The first female to win a Pulitzer for Drama and the French inventor of the hot air balloon. Poem by the birthday writer.
The date is August 26th, Monday, and today I’m coming to you from Portland, OR.
Today is the birthday of Zona Gale, American writer.
Zona Gale upon returning to her small hometown in Wisconsin at the age of 28, she found it rife with material. She moved home and devoted herself full-time to writing.
Gale attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI receiving a Bachelor’s and Master’s in literature. Before settling back into her hometown she wrote for newpapers in New York City and Wisconsin.
As she worked on her novels, Zona Gale published poetry and short stories, using connections from her newspaper days to find periodicals to submit her work. She published her first novel in 1906 and found national success with her 1920 novel Miss Lulu Betts.
Miss Lulu Betts told the story of a young single female who is able to pull herself up by the bootstraps despite the limited opportunities afforded by her small Midwestern town.
Gale adapted Miss Lulu Betts for the stage where it enjoyed further acclaim. Gale received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921 for it, making her the first female to be awarded the prize for drama.
Zona Gale was an active proponent for women’s rights in her home state of Wisconsin. An unmarried woman, in a small Midwestern town, it’s likely Gale was met with a certain amount of contempt by neighbors. She enjoyed frequent travels to New York City and California both for business and pleasure.
In total, Zona Gale wrote 12 novels, numerous short stories, and 7 plays in addition to a collection of poetry.
Today is the birthday of Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, French inventor.
Born in 1740, Joseph-Michel was the 12th born of the 16 Montgolfier children. He was apparently a dreamer from a young age. With an older brother lined up to overtake the Montgolfier family business, perhaps Joseph-Michel didn’t feel the need to pick up financial or management skills. And when his older brother unexpectedly passed away, it was Joseph-Michel’s younger brother, Jacques-Étienne, who was selected to lead the family business when the time came.
Joseph-Michel Montgolfier had an early interest in aeronautics. As a young teen he built himself parachutes, once jumping from the top of the family home to test one.
One day, Montgolfier was contemplating some laundry drying on a line over a fire. He noticed that several items were billowed open and would float up. Intrigued by the phenomenon, he constructed a small wooden rectangle and fastened fabric about the top of it. He lit a crumpled up piece of paper underneath the thing and was delighted to see the fabric billow open and the whole thing lift off the ground.
With his brother Jacques-Étienne, Joseph-Michel Montgolfier was able to develop hot air balloons, launching the flying craze in Europe. After successfully sending up a few animals in one of their balloons, in 1783 a Montgolfier hot air balloon was the first manned flight recorded in Europe.
The Dining Room
Zona Gale
I laid the blue dishes on the table.
The dining room was still and sunny.
Zinnias were in a brown basket,
The grape-fruit plant was glossy in a window.
Skillful fingers had wrought the border of the curtain.
My grand-mother’s blue pitcher was on the side-board.
There were chestnut leaves in the brown rag.
Barometer and thermometer recorded miracle on the rose wall.
Dark wood paneled and beamed us in together.
As I worked with these exquisite patient familiar things let me within.
They let me look with their eyes, feel with their beating pulses of hurrying molecules.
I perceived how locomotion and consciousness and self-consciousness have advanced us.
By what means shall we go forward now?
Does anyone wonder at my slow patience as I wonder at the slow patience of these exquisite and familiar things?
Wishing you a good morning, a better day, and a lovely evening.