it's an expensive endeavor, and, second, a small cup can be enjoyed for a long time. The origin of today's recipe is lost to history but the assemblage of scattered notes over the decades - like the spirits themselves - produces a deliciously potent punch. A Georgia National Guard newsletter noted that a pair of soldier's socks, the stockings of a soldier's wife, and sand from Iraq were added to the punch in 2006. We're not going that far.
For 25 servings of Chatham Artillery Punch:
1 quart of strong green tea (soak about 1/4 pound of tea for a day, then strain)
Juice of 5 lemons 10 ounces brown sugar 1 quart Catawba wine (a muscadine wine may be easier to find and works as well) 1 quart Santa Cruz rum (use Virgin Islands style rum, light or dark) 1 pint brandy 1 pint dry gin (I like the flavorings in Bombay Sapphire) 1 pint rye whiskey (Bulleit 95 Rye Small Batch is a perfect choice) 1.5 pints Queen Anne cherries 1.5 pints pineapple chunks 1.5 quarts champagne
To prepare, sterilize a crock or similar vessel. Mix the tea and lemon juice, then dissolve the brown sugar and gently stir in all the alcohol except the champagne. Add the cherries and pineapple chunks carefully. Cover the crock tightly and sit aside in a cool, dark place for at least one week - a month is better. Careful sampling is permitted to insure the fermentation process is working as planned. To serve, pour the mixture carefully over a block of ice, add the champagne, and stir gently. IMPORTANT: Never refrigerate to cool ahead of serving or serve with ice cubes.
Enjoy!
Distinctive Unit Insignia of the Chatham Artillery
The Chatham Artillery survives today as the 1st Battalion of the 118th Field Artillery Regiment of the Georgia National Guard. Their latest service was in Iraq. Their annual banquet is moving into its third century.
Gram Parsons spent his brief musical life searching for what he called "cosmic American music," a sound emerging out of gospel, R&B, country and rock traditions. He was born on this day in 1946 into a wealthy Florida family, a circumstance that encouraged both his exploration of music and the drug abuse that killed him in 1973 (September 17). Parsons performed with The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers before attempting a rocky solo career that went nowhere until he met a young singer in Washington, D.C. Her name was Emmylou Harris. Parsons soon partnered with Harris and they went on to produce some of the finest sounds from the early fusion days of country and folk-rock. With his passing, one of American music's greatest inventors was stilled, but others, including Emmylou, would use his inventions and adapt them over the next forty years into the country rock music we know today.
Parson would have been 71 today. Here are the Byrds performing his song, "One Hundred Years From Now," on their groundbreaking album - and Parsons's concept - Sweetheart of the Rodeo:
With barely a decade of musical composition and performance behind him Gram Parsons made a lasting and profound impression on American popular music. We will continue to hear that influence for a long, long time.
If the American Revolution hadn't killed the celebration of Guy Fawkes Day on this side of the Atlantic, OSHA certainly would have done it in by now. Brits still celebrate the day about four hundred years ago when an attempt by the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the House of Lords and King James I was foiled with the arrest of Guy Fawkes who had been assigned to guard the explosives. Most Americans probably know the man and the day from the film, V for Vendetta, and the following poem:
The Fifth of November
Remember, remember!
The fifth of November,
The Gunpowder treason and plot;
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!
Guy Fawkes and his companions
Did the scheme contrive,
To blow the King and Parliament
All up alive.
Threescore barrels, laid below,
To prove old England's overthrow.
But, by God's providence, him they catch,
With a dark lantern, lighting a match!
A stick and a stake
For King James's sake!
If you won't give me one,
I'll take two,
The better for me,
And the worse for you.
A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope,
A penn'orth of cheese to choke him,
A pint of beer to wash it down,
And a jolly good fire to burn him.
Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring!
Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King!
Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray!
Much of the religious bitterness has passed and Guy Fawkes Day is no longer an official holiday. Still, it's a fine opportunity to celebrate by lighting bonfires, marching in vast torch light parades or igniting fireworks just as celebrants did days after Fawkes's arrest.
When the sun sets and it's time for the FIRE!
I have a feeling this is reminiscent of Independence Day celebrations across the United States about a century ago. Frankly, I'd love to see it happen again.
