Toni Morrison, on life & art:

Your life is already artful-waiting, just waiting, for you to make it art.
- Toni Morrison.

Rebecca Stead, on pajamas:

 

Pajamas are good for the soul.

- Rebecca Stead.

I can't imagine a world without art:

Earth without art is just "eh".

- Author unknown.

On this day in movie and book history - The Big Town (1987), The Arm (1967)

The Big Town

directed by Ben Bolt and Harold Becker,

written by Robert Roy Pool,

based on the novel The Arm by Clark Howard,

was released in the United States on September 25, 1987.

Music by Michael Melvoin and Frank Fitzpatrick.

Cast:

Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, Tommy Lee Jones, Bruce Dern, Lee Grant, Tom Skerritt, Suzy Amis, David Marshall Grant, Don Francks, Del Close, Meg Hogarth, Cherry Jones, Alvaro D'Antonio, David James Elliott, Steve Yorke, Chris Owens, Sean McCann, Kevin Fox, Marc Strange, Don Lake, Angelo Rizacos, Chris Benson, Gary Farmer, Diego Matamoros, Sarah Polley, Kirsten Bishop, Kenneth McGregor, Viki Matthews, Cherie McGroarty, Sandy Czapiewski, Marie Siebert, Julie Conte, A.C. Peterson, Sam Malkin, Robert Morelli, Layne Coleman, Lolita Davidovich, William Colgate, William Forrest MacDonald, Len Doncheff, Michael Caruana, Richard Comar, Lubomir Mykytiuk, Robert Ramsay Collins, Errol Slue, Gerry Pearson, Hugo Dann, John Evans, J. Winston Carroll, Diane Gordon, David Berni, Robert Mavor, Robert Minkoff.

Recommended reading:

The Arm

by Clark Howard.

Filmed as The Big Town (1987), directed by Ben Bolt and Harold Becker.

First published 1967.

Published by Fawcett / Gold Medal.

ASIN: B0012513FS

Paperback.

Description:

A high-tension novel of the seething underworld of the professional crapshooter – where the women come easy and the points come hard.

Before young J.C. Cullen hit Chicago, nobody had ever heard of him. But Cully knew he had it- the cool, the guts, the skill, the magic... whatever it took to be a winner. The big-time players in Chicago had never seen anything like him. Within a week he was known in every gambling haunt in the city... every bar, brothel, striptease joint, and backroom. He was Cully the Arm, King of the crapshooters. He was hated, envied, respected... and lonely. Then he met Lorry. Beautiful, tempting, and evil as Hell. As skilled in sex as he was with dice. And far deadlier. The game she played had no rules – and no limit. Cully knew this, but he couldn't stop. Even though the stake was his own life.

Recommended reading – Nightwebs

Nightwebs

by Cornell Woolrich.

Short story anthology.

Includes the short story The Corpse Next Door, filmed as Union City (1980), directed by Mark Reichert.

Paperback.
Published Orion Books.
First published 1971.

ISBN 13: 9780752851709
ISBN 10: 0752851705
ASIN: 0752851705

Description:
“Possibly the finest mystery writer of the twentieth century.” – The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection.

Cornell Woolrich was a haunted man who lived a life of reclusive misery, but he was also a uniquely gifted writer who explored the classic noir themes of loneliness, despair and futility. His stories are masterpieces of psychological suspense and mystery, and they have inspired classic movies like Hitchcock's Rear Window and Truffaut's The Bride wore Black. This collection brings together twelve of his finest, most powerful and disturbing tales.

Contents: Graves for the Living; The Red Tide; The Corpse Next Door; You'll Never See Me Again; Dusk to Dawn; Murder at the Automat; Death in the Air; Mamie 'n' Me; The Screaming Laugh; One and a Half Murders; Dead on Her Feet; One Night in Barcelona; The Penny-a-Worder; The Number's Up; Too Nice a Day to Die; Life is Weird Sometimes.

Born on this day – Saint Francis of Assisi:

Saint Francis of Assisi

September 26, 1181 – October 3, 1226

Books:

Canticle of the Sun: A Hymn of Saint Francis of Assisi (2006); Novenas, Hymns, and Litanies, in Honour of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare (1863); Prayers (1912); The Way of the Cross (2009); The Writings of Saint Francis of Assisi (1906).

Movies and television:

Chiara e Francesco (2007); Francesco (1989); Francis of Assisi (1961); In Search of Francis of Assisi (2018); Search of Francis of Assisi (2018); The Flowers of St. Francis (1950); The Sultan and the Saint (2016).

Born on this day – John Chapman, a.k.a. Johnny Appleseed:

John Chapman
a.k.a. Johnny Appleseed

Missionary

Gardener

September 26, 1774 – March 18, 1845

Books:

Johnny Appleseed and the American Orchard by William Kerrigan; Johnny Appleseed by Reeve Lindbergh; Johnny Appleseed by Steven Kellogg; Johnny Appleseed: A Little Golden Book Biography by Lori Haskins Houran; Johnny Appleseed: The Man, the Myth, the American Story by Howard Means; Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead; Seed by Seed by Esme Raji Codell; The Story of Johnny Appleseed by Aliki; Who Was Johnny Appleseed? by Joan Holub.

Movies and television:

American Legends (2001); From Tall Tales & Legends with Martin Short (1986); Johnny Appleseed (2017); Melody Time (1948).