February 2, 2021: “Ronald Colman at 130: A Heritage to Cherish and Bequeath”: parkridgeclassicfilm.com/2021/02/02/r... www.amazon.com/Ronald-Colma...

1/2/47: scrapbook labeled in “old English letters”: “Sylvia Plath - 1947.” Pastes in snapshots of herself as a child, of friends, fills up “every empty space with “a more or less running account of my life history and descriptions of my experiences.” www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/T/The-...

2/1/55: “Dearest Beautiful Pretty Miss [Jean] Stein being your sole owner & proprietor takes up all my time.” Asleep or awake, it didn’t matter: “I love you.” He dreamed about her, but wanted to wake up, look at her, and then go back to sleep again. www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/F/Faul...

1/31/43: AP writer describes an “unCalifornia home“on a rise of Beverly Hills, yes, but there isn’t a palm tree in sight. Instead, what first greets you is an English-style garden, with old trees, carefully-tended flower beds, and wide stretches of lawn.” www.amazon.com/Ronald-Colma...

1/31/47: Her diary: “who knows someday you might be in print. Once I start to write it is so hard to stop. There are so many things that I feel deeply about and want to get written down in here before it is to [sic] late and they have slipped away.” www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/T/The-...

January 30, 1963: David Manchin, Heinemann editor of The Bell Jar, writes to congratulate Sylvia on the “excellent reviews that are coming your way.” He asks if they can meet, and they agree on February 12. www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/S/Sylv...

A Frieda Hughes update www.kemifilani.ng/breaking-new...

January 29, 1958: Works on Chapter 3 of The Mansion. President Darden of the University of Virginia rejects the proposal that Faulkner be appointed a permanent member of the faculty. www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/W/Will...

January 29, 1947: Calls basketball her “favorite sport. It is so exciting when the ball teeters breathlessly on the edge of the basket!”https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/S/Sylvia-Plath-Day-by-Day-Volume-1

1/29/90: “…50 years since Ronald Colman…clapped his eyes on the Ojai Valley…Vista Point…trash can was overflowing and a power line obscured the view. But…easy to understand that Shangri-La is not so much one view as many.” “Shangri-La, The American Way” Newsday

1/26/53: Thinks of graduate school in philosophy or psychology or employment in publishing, or in an office, or a Fulbright to England, a year of graduate school perhaps at Columbia, Radcliffe, or Johns Hopkins, a job, marriage www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/S/Sylv...

1/ 26/55, Jean Stein noted their discussion her coming for a weekend in Oxford. She teased him about his servants. Wouldn’t they be upset? He seemed almost angry when he said: “I wouldn’t have any Nigras that I couldn’t control.”https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/F/Faulkner-On-and-Off-the-Page

Los Angeles Examiner (January 26, 1925): “The shadings of emotion, the assumption of a varied and brilliant range of characterizations and sincerity and conviction in every move place Colman high in the site of dramatic figures in the cinema world.” www.amazon.com/Ronald-Colma...

January 25, 1981: “There’s still a nostalgia for charm and gentleness with fortitude, and Colman maintains it well.” (Norman K. Dorn, “Colman’s Touch in Classic Roles,” San Francisco Examiner). www.amazon.com/Ronald-Colma...

January 25, 1945: Writes to Joe C. Brown, an African American school teacher, mentioning their talk three years earlier in front of Neilson’s store on the Oxford Square and his disappointment that Brown has not sent him his poetry. www.amazon.com/William-Faul...

I’m collecting material for a book about Detroit from the 1920s when my mother Polish family arrived to the 1940s when my father was on the police force to my growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, meeting James Allen Jones my second father: youtu.be/nsfDA2IDoyQ?...

1/24/54 Rome: “Happy to be out of snowy Switzerland. 1/24/44: Works on “Roman People Places, and Things”https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/W/William-Faulkner-Day-by-Day; www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/S/Sylv...

On the job

Just published, my review of three biographies of royal. acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:...

January 23, 1951: Writes to Joan Williams presenting himself as a sort of Cyrano figure. www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/W/Will...; “BORN TO WRITE! Sylvia Plath, 17, really works at writing,” calls her “The little Wellesley, Mass blonde,” Peoria Illinois Star. www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/S/Sylv...

Mentions reading Graham Greene’s novel, The End of the Affair, “for me one of the best, most true and moving novels of my time, in anybody’s language.” www.amazon.com/William-Faul...

I had many talks about Orwell with Michael Foot, an editor and contributor to Tribune, including a very funny meeting between Orwell and Arthur Koestler, and also some talk about Orwell’s widow, Sonia. www.amazon.com/Private-Life...

My most popular download this month: www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Ex...

January 21, 1972: “Almost the first thing Richard Hough learned when he went to have tea with Ronald Colman was that nobody’s ever called him Ronnie. Ronald, yes, to a very few close friends. Otherwise, he was Mr. Colman.” (London Evening Standard) www.amazon.com/Ronald-Colma...

January 20, 1945: Premiere of To Have and Have Not with a writing credit for Faulkner. www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/W/Will...

1/20/45: “Today is the biggest day of my life.” Sees The Tempest in Boston: “too perfect for words.” Keeps program as a souvenir, on train home sits next to a “young sensitive boy from the navy.” They talk about travel and Shakespeare. www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/T/The-...

Open for registration: www.rosenbach.org/programs/cou...

One reason why I’m writing a biography of Melville. From White Jacket: “And let us always remember that with ourselves, almost for the first time in the history of earth, national selfishness is unbounded philanthropy; for we can not do a good to America but we give alms to the world.”

January 19, 1944: a cold, plays with her dolls, no “minstrel” Minstrel shows were performed in school: pages.stolaf.edu/americanmusi... www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/S/Sylv...

1/18/47: Dance partners: “no glamour,” “Tall, dark and m-m-m,” “blonde tall and cute,” “Tall, dark, adorable nose,” “Blonde, kinda wish-washy,” “ATOMIC,” “Mortimer Snurd-ish,” “Swooper! neat dancer!,” “super waltzer,” “Perfect dancer…adorable black curly hair.” www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/S/Sylv...

January 18, 1941: Grateful to agent Harold Ober for sending money. “When I wrote you I did not have $15.00 to pay electricity bill with, keep my lights burning.”https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/W/William-Faulkner-Day-by-Day

the New York Times (January 18, 1935), Andre Sennwald concluded: “Ronald Colman, suppressing the debonair manner which has made him one of our finest light comedians, enacts the title rôle with vigor and conviction, providing a touching portrait of a man with a consuming passion for power.”

January 17, 1961: Writes to Richard I. Phillips, Bureau of Inter-American Affairs asking for instructions concerning his visit to Venezuela and the climate. www.amazon.com/William-Faul...

1/17/64: Nicholas arrives in great gush of water drenching Sylvia, Ted, midwife, doctor. She revises earlier depiction of herself as placidly cowlike: ” I am always so broody before a baby is born” She will always deserve another biography because of her polyvalent personality.

1/16/51: “Billy has gotten so touchy we don't dare mention his fame, and believe me, we edge off. He is so very proud and happy over winning the prize, but is his own shy self about publicity,” his mother explained. www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/F/Faul...

1/16/63 exhausted, huge snowfall results in rutted frozen streets, stuck without phone she had been expecting for 2 months, trouble getting good au pair, too weak to cook much, which had always been a solace and pleasure. www.amazon.com/The-Making-o...; you hardcover $4.19, Kindle $3.98

Her diary entry for January 15, 1944 mentions “trying to make a crazy statue of Hitler in the snow with no success.” www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/T/The-...; more on WWII: www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/T/The-...

1/15/44: Christ returns to give humanity “one more chance, will we crucify him again, perhaps for the last time.”https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/W/William-Faulkner-Day-by-Day; more on A Fable: www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/F/Faul...

Some of my audiobooks

1/14/51: Notes on 2 books abt Thomas Mann, still life project in Art, sees All About Eve. www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/S/Sylv...; Proposes Feb mtg with Joan Williams, likes her Mademoiselle story, says she has to be willing to sacrifice everything for her art. www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/W/Will...

January 14, 1951: Taking notes on two books about Thomas Mann, a still life assignment in Art, sees All About Eve www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/S/Sylv...

January 12, 1945: At home listens to The Lone Ranger, collects her poems, stories, and pictures in “From Sylvia’s Scrapbook,” on pastel green and peach paper www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/S/Sylv...; now in audiobook production

January 12, 1951: Marks her calendar “wait.” What could that mean? Answer: As part of her Smith scholarship terms, she waited on tables in Haven House. www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/S/Sylv...

January 12, 1950: In the Oakland Tribune, John Crosby noted how deftly the Colmans had capitalized on their Jack Benny show appearances to become “one of America’s favorite radio couples.”

1/12/70: “I know you are a shy and sensitive person,” Joseph Blotner wrote to Jean Stein: “But…your relationship should not be presented at a lower level of intensity than it possessed.” Stein demurred, but I can now present the full story: www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/F/Faul...

Here is one reason why there will always be another biography of Sylvia Plath. Materials in Box 49 are restricted until January 1, 2059. (Beinecke Library Plath Collection)

1/9/48: Reads over diary: “I must have a one track mind—as Margot puts it (sadly)—I’m ‘boy crazy.’ Well I can’t help that! . . . It is boring, I admit, to read over my accounts . . . when I’ve changed to someone else, but then! It helps to write it down.” www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/S/Sylv...