An ongoing project of mine is "Sixth Order of Magnitude: Fainter Literary Lights," which focuses on writers whose work has gotten lost in the shuffle. Why this title for the project? "Sixth magnitude" stars, in astronomy, are stars you can just barely make out with the naked eye. They are often dimmed out by biger, brighter stars near them in the night sky. This is my metaphor for perfectly wonderful literary authors, prose writers, poets, and lyricists who have made worthy efforts which got lost in the glare of a few superstars' celebrity status.
Today's author is Burton J. Rowles.
Rowles' profile of women's prison reformer Miriam Van Waters, The Lady at Box 99, came out in 1962.
In addition to this well-regarded book (published by the Episcopalian publishing house The Seabury Press of Greenwich, Connecticut), Rowles also wrote articles for national magazines, and did work for film and television. He wrote the script for the 1947 documentary "Southern Highlanders."
Personally, I'm not usually interested in fishing as a topic, but Rowles' article in Sports Illustrated drew me in with the title The Bonefish: Ghost of the Shallows
After a health crisis, Rowles was profiled in LIFE magazine. The dramatization he wrote of his experience of having a heart attack at Grand Central Station became the episode "The Long Way Home" in the television series "Robert Montgomery Presents." You can see photos online of the LIFE piece, including the image at the top of this post, which shows Rowles watching the television show.
To finish for today, here's an online version of the biography The Lady at Box 99, which I mentioned at the beginning of this essay.
No comments:
Post a Comment