Mark Canada, Ph.D.
Issue #1
June 15, 2024
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Mon Cher Papa
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A Great Improvisation
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Listen to my Audible Originals
Welcome to the inaugural issue of Mind Travel, a newsletter about books and ideas. As a longtime English professor (now chancellor of Indiana University Kokomo), I have a deep love for the power of words and ideas, and I enjoy sharing this love (and some thoughts) with others through my books, articles, and lectures. This monthly newsletter will feature a regular column, pictures and videos, audio recordings, lists of recommended readings, calendars on upcoming events, and more--all designed to help you engage in some stimulating and inspiring "Mind Travel." I enjoy hearing from my readers and lecture audiences, so please drop me a line with your own thoughts, as well as questions, at mark.canada@icloud.com.
I look forward to connecting with my fellow mind travelers!
I'm old enough to remember a Calgon commercial from the 1970s. Actually, mainly what I remember is this wonderful line: "Calgon, take me away." The point, as you may recall, is that a bath with Calgon soap could help one escape the stresses of everyday life. I was reminded of that commercial when I was preparing this inaugural issue of Mind Travel. As my tagline says, books can help you go places. They can take you "away" from a place as a Calgon bath could, but they also can take you to, well, literally anywhere. Emily Dickinson put it this way:
There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing poetry
This Traverse may the Poorest take
Without Oppress of Toll
How Frugal is the Chariot
That bears the human Soul.
Dickinson's poetry belongs in this newsletter, where I hope my columns and images can help you travel, through books, to "lands away." (Dickinson's brilliant poetry also belongs in other places, including the minds of anyone who wishes to be transported intellectually and spiritually.) As we prepare to set sail with this intellectual journey together, let me share a few thoughts about the treasures we can look forward to discovering along the way.
For some books are easy to love, akin to gifts from above or longtime companions. For others, however, books are an acquired taste. After all, reading--especially reading challenging literature--can be intellectually difficult. An ambitious reader needs a fairly expansive vocabulary, an ability to process long and sometimes complicated or even convoluted sentences, and, let's face it, patience.
However you came to books--naturally or somewhat painfully--you stand to enjoy the same treasures. For starters, you are almost always sure to learn something--about history, about nature, about people. Even if the book is a work of fiction, there is often much truth to be found in it (a central theme of my book Literature and Journalism in Antebellum America and a topic I hope to take up here in this newsletter at some point).
That books can help us to expand our stock of knowledge hardly needs explaining, but let's consider a specific kind of knowledge that comes with books--that is, a new appreciation of another person's perspective. I grew up in the Indianapolis suburbs in the 1970s and 1980s. I will never know exactly how it feels to be, say, a Mexican immigrant growing up in rural Texas today, but a book can take me closer than anything else can. When I read a book, I can immerse myself in a sustained way in someone else's world. This immersion matters because understanding can build empathy, and empathy is a key to solving many of the world's problems, not only violence, but also racism, intolerance, oppression, and poverty.
In my next issue, I will offer some additional thoughts about the treasures of mind travel through books.
Several of you who attended my recent lectures at Mini University have asked for recommended readings. Here are a few titles, organized according to my lecture topics:
Recommended
Reading
Listening
If you enjoyed
"Franklin in France: Diplomat, Celebrity, Spy, and Flirt"
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Gordon Wood, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
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H.W. Brands, The First American
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Stacy Schiff, A Great Improvisation
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Claude-Anne Lopez, Mon Cher Papa
Learn the strategies that Ben Franklin used to become one of the world’s greatest thinkers, writers, and leaders.
If you enjoyed"The Literature of the Sea"
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Stephen Crane, "The Open Boat”
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Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Ulysses”
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
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Edgar Allan Poe, “MS. Found in a Bottle”
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Stevie Smith, “Not Waving but Drowning”
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Emily Dickinson, “Wild Nights--Wild Nights!”
This audio book explores both Poe’s tortured life—filled with loss, poverty, neglect, and self-destruction—and his breathtaking works of literature.
About Mark
I had the great joy of giving two lectures, “Franklin in France: Diplomat, Celebrity, Spy, and Flirt” and “The Literature of the Sea,” at Indiana University’s Mini University this month. The best parts were the warm, thoughtful, and enthusiastic audiences, including many of you!
A longtime English professor, scholar, and author, Mark Canada, Ph.D., writes and lectures on a variety of authors and subjects in the fields of literature, language, history, and leadership.