Fun Facts Friday: Bill Blackbeard
Fun Facts Friday , Latest Posts / April 29, 2016

Bill Blackbeard (28 April, 1926 – 10 March, 2011) was a founder-director of the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art, a writer, editor, and comic strip collector. By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31636874 Books in which Bill Blackbeard was involved Reporter Kevin Parker said that Bill Blackbeard “saved the American comic strip—all of them.” Mr. Blackbeard started being taken by comic strips at the age of 12, luckily for him recycling was practically non-existent at the time and people kept old newspapers stacked at home. They were more than happy to give them to him. During World War II, Mr. Blackbeard was part of the 89th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squad, 9th Army and served in Belgium, France and Germany. He used to G.I Bill to study history, English and American lit in Fullerton College, California. Along with his wife Barbara and other volunteers, Mr. Blackbeard pent years clipping comic strips from the old newspapers, arranging them in chronological runs of each strip title, and storing them in filing cabinets. It was estimated in 1990 that Mr. Blackbeard has organized 350,000 Sunday strips and 2.5 million dailies. Comic books did not appeal to Mr. Blackbeard, he thought that Superman was “meretricious dreck”. All…

Fun Facts Friday: Henry Fielding
Fun Facts Friday , Latest Posts / April 22, 2016

Henry Fielding (22 April, 1707 – 8 October, 1754) was an dramatist and novelist from England. Mr. Fielding was knwn for this satires and humor. By Unknown – http://www.flickr.com/photos/23239528@N00/2193013977/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7579904 1) Together with his half-brother John, Mr. Fielding, then London’s magistrate, created the Bow Street Runners, London’s first police force. 2) Mr. Fielding studied classical literature at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. 3) His first play, Love in Several Masques, was shown in February 1728 in London, a month before he started his university studies. 4) After he finished his studies, Mr. Fielding worked as a playwright and theater manager. 5) His wife, Charlotte Cradock, whom he married in 1734, was the prototype of Sophia and Amelia, two of his heroines. 6) Charlotte and Henry Fielding had five children together, only one daughter, Henrietta, survived to adulthood.. 7) Mr. Fielding created his comic masterpiece, Tom Jones, in 1749 after the death of his eldest daughter (1742) and beloved wife (1744). 8) Three years after Charlotte passed away, Mr. Fielding married her former maid, Mary Daniel who was pregnant at the time. 9) Mary and Henry Fielding also had five children, three daughters (who died young) and…

Tracey Hecht on Sugar Gliders
Latest Posts / April 19, 2016

The Mysterious Abductions, the first book in Tracey Hecht’s new middle grade series The Nocturnals, is on-sale today. She stopped by the blog to talk about pangolins While writing The Nocturnals, it was really important to me to use the physiologies of the animals and their unique characteristics to inform and develop the characters and enhance the plot and story dynamic. The details I learned about the nocturnal world are constantly inspiring and engaging me. Here are some interesting facts I learned about sugar gliders while researching Bismark. **Sugar gliders are very small with their heads and bodies usually measuring about 12-32cm. They are born weighing less than a gram. Despite their size, they are very energetic and full of personality. (http://animaldiversity.org/) **Sugar gliders are marsupials and are born at a very early stage of development, weighing only a single gram. They continue to grow within their mother’s pouch until maturity and are completely self sufficient in 7-8 weeks. Sugar gliders seek comfort in small dark spaces even into maturity so pet owners often have pouches for them to hide in. (Macdonald, David W. “Marsupials.” The Princeton Encyclopedia of Mammals. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2009. 44-45. Print.) **In the wild, sugar…

Fun Facts Friday: E..Y. Harburg
Fun Facts Friday , Latest Posts / April 8, 2016

E. Y. Harburg (8 April, 1898 – 5 March, 1981) was an American songwriter and book author who is mostly known for his hit songs for Hollywood and Broadway <\p> 1) Born as Isidore Hochberg in New York’s Lower East Side to Jewish immigrants from Russia, he was the youngest of four children (out of 10) who survived to adulthood. 2) His nickname, Yipsel, is Yiddish for squirrel because he was always moving around. 3) He attended high school at Townsend Harris Hall, an experimental school for talented children where he worked at the school newspaper with Ira Gershwin (a fellow student), who later on introduced him to composers and writers. 4) Americana, a 1932 revue, Mr. Harburg worte “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” which was considered to be the anthem of the Depression and an anti-capitalist propgranda. 5) In 1939 Mr. Harburg, along with his long time writing partner Harold Arlen, scored the movie The Wizard of Oz. Mr. Harburg approached the movie as a depression fantasy. 6) The Broadway musical Finian’s Rainbow is considered to be Harburg’s masterpiece. 7) Mr. Harburg was involved in several radical groups (but never of the Communist Party itself) and was blacklisted in…

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