Writely Applied

Here is an incredible piece of animation from 1953 of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Tell-Tale Heart. This UPA Production was the first adult only carton in Great Britain under the British Board of Film Censors classification system. I couldn’t tell you why really. I guess scary deserves an X rating.

The best part of this animated short of The Tell-Tale Heart, outside of the dark animation art, is that it is narrated by James Mason, you know, James Mason from the TV mini-series movie of Salem’s Lot (the head vampire’s human servant). What a voice James Mason has, perfect for this. It doesn’t compare of course to the rendering of The Tell-Tale Heart, one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous short stories, that was done in the 2009 movie Poe Last Days of the Raven to celebrate the centennial of Edgar Allan Poe’s 200th birthday. That was an exceptional reading integrated into the movie making it hard to separate fact from fiction.

In keeping with our writely applied Edgar Allan Poe 200th birthday celebration, here is a YouTube of the animated Tell-Tale Heart narrated by James Mason.

Missing your copy of the Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe?
Visit The Literature Network

Maya Angelou wrote a poem called Phenomenal Woman which Amy Sky set to music. It is a beautiful poem and I thought it would be nice to share for Mother’s Day. I didn’t know it was set to music and was amazed at how beautiful the poem was after being rendered to music. I like it when lyrics are poetry and when poetry is lyrics. It is a truly gifted person that can do both and Maya’s poem Phenomenal Woman is lyrical.

Phenomenal Woman is a poem about strong women. You can visit The Poetry Foundation to read a copy. However, I invite you not leave Writely Applied without having listened to Amy Sky’s song. If you visit YouTube you can read more about her quest to contact Maya Angelou to ask for permission to set Phenomenal Woman to music. Amy is a truly inspired artist and her story of their fated meeting is inspiring as well.