Celebrating The Trust for Public Land

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Trust for Public LandLeave a comment

I knew nothing about The Trust for Public Land (TPL) until I served on the Historic Preservation Commission in a small town in northeastern Georgia about ten years ago.  While our mission was established by state law as a guardian of historic buildings and neighborhoods, TPL sent our commission a complimentary subscription to its biannual publication “Land and People.”

We strongly supported the concept of “adaptive reuse,” the refurbishing of older buildings for purposes other than those for which they were designed as an alternative to tearing them down. Our awareness of the positive ways these buildings remain viable and fit into the community was fueled by TPL’s ideas for the viable use of the land around them.

The purpose of TPL appears as follows on its mission page:

“Quality parks and green spaces are fundamental for sustaining equitable, resilient communities. Access to nature and the outdoors—close to home, in the cities and communities where people live—is a matter of health, equity, and justice. That’s why we work alongside communities across the country to create, protect, and steward the nature-rich places that are vital to human well-being.

“We’re driven by four commitments: equity, health, climate, and community.”

As they say, they work “to connect everyone to the joys and benefits of the outdoors.”

The publication brings news of their stories, as they call them, places across the country where the land’s use has been restored and/or transformed to benefit a community, including:

  • Addressing climate change with schoolyards.
  • The creation of a waterfront park in San Francisco’s India Basin.
  • Preserving and supporting African American Heritage in Orlando’s South Street Casino and Wells’Built Hotel.
  • Planting more trees in urban neighborhoods

These stories show what can be done and provide ideas for communities seeking examples of what they can do to connect people and the land.

—Malcolm

The bumpy ride of ‘The Blue Bicycle’ by Régine Deforges

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn booksLeave a comment

Somehow, my wife got a copy of The Blue Bicycle in the mid-1980s, possibly from one of several people with whom she traded books, and it didn’t take long for her to discover that the book was similar to Gone With the Wind. Too similar, we thought.

The author was sued for plagiarism by American Trust Company Bank who represented the rights to the Margaret Mitchell novel. Deforges, a popular French author, lost the case and was ordered to pay $330,000 in damages. The book was a bestseller in France.

However, according to the New York Times, Deforges was cleared on appeal in 1990. The French “appeals court agreed that Miss Deforges’s book began with a character similar to Miss Mitchell’s Scarlett O’Hara. But it said the two novels then followed different paths.”

Deforges died in 2014. The book is still available on Amazon.

From the Publisher

“‘The little savage from Montillac’ is what her suave lover Francois calls Lea, the passionate heroine of this frankly lush, romantic novel of France during the war years 1939-1942. Daughter of a rich wine grower in Bordeaux, Lea sees her adored childhood sweetheart, Laurent, married to his cousin, namby-pamby Camille. Lea has lovers but never stops carrying the torch for Laurent, while tending pregnant Camille during Laurent’s service at the front, holding down the family estate of Montillac, where Germans are billeted, and cycling through occupied checkpoints with messages for the Resistance. Deforges, a bestselling writer in France, gives us moving scenes of civilian panic and carnage and glimpses of Paris high life enjoyed by collaborators and black-marketeers. Radio broadcasts by the still unknown de Gaulle, and defeatist Petainhead of the Vichy puppet regimefire French patriotism and keep the underground going. Plenty of entertainment here, and echoes of Gone with the Wind, though it’s hard to tell what lusty Lea sees in Laurent.”

I taught college-level communications law. By no means an expert, I do not agree with the appeals court’s decision because I think the material Deforges copied went beyond the scope of fair use.

–Malcolm

 

Watching ‘Friendly Persuasion’ Again and Still Enjoying the Story and Performances

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Film, writingLeave a comment

“Friendly Persuasion is a 1956 American Civil War drama film produced and directed by William Wyler. It stars Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins, Richard Eyer, Robert Middleton, Phyllis Love, Mark Richman, Walter Catlett and Marjorie Main. The screenplay by Michael Wilson was adapted from the 1945 novel The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West. The movie tells the story of a Quaker family in southern Indiana during the American Civil War and the way the war tests their pacifist beliefs.” – Wikipedia

My pacifist beliefs were in their formative stages when this film was released, so I had many reasons for wanting to see it. I liked the film when I saw it in 1956 in the shadow of the Korean War and during an era when the Southern States still took a great deal of pride in their fight against the Union in the Civil War.

For those of my generation, I think “Friendly Persuasion” still holds up well, though I’m fair certain the light-hearted touch–rather a Disney-like approach–would be criticized today for its reliance on humor within the Quaker family more than its portrayal of more true-to-life battle scenes.

The film was drawn from the 1945 novel of the same name by Jessamyn West, a Quaker who wrote a plotless novel story about Quaker life. She was drawn into the making of the film through her willingness to pull together materials from her novel about the Civil War era that would make a cohesive story for the movie.

I found it interesting that while West was working on the book, she had tuberculosis from which she wasn’t expected to recover. Family stories about growing up as a Quaker were shared with her by family members, and had a strong influence on the first edition.

There are many types of Quaker beliefs, so I did not agree with those who criticized the movie for purported inaccuracies in dogma.

Fans of Gary Cooper will like his out-of-type performance in this film.

—Malcolm

With no outline, whatever happens is a surprise

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn writingLeave a comment

A few of my posts have mentioned the benefits I see in writing novels without the constraints of an outline.

Among other things, the freewheeling approach makes writing the book as much fun as reading the book. Every time I start a new chapter, I have no idea what’s coming.

In my novel-in-progress, an FBI agent is in an abandoned house with her prisoner. She glances out one of the back windows and sees 25 armed women standing at the edge of the woods behind the house. Seems like they’re planning to storm the place.

I wasn’t ready for this! Now I’ve got to figure out what the agent will do to get out of the potential mess. She can’t start shooting because many of the women are her friends.  She’s in disguise, so they won’t know her, and that’s good. I think. Maybe.

No outline = fun and/or thrills and chills at the keyboard.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of the four books in the Florida Folk Magic Series. They’re available in multiple formats including a Kindle volume that contains the whole series.

‘Journeys Out of the Body’ by Robert Monroe

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn new age, writingLeave a comment

“According to his own account, while experimenting with sleep-learning in 1958 Monroe experienced an unusual phenomenon, which he described as sensations of paralysis and vibration accompanied by a bright light that appeared to be shining on him from a shallow angle. Monroe went on to say that this occurred another nine times over the next six weeks, culminating in his first out-of-body experience (OBE). Monroe recorded his account in his 1971 book “Journeys Out of the Body” and went on to become a prominent researcher in the field of human consciousness. Monroe later authored two more books on his experiments with OBE, Far Journeys (1985) and Ultimate Journey (1994).” – Wikipedia  

(Learn More About Monroe in Ronald Russell’s book shown above with a link to its Amazon page)

From the Publisher

“The definitive work on the extraordinary phenomenon of out-of-body experiences, by the founder of the internationally known Monroe Institute.

“Robert Monroe, a Virginia businessman, began to have experiences that drastically altered his life. Unpredictably, and without his willing it, Monroe found himself leaving his physical body to travel via a “second body” to locales far removed from the physical and spiritual realities of his life. He was inhabiting a place unbound by time or death.

“Praise for Journeys Out of the Body

“Monroe’s account of his travels, Journeys Out of the Body, jam-packed with parasitic goblins and dead humans, astral sex, scary trips into mind-boggling other dimensions, and practical tips on how to get out of your body, all told with wry humor, quickly became a cult sensation with its publication in 1971, and has been through many printings. Whatever their ‘real’ explanation, Monroe’s trips made for splendid reading.” —Michael Hutchinson, author of Megabrain

“‘Robert Monroe’s experiences are probably the most intriguing of any person’s of our time, with the possible exception of Carlos Castaneda’s.’ —Joseph Chilton Pierce, author of Magical Child

“‘This book is by a person who’s clearly a sensible man and who’s trying to tell it like it is. No ego trips. Just a solid citizen who’s been ‘out’ a thousand times now and wants to pass his experiences to others.'” —The Last Whole Earth Catalog

Related Sources

The Monroe Institute – “Founded in 1971 by Robert A. Monroe, the Monroe Institute is widely recognized as a leading center for exploring and experiencing expanded states of consciousness. For over 50 years, our immersive programs have empowered participants to undergo profound transformations, gaining a fresh outlook on life and discovering a deep sense of purpose.”

HemiSync – “Combining rich atmospheric tones with ambient instrumentals and electronic accents, this peaceful composition leads you to a place of deep inner stillness. The Hemi-Sync® frequencies are designed to gently hold you in a state of “no time” — the perfect setting for escaping the rigors of the day, where you can relax and allow the tranquility to permeate your mind, body and soul. Length: 40 minutes.”

—Malcolm

PEN AMERICA MOURNS THE DEATH OF ‘WRITER’S WRITER’ PAUL AUSTER

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn authors, writingLeave a comment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 1, 2024

MANHATTAN, NY, AUGUST 19, 2022 Paul Auster reads a passage from Salman Rushdie’s book at a PEN America rally at the New York Public Library in Manhattan, NY. Photo by ©Jennifer S. Altman All Rights Reserved

(NEW YORK) — PEN America mourns the death of prolific author and longtime friend of PEN Paul Auster, who died on Tuesday at age 77. Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, said the following:

“In addition to shaping the worldviews of generations of Americans through his bracing and beloved novels, Paul Auster was a writer’s writer, consistently standing in solidarity with authors in China, Iran, Russia and around the world who were persecuted for what he was able to do freely: exercise his imagination and tell stories.  A dean of New York City’s literary community, he was a friend and mentor to many and a treasured colleague and stalwart supporter of PEN America and writers in need everywhere.”

Auster, who once served as the Vice President and Secretary of PEN America, and his wife Siri Hustvedt have been active supporters of PEN America’s efforts on behalf of jailed writers worldwide. They joined other members of the literary community in PEN America’s event in support of Salman Rushdie after the horrific attempt on his life in 2022.

Auster participated in the PEN World Voices Festival and numerous other PEN events, including a 2009 event where he read a series of autopsy and death reports of detainees held in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, and another where he read new poems from Liu Xiaobo, who received the 2009 PEN/ Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.

‘The Demon of Unrest’ by Erik Larson

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn booksLeave a comment

Larson

The Bibliography of the American Civil War says there are over 60,000 books about the war in print. If I were an editor at Crown Publishing  Group and received a proposal via an author’s agent for yet another book, my primary thought would be “What will this book add to the discussion.” No doubt I would be influenced by a proposal from the author of The Devil in the White City which made a big splash in 2003.

Larson writes on his website, “At the heart of the story is a mystery that still confounds: How on earth did South Carolina, a primitive, scantily populated state in economic decline, become the fulcrum for America’s greatest tragedy? And even more bewildering, what malignant magic brought Americans on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line to the point where they could actually imagine the wholesale killing of one another?”

If these thoughts were part of Larson’s agent’s proposal on my desk, I would want to read more. When Larson’s readers see the listing for this book, due to be released at the end of May, they’ll also want to read more, according to, well, me.

From The Publisher

“The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War—a simmering crisis that finally tore a deeply divided nation in two.

“A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, People, Time, Los Angeles Times, Men’s Health, New York Post, Lit Hub, Book Riot, Screenrant

“On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter.

“Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were “so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.”

“At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between them. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous secretary of state, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable—one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans.

“Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late.”

From Publishers Weekly

Sumter – 1861 Photo

“In this twisty and cinematic account, bestseller Larson (The Splendid and the Vile) recreates the five-month period between Abraham Lincoln’s 1861 election and the outbreak of the Civil War, focusing on the intensifying showdown over Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C., where Maj. Robert Anderson, the U.S. Army commander, faced a swelling Confederate force with his outgunned garrison of 75 soldiers. Larson mirrors Anderson’s struggle to hold his post while avoiding provocations that might lead to war with Lincoln’s tightrope-walk attempt to stand firm against secession without goading the South into it. As he traveled to Washington, D.C., to take office—arriving in disguise after dodging a rumored assassination plot in Baltimore—Lincoln vacillated over whether to resupply Fort Sumter or surrender it.” – Publishers Weekly

—Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell, author of magical realism and contemporary fantasy novels, previously served as a book reviewer for a Georgia regional magazine.

Bad Plants – White Snakeroot

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn plants, writingLeave a comment

“Milk sickness, also known as tremetol vomiting or, in animals, as trembles, is a kind of poisoning, characterized by trembling, vomiting, and severe intestinal pain, that affects individuals who ingest milk, other dairy products, or meat from a cow that has fed on white snakeroot plant, which contains the poison tremetol.” – Wikipedia

White Snakeroot

Milk sickness, which likely killed Nancy Hanks, Abraham Lincoln’s mother, used to be prevalent in newly settled areas in the Middle West before farmers knew White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima) with its charming and showy flowers was toxic and that when cattle rate it, they passed the poison along to humans.

Anna Pierce Hobbs Bixby is credited with discovering the plant’s toxicity of the plant to livestock and humans with the help of a Shawnee medicine woman.  She died about 1870, but her research about white snakeroot wasn’t published until the 1920s.

Amy Stewart, in Wicked Plants, writes that Bixby campaigned to eradicate the plant but that  “her attempts to notify authorities fell on deaf ears, perhaps because women doctors were not taken seriously.”

Like other poisonous, but beautiful, wildflowers, white snakeroot is often used in gardens featuring other dangerous ornamentals such as moonflowers and foxglove.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of folk magic novels set in Florida.

Thank goodness I didn’t see ‘Night Watch’ when it first came out in 1973

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Film, writingLeave a comment

I would have been ticked off paying for the tickets.

My wife and I were looking through the movies on DISH for something but didn’t really find it. The night before, we watched “Elvis” (2022 with Austin Butler and Tom Hanks) which we liked, so we took a chance on “Night Watch.”

What a mess. I liked Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey in “Butterfield 8,” but I didn’t think the same kind of chemistry was there in this mystery/thriller. Very different roles to be sure, but even so, I think the most patient viewers would have gotten tired of Taylor’s repeated claims that there were dead people in the boarded-up house next door. Frankly, Taylor–whose character was recovering from a nervous breakdown–was over the top manic about the dead people which nobody else saw, including the viewers and the police.

The reviews were mixed, “Time Out called it a “tired, old-fashioned thriller”; whereas The New York Times wrote, “Elizabeth Taylor, and about time, has got herself a good picture and a whodunit at that”; and Variety opined, “Lucille Fletcher’s Night Watch isn’t the first average stage play to be turned into a better than average film. Astute direction and an improved cast more than help”. – Wikipedia

“Tired” and “old-fashioned” summed up my reaction. But then, I never liked Laurence Harvey, merely tolerating him in “Butterfield 8.” How many of you have seen this film, either at the theater when it came out or years later on a satellite or cable channel? Did it seem tired to you? Would you have gone nuts if you ever saw bodies in your neighbor’s house on a dark and stormy night?

–Malcolm

Blinken must raise Tibet, Panchen Lama on China trip

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Tibet, writingLeave a comment

April 23, 2024

by International Campaign for Tibet

US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken must raise the “deteriorating” situation in Tibet both privately and publicly during his trip this week to China, the International Campaign for Tibet said today.

ICT, an advocacy group that promotes human rights and democratic freedoms for the Tibetan people, sent a letter to Blinken today, 22 April, 2024, on behalf of its roughly 50,000 members in the United States. Blinken is scheduled to visit China 24-26 April.

In the letter, ICT President Tencho Gyatso urges Blinken to “raise the issue of Tibet during your meetings with Chinese leaders later this week as well as publicly in front of the press.”

The topics for Blinken to address include China’s kidnapping of the Panchen Lama, the high-ranking Tibetan Buddhist leader who will turn 35 during Blinken’s trip; China’s attempts to interfere in the succession of the Dalai Lama, who is now 88; and China’s responsibility to resume negotiations with Tibetan leaders to resolve Tibet’s status.

China has occupied Tibet, a neighboring country in the Himalayas, for over 65 years, turning it into one of the worst human rights crises in the world. Under China’s iron rule, Tibet now has a global freedom score of 0 out of 100, according to the watchdog group Freedom House. Click here to read more.