Lambent: (literary) (of light or fire) glowing, gleaming, or flickering with a soft radiance.
Lucent: (literary) glowing with or giving off light.
Refulgent: (literary) shining very brightly
Charles Robinson (English, 1870-1937) with Leprechaun disguised as a flame from a short story ‘The Bog-Wood Box’ by Marjorie L.C. Pickthall, 1914
HEARTH
For more on the significance and symbolism of the home hearth, see this post.
Another one from Louis Wain, Cats by the Fire. I’m pretty sure the black cat started a conflagration.The Big Book Of Real Fire Engines George Zaffo Illustrated 1977Fire House written and illustrated by Leo Manso 1949 (a toy book like paper dolls only with buildings and fire engines).Manuel Delosas poster c 1942 NYFD Midnight Alarm Giant DemonstrationGeorge Martin Ottinger – Sugar Refinery Burning 1885Attack on the Armada Invincibile by Jean-Leon Huens, BelgiumKrystyna Turska 19721937 February, cover by Antonio Petruccelli
BURN OFFS
A PRAIRIE BOY’S SUMMER (1975) William KurelekEdna Eicke (1919-1979)Ruth Ruhman (American, 1925-2011) for a poem called Autumn Fires, A Child’s Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson, 1964
CONFLAGRATION
Fire in the Admiralty line jobs, 1673, Romeyn de Hooghe (attributed to), after Jan van der Heyden, 1690 – 1735Cover by Achille Beltrame 1906
1973 The Great Fire Weekly Reader book by Monica Dickens illustrated by Rocco Negri
The Great Sea Horse 1909 by Isabel AndersonN. Zeitlin – Tales of the Brothers Grimm Three Lucky OnesBattle of Çesme at Night (1848) by Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900) depicting a battle during the Russo-Turkish War‘Stampede’ This Western painting was salvaged from the Coney Island House of Horrors, c. 1935 artist unknown, fireJohn Atkinson Grimshaw, In Peril, 1879Illustration by Ed Emberley in ‘Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home’ written by Judy Hawes. First published 1967, this reprint in Butler and Tanner, 1970Huckle’s Mum sets the house on fire while ironing Daddy’s shirt, Richard ScarryAnastasia Arkhipova – The Steadfast Tin SoldierBy Kay Nielsen (1886-1957) ‘The Lovers Perish in the Fire’ f. Arabian Nights, 1917Gary Larssonfrom a Baffling Mysteries magazine from 1952 but might also be the ending to Gilbert Grape.
BONFIRE
A bonfire is a big campfire, right? Except it’s not just for warmth but for fun and celebration and to raise the emotional charge of a celebration.
Bonfire Night by John Kenney 1967Walter Crane 1845 – 1915 London Town Guy Fawkes DayThe Juvenile almanack, or, Series of monthly emblems c1822-1824 bonfire‘Bonfire Night’ (1951) John Bull magazine by Ronald LampittHampstead Heath, with a Bonfire, ca. 1822. On Midsummer’s Eve in rural England, villagers would keep evil spirits away by “setting the watch“— building bonfires. (Midsummer refers to the magical celebrations around summer solstice.)Tom Adams (1926 – 2019) 1973 book cover illustration for ‘Destination Unknown’ by Agatha Christie
DAYS OF HEAVEN TERRENCE MALICK (1978)
CORPSE BURNING
Corpse burning at a tribe in a distant land, Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne, 1623 – 1628A woman jumps on the stake of her dead husband, 1597, anonymous, after Johannes of Lucas van Doetechum, 1646.
HELL FIRE
Devil stokes the fire in France and Holland, 1830, William Heath, 18301909 Frank Pape, for Anatole France’s Penguin IslandWeird Tales v05 n02 (1925-02)
FIRE AS LIGHTING
Lennart Helje (1940)Charles Santore, William the Curious: Knight of the Water Lilies
EXPLOSION
from the film Hell Or High Waterfrom the film The ThingJivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party, and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan’s fall. Lovely–an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the novel with warmth and hope and humor–has the alibi that can set Jivan free, but it will cost her everything she holds dear.
BURN OFF
from the film Hell Or High Water
WHAT EVEN IS THIS
Edward Gorey, probably a big bowl of wassail lit on fire. It might be a game of Snap-dragon.Nineteenth Century German Tales illustrated by Edward Gorey 1959Lucille Corcos ‘The Sorcerer’, A Treasury of Gilbert & Sullivan. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1941. Edited by Deems TaylorEuropean Expressionist painter Marianne von Werefkin, Police Post, Wilna, 1914De Coulanges, 1928-Christmas Fontanet (1898-1982)
Fire can be a powerful and sometimes all consuming force. Helpful and dangerous in equal measure, the ability to use fire sets man apart from the animals. It should not be too surprising then that fire features heavily in our folklore and traditions.
Janet and Anne Grahame-Johnstone – Aladdin fireMurder In The Calais Coach by Agatha Christie artwork by Tom AdamsPenguin Books 1898 – Graham Greene – Stamboul Train (Orient Express in USA) cover art by Paul Hogarth 1963
Stella lives in the segregated South; in Bumblebee, North Carolina, to be exact about it. Some stores she can go into. Some stores she can’t. Some folks are right pleasant. Others are a lot less so. To Stella, it sort of evens out, and heck, the Klan hasn’t bothered them for years. But one late night, later than she should ever be up, much less wandering around outside, Stella and her little brother see something they’re never supposed to see, something that is the first flicker of change to come, unwelcome change by any stretch of the imagination. As Stella’s community – her world – is upended, she decides to fight fire with fire. And she learns that ashes don’t necessarily signify an end.
Header illustration: Riddles, Riddles from A to Z by Carl Memling illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman (1962) burning leaves
