On Garrison Keillor's Writers Almanac Today....

Charles Fort, writer, son of Albany, questioner of scientific certainties, the "Hermit of the Bronx," had his birthday celebrated on today's edition of The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor on NPR.

"Charles Fort was born [August 6, 1874] into a fairly prosperous family of Dutch immigrants who owned a wholesale grocery business in Albany, New York State. He was the eldest of three brothers - the others being Clarence, and the youngest, Raymond. Their mother died within a few years of Clarence's birth and Fort's father married again during Fort's teens."

"Beatings by his tyrannical father helped set him against authority and dogma, as he declares in the remaining fragments of his autobiography Many Parts. Escaping home at the age of 18, he worked as a reporter in New York City before hitch-hiking through Europe "to put some capital into the bank of experience." In 1896, aged 22, he contracted malaria in South Africa and returned to New York where he married Anna Filan (or Filing), an English servant girl in his father's house."

More:  http://www.forteana.org/html/fortbiog.html#hermit

Garrison Keillor visited the Writers Institute (the largest crowd we have been privileged to host) in September 2003: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/keillor_garrison.html

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New Writers Institute Video Postings on You Tube

The NYS Writers Institute has posted a run of short video clips of recent visitors.

http://www.youtube.com/user/NYSWritersInstitute

The materials are unvarnished, without setup. The idea is that you, the viewer, can eavesdrop on a conversation, or stumble upon an author presenting work.

The mix is eclectic, by design. A few poets, an historian, a filmmaker, short story writers, musicians, novelists. Anne Enright, Garrison Keillor, Li-Young Lee, Mary Gordon, Andre Dubus III, Frank McCourt, Major Jackson, etc, etc. A fun clip of One Ring Zero covering a Paul Auster piece. Frank Bidart talking about his first book. Garrison Keillor remembering the encyclopedia. Daniel Cassidy on Irish slang. Marie Howe on the Star Market.

There are too many of clips of authors simply reading their work on the web. We think it's more interesting to talk with them.

There are 18 clips up now, but they will rotate, and there will be more to come. Just a sample of one of the richest audio-video archives of contemporary literature.

Stay tuned.

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