Wallace Stevens was born in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1879. Though he longed to be a professional writer, he ended up practicing law until 1916. Stevens nevertheless began publishing under the pseudonym “Peter Parasol” in 1914 and although he would eventually spend his entire life behind an office desk, he continued publishing work, including Harmonium (1923), Ideas of Order (1935), The Man With the Blue Guitar (1937), Notes Towards a Supreme Fiction (1942), a collection of essays on poetry, The Necessary Angel (1951), and Collected Poems (1954). He is one of the most important poets of the 20th century and his whimsical, visceral language still comes across as fresh today.

The Snow Man

One must have a mind of winter

To regard the frost and the boughs

Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time

To behold the junipers shagged with ice,

The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think

Of any misery in the sound of the wind,

In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land

Full of the same wind

That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,

And, nothing himself, beholds

Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

Happy belated holidays and Happy almost New Year! The Free Library Blog is back in action, having taken a very relaxing vacation and eating far too much candy. Is it possible for a blog to join a gym?

The Lecture's Office is presenting a great lineup of author events in January . Check out Barbara Ehrenreich, Michael Vitez and Tom Gralish, Neal Pollack, Richard Clarke, Walter Mosley, and Alice Hoffman at the Central Library's Montgomery Auditorium and get 2007 off to a scintillating start!

If you want to treat your inner bookworm, here is a great recipe to make with book-shaped cookie cutters:

HOLIDAY COOKIES

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Garnish: coarse sugar or melted chocolate

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a standing mixer (preferably fitted with paddle attachment) or 6 with a handheld. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low, then add flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 375°F.

Form dough into 2 balls and flatten each into a 6-inch disk. Chill disks, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.

While oven preheats, roll out 1 piece of dough (keep remaining dough chilled) into a 9-inch round (slightly less than 1/4 inch thick) on a well-floured surface with a well-floured rolling pin. (If dough becomes too soft to roll out, chill on a baking sheet until firm.) Cut out as many cookies as possible from dough with cutters and transfer to 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging cookies about 1 inch apart. If garnishing, sprinkle cookies with glitter or nonpareils.

Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are pale golden, 8 to 10 minutes total, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely.

Gather scraps and chill until firm enough to reroll, 10 to 15 minutes. Make more cookies with remaining dough and scraps (reroll only once) and bake on cooled sheets.

If coloring icing, transfer 1/4 cup icing to a small bowl for each color and tint with food coloring (if using plain white icing, spoon into 1 bag). Spoon each color icing into a bag, pressing out excess air, and snip an 1/8-inch opening in 1 corner of each bag. Twist each bag firmly just above icing, then decoratively pipe icing onto cookies. Let icing dry completely (about 1 hour, depending on humidity) before storing cookies.

Cooks' notes:
• Dough can be chilled up to 3 days.
• Cookies (with or without icing) keep, layered between sheets of wax paper or parchment, in an airtight container at room temperature 1 week.