Was there anyone anytime who was even close?

For me what makes him great is elusive balance he manages to strike in his writing. He is able to inject his personality into it without tipping into subtle narcissism. Neither does he make the opposite mistake of keeping his personality completely out of it and conveying a distant, authoritative and ultimately boring voice.

I can think of some who do a good job at either end of this spectrum but for me the only writer who comes close to Darwin in  balance is Dickinson, and he didn't write enough to make a fair comparison.

In one paragraph I feel like I've shared a pint with Mr. Darwin and entered into his lament - brilliant.

RT,

Apologies for butting in but your comment begs a different question: is there a linkage between design and writing abilities, like that between music and math in the brain? The process of writing is a fascinating one and I can see connections!

For example, both in a sense involve narratives, a progression if you will through time and space that intend to affect the person upon whom this progression is acted (ugh, how's that for poor writing!).

Also, both seem to demand a highly analytical skill. For example, routing a course may be like structuring a story or line of reasoning. Both seem to demand a spacial reasoning capability as well as logical reasoning.  Yes!

In addition to that analytical side, both demand  creativity skills, in that within structure there is room for many "forms." (Think bunker placement vs the form that bunker takes, and in writing the reality that the best lies not necessarily in the originality of the story structure but in the telling of the story and in the writing style.) yes yes!

Certainly gropius, corbu, and Wright could write, in golf what about Doak, Steel?

i wonder if the same regions of the brain are called on in the processing of these two skills...is there a neurologist in the house?

Man, someone ought to write a story on this...

Sorry, back to regularly scheduled programming.

Mark B
as always, interesting thoughts; but I think you might be off-base on this one. I consider myself a fairly decent writer, yet I can't route a straight line in a sandbox with a stick. (Not that there's much call these days for that particular skill-set, which is fortunate.)

I think your earlier analysis of Darwin's strengths as a writer is spot on. I also marvel at how he can so off-handedly infuse the writing with depth and resonance while always keeping it so airy and buoyant.  He rarely seems to overtly or self-consciously attach "meaning" to golf or golf course architecture, yet one gets a clear feeling of his deep love for this pastime, and touching glimpses of how much the game means to him.  It's striking (and telling, I think) that Charles Darwin's grandson could find writing about golf a satisfying and useful pursuit.

Peter  

Darwin was an excellent essayist, and a skilled crafstman, but I think that a big part of his charm for today's readers is the innocence of the period he was fortunate enough to live in.

It was a slower time when one could take half a day to travel by train to Aberdovey for a summer of golf, and report an event like the crumbling of the downsland at Cromer many years after it had happened.  I can imagine what the response would have been if there were an internet in his day and he had chosen to post that reflection of Cromer on www.golfclubatlas.com.  Maybe something like......

'WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE, Berney!"

For my money Dobereiner was right up there with him and I've enjoyed the Longhurst that I read recently. There is something of a void these days, but I'd suggest that Geoff S's blog is probably the modern day version of BD's essays and I enjoy that immensely. GS is not without wit - his Finchem text messages are very funny, especially if your not the commish's biggest fan.

Darwin was an excellent essayist, and a skilled crafstman, but I think that a big part of his charm for today's readers is the innocence of the period he was fortunate enough to live in.

It was a slower time when one could take half a day to travel by train to Aberdovey for a summer of golf, and report an event like the crumbling of the downsland at Cromer many years after it had happened.  I can imagine what the response would have been if there were an internet in his day and he had chosen to post that reflection of Cromer on www.golfclubatlas.com.  Maybe something like......

'WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE, Berney!"

Bingo, ForkaB.

I wonder: Do the British newspapers still have full-time golf writers who are allowed to write wonderfully meandering essays about their travels?

Who knows how many Darwins might be out there, slouching away from Bethlehem.

Mark

For toffs like Darwin, it was a very innocent time.  That being said, I do wonder, as he was also a Dickensean scholar, if he at all noticed (or wrote about) the harsh realities of the lives outside of his charmed circle.....

Rich

This finally is too much for Darwin. He throws his club down and cries, "G*ddamn this hole, G*ddamn this course -- and you, Speakman, G*ddamn you!"

I must say that in our debased modern era, I have never been cursed nearly so eloquently as Mr. Speakman.

Did he support Lloyd George?

Really? Aberdovey IS in Wales, and DLG was a keen golfer...

Very good question, Rick.  Most of the most clever writing these days is in your face, smashmouth sort of stuff.  Maybe that does define our age....