Elisa - My reviews and Ramblings

Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent movement, Rimbaud influenced modern literature, music and art. He was known to have been a libertine and a restless soul, travelling extensively on three continents before his death from cancer just after his 37th birthday.

Arthur Rimbaud was born into the provincial middle class of Charleville (now part of Charleville-Mézières) in the Ardennes département in northeastern France. He was the second child of a career soldier, Frédéric Rimbaud, and his wife Marie-Catherine-Vitalie Cuif. His father, a Burgundian of Provençal extraction, rose from a simple recruit to the rank of captain, and spent the greater part of his army years in foreign service. Captain Rimbaud fought in the conquest of Algeria and was awarded the Légion d'honneur. The Cuif family was a solidly established Ardennais family, but they were plagued by unstable and bohemian characters; two of Arthur Rimbaud's uncles from his mother's side were alcoholics.

Captain Rimbaud and Vitalie married in February 1853; in the following November came the birth of their first child, Jean-Nicolas-Frederick. The next year, on 20 October 1854, Jean-Nicolas-Arthur was born. Three more children, Victorine-Pauline-Vitalie (who died a month after she was born), Jeanne-Rosalie-Vitalie and Frederique-Marie-Isabelle, followed. Arthur Rimbaud's infancy is said to have been prodigious; a common myth states that soon after his birth he had rolled onto the floor from a cushion where his nurse had put him only to begin crawling toward the door. In a more realistic retelling of his childhood, Mme Rimbaud recalled when after putting her second son in the care of a nurse in Gespunsart, supplying clean linen and a cradle for him, she returned to find the nurse's child sitting in the crib wearing the clothes meant for Arthur. Meanwhile, the dirty and naked child that was her own was happily playing in an old salt chest.


Le Coin de table by Henri Fantin-Latour, Verlaine and Rimbaud are on the left corner
Arthur Rimbaud sent Paul Verlaine two letters containing several of his poems. Verlaine, who was intrigued by Rimbaud, sent a reply that stated, "Come, dear great soul. We await you; we desire you." Rimbaud arrived in late September 1871. Rimbaud and Verlaine began a short and torrid affair. On the morning of 10 July 1873, Verlaine bought a revolver. That afternoon Verlaine fired two shots at Rimbaud, wounding him. Rimbaud and Verlaine met for the last time in March 1875, in Stuttgart, Germany.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rimbaud

Paul-Marie Verlaine (30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry. (Picture: Paul Verlaine by by Gustave Courbet)

Born in Metz, he was educated at the Lycée impérial Bonaparte (now the Lycée Condorcet) in Paris and then took up a post in the civil service. He began writing poetry at an early age, and was initially influenced by the Parnassien movement and its leader, Leconte de Lisle. Verlaine's first published poem was published in 1863 in La Revue du progrès, a publication founded by poet Louis-Xavier de Ricard. Verlaine was a frequenter of the salon of the Marquise de Ricard (Louis-Xavier de Ricard's mother) at 10 Boulevard des Batignolles and other social venues, where he rubbed shoulders with prominent artistic figures of the day: Anatole France; Emmanuel Chabrier; inventor-poet and humorist Charles Cros; the cynical anti-bourgeois idealist Villiers de l'Isle-Adam; Theodore de Banville; François Coppée; Jose-Maria de Heredia; Leconte de Lisle; Catulle Mendes, and others. Verlaine's first published collection, Poèmes saturniens (1866), though adversely commented upon by Sainte-Beuve, established him as a poet of promise and originality.

Verlaine's private life spills over into his work, beginning with his love for Mathilde Mauté de Fleurville. Mauté became Verlaine's wife in 1870. At the proclamation of the Third Republic in the same year, Verlaine joined the 160th battalion of the Garde nationale, turning Communard on 18 March 1871.

He became head of the press bureau of the Central Committee of the Paris Commune. Verlaine escaped the deadly street fighting known as the Bloody Week, or Semaine Sanglante, and went into hiding in the Pas-de-Calais.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Verlaine

Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time by Elisa Rolle
Paperback: 760 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500563323
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
Amazon: Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time

Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries! I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher


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Dorothy Karen "Cookie" Mueller (March 2, 1949 – November 10, 1989) was an underground American actress, writer and Dreamlander, who starred in many of filmmaker John Waters' early films, including Multiple Maniacs, Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble and Desperate Living.

Cookie Mueller grew up with her parents Frank Lennert Mueller and Anne Sawyer Mueller in the Baltimore suburbs in a house near the woods, a mental hospital and railroad tracks. She was nicknamed Cookie as a baby: "Somehow I got the name Cookie before I could walk. It didn't matter to me, they could call me whatever they wanted." During her childhood Cookie, along with her parents, brother Michael, and sister Judy, took road trips across the country:

"In 1959, with eyes the same size, I got to see some of America traveling in the old green Plymouth with my parents, who couldn't stand each other, and my brother and sister, who loved everyone. [Cookie's brother Michael actually died in an accident on March 20, 1955.] I remember the Erie Canal on a dismal day, the Maine coastline in a storm, Georgia willow trees in the rain, and the Luray Caverns in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia where the stalagmites and -tites were poorly lit."

"Cookie and Vittorio's Wedding" (1986)

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie_Mueller

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G. Luther Whitington was an arts and entertainment reporter for UPI's L.A. bureau. He also served as a magazine editor at The Advocate. He died on November 10, 1992, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 35 years old.

He died of complications from AIDS, his family said.

Mr. Whitington, who was graduated from Georgetown University in 1979, was the senior features editor at The Advocate, a national gay magazine, and had been a contributing editor of Art & Auction magazine. Earlier, he worked as a Moscow correspondent for United Press International.

"While Luther's obituary tells just brief surface facts about him, I learned more from this obituary than I have from my family. I do not remember going to his funeral. He was a specatular journalist and my mom tells me many attended his funeral in Los Angeles. I found two of his pieces on the internet, one featured in the "100 Years of Journalism Excellence" for United Press International from 1907-2007. He wrote an article as a journalist in Russia entitled "Chernobyl Reactor Still Burning." He reported in a dangerous area on the radiation effects of Chernobly, and wrote that the radiation should not reach the U.S. He also quoted a Kiev woman on the disaster. The article provides an insight into hig writing styles: very reportive, to the point, and informational.

I also found a story in "The Sun Sentinel" entitled More Clubs Catering to Cut-ups. The story discusses comedy clubs and the struggle of the comedian. This article, which he collaboratively wrote with two other journalist, shows me his interest in improv comedy and the "boom in the funny business, attribuable to Baby Boomers" that was apparently happening in 1987, when the article was written. Recently, I have attended several comedy shows at Rooster T. Feather's on El Camino.


AIDS Quilt

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Source: http://webpages.scu.edu/ftp/mwhitington/whowasluther.html

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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is revered as the Father of Modern Turkey. He had also numerous young male lovers, throughout his lifetime. As biographer Patrick Balfour put it, “Women, for Mustafa, were a means of satisfying masculine appetites, little more; nor, in his zest for experience, would he be inhibited from passing adventures with young boys, if the opportunity offered and the mood, in this bisexual fin de siècle Ottoman age, came upon him.”

Atatürk became famous during World War I when he defeated the British who were attempting to land at Gallipoli. He opposed the Turkish government’s decision to surrender to the Allies and organized an army of resistance based at Ankara. They defeated the Allied occupation forces, deposed the sultan, and formed the Turkish republic. Atatürk became its first president.

Source: Stern, Keith (2009-09-01). Queers in History: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Historical Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals (Kindle Locations 1689-1696). Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition.

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Roland Emmerich is an A-list Hollywood director specializing in films that explore the sometimes rocky relationship between humans and aliens. In 1994 his Egyptian-flavored sci-fi/action flick Stargate was a surprise hit, spawning a long-running TV series.

When asked by a reporter about his fascination with extraterrestrials, Emmerich wondered aloud what it would be like to wake up one morning with fifteen-mile-wide spaceships hovering over major world cities. He turned to his producer Dean Devlin and said, “I think I have an idea for our next film.” This scenario played out in Independence Day, one of the most successful films of all time.

Emmerich followed up Independence Day with the maligned reboot of Godzilla, and then switched gears with Mel Gibson in The Patriot. More recent endeavors include the hits The Day After Tomorrow and 10,000 BC.

Openly gay, Emmerich has donated to the Legacy Project to preserve gay and lesbian films. He also rallied supporters of Hillary Clinton, hosting her at his Hollywood home in 2007 for a fundraiser during her run for the presidency.

Source: Stern, Keith (2009-09-01). Queers in History: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Historical Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals (Kindle Locations 4616-4625). Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition.

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Terence Davies won the 1998 International Critics Award at Cannes for Distant Voices, Still Lives. The film went on to acclaim and popularity with audiences around the world. In 1992 he followed it with The Long Day Closes, which received similar accolades.

Davies’ third film, The Neon Bible, is set in the American South of the 1920s and ’30s. Gena Rowlands stars as an over-the-hill nightclub singer who returns to her small hometown, where she encourages her young, introverted nephew to come out of his shell. She also inspires him to rebel against strict religion and morality, with tragic results.

Davies has said the heroes in his films tend to be women because “being gay, I feel uncomfortable with men.”

Source: Stern, Keith (2009-09-01). Queers in History: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Historical Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals (Kindle Locations 4129-4135). Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition.

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Mary Calmes lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband and two children and loves all the seasons except summer. She graduated from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, with a bachelor's degree in English literature. Due to the fact that it is English lit and not English grammar, do not ask her to point out a clause for you, as it will so not happen. She loves writing, becoming immersed in the process, and falling into the work. She can even tell you what her characters smell like. She loves buying books and going to conventions to meet her fans.

Further Readings:

Change of Heart (Change of Heart Series) by Mary Calmes
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (November 8, 2009)
Amazon Kindle: Change of Heart (Change of Heart Series)

Change of Heart: Book One

As a young gay man—and a werepanther—all Jin Rayne yearns for is a normal life. Having fled his past, he wants nothing more than to start over, but Jin’s old life doesn’t want to let him go. When his travels bring him to a new city, he crosses paths with the leader of the local were-tribe. Logan Church is a shock and an enigma, and Jin fears that Logan is both the mate he fears and the love of his life. Jin doesn’t want to go back to the old ways, and mating would irrevocably tie him to them.

But Jin is the mate Logan needs at his side to help him lead his tribe, and he won’t give Jin up so easily. It will take time and trust for Jin to discover the joy in belonging to Logan and how to love without restraint.

More Spotlights at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Lists/Gay Novels



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November 2013 marks the 7th anniversary since I opened my first journal (and yes, I have an itch, but I will scratch it!), on LJ, and the 5th anniversary of the Rainbow Awards. So, of course I decided for a big bash party. 187 authors, all of them in the 2013 Rainbow Awards, have donated or an ebook, or a print book, and I will use them for a Treasure Hunt. Every day, for all November, I will post 6 excerpts (a random page of the book). No reference to title, or author, or publisher. You have to match it with the book ;-) comment on the blog (do not leave anonymous comments, if you post as anonymous, leave a contact email (comments are screened)), you can comment 1 time for more matchings (you can even try for all 6 books if you like, so 6 chances to win every day). Until the end I will not say which matching is right, so you will have ALL month to try. No limit on how many books you can win, the more you try the better chance you have to win. End of November, among the right matchings, I will draw the winners. So now? let the game start!

Be aware that these previous excerpts: 11, 23, 25, 31, have not yet been matched, so if you go back there is good chance to win them!

The books are (Author - Title - Format of prize):

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Previous Post: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3921866.html

Today excerpts are:

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