Some Background on Being Bold

I've always hated speeches that start off: "According to Webster's, the word (honor, graduation, success, character, etc.) means..."

However, it does say a lot about a concept to look at where it came from. And after all, a lot of us here do some writing. So here's BOLD from Merriam-Webster:

"Pronunciation:
\ˈbōld\
Function:
adjective
Etymology:
Middle English, from Old English beald; akin to Old High German bald bold
Date:
before 12th century

1 a: fearless before danger : intrepid b: showing or requiring a fearless daring spirit 2: impudent, presumptuous 3obsolete : assured, confident4: sheer, steep 5: adventurous, free (a bold thinker) 6: standing out prominently7: being or set in boldface"

Just reading that definition/history makes me feel like being intrepid and impudent and dressing in medieval clothes. And now that I think about it: the artist Elisabeth Chant whose biography I've been researching for some time spent the last decades of her life wearing medieval-style clothes--and in my then-conservative hometown of Wilmington, NC. That woman was truly bold.

---

Add to del.icio.us - Stumble It! - Subscribe to this feed - Digg it

---

Biography Research: Repotting a Book-in-Progress

When I was a few months into my research on my biography of painter Elisabeth Chant, I bought a thrift shop item to house my growing stacks of notes.

That piece of furniture, shelves that were more like mail slots, was fine for a while.

But recently I realized I needed more space, and lots more different files. The distinctions in topics were growing ever finer, in addition to the added piles of bulk material.

So: a new container. I'm up to a very deep-drawered file cabinet, dressed in a sari from Varanasi, the setting of my novel Sister India. (This is the very distinctive Banarsi brocade.)

And this doesn't count the shelves of books, or the digital material.

I expect I'll have to repot another time or three before this book is done. It's a satisfying piece of the process, seeing it grow.