My blog Roger’s Gleanings consists of various postings. These include my writings on a wide variety of topics and posts reflecting my interests and enthusiasms. My main interests are literature and classical music. And, good writing in general.
Given the range of my interests and writings, I would suggest that if you are new to this site:
On the right hand corner of the home page, you will see Categories. You can use these to identify posts that you may find to be of interest.
The posts focus on my literary and scholarly interests and much more: material about my past and family, including genealogy; observations about various issues (such as current events, occasionally politics, and classical music); and musings: thoughts of mine which arise in daily life or reflections about the past or present. And, how such thoughts might be applied to oneself, everything from relationships to health.
In choosing topics to write about, I have tried to follow the practice of a writer such as Michel de Montaigne, who wrote in answer to a hypothetical critic: “Isn’t this the way I speak everywhere? Don’t I represent myself to the life? Enough then. … Everyone recognizes me in my book, and my book in me.” One way to put this (in my own words) is that I let my thoughts go where they may, drawing upon my personal experiences and things that strike me: in my city, in my reading and partaking of music and culture, in my relationships and so on. As well as what I glean from newspapers, much of which dismays me.
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Documents and images posted here — e.g., Word files, PDF files, JPEG files — are downloadable. You merely have to point and click, which will enable you to either open the document or to download (save) it.
If you right click, you will have the option of downloading (saving) a file or image.
If you left click, a descriptive caption will appear (for images that are captioned).
The music (MP3 files) posted here can be played, but is not downloadable.
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Roger W. Smith is a writer and independent scholar based in New York City. His experience includes freelance writing and editing, business writing, book reviewing, translations, and the teaching of writing and literature as an adjunct professor at St. John’s University.
A bibliography of my published articles, journalism, books reviews, translations, etc. is below as a Word document
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I have six sites on WordPress.com:
Roger’s Gleanings (this site)
Roger’s rhetoric
a site dedicated to principles and practices of writing/composition and rhetoric
rogers-rhetoric.com
Roger W. Smith’s Theodore Dreiser site
https://dreiseronlinecom.wordpress.com
Roger W. Smith’s Walt Whitman site
https://rogerwsmithswaltwhitmansite.blog/
Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin
a site dedicated to the sociologist and social philosopher Pitirim A. Sorokin
Roger Smith’s New York
https://rogersmithsnewyork.blog
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My email, should you wish to contact me, is
brandeis106@gmail.com
— Roger W. Smith, Queens, NYC, USA
Hi Roger … are you from Canton Massachusetts? You mentioned Robert Tighe and the Red Sox in your blog.
Sydney Webbe
Hi, Sydney … good for you. I certainly do come from Canton. I am a 1964 graduate of Canton High School. I live in New York City now. — Roger
Roger,
I’m Mara William’s, daughter of your Dad’s thatre director Joe Williams (J. Arthur) and Ann Williams. We knew Uncle Alan in Boston and on Cape Cod. Loved finding photo of our Dads with Father Paul on your blog.
I’m thrilled to hear from you, Mara. Thank you very much for the comment. I would love to touch base and share memories. I have some materials related to productions of the St. Paul Players that I would be happy to share with you. Your father was at the hospital on the day my father died.
Oh, my gosh! We are cousins! I am a descendant of John A. Hart son of John C. Hart. This information was invaluable for me. It confirmed my work and gave me some critical intel I was missing. Thank you for the missing pieces. Feel free to contact me. I would love to find out more.
Sydney – thanks for the comment. Did I already reply? I grew up in Canton and graduated from Canton High School.