COUNTENANCE

Why do so many of them look like this? What is it about being an author that makes so many of them look derelictic?

This photo is of George Bernard Shaw. A highly respected writer though I never knew quite why. I've read him, I've taught him, but with not much

enthusiasm. From the looks of him, it appears he penned his work in that same vein.

I don't need to make a list of authors that look frumpy, frazzled, forlorn, and far out. Faulkner, ok, I said I wasn't going to list them. You can check some of them out if you can find an old gin kind of card game called Authors. I don't know if they even make the game any more, and it would be a whole lot simpler to Bing some writers. Maybe you need no convincing.

But what this entry was supposed to be about (I do that a lot; that is, I start with an idea, run a rabbit trail, change my mind, get another angle, or just change for change's sake) is why they look that way. Is it because they know? They know the heartaches of living. They've been able to see what the rest of us can't. They are such writeaholics that they cannot take time to be kempt. Kempt must be a word since unkempt is. They are such perfectionists that it takes so much time honing their crafts that they get that look, along with getting old. Or, they're just weird.

Take your pick. I have no answer as usual. But if you play that card game, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a keeper. Don't discard him, because he'll show up again and you can make a book (how apropos) with him and his weird name.

Why do authors have such weird names? Maybe next time.