tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10246709.post4962495211771828595..comments2023-12-22T19:52:13.198-05:00Comments on Fernham: Yes we can! Nothing naive about that.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281027116636227323noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10246709.post-54917615606860302242008-10-13T20:08:00.000-04:002008-10-13T20:08:00.000-04:00As the extremely proud, but not as articulate, aun...As the extremely proud, but not as articulate, aunt of Alex Gallo-Brown, I want to thank you for your praise of his writing and his optimism.C Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08598500930695788895noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10246709.post-3605138673863105622008-10-13T17:29:00.000-04:002008-10-13T17:29:00.000-04:00I wonder what you thought of today's New York Time...I wonder what you thought of today's <I>New York Times</I> article about Senator McCain's literary background:<BR/><BR/>"A descendant of Navy admirals who wrote unpublished novels and quoted Victorian poetry, Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, often surprises aides and friends with his literary musings and bibliophilic appetite. He cites characters from fiction and film as role models...<BR/><BR/>Mr. McCain grew up in a family full of aspiring writers, where “people talked about characters in books as though they were real people,” said Elizabeth Spencer, a novelist and a second cousin of Mr. McCain’s who spent much of World War II with him as a child at the family’s Mississippi plantation.<BR/><BR/>A beloved uncle, Bert Andrews, won a Pulitzer Prize as a reporter for The New York Herald Tribune in 1948. The senator’s grandfather, the first Adm. John S. McCain, had left behind a drawer full of unpublished fiction, including adventure stories under the pseudonym Casper Clubfoot. And the senator’s father, Adm. John S. McCain Jr., loved to recite martial poems to his sons, especially 'Ave Imperatrix,' Oscar Wilde’s eulogy for the waning British Empire."<BR/><BR/>Apparently McCain's favorite novels are Maugham's <I>Of Human Bondage</I> and Hemingway's <I>For Whom the Bell Tolls</I>.<BR/><BR/>I've only read two of Elizabeth Spencer's novels and one story collection, but I'm wondering if she ever used her cousin as the model for a character.Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16428830849524153047noreply@blogger.com