How’s your Latin? I have just read that this was a favourite saying of John Steinbeck. Apparently all of his books carry this insignia. Although I have read a Steinbeck or two, I don’t remember noticing this.
A clue – apparently a professor once told Steinbeck that he would “be an author when pigs flew”.
Helena –
Thanks for the comment – and the link! I just love “Pigasus”! Mind you, I also think that Hermann is a cute name, too…
Interesting that Elaine Steinbeck’s hand-written note seems to refer to a different story of the origins of the motto.
Serendipitous but true; this morning i wandered past a shop
and noticed a flying pig standing in the window. Hermann, as he
is now named, is on his way home to take up position in my
garden. A cast-iron beauty, the size of a cat, i was reminded
not of Steinbeck, but of the 3 pink ceramic flying pigs that used
to grace my office wall. “Earthbound, but aspiring”, this is the
story of my literary life. http://www.steinbeck.sjsu.edu/biography/pigasus.jsp
In case you were wondering, the translation is: “To the stars on the wings of a pig”.
I checked my two Steinbeck books, and I can’t find it there… But then, they are cheap paperbacks.