Hello poets! Have you ever bought a book from a remaindered table and been delighted to discover that you love it? And did that make you wonder how it ever ended up on the sale table? (Hint: we live in a world where Nicholas Sparks is a successful author. To me, that's concrete evidence that we exist inside some kind of sadistic simulation.) In any event, our List this week is taken from just such a novel: The Legacy of Ladysmith by John Kenny Crane.
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| writer at work |
This novel came out in 1986 but it wasn't until 1995 that I bought and read it. I never forgot it afterward. It concerns a writer, Jason Glass (I wonder how he feels about bananafish?) who is researching a mysterious Scottish medical officer from the Boer War named Roberts Menzies. The book is both a sprawling historical tale rooted in actual history, and also a modern-day mystery that takes Jason Glass from St. Louis to Castle Menzies in Scotland and points in between.
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| Castle Menzies |
I don't know what became of author John Kenny Crane after he wrote this. There is almost nothing about him on line except that he published more books long after this one. Perhaps the long break signifies discouragement at having written such a gem, only to see it remaindered? In any event, I intend to re-read it presently, after I finish posting this!
What we do here is to take at least 3 of the 20 words provided and use them in a new original poem of our own. Then just link, visit others, and sit back in your castle affecting a brilliant Scottish accent!
And now, your List:
ambulance
cannon
codebooks
coy
demolished
fog
foreign
hero
hospital
index
initial
knocker
peculiar
reluctant
riddle
river
spectacularly
syntax
translate
wedding