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Grex > Iq > #171: The Mysterious Quote Item |  |
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| 25 new of 224 responses total. |
remmers
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response 138 of 224:
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Nov 10 11:45 UTC 2003 |
Not Walt Kelly, but that's the best guess so far. Work by Kelly
and our author originally appeared in some of the same publications.
Note the preoccupation with wealth, power, and far-flung locales in
several of the quotes so far. Those are characteristic of this
author.
Two more quotes:
Quote #1:
Night! Mysterious figures rise from the center of the
water hole. The Raiders of No Issa! Watertight covers
are removed from guns. Breechlocks click. The raid is
on!
Quote #2:
"Turn southward, [name omitted]! I've decided that I shall
be the owner of North America! ... I CAN OWN North America!
This map and the helmet are my deed to the continent! ...
I'll run the country for the benefit of the MUSEUMS!
Everybody will have to go to a museum TWICE a day!"
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polygon
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response 139 of 224:
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Nov 10 14:13 UTC 2003 |
Hmmm, I had been thinking that this might be a cartoonist.
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bhoward
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response 140 of 224:
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Nov 10 15:16 UTC 2003 |
What, like Carl Barks?
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remmers
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response 141 of 224:
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Nov 10 18:01 UTC 2003 |
*Exactly* like Carl Barks. Excellent! We have a winner.
Carl Barks wrote and drew most of the "duck stories" (Donald
Duck and associated characters) that appeared in Walt Disney
comic books from the early 1940s until his retirement in 1965.
He created Scrooge McDuck, Gladstone Gander, the Junior
Woodchucks, and the Beagle Boys.
The quotes above are from Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck stories
originally published from the late 1940s through the late 1950s
in ten-cent Walt Disney comic books. They range in length from
ten-page Donald Duck stories in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories
magazine to longer adventure pieces with titles like "Crown of
the Mayas" and "The Golden Helmet" in the Donald Duck and Uncle
Scrooge magazines.
In my opinion, althought his name is not as well known, Barks'
artistic and narrative abilites were comparable to those of Walt
Kelly, who also worked for Disney as an animator (Kelly's name
is in the "Dumbo" credits) and comic book illustrator during
the 1940s.
Kelly broke free of Disney with his "Pogo" character, first in
comic book form, then as the classic newspaper strip. At that
point, he got to sign his work, and his name became known to
the public at large. Barks, by contrast, remained in the Disney
stable and thus had to work anonymously - artists and writers for
Disney comic books didn't get to claim any credit for their work
in those days. As a result, he developed a large collection of
fans who loved his stuff and recognized it as distinctly superior
to that of other cartoonists writing and drawing duck stories,
but who had no idea who he was and who referred to him simply as
"the good artist".
Soon before or after Barks' retirement from Disney, some
persistent fans managed to uncover his identity. After that
he became a frequent guest at comic book conventions, his duck
stories were reprinted and anthologized, and the original comic
books containing his work became valuable collectors items (a
mint-condition copy of a 1940s comic book containing a Barks
story would probably sell for thousands of dollars today).
In his later years he turned out a series of oil "duck paintings"
based on the original stories that themselves are now collectors
items commanding high prices. A few years ago, when he was in
his 90s, he was guest of honor at an elaborate celebration of
his work at one of the Disney theme parks. Belated, but much
deserved, recognition. Barks died in 2000 at the age of 99.
Barks' stories do tend to exhibit adherence to a formula -
typically some sort of adventure in an exotic land and involving
a long lost treasure. In his later years, Barks remarked that
if he'd known that there would be any kind of long term interest
in his work, he'd have put more effort into varying his plots.
Okay. Bhoward guessed it, so he's up for the next quote.
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mcnally
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response 142 of 224:
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Nov 10 18:38 UTC 2003 |
But who, I wonder, was the creative force behind
"Donald in Mathemagic-Land"? (hmm. Google to the
rescue again..)
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remmers
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response 143 of 224:
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Nov 10 18:45 UTC 2003 |
Dunno, but probably not Barks. Doesn't seem like his style.
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mynxcat
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response 144 of 224:
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Nov 10 22:50 UTC 2003 |
Donald in Mathemagic Land was one of my favoriets.
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bhoward
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response 145 of 224:
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Nov 12 00:06 UTC 2003 |
No fair, Lawrence tricked me into blurting that out :-)
Excuse me while I rummage for an interesting quote.
Unfortunately, I'm at work so you'll just have to wait until
(your) tomorrow morning.
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polygon
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response 146 of 224:
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Nov 20 06:29 UTC 2003 |
It's been a week of tomorrows, and no quote yet, so into the breach
again....
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Death before forty's no bar. Lo!
These had accomplished their feats:
Chatterton, Burns, and Kit Marlowe,
Byron and Shelley and Keats.
Death, the eventual censor,
Lays for the forties, and so
Took off Jane Austen and Spenser,
Stevenson, Hood, and poor Poe.
You'll leave a better-lined wallet
By reaching the end of your rope
After fifty, like Shakespeare and Smollett,
Thackeray, Dickens, and Pope.
Try for the sixties--but say, boy.
That's when the tombstones were built on
Butler and Sheridan, the play boy
Arnold and Coleridge and Milton.
Three score and ten--the tides rippling
Over the bar; slip the hawser.
Godspeed to Clemens and Kipling,
Swinburne and Browning and Chaucer.
Some staved the debt off but paid it
At eighty--that's after the law.
Wordsworth and Tennyson made it,
And Meredith, Hardy, and Shaw.
But Death, while you make up your quota
Please note this confession of candor--
That I wouldn't give an iota
To linger till ninety, like Landor.
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bhoward
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response 147 of 224:
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Nov 20 10:02 UTC 2003 |
(thanks polygon...I've been a bit distracted this week
preparing for a trip back to the states)
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remmers
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response 148 of 224:
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Nov 20 11:43 UTC 2003 |
Hm....
Shaw died in 1950, so the quote has to postdate that. So we're talking
about a latter-20th-century author who wrote at least some humorous
verse.
Odgen Nash comes to mind, but it doesn't sound much like Nash. It scans
too well.
Wild (and probably wrong) guess: Richard Wilbur.
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remmers
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response 149 of 224:
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Nov 20 14:29 UTC 2003 |
(By the way, I assume that the "Landor" referenced in the quote is
Walter Savage Landor. His dates were 1775-1864, so it looks like he
didn't quite make it to ninety, contrary to what the quote says.)
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polygon
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response 150 of 224:
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Nov 20 15:48 UTC 2003 |
Not Ogden Nash. Not Richard Wilbur. But yes, an American.
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polygon
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response 151 of 224:
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Nov 20 15:50 UTC 2003 |
And unlike Landor, the author of the quoted lines did not live to ripe
age.
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polygon
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response 152 of 224:
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Nov 20 15:56 UTC 2003 |
And oh -- an understandable error. Apparently George Bernard Shaw was
living when this was written. The poem predates 1950.
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remmers
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response 153 of 224:
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Nov 20 16:29 UTC 2003 |
Hm, the poem's misleading then, as it implies that Shaw had already
"paid the debt", which I took to mean had "passed on". Shaw was born
in 1856, so if he was in his 80s when the poem was written, that would
put the date no earlier than the mid-1930s. If it's also pre-1950,
that narrows it down to a span of no more than 14 or 15 years.
Okay, an American author active in the 1930s and/or 1940s. I'll
ponder some more...
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md
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response 154 of 224:
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Nov 20 18:53 UTC 2003 |
Reminds me of Samuel Hoffenstein.
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twenex
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response 155 of 224:
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Nov 20 21:15 UTC 2003 |
I'm not clear whether it's clear that George Bernard Shaw was Irish, not
American...
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remmers
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response 156 of 224:
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Nov 20 21:59 UTC 2003 |
It's clear to me. But polygon said that the author (who is not Shaw)
is American.
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twenex
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response 157 of 224:
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Nov 20 22:29 UTC 2003 |
Ah.
Point.
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polygon
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response 158 of 224:
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Nov 21 14:58 UTC 2003 |
Re 153. Yes, the poem was first published when Shaw was in his 80s.
Re 154. Not Samuel Hoffenstein.
Re 155-57. Not George Bernard Shaw.
The author's most famous work (and it is very famous) is in prose, not
poetry. I did not realize the author was also a published poet until I
found this poem. A Google search found references to other poetry.
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slynne
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response 159 of 224:
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Nov 22 03:18 UTC 2003 |
Fitzgerald?
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polygon
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response 160 of 224:
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Nov 23 04:50 UTC 2003 |
Re 159. Bingo! F. Scott Fitzgerald is the author. The poem was first
published in The New Yorker in 1937. Fitzgerald himself died in his 40s.
Though refereces to the title ("Obit on Parnassus") can be found in
Google, the text of the poem does not appear to be online.
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remmers
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response 161 of 224:
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Nov 23 14:30 UTC 2003 |
Interesting. I didn't know that Fitzgerald was a poet either.
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rcurl
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response 162 of 224:
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Nov 23 17:53 UTC 2003 |
There are only sixty or so Fitzgerald poems - how could you know?
http://libweb.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/aids/fitzgerald/
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