He died far too young. Famous After Death - But not in name

Famous After Death

John William Polidori

John William Polidori was an author and a doctor. He died aged only 25.

He was born on 7 September 1795 in London and received his degree as a doctor of medicine on 1 August 1815, aged just 19.

The following year, Dr. Polidori entered Lord Byron's service as his personal physician and accompanied him on a trip through Europe. Publisher John Murray offered Polidori 500 English pounds to keep a diary of their travels. Polidori's nephew William Michael Rossetti later edited them. At the Villa Diodati, a house Byron rented by Lake Geneva in Switzerland, the pair met with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, her husband-to-be, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and their companion (Mary's stepsister) Claire Clairmont.

Frontispiece from the original German version of Fantasmagoriana.

One now famous June night they read aloud from Fantasmagoriana, a French collection of German horror tales. Byron suggested they each write a ghost story. Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote 'A Fragment of a Ghost Story' and wrote down five ghost stories recounted by Matthew Gregory "Monk" Lewis, published posthumously as the Journal at Geneva (including ghost stories) and on return to England, 1816, the journal entries. 

Mary Shelley worked on a story with her husband that would later become Frankenstein. Byron wrote but quickly abandoned, a fragment of a story, 'A Fragment', featuring a character called Augustus Darvell. Polidori later used this as the basis for his own story, 'The Vampyre', the first published modern vampire story.

Polidori's conversation with Percy Bysshe Shelley on 15 June 1816 is regarded as the origin of Frankenstein. They discussed 'the nature of the principle of life.'  'Shelley and I had a conversation about principles - whether man was to be thought merely an instrument.'

 

Dismissed by Byron, Polidori traveled in Italy and then returned to England. His story, 'The Vampyre', which featured the main character Lord Ruthven, was published in the April 1819 issue of New Monthly Magazine without his permission. Much to both his and Byron's annoyance, 'The Vampyre' was released as a new work by Byron. Byron's own vampire story 'Fragment of a Novel' or 'A Fragment' was published in 1819 in an attempt to clear up the confusion, but 'The Vampyre' continued to be attributed to him.

Polidori's long, Byron-influenced theological poem The Fall of the Angels was published anonymously in 1821.

Polidori, weighed down by depression and gambling debts, died in London on 24 August 1821. Despite strong evidence that he committed suicide by means of prussic acid, the coroner concluded that he had died by natural causes.

 

Other people who became Famous After Death

A.J. Langford Books

I DO NOT! (Or did I already do it?)

 

Warning - Rant Ahead. 

This was written in 2010 before I had any books published. Did I stick to my guns?

I  D O  N O T

 

I do not aspire to be the next Bruce Courtney. I do not aspire to be the next Di Morrissey. I do not aspire to be like Matthew Reilly. I don't aspire to be the next Dan Brown. Or Stephen King (even though I like his early books). Or Stephanie Myer, (God Forbid) or any other mainstream populist novelist.

They are the entertainers of their day and that is their right. They are the circus come to town. They are clowns in paint and frivolity. The court jesters in rhyme and folly.

 

But they will not be worth a word beyond their time. Their work will be forgotten as quickly as it was consumed. The McDonalds of Publishing.

 

I aspire to create something that is worthwhile, that I can be proud of. That perhaps can be admired by a few, and that's all I'm after, as long as it has some merit. Who wants to leave this world knowing what they did and left behind was disposable, as disposable as the day they created it?

Gone. Forgotten. Yesterday's story.

It's like an architect who wants their work to be respected in decades hence, rather than a kit home than will only suffice. For Now.

 

Sure we might need them. The masses have to be entertained somehow. But just don't justify it to me. Don't tell me your worth more than the literary sect, because you sell the most. Or that they really want to be like you, but can't do it. You're totally misguided. You're only kidding yourselves. Bubble gum. Burger. Coke. Takeaway coffee. Daily newspaper.

 

Circa 2009

They claim that their mass appeal gives them worthiness. That numbers speak higher than critics. And it may provide them the means with which to exist comfortably. But we all meet in the same place in the end, and I'd rather have left something worth savouring, perhaps kept in a dusty bookcase or drawer somewhere, or even relegated to some digital archive as something perhaps worth reviewing to some future individual, than end up as recycled pulp for next year's toilet paper.

 

History has taught us that these mainstream diatribes do not survive. I'll take my chances. For I must be able to hold my head high, that I wrote to satisfy art, and to satisfy myself, than to satisfy the masses. I cannot think of a crime more heinous, than a person with artistic qualities, however minute, who shelved them in pursuit of something far more shallow. That is a crime that one cannot return from.

 

I'd rather die in obscurity that aim for the so called Bestseller List. I will never be there. I'll make sure of it. If by some absurd situation, I do, then I have failed.

 

12/5/2010

Pen is mightier ... Around 2010

Bit harsh on Stephen King. I love his books. He'll be remembered for a long time.

I certainly had a lot of confidence then, even arrogance perhaps. Maybe that's what was required in order to get to the point where books could be written and published. It took a lot of drive and work.

Since then I have had nine books published, from 2012 - 2022. If you've read any of them, maybe you will know if I stuck to the ideals of that idealistic, determined writer. Did I?

Bottomless River - Novella

Caged Without Walls - Poetry Collection

For your pleasure - Poems and art coffee table book (collaboration with Paolo Rassu)

Pseudo Stars - Story Collection

Allowing a love to die is not murder - Poetry Collection (on relationships)

A Refugee's Rage - Novella

Lone Wolf World - Novel

Perve - Novel

Us & Them and the things in-between - Story/Poetry Collection

(This post, July 2024).

Questions for now;

Have I lost my drive? Yes. Much of it is due to anti-depressant withdrawal. My story here.  It's robbed me of my confidence. 

Will I ever write another book? I don't know. Not in the near future.

Do I have books ready to be published? Yes

Will I publish them? I don't know. Maybe one or two but not all. 

Does anyone care? Probably not haha.

If you have read any though, I would be interested in your opinion.

My Books HERE

or try these Amazon Author links.

Amazon Profile 1

Amazon Profile 2

Until next time,

Peace

Anthony

Pathetic

 

This was written during a drinking night. I'd never normally write something like this sober. I already regret posting it. I regretted it while writing it.

Express Journey

 

I express into the Void

And perhaps always have

Rarely

Does anyone relate to the work

Especially this, the Poetry

Unless vague enough

That they misconstrue.

 

Perhaps that’s why

It’s been months

Since I’ve written anything.

 

It’s not as though

A whole book

Had an impact

Or even a dent

(Us & Them)

The disappointment

Drowns me often.

 

So, I’ll wax lyrical

Into a blank mirror

And nurse the emptiness

Like the real thing

It is

A baby I birthed

Spawned by others

And the more I talk about it

The more pathetic I feel.

 

I’m not a Marketer

And maybe I’m not much

Of anything

Or I surely would have

Reached people by now.

 

No longer will I

Shout

Or voice into the Void

But merely whisper

And retreat quietly

In the same way

I emerged.

 

 

3.9.23   10.20pm

 

 

The failure of Us & Them caused me to bust after 14 months sober. I feel like I've failed. Not just that book but my whole life. How do you let go of dreams you've had since 8 years old? 

I am grateful for the readers I have. Four people who always support me. They are wonderful (you know who you are). And three family members. Without them I wouldn't have made it this far. But there is no one else. 

I thought that book with it's more positive approach (and dedication to Sally) might garner some interest, (none of her family and friends did bar one) and the cumulative affect of years of putting my work out.

Pathetic I know. 

I am grateful to have my physical health (mental not so good plus my anti-depressant withdrawal issues). I am grateful for my girlfriend (she has an illness but that's another story.). I am grateful for my daughter (going through the teen period now but that's another story). Those things are getting to me though.

I have work and a roof over my head so I'm not complaining about my life in general. 

I deal with it most of the time and push on and say nothing. But occasionally it gets to me. I have other novels ready to go, mostly Young Adult but it's so much work and it costs me a lot too. How do I let it go?

Forgive me.

A.J. Langford Books

Reason why I was cancelled by the literary elite - Part 16 (Pts 1-15 banned)

The Truth of the Literati

Part 16 

(An ongoing eternal series)

Parts 1- 15 
No longer available

(ie deleted by the ruling literary classes)

Despite creating works of artistic and commercial merit, including many stories and poems published in various countries as well as being nominated for the U.S. Pushcart Prize, my novels have been continuously passed over. Were they even looked at? No reason is ever given. Most of the time you hear nothing.

There are other reasons, the most common is not being connected to anyone in the industry. Connections count folks but nepotism still rules.

Here is the other reason.

B e w a r e  -  Wankers about

'I am a genius'   Wanker

Read Highbrow in Public, Wanker

         

        Opinionated Wanker

Robert Gold: Now Mr Southgate, you have the reputation of being something of a lone wolf. Is this a protest against the establishment?

Matthew Southgate: It is true, I have always preferred to be a mouse that walked by itself rather than a member of a group of literary lions; always licking each other, washing each other behind the ears. And biting each other. And as you know, they’re behind bars, in a cultural zoo. 

Quotes from a real film.

Self labelled important Wankers

                Salinger - One Hit Wonder Wanker

      

Joyce - Crushing bore (and possible sexual pervert)

Carey - Overrated Tosser

Don't Fuck with a Bra Burning Wanker

The Dime-a-Dozen Wanker

Politically correct Wanker(s)

Wanker in Waiting
(unless he's gay, he'll by waiting a loooong time)

Don't Stay Tuned.

This story never changes
Hand-in-Hand
Wanking throughout the Centuries.

More Satire

My new story and poetry collection
on something genuine, like connection, not masturbation 
out early November.

Please help me getting the word out. I've paid for advertising on YouTube and Facebook and will do again but it just never works. Recommendations and word of mouth does. Even if I had 100 readers I'd be happy. It's well below that. Honestly it costs me a lot of money to put these books out so if this one doesn't get some traction, I may walk away. Aside from money, it's very disheartening to say the least and life's hard enough at times without adding to it.

AJL Books

You know his book. He became Famous After Death - And his disappearance

His plane crashed into the desert. 

Famous After Death

Antoine Saint-Exupéry 

was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator. He was well known in his relatively short life. He won the United States National Book Award and is best known for his novella The Little Prince and for his writings on flying including Wind, Sand and Stars and Night Flight.

Antoine was quite successful before his death but afterwards, his book, The Little Prince took off and he was lauded by the French to national hero status.

Desert Crash

On 30 December 1935 Antoine and his navigator André Prévot crashed in the Libyan desert, during an attempt to break the speed record in a Paris to Saigon air race.

Both miraculously survived the crash, only to face the intense desert heat. They were lost and only had provisions for a day. They both saw mirages and experienced hallucinations. By the third day, they were so dehydrated that they stopped sweating. On the fourth day, a Bedouin on a camel discovered them saved their lives. This near death experience would feature in his 1939 memoir, Wind, Sand and Stars which won several awards. 

The Little Prince begins with a pilot being stranded in the desert.

Final Flight

The French Vichy Government of the time, who were collaborating with Germany having been occupied, promoted Saint-Exupéry as one of its members. He was shocked. They'd already rejected his book, The Little Prince, which had been published in Quebec (in French and English) the year before. 

A General, who would later become President, Charles de Gaulle, publicly implied that the author - pilot was supporting Germany. Depressed at this, he began to drink heavily. His health, both physically and mentally, had been declining. Saint-Exupéry was said to be intermittently subject to depression and there was discussion of taking him off flying status. 

On 31 July 1944, he took off in an unarmed plane for his ninth reconnaissance mission. He was never seen again.

The Little Prince was finally published in France after the War and his disappearance. As we've seen time and again, everybody loves a dead writer. The book became a bestseller and his fame spread around the world.

It's a children's book. He was encouraged to write it to help with his bad nerves while in Canada, in part, to compete with Mary Poppins. One of the characters, The Rose, is based on his wife, Consuelo.

"The story follows a young prince who visits various planets in space, including Earth, and addresses themes of loneliness, friendship, love, and loss. Despite its style as a children's book, The Little Prince makes observations about life, adults and human nature."

It sold 140 million copies worldwide, making it one of the most successful books of fiction ever published. 

While his body was never found, incredibly, his identity bracelet was discovered in the sea 54 years later. 

More true stories - Famous After Death

My YouTube Channel

The original 1943 edition

It's yours for a measly US$5,625.00 (Sept. '22)

https://anthonyjlangford.wixsite.com/writer

Writing - How to overcome severe doubt and insecurity

Something very different this week. If not for you, perhaps someone you know. Even a student. 

Are you struck with insecurity?

Are you a writer who doesn't know where to begin?

Who struggles to find the confidence?

Hits roadblocks and can't get around them?

Writing Doubts

Here is some simple advice based on significant personal experience to help you overcome insecurity, not just in writing but hopefully in other areas of life too.

I still have those very intrusive doubts. Every time. 

I have to really work to get through it.

Watch

Books, Videos, Free Downloads and more

New videos and original posts coming soon.

As always, have a good week and if not, fake it until you believe it.

Peace

Anthony

Sexiest Literature of all Time...? (warning adult content)

Sexiest Literature of all Time... or Fornication Farce?  

I just realised, as I began writing, that you're not going to believe me.

It was my birthday recently and my lovely Auntie asked me if I wanted a book. I said don't worry but she insisted. Nicely of course. So I went on a hunt of Best of lists to see what was out there.

I came across this post. Naturally I had to investigate.

The Sexiest Erotic Novels of All Time. 

I don't know whether to phuck you or pluck you...

This wasn't created by some shitty blogger ... but by Esquire Magazine, published in March 2017.

I'll save you the trouble of going through the list but as I read their text grabs from each book my mouth gaped in horror. Not at the language or so called eroticism, but at how badly written it is.

Take note, each line is from a different book. Here we go:

Even dead, Drenka gave him a hard-on; alive or dead... He came on her grave many nights.

She nuzzles her cunt into my face like a filly at the gate.

Had the same effect on me

For a moment he had an impulse to embrace her. He had a stronger impulse to beat her

He knew all sorts of expert angles, his hands never fumbling, going over my whole body, pressing the hair up and off the back of my head, giving an extra hip shove, as if to say There."

 

Dean comes—it's like a hemorrhage

(By the way, none of the books in this dodgy list are what I would call classics. Fanny Hill is a classic. Lolita. Tropic of Cancer etc.)

When he enters her, when this throbbing, cyclamen-headed, silken, apoplectic fifth limb of his reaches as near to her center as her pelvis will allow, he, in it, will be returning, she believes, to the origins of his desire.

 ...looking him straight in the eye, she insisted she had not had an orgasm even though the rug was fairly dripping with it."

Her muscles were rigid and she held her breath. Ribcage turned into two parallel rollercoaster tracks. 

Her slick firm body was shameless yet did not reveal, as her more virginal intercourse once had done, the inner petals drenched in helpless nectar."

"Jerk after jerk of Jason's artisanal come filled her rejoicing twathole. 'Now quick, hop on this cockbranch.' 

You're going to say Octopussy aren't you...

And now we'll come to you.

(Terrible I know but couldn't resist).

Thoughts?

  

More Satire