A Day That Will Live in World History

Today marks the 69th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Below I have included a clip from The Pacific Historic Parks' DVD, Pearl Harbor: A Landmark of History. Over 2300 lives were lost that day.

(U.S.S. Arizona photo source here)

In 1994, my husband and I traveled to Hawaii. Part of our journey included an emotional, haunting visit to the U.S.S. Arizona memorial.

Last year, I visited Washington, D.C. for the first time. I blogged about it for a "My Town Monday" post at Women of Mystery. As a writer, one of the highlights of my trip was seeing a replica of FDR's typewritten draft of his Pearl Harbor address -- with edits -- posted in the Smithsonian, in the National Museum of American History (I took the photos of the draft, and they are unclear; if you visit here, click on the draft photo and you can zoom in).

FDR had crossed out "World History" and replaced it with "infamy."

My grandfather, Edward Welsh, who died from a heart attack at age 47, was born on this day, 101 years ago. On December 7, 1941, my grandparents went out to celebrate his 32nd birthday, and when they returned home, they continued celebrating. My mother was conceived that night; she was born the following year -- on September 11th.

Last year, to commemmorate my grandfather's 100th birthday, I accompanied my mother and two of her siblings to attend mass in his honor at St. Joseph's on Pacific Street, Brooklyn (the church is still undergoing renovations, as evidenced by the scaffolding in the background). My grandfather, the youngest of nine, was born on Pacific Street.

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St. Joseph's has a Facebook page, and so does the National Museum of American History. You can follow @WWIIValorNPS on Twitter.

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The Insight of Maxwell Perkins

On this date in 1884, William Maxwell Evarts Perkins, better known as Maxwell Perkins, was born. He is probably one of the most famous literary editors who ever lived; he worked with Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Thomas Wolfe.

I found some wonderful quotes on the Famous Quotes and Authors site, attributed to the talented Mr. Maxwell, and I wanted to share them with you:

"Every good thing that comes is accompanied by trouble."

"Just get it down on paper, and then we'll see what to do with it."

"Anybody can find out if he is a writer. If he were a writer, when he tried to write of some particular day, he would find in the effort that he could recall exactly how the light fell and how the temperature felt, and all the quality of it. Most people cannot do it. If they can do it, they may never be successful in a pecuniary sense,

but that ability is at the bottom of writing, I am sure."

"I believe the writer... should always be the final judge. I have always held to that position and have sometimes seen books hurt thereby, but at least as often helped. The book belongs to the author."

"You have to throw yourself away when you write."

I'm sure that one or more of these resonates with you.

The beautiful Snapdragon Inn, located in Windsor, Vermont, was once owned by Maxwell Perkins. Looks like a lovely place to visit.

Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg, a 1978 National Book Award Winner, will be going on my TBR pile. The word is that Sean Penn is in talks to portray the famous Scribner editor, based on the Berg biography of Perkins.

Perkins died in 1947 at age 62.

Photo sources: North Carolina Historic Sites and The Snapdragon Inn.