Voltaire, on writing:

 

Writing is the painting of the voice.

- Voltaire.

Recommended reading - The Underground Man

 

The Underground Man

by Ross Macdonald.

# 16 in the Lew Archer series.

Published by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

First published 1971.
Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0679768084
ISBN-13: 978-0679768081
 
Description:

"There are certain books that bide their time, like plants, waiting decades to flower.... If a copy of The Underground Man, a novel from 1971, by Ross Macdonald, has been sitting on your shelf for ages, unread and barely noticed, try opening it now. Suddenly it's a book in full bloom." – Anthony Lane, The New Yorker.

"A more serious and complex writer than Chandler and Hammett ever were." – Eudora Welty.

"Ross Macdonald is an important American novelist!" – San Francisco Chronicle.

"I should like to venture that Ross Macdonald is a better novelist than either...Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler." – Anthony Boucher, The New York Times Book Review.

As a mysterious fire rages through the hills above a privileged town in Southern California, Archer tracks a missing child who may be the pawn in a marital struggle or the victim of a bizarre kidnapping. What he uncovers amid the ashes is murder – and a trail of motives as combustible as gasoline. The Underground Man is a detective novel of merciless suspense and tragic depth, with an unfaltering insight into the moral ambiguities at the heart of California's version of the American dream.

If any writer can be said to have inherited the mantle of Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler, it was Ross Macdonald.  Between the late 1940s and his death in 1983, he gave the American crime novel a psychological depth and moral complexity that his predecessors had only hinted at.  And in the character of Lew Archer, Macdonald redefined the private eye as a roving conscience who walks the treacherous frontier between criminal guilt and human sin.

Born on this day – Madison Cawein:

Madison Cawein

Writer

March 23, 1865 – December 8, 1914

Credits:

A Voice on the Wind and Other Poems (1902); Accolon of Gaul (1889); Blooms of the Berry (1887); Christmas Rose and Leaf (1913); Days and Dreams (1891); Idyllic Monologues (1898); Intimations of the Beautiful (1894); Kentucky Poems (1902); Let Us Do the Best We Can (1909); Library of Southern Literature (1907); Lyrics and Idyls (1890); Minions of the Moon (1913); Modern American Poetry: A Critical Anthology, 4th revised edition (1930); Moods and Memories (1892); Myth and Romance (1899); Nature-Notes and Impressions (1906); New Poems (1909); One Day & Another (1901); Poems by Madison Cawein (1911); Poems of Nature and Love (1893); Red Leaves and Roses (1893); Shapes and Shadows (1898); So Many Ways (1911); The Cup of Comus (1915); The Days of Used to Be (1913); The Garden of Dreams (1896); The Giant and the Star (1909); The Message of the Lilies (1913); The Poems of Madison Cawein. Volumes 1–5 (1907); The Poet and Nature and the Morning Road (1914); The Poet, the Fool and the Faeries (1912); The Republic, A Little Book of Homespun Verse (1913); The Shadow Garden (A Phantasy);  and Other Plays (1910); The Triumph of Music and Other Lyrics (1888); The Vale of Tempe (1905); The White Snake and Other Poems (1895); Undertones (1896); Weeds by the Wall (1901); Whatever the Path (1913).

Born on this day – Erich Fromm:

 

Erich Fromm

Psychologist

Writer

March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980

Born on this day – Tony Burton:

Tony Burton

Actor

March 23, 1937 – February 25, 2016

Credits:

Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago - The Ultimate Director's Cut (2021); Biography (2011); The Rocky Saga: Going the Distance (2011); Hack! (2007); Rocky Balboa (2007); Rocky Balboa (2006); Assault on Precinct 13 (2005); Exorcism (2003); Shade (2003); The Lot (2001); Knockout (2000); The Magnificent Seven (1998); Farticus (1997); Chicago Hope (1996); Poltergeist: The Legacy (1996); Black Rose of Harlem (1996); NYPD Blue (1996); Flipping (1996); Fatal Choice (1995); Cyber-Tracker 2 (1995); Private Obsession (1995); Renegade (1993); The Bulkin Trail (1992); Mission of Justice (1992); Hook (1991); Life Goes On (1991); House Party 2 (1991); The New Adam-12 (1990); Twin Peaks (1991); Rocky V (1990); Over My Dead Body (1990); Equal Justice (1990); Side Out (1990); A Different World (1990); In the Heat of the Night (1990); Amen (1989); Police Story: Cop Killer (1988); Frank's Place (1987–1988); The Law and Harry McGraw (1987); The Magical World of Disney (1987); On Fire (1987); Oceans of Fire (1986); Armed and Dangerous (1986); The Paper Chase (1986); The Fall Guy (1982–1986); Airwolf (1986); James Brown: Living in America (1985); Rocky IV (1985); Beyond Reason (1985); Heart of a Champion: The Ray Mancini Story (1985); Moonlighting (1985); Hardcastle and McCormick (1984); The A-Team (1984); Happy (1983); The Toy (1982); T.J. Hooker (1982); Rocky III (1982); Bret Maverick (1982); Quincy M.E. (1981); CHiPs (1981); The Greatest American Hero (1981); Fitz and Bones (1981); Inside Moves (1980); Stir Crazy (1980); Scared Straight! Another Story (1980); The Hunter (1980); The Shining (1980); White Mama (1980); Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (1980); Skag (1980); Rocky II (1979); The Incredible Hulk (1979); Blackjack (1978); CPO Sharkey (1978); The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries (1978); Heroes (1977); The Rockford Files (1977); Kill Me If You Can (1977); Ransom for Alice! (1977); Sanford and Son (1977); The Six Million Dollar Man (1977); Switch (1977); Gibbsville (1976); Arthur Hailey's the Moneychangers (1976); Gemini Man (1976); Rocky (1976); Good Times (1976); Johnny Staccato (1976); Assault on Precinct 13 (1976); The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976); Trackdown (1976); Future Cop (1976); The River Niger (1976); Harry O (1976); Baretta (1975); The Invisible Man (1975); Kojak (1974); The Black Godfather (1974); The Red Skelton Hour (1969).

On this day in movie history - Forbidden Planet (1956)

Forbidden Planet

directed by Fred M. Wilcox,

written by Cyril Hume,

based on a story by Irving Block and Allen Adler,

was released in the United States on March 23, 1956.

Inspired by The Tempest by William Shakespeare.

Narrated by Les Tremayne.

Music by Bebe Barron and Louis Barron.

Cast:

Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly, Richard Anderson, Earl Holliman, George D. Wallace, Robert Dix, Jimmy Thompson, James Drury, Harry Harvey Jr., Roger McGee, Peter Miller, Morgan Jones, Richard Grant, Robby the Robot, James Best, William Boyett, Frankie Darro, Marvin Miller, Les Tremayne.

On this day in movie history - 4:44 Last Day on Earth (2012)

4:44 Last Day on Earth

directed and written by Abel Ferrara,

was released in the United States on March 23, 2012.

Music by Francis Kuipers.

Cast:

Shanyn Leigh, Willem Dafoe, Tony Redman, Pat Kiernan, Francis Kuipers, Selena Mars, Justin Restivo, Bojana Vasik, Trung Nguyen, Triana Jackson, Dierdra McDowell, Natasha Lyonne, Anita Pallenberg, Paul Hipp, José Solano, Judith Salazar, Paz de la Huerta, Frank Aquilino, Maria Schirripa, Muriel Sprissler Dafoe, Nicholas Deceolia, The Dalai Lama, Al Gore, Anthony Perullo, Charlie Rose, Tyler Stone, Thomas Michael Sullivan, Nicola Tranquillino.

On this day in movie history - Unsane (2018)

Unsane

directed by Steven Soderbergh,

written by Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer,

was released in the United States on March 23, 2018.

Music by David Wilder Savage.

Cast:

Claire Foy, Joshua Leonard, Sarah Stiles, Marc Kudisch, Amy Irving, Colin Woodell, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Lynda Mauze, Zach Cherry, Polly McKie, Jay Pharoah, Raúl Castillo, Juno Temple, Mike Mihm, Robert Kelly, Natalie Gold, Sol Marina Crespo, Will Brill, Steven Maier, Matthew R. Staley, Matt Mancini, Emily Happe, Gibson Frazier, Erin Wilhelmi, Aimee Mullins, Joseph P. Reidy, Matt Damon, Erika Rolfsrud, Elizabeth Goodman, Roshanna Jenkins, Lance Coughlin, Kevin Dean O'Connor, Laura Rothschild, Arthur Shaffer, Ursula Triplett.