This month’s #6Degrees, hosted by Kate from Books are my Favourite and Best starts with a celebrity memoir called Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen.
It won’t surprise any of you, my amused readers, to learn that I had to Google Bruce Springsteen because, immune to popular culture as I am, I had heard of someone with this name who made the kind of music I can’t abide, but, immune to all forms of sporting culture, I didn’t know of a Bruce Springsteen who was a runner, born to do it or otherwise. Wikipedia has enlightened me that they are one and the same, and ‘Born to Run’ is the title of an album, but since the article seems only to name the numerous albums that have made him famous and rich, I am none the wiser as to a particular song that I may have inadvertently heard. The article is long, and I didn’t read all of it because I am no more interested in this person than I was before, but my eye rested briefly on the fact that he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2016.
Ah, I thought, I wonder if an author has ever received this supreme decoration for a civilian in the US…and if so, have I read any of their books?
Why yes, E B White, who wrote the beloved children’s book Charlotte’s Web received the award in 1963 from President Kennedy, and so did Thornton Wilder and Edmund Wilson, in the same year.
(Links on the president’s name take you to the list of awards they dished out, which like the oddity of our own Australian awards, makes ‘interesting’ reading.)
President Johnson gave out a swag of awards in 1964. One for my favourite modernist poet T S Eliot, who wrote The Wasteland, (which I studied at uni). You can find three reviews of Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck’s prolific output here on the blog, though not, alas, The Grapes of Wrath which was the catalyst for my love of this author. A poet by name of Carl Sandberg was also honoured, and so was Ralph Ellison who wrote Invisible Man which I read way back in 1999.
Richard Nixon whose period in office coincided with the Moon Landing in 1969 gave the award to astronauts (but no scientists) and the usual miscellany of recipients (but no authors). Perhaps we can gauge the sophistication of his reading tastes by noting that he gave the award to the co-founders of the Readers’ Digest, Lila Acheson Wallace and DeWitt Wallace in 1972. Still, I can count this as one of my #6Degrees, because we’ve all read the Readers Digest in waiting rooms of one sort or another.
James A. Michener got one from Gerald Ford in 1977. I thought I’d read something by him in my youth but none of his fiction titles seem familiar. Modernist poet Archibald MacLeish got a gong too, but he was also 1st Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs which may have had more to do with it.
Jimmy Carter gave the award to playwright Tennessee Williams, and to Eudora Welty who won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Optimist’s Daughter.
Ronald Reagan *chuckle* gave one to Louis L’Amour who wrote westerns, but George HW Bush didn’t give any, so we move on to Bill Clinton who recognised Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, a Polish journalist and writer and Simon Wiesenthal who is listed as a Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter, but was also a prolific author. Although I’ve read a fair bit of Holocaust literature I’ve never read him.
That’s five presidents who missed the opportunity to enrich my reading!
Next we come to George W Bush who awarded it to The Deputy Sheriff and Tony Blair; a baseball player, a boxer, a golfer, the founder of a cosmetic company and a pope. And Harper Lee, author of Gone with the Wind, that well-loved lament for the Southern Way of Life. I am now embarrassed that I loved this book so much, though in my defence I was young and impressionable and besotted by Clark Gable’s portrayal of Rhett Butler in the film (which I saw first). Wrong, wrong, wrong, and thank you to Jennifer et al for setting me straight! #Rueful frown. What was I thinking? Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, which I read back in 1969 and have never forgotten it. (It also has an eye-candy leading man in the film, Gregory Peck.)
So then we come to Barack Obama, well-known for his love of books and reading. Which writers got a gong from him? Maya Angelou (whose I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is on the TBR); a Holocaust survivor called Gerda Weissmann Klein; and Isabel Allende who I read once or twice long ago but haven’t bothered since. I shall have to count her House of the Spirits for the last of my six, because authors haven’t done too well in these awards…
I was a bit disappointed by Obama’s tally. I was expecting to see those authors who are routinely spruiked for the Nobel Prize for Literature, like Don deLillo (reviewed here), Phillip Roth (reviewed here), Saul Bellow (reviewed here) and Toni Morrison (reviewed here, and more on the TBR).
Obama’s successor who shall be nameless here awarded the medal to a horde of sportspeople and favoured political appointments. Joe Biden hasn’t completed a term yet and may have a late run of authors in his saddlebags so we shall reserve judgment about him. (On the subject of these medals, that is. I have already made up my mind about other failings.)
A celebrity memoir has sparked my meanderings through the recipients of the American Medal of Freedom — that’s my #6Degrees for this month!
Image credit: Readers Digest Feb 1966, from eBay
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog
Margaret Mitchell wrote GWTW, not Harper Lee ;-) Me, I am a huge Bruce Springsteen fan :-)
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By: Jennifer on April 1, 2023
at 12:56 pm
Aaagh, you are right. I will fix that, and happily because I loved To Kill A Mockingbird!
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By: Lisa Hill on April 1, 2023
at 1:10 pm
Yes, Jennifer is right, Harper Lee wrote To kill a mockingbird. I adored GTTW too, and even told my English teacher that Mitchell was a better writer than Dickens. I’ve shared this story before. My teacher very kindly wrote, “I hope you won’t always think that”. And, in the end, Dickens did win out.
Enjoyed your entertaining chain. All I will add is that Maya Angelou is worth reading.
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By: whisperinggums on April 1, 2023
at 1:06 pm
Hi Lisa
Harper Lee :To Kill a Mocking Bird
LH: Thanks, much appreciated, it’s fixed now.
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By: Fay K on April 1, 2023
at 1:11 pm
Harper Lee wrote Gone with the Wind! Whacko Lisa! ________________________________
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By: ettimprint on April 1, 2023
at 1:14 pm
Maya Angelou is an inspiration. She was influenced by the international Scottish Bard Robert Burns.
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By: Fay K on April 1, 2023
at 1:34 pm
I have been meaning to read her for so long, it’s just impossible for me to read everything I want to.
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By: Lisa Hill on April 1, 2023
at 2:22 pm
Great idea for your chain this time, Lisa. Interesting to learn about all the authors who’ve been honoured so far. Naturally we can’t expect he who mustn’t be named to include ‘literature’ in things he valued. Never mind about Harper Lee, I’ve confused authors in the past too–Patricia Wentworth and Patricia Highsmith for one.
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By: mallikabooks15 on April 1, 2023
at 3:34 pm
Thank you Malika, I’m afraid I’ve done a couple of silly things today which makes me think that I’d better not do any driving with my cloudy brain until the Phenergan for hay fever wears off!
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By: Lisa Hill on April 1, 2023
at 3:53 pm
I hope you feel better soon. Hay fever can be annoying.
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By: mallikabooks15 on April 2, 2023
at 3:00 am
Oh Phenergan … can’t stand it! I understand completely. (I will use almost any other anti-histamine than that one, but I guess you’ve tried them and this is the one that works.)
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By: whisperinggums on April 2, 2023
at 10:32 am
My problem is insomnia. These days they’re all marketed to be non-drowsy, which means they keep me awake long, long after I’ve taken them. And that makes me very stupid the next day….
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By: Lisa Hill on April 2, 2023
at 10:48 am
I don’t sleep well either. I prefer Polaramine to Phenergan. It’s not non-drowsy but it’s not as drowsy making as Phenergan either!
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By: whisperinggums on April 3, 2023
at 11:04 am
I hardly ever use them, only when things have got out of hand.
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By: Lisa Hill on April 3, 2023
at 11:14 am
Me too … but with polaramine, and it’s usually when my eczema is also driving me mad (which was when, decades ago, I was given Phenergan, because I was beside myself.)?
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By: whisperinggums on April 3, 2023
at 2:38 pm
Oh, what a fun chain! I was sure I had read work by Simon Wiesenthal but having looked at his bibliography online I don’t think I have (must be getting him
mixed up with someone else) but I do know his name and backstory quite well. Maybe I read a book about him… I did go through a Holocaust reading phase in my early 20s…
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By: kimbofo on April 1, 2023
at 3:45 pm
I initially thought that he wrote Night, but that was by Eli Wiesel.
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By: Lisa Hill on April 1, 2023
at 3:52 pm
Ah, maybe that’s who I am getting him confused with.
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By: kimbofo on April 1, 2023
at 3:58 pm
I loved this, Lisa! I am aware of Bruce Springsteen, like some of his songs, but not enough to read his autobiography. He and Obama are big pals.
Interesting to see which US Presidents did and didn’t think much about writers. I’m almost tempted to look at the UK Honours lists to see who my nation’s leaders have nominated for gongs. Almost.
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By: Jan Hicks on April 1, 2023
at 8:54 pm
I must say, that by contrast with Australian authors, I quite often notice letters after British authors’ names (e.g. Hilary Mantel, Penelope Lively). But maybe that’s just because the Wikipedia entry doesn’t include it for Australians.
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By: Lisa Hill on April 1, 2023
at 9:12 pm
How curious. I’m always interested to see which people who are given awards insist on their use, which are tongue in cheek about it, and which are more reticent about referring to their accolade. I’m now wondering whether the British media automatically add letters when referring to the celebrated ones of our nation and the Wikimedians pick up on that.
Is there a different attitude to awards in Australia? We are, by and large, a subservient lot in the UK, still thrilled when the higher echelons notice us!
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By: Jan Hicks on April 1, 2023
at 9:21 pm
Well, I’m a bit cynical about it. There’s a general tendency here towards awards for volunteers supporting amateur organisations for long periods of time, and my father (a scientist) was nominated by his colleagues for decades of voluntary work editing their professional technical magazine. I remember from my teenage years that it involved hours and hours of work in his study, after he came home from his day job as a research chemist. Well, he didn’t get one but the usual folks whose community service was with the Scouts or a sporting club did.
I don’t think authors should get one just because they write successful books, but someone like, say Sophie Cunningham, who has been active in supporting Australian literature definitely deserves her AM.
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By: Lisa Hill on April 1, 2023
at 9:38 pm
‘Services to [insert sector]’ is a broad term, as far as I can see. I’m often surprised by people who are honoured when it’s hard to see what they’ve contributed to society but easy to see what they’ve done for their mates in politics. It can be a shady business. Not that I would ever be nominated, but I’d like to think I’d turn it down if I was offered a bauble.
Small consolation, but good that your dad knew that his colleagues appreciated his work.
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By: Jan Hicks on April 1, 2023
at 9:49 pm
Well, that’s the thing isn’t it, the recognition from people who know the work you do.
I must admit I was delighted to have been nominated for Australian of the Year a couple of years ago, for the voluntary work I do here on the blog to promote Australian literature. I didn’t get it of course, but still, it was nice.
Actually… I could be wrong, but I don’t think anyone’s been given a gong for doing stuff online…
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By: Lisa Hill on April 1, 2023
at 11:19 pm
What an original way to do this chain! Brava for thinking of it.
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By: Davida Chazan on April 2, 2023
at 12:57 am
I love Springsteen, but the book was so boring I didn’t finish it. Love the onward links.
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By: Annabel (AnnaBookBel) on April 2, 2023
at 2:57 am
What a unique approach! Thanks for all this information, which I never would have thought to seek out on my own.
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By: Mary Daniels Brown on April 2, 2023
at 4:36 am
Thanks, Mary, it was interesting for me too.
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By: Lisa Hill on April 2, 2023
at 7:53 am
Oh, you do make me smile!
Love your chain’s theme this month! So clever and interesting!
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By: Marg on April 2, 2023
at 5:27 pm
Geeks like me have to laugh at ourselves!
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By: Lisa Hill on April 2, 2023
at 5:49 pm
What a nice idea. Thanks for going through those lists. I’m not American, so I don’t follow all of their different kinds of medals or prizes but I will look into this.
I was sad to see that you don’t like Bruce Springsteen. Even if his music is not for you, his lyrics are fantastic. He has always had a lot to say. He has also published a book together with Barack Obama, “Renegades: Born in the USA”. Maybe their talks would interest you. Or you might want to see Barack Obaman’s
Reading List.
Oh, and one more thing, Toni Morrison has received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.
My Six Degrees of Separation took me from Born to Run to <a href="https://momobookblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/pamuk-orhan-silent-house.html"Number One in Heaven by Jeremy Simmonds.
And thanks for not mentioning the name of 44+1.
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By: Marianne @ Let's Read on April 4, 2023
at 12:22 am
Chuckle, so 44+1 is a way of letting people know who you mean without naming him? That’s a clever idea.
The thing about music, is that tastes differ, and often when there’s something you don’t like, you really can’t stand it. Music you don’t like isn’t like books or poetry you don’t like, it gets under your skin. For many people that’s opera, and no amount of being told about its value will change that. Other people can’t stand rap, or jazz, or whatever. That’s why I reserve a particular loathing for people who play loud music and impose it on others.
Thanks for sharing your #6Degrees!
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By: Lisa Hill on April 4, 2023
at 9:37 am
The 44+1 wasn’t my idea, I’ve seen it on the internet. But it looks like everyone knows immediately whom we are talking about.
I hear what you say about music. And I totally agree with people who play it too loud or want to make others like a certain singer or genre. I hope I didn’t give you that impression because that was not my intention. I like almost every genre but there are always pieces or interprets that I dislike, so I totally understand. I just meant, his lyrics are good, even if you don’t like his music.
And sorry for the broken link to my My Six Degrees of Separation. This should come out correctly.
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By: Marianne @ Let's Read on April 5, 2023
at 12:15 am
Hi Marianne, don’t worry, I didn’t think you were trying to hassle me:)
It looks like today is going to be A Day for 44+1, I hope things stay calm and that nobody gets hurt.
Off now to look at your blog!
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By: Lisa Hill on April 5, 2023
at 9:47 am
That’s good. I was hoping you’d say that.
Yup, let’s hope it’s not going to be a good day for 44+1 because that would be a good one for the rest of us.
And yes, hopefully nothing happens. You never know.
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By: Marianne @ Let's Read on April 5, 2023
at 4:49 pm
It’s bizarre to think that half the world is holding its breath…
(The other half is lucky to know nothing about it.)
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By: Lisa Hill on April 5, 2023
at 7:06 pm
Well, his non-politics effects us all. Unfortunately.
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By: Marianne @ Let's Read on April 5, 2023
at 7:52 pm