I am thrilled to tell you that this November I have a book coming out about the life and philosophy of Jimmy Stewart, the star of It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Philadelphia Story, Hitchcock’s Vertigo, and many others.
Jimmy’s daughter, Kelly, read the book and said, “This is the memoir Dad should have written but didn’t” and also “Dad would have loved this book.” Kelly very kindly agreed to write the foreword to the book as well.
Although he was one of the most famous and highest paid actors of his day, Jimmy didn’t look to Hollywood or his vocation for meaning in his life. This book talks about how he returned from World War II and discovered how to build a life with real meaning beyond the silver screen. It’s an inspiring book with some great insights from a nearly universally beloved human who had a lot of deep thoughts about how to live a good life.
The book is also coming out the same week will by my friend Aaron Burns’s movie, JIMMY. So this will be a good year for Jimmy Stewart fans!
The book, of course, will be available at all your favorite local bookstores as well as the usual suspects in the corporate book-selling world.
I very much hope you’ll enjoy it!
I’ve talked about the TV show SILO a few times here since my good friend Hugh wrote the novel it’s based on.
Hugh just got to visit set for the last day of shooting. That link will take you to a fun walk through the journey, from uploading a self-published story called WOOL to hanging out with some of the biggest names in Hollywood.
Like most folks these days, I’ve been thinking a lot about war the last few weeks.
Wilfred Owen was a young man and a poet during World War 1. Much of his poetry was written from a war hospital during 1917, where he was recovering from war wounds and shellshock.
Below, please find one of his most famous poems, about some soldiers making their way through a battlefield only to be accosted by poisonous gas.
Allow me to translate the Latin for you, also. The phrase Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori means, “It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country.”
Dulce et Decorum Est
by Wilfred Owen
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Owens was killed in battle on November 4th, 1918. He was 25 years old. Seven days later, the war ended.
Astronomical Spring may still be a week away, but Meteorological Spring has been in full swing for a couple weeks here in the Northern Hemisphere and Bruce and the rest of Nature seem to be enjoying it quite a bit.
Whatever the weather where you are I hope you are loving it, and that you can survey your domain, enjoy the flowers, and find new tasty treats growing all around you. :)
Peace to you this week!
— Matt
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