Citizendia
Your Ad Here

Eugene Walter (1921-98) should not be confused with the playwright Eugene Walter (1874-1941).

Eugene Walter, 1921-March 29, 1998, was an American screenwriter, poet, short-story author, actor, puppeteer, gourmet chef, cryptographer, translator, editor, costume designer and well-known raconteur. Year 1921 ( MCMXXI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1921 calendar of the Gregorian calendar Events 1461 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Towton - Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) A friend once observed that Walter had lived a "pixilated wonderland of a life. "

Contents

Biography

Walter was born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, which he described as "a separate kingdom. We are not North America; we are North Haiti. " Walter and Truman Capote became acquainted in Mobile as children, a time when Capote was known as Bulldog Persons. Truman Capote (ˈtruːmən kəˈpoʊti ( 30 September, 1924, New Orleans Louisiana – 25 August, 1984, Los Angeles Walter was labeled "Mobile's Renaissance Man" because of his diverse activities in many areas of the arts. In later life, he maintained a connection with Mobile by carrying a shoebox of Alabama red clay around Europe.

During World War II, Walter spent three years in Alaska as an Army cryptographer. A resident of Greenwich Village during the post-WWII years, he pioneered an early form of happening by staging a spontaneous and unannounced group performance in the sculpture garden of the Museum of Modern Art. A happening is a performance event or situation meant to be considered as Art. He relocated in the 1950s to Paris, where he helped launch the Paris Review, contributing to the publication's earliest issues with text, art, and interviews. The Paris Review is an English-language Literary magazine based in New York City. His short story "Troubador" appeared in the first issue. His Paris Review interviews included Isak Dinesen [1] and Robert Penn Warren. Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke ( April 17, 1885 &ndash September 7, 1962) Née Karen Dinesen, was a Robert Penn Warren (April 24 1905 &ndash September 15 1989 was an American poet Novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. [2] In 1960, for Transatlantic Review, he interviewed Gore Vidal. Transatlantic Review, founded and edited by Joseph F McCrindle was published in London and New York although the first two issues were produced in Rome Gore Vidal (born October 3 1925 ˌgɔər vɪˈdɑːl or /vɪˈdæl/ is an American Novelist, Screenwriter, Playwright, [3] After his return to Mobile, Eugene Walter kept on writing, publishing, and promoting the arts and culture. By special resolution of the city of Mobile, Alabama, he was buried in the historic Church Street Graveyard in his hometown. Church Street Graveyard is a historic city Cemetery located in Mobile Alabama.

Films

Living in Rome during the 1960s and 1970s, Walter was a translator for Federico Fellini. Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI ( January 20 1920 &ndash October 31 1993) was an Italian Film For different film companies, he translated hundreds of scripts. He appeared as an actor in more than 20 feature films, notably as the American journalist in Fellini's 8½ (1963). 8½ (pronounced For Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits (1965), he played the role of the Mother Superior and collaborated with Nino Rota on the song, "Go Milk the Moon" (cut from the final version of the film). Juliet of the Spirits (Italian Giulietta degli spiriti) is a 1965 Surrealist drama film about an Italian housewife directed by Federico Nino Rota ( December 3, 1911 &ndash April 10, 1979) was an Italian Composer best known for his work on Film scores Rota and Walter teamed again for the song "What Is a Youth" for Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968). Franco Zeffirelli, KBE (born Gianfranco Corsi on February 12, 1923) is an Italian Film director.

Books

His books include Monkey Poems (1953), The Byzantine Riddle (1980) and The Untidy Pilgrim (1954), a novel recently reprinted by the University of Alabama Press. He also compiled several cookbooks: Delectable Dishes From Termite Hall (1982) and the bestselling American Cooking: Southern Style, part of Time-Life's Foods of the World series. Hints & Pinches (1991) is an encyclopedic coverage of more than 150 herbs, spices, chutneys and relishes. He contributed to numerous magazines, including Food Arts, Gourmet, Old Mobile and Harper's Bazaar. Gourmet magazine is a monthly publication of Condé Nast Publications (which also produces its sister publication Bon Appétit) Harper's Bazaar is a well-known American Fashion Magazine, first published in 1867 His essay "Front Porches" is an evocative portrait of Mobile in 1929:

Old black men with sugarcane stalks over their shoulder would come passing by. Children selling cut flowers, stolen from that morning's funeral wreaths at Magnolia Cemetery. The scissors grinder with his fascinating emery wheel-on-wheels. The pot mender with his bits of lead and solder and strange tools and a spirit lamp. The postman always stopped for a word. Conversations went on, corn was husked, beans hulled or snapped, rice picked over, coffee grounds, beads restrung, paper wicks folded for next winter's fireplaces — somehow a whole world was encompassed, seized, dealt with before noon. [4]

His literary awards include a Rockefeller-Sewanee Fellowship, an O. Henry citation, the Lippincott Award for fiction and the Prix Guilloux. O Henry is the Pen name of American Writer William Sydney Porter ( September 11, 1862 – June 5 He returned to Mobile in 1979 and died there of liver cancer in 1998.

Katherine Clark began interviewing Walter in 1991 for an oral biography, and Milking the Moon: A Southerner's Story of Life on This Planet was published by Crown on August 21, 2001, three years after Walter's death. Events 1192 - Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the De facto ruler of Japan. Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. Shelved in bookstores during the three weeks prior to 9/11, the book has a paragraph describing reactions to the performance art he staged in the 1940s at the Museum of Modern Art. Yet Walter's words were suddenly synchronistic and eerily prophetic: "You could tell he was the guy who sees a train wreck, or a skyscraper collapse, and he's never got his camera when he needs it. "

Jonathan Yardley reviewed Milking the Moon in The Washington Post:

To Katherine Clark, who sat with Walter for four months in the spring and summer of 1991 while he talked into her tape recorder, we owe an incalculable debt. Not merely has she rescued him from manifestly unwarranted oblivion, but she has edited his oral history into a book as amazing as the man itself. . . Of all the characters whom we meet in these pages, by far the most interesting and endearing is Walter himself. He may have been a minor figure in literary and cinematic circles, but he never had any illusions about his own grandeur, and he was grateful for everything his work and friendships brought him. His curiosity was bottomless, and he followed wherever it led: "I really am like old America: just get up and get in the covered wagon and go three thousand miles because you want fresh air. . . Most people really don't take chances, you see. They wanted to go. But they didn't have the -- I don't know what it is. It's not courage. It's not ambition. It's cat and monkey spirit. Let's see what's over there. Let's just have a look. "
Perhaps all of us harbor, somewhere deep inside, a free spirit yearning to break loose, but few of us have the. . . whatever. . . to go ahead and let it do so. Eugene Walter did, and led a life with "more delights than regrets. " The story of that life, as told here, is absolutely over-the-top, a treasure, a wholly unexpected surprise. Not since John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces -- another posthumous book by another unknown Southerner -- has a book come from so completely out of the blue to give me so much pleasure. John Kennedy Toole ( December 17, 1937 &ndash March 26, 1969) was an American Novelist from New Orleans Louisiana A Confederacy of Dunces is a Novel written by John Kennedy Toole, published in 1980, 11 years after the author's Suicide. [1]

Eugene Walter: Last of the Bohemians is a documentary in production by Waterfront Pictures.

There are two compact disc releases of Walter reading his own works. Rare Bird is a sampler of Walter at his best and includes "The Byzantine Riddle. " Monkey Poems is faithful to the 1953 book that is the source. Both CDs feature cover art by Walter. Produced by Charlie Smoke and Barry Little with permission from Walter's estate, these CDs are available from Nomad Productions, Inc. [2]

References

  1. ^ Yardley, Jonathan. "The Life of the Party". The Washington Post, August 19, 2001.
  2. ^ Nomad Productions, Inc: Eugene Walter

Listen to

Sources

External links

WorldCat is a Union catalog which itemizes the collections of more than 10000 libraries which participate in the OCLC global cooperative
© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic