by Peter Cates Adam Had Four Sons Amazon Prime has a large array of vintage films that I have been lately bingeing on and I recently viewed a few choice ones: 1941’s Adam Had Four Sons starred Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982), Warner Baxter (1888-1951), Fay Wray (1907-2004), Richard Denning (1914-1998), and Susan Hayward (1917-1975). The story […]
by Peter Cates Theodore Roosevelt As the 25th former President William McKinley was slowly dying in a bed chamber, in Buffalo, New York, of a gangrenous infection from Leon Czolgosz’s bullet, Vice-President Teddy Roosevelt (1858-1919) was still vacationing with his family high up in the Adirondacks 400 miles due northeast in the Empire State, but […]
by Peter Cates Elisabeth Ogilvie The consistently intriguing Maine Speaks anthology contains a short story, Scobie, by Elisabeth Ogilvie (1917-2006), which was first published in the August, 1951, issue of Woman’s Day magazine. The story is set in a fishing village along the Maine coast and is recounted from the point of view of a […]
by Peter Cates William McKinley In a speech given at the Pan-American Exposition, in Buffalo, New York, on September 5, 1901, (one day before he was shot by the psychotic anarchist Leon Czolgosz), the 25th President William McKinley (1843-1901) stated that “Isolation is no longer possible or desirable….The period of exclusiveness is past.” During his […]
by Peter Cates Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) has recently become my favorite novelist of all, supplanting such favorites as Graham Greene, John Le Carre, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. His combination of slyly understated wit, of a very perceptive awareness of the hearts of darkness in all humankind and of his own genius level of mastery […]
by Peter Cates Benjamin Harrison The 23rd former President Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901) was the grandson of the 9th former President William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) and great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison (1726-1791), one of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence. Like his predecessor/successor Grover Cleveland, Harrison was unwaveringly honest. Unlike Cleveland, he was a believer […]
by Peter Cates Rev. Timothy Dwight During the late 1980s to early ’90s, I taught American lit survey classes for the Houston Community College System in the Lone Star State and used the humongous two-volume Harper American Literature anthology, each consisting of 2,500 pages. Being a bit obsessive compulsive curious about anything and everything, I […]
by Peter Cates Grover Cleveland The 22nd/24th former President Stephen Grover Cleveland achieved distinction in three ways during his years in the White House: 1. He was the only Democrat to be elected president since James Buchanan’s one term ended in 1861 and would remain so until 1913 when the Democrat Thomas Woodrow Wilson would […]
by Peter Cates Margaret Dickson Lewiston-born writer Margaret Dickson published a 1985 novel, Octavia’s Hill, which follows four generations of a family, and from which a chapter was anthologized in the book, Maine Speaks. The excerpt takes place during the horse and buggy days in the very rural community of Monson, itself north of Dexter […]
by Peter Cates Chester Arthur For me, 21st President Chester Alan Arthur (1830-1886) always gave the impression of being a stuffed shirt prig with his Billy goat sideburns and mustache. But, like his predecessors and, as of 2023, his 25 successors, he was certainly a fascinating individual with a story uniquely his own. The tag, […]