Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud and a gunshot in Brussels On 17 April 1873, the Paris police wanted information about a man named Paul Verlaine. He was twenty-nine years old, had once worked at the Hôtel de Ville, had remained at his post during the Paris Commune, and had recently been moving between France, Belgium andContinue reading “The Poet in the Police File”
Category Archives: Tragedy
The Dance of the Safety Curtain
The Iroquois Theatre Fire, Chicago, 1903 When I go to the theatre — and I visit a few times a year — I have always been irritated by the opening act. Not the actual opening act. The dance of the safety curtain. Down it goes. Up again. Then, sometimes, down once more. There have beenContinue reading “The Dance of the Safety Curtain”
Bath, Michigan: What Remained
On the morning of 18 May 1927, the children of Bath, Michigan, went to school. It was a Wednesday. Bath was a small farming community, the kind of place built from fields, family names and familiar faces. There was a grain elevator and a small drugstore. People knew their neighbours, and most people knew theContinue reading “Bath, Michigan: What Remained”
