Episode 78: The Literary Life of Thomas Banks
This week on The Literary Life podcast, we are excited to delve into the literary life of the mysterious Mr. Banks! But before we get started, we do want to let you know that we have posted the reading schedule for January-March, and you can view it on our Upcoming Events page. Also, Blue Sky Daisies Publishing is running a fun contest for kids involving our new Commonplace Books, so you will want to head over to their website and check that out! Finally, be looking out for The Well Read Poem podcast coming to a podcast app near you on January 18, 2021!
Cindy begins the interview asking Thomas about his family background and the influence of his parents on his own reading life. He shares about many of the books he loved in childhood and how that shaped his tastes in literature. He also talks about how he approached school learning as opposed to his personal reading. Angelina asks Thomas to tell about how he fell in love with poetry and how he ended up going to college even though that was not his original goal. He also shares more about his reading as an adult, as well as his habit of commonplacing quotations.
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Commonplace Quotes:
…but I was glad to sing again too; it had been a greater loss that I realized in that particular wintering which saw the waning of my voice. It wasn’t about the vanity of being able to trill out a fine song; it was about the joy of singing for its own sake.
Katherine Ma
Michael explains to Adam in the last book of Milton’s Paradise Lost, that tyranny exists in human society because every individual in such a society is a tyrant within himself, or at least is if he conforms acceptably to his social surroundings.
Northrup Frye
The Gods that are wiser than Learning
But kinder than Life have made sure
No mortal may boast in the morning
That even will find him secure.
from “A Rector’s Memory” by Rudyard Kipling
Time, Real and Imaginary
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
On the wide level of a mountain’s head,
(I knew not where, but ’twas some faery place)
Their pinions, ostrich-like, for sails out-spread,
Two lovely children run an endless race,
A sister and a brother !
This far outstripp’d the other ;
Yet ever runs she with reverted face,
And looks and listens for the boy behind :
For he, alas! is blind!
O’er rough and smooth with even step he passed,
And knows not whether he be first or last.
Book List:
Wintering by Katherine May
The Double Vision by Northrup Frye
Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carol
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
Oxford Book of Children’s Verse
Praeterita by John Ruskin
The Golden Treasury of Myths and Legends
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun by J. R. R. Tolkien
Surprised by Joy by C. S. Lewis
The Saga of the Volsungs by Anonymous
The Adventures of Tintin by Herge
Encyclopedia Brown by Donald J. Sobol
The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott
Julius Caesar by Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare
The Complete Poems of John Keats
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Hardy the Novelist by David Cecil
The James Bond Dossier by Kingsley Amis
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea by Mishima
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
The Double by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
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You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/
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5 Comments
Amy
Enjoyed the podcast and learning more about Mr Banks’ literary life. What was the name of the collection of books that he mentioned his mom read to them from when he was a child? I think he said they were orange. I’d love to try to hunt down a set.
Marie
Hello, Amy.
I think I heard Thomas Banks say that they were orange , had a black spine and were called Classics to Grow On. This is what I found by googling. https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-BOOKS-CHILDRENS-CLASSICS-TO-GROW-ON-SET-OF-18-1921-TO-1956-HARD-COVER-/153714022993?_ul=AR. Seems like it could be the collection he mentioned.
admin
It was the “Classics to Grow On” set. We will add a link to a similar set to the show notes!
Ann
I love James Bond. He is one of the most fascinating male characters in literature. I was disappointed to hear you mocking these books.
Delia
What is the beautiful music that introduces and concludes the Well Read Poem podcast? It’s familiar but I need help finding it!