Observation — 1950, Troubles Then With Us Now

North Korea invaded South Korea.  The Chinese invaded Tibet. We helped overthrow the government of Iran, installing the Shah. Big mistake, we learn later, but paying for it still.  Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the front of the bus.  Dwight Eisenhower set up the U.S. Interstate highway system. The first successful kidney transplant was performed. The first Xerox machine was produced.  Senator Joseph McCarthy began his red-baiting purge. Top songs were “Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer” by Gene Autry and “I Can Dream Can’t I,” by the Andrew Sisters. Some classic films were released that year: Cinderella, Sunset Boulevard, All About Eve, Rashomon, and Harvey. Ernest Hemingway’s Across The River And Into The Trees came in third in books, after The Cardinal by Henry Morton Robinson and Joy Street by Frances Parkinson Keys. Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles and Paul Bowles’ Delicate Prey were also published in 1950. Guys and Dolls debuted. This wasn’t a bountiful year for those who would be famous.  Jay Leno and Karl Rove were born in 1950. It was however, a year of loss for literature.  Edgar Rice Burroughs, George Orwell and George Bernard Shaw left the planet.  If you were around, what were you doing during the year of the metal Tiger?