It's the birthday of the screenwriter and novelist Dalton Trumbo, (books by this author)born in Montrose, Colorado (1905). He is best known for the novel Johnny Got His Gun (1939), and for writing the screenplay for the movie version of that book, and for being blacklisted from Hollywood for belonging to a Communist organization. Trumbo attended the University of Colorado, but transferred to the University of Southern California when his family moved to Los Angeles in 1923. He dropped out of college and worked in a bakery for six years because he wanted to teach himself to write. Trumbo estimated that he wrote eighty short stories and six novels during that time, all rejected by publishers.
I read the Writer's Almanac for today with great interest. Dalton Trumbo is among my early influences. I read Johnny Got His Gun around the same time I read Agee's A Death In the Family.
I loved Trumbo's novel, not only because it's good writing, but because there was a war going on, and my brother was there. Johnny Got His Gun, became, for me, an eye opening experience, and, although the novel is set during WWI, I would always think of it as an "anti-Vietnam" war novel.
The Writer's Almanac also reveals about Trumbo that he did a great deal of his writing in the bathtub. This is something I have in common with him. In fact, I wrote several of the stories in my latest collection in the tub.
I can't tell you how many books and journal pages I have dropped into my bathtub waters. In Chicago for the AWP Writer's Conference this past March, I bought a book of poetry by Matthea Harvey called Pity The Bathtub Its Forced Embrace Of The Human Form. It ended up, guess where, churning in the waters of my warm tub, and before I ever left Chicago.
While writing one of the stories in my latest collection, I dropped my journal into the water, and the ink started bleeding. I rushed to get on a robe and get to my computer to type in the story before it disappeared completely. I wonder if this ever happened to Dalton Trumbo?
4 comments:
I'm a shower person, and I always get the best ideas in there. I find myself repeating them over and over in my head until I can get out of the shower to hold onto them long enough to get them written down. I've lost more than I can count. I wonder what it is about those daily ablutions that bring out the ideas.
Comment from sistercdr - 12/9/04 3:30 AM
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------NOTE: I did this entry in the wee hours of the morning. I did the writing first then saved it with the intention of adding the pictures afterwards. Before I could finish the entry, Cynthia (sistercdr) had already commented! Then while trying to fix my initial entry, I somehow ended up with two entries. I had to delete the first, which had Cynthia's response. I copied her response before I deleted the entry and it is above. Sorry about all the confusion!
Didn`t know `bout the bathtub!
V
I cannot tell you how many books I had to get wet! A tub of hot water , apot of hot tea, a book and orange slice candy is a great way to relax.
"Trumbo estimated that he wrote eighty short stories and six novels during that time, all rejected by publishers."
Wow!! That is discouraging.
http://journals.aol.com/veovus79/AntiquatedImpulsiveness
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