Happy Birthday, Gelett
Today in Boston in 1866 (Frank) Gelett Burgess was born.
He wrote more than 35 books of fiction and nonfiction, including Lady Méchante or Life As It Should Be (which is funny), as well as several plays, and he coined the word "blurb". But he is best known for this (which has a title I never knew till today):
Purple Cow: Reflections on a Mythic Beast Who's Quite Remarkable, at LeastThis poem haunted his life , eventually causing him to write this little sequel:
I never Saw a Purple Cow;
I never Hope to See One;
But I can Tell you, Anyhow,
I'd rather See than Be One.
Confession: and a Portrait Too, Upon a Background that I Rue
Ah, yes, I wrote the Purple Cow;
I'm sorry now I wrote it;
But I can tell you, Anyhow,
I'll Kill you if you Quote it.
(But he's dead, so I'm not afraid.)
1 Comments:
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At 9:26 AM, February 01, 2010
Stan had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->Thank you for this post. It is nice to be reminded of Mr Burgess; I've written about him on a couple of occasions. He was quite the neologiser.
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