LOOKING BACK 1928: Of mice and women
It was the story of a little mouse named Mr. Mogo Mouse in Czechoslovakia. As far as literature goes, it wasn’t much of a story. What is remembered about Mr. Mogo Mouse 80 years after the book was published is the artwork. The pages were filled with art deco illustrations, which one bookseller has said is similar to the work of The Bobsey Twins illustrator Janet Laura Scott. However, these illustrations were drawn by Jane Beachy Miller of Cumberland who was described as a pretty and “somewhat madcap” young artist by the Cumberland Evening Times. Miller graduated from Allegany High and from there went on to the Maryland Institute of Art to pursue her passion as an artist. She graduated with an art degree and a scholarship that allowed her to travel through Europe in 1928 and study art. Miller Read more…
The Only Known Movie of Mark Twain
Being a writer and history enthusiast, I thought that this was a nice little piece of history when I ran across it. Thomas Edison visited his friend Mark Twain in 1909 and filmed him at Twain’s Redding, CT, home. It’s a silent film clip, but it’s neat to actually see the real Mark Twain moving around. Twain would die the following year and so this remains the only known film of the iconic author. Unfortunately, there are no voice recordings of Twain. While Edison also made phonographs of Twain reading his stories out loud, they were destroyed in a 1914 fire. Here’s a frame of the clip. You can watch the entire movie here at Mental Floss.
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