What year was the writer of "The Celestial Railroad" born?
The Celestial Railroad "The Celestial Railroad" is short story written as an allegory by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. In it, Hawthorne parodies the seventeenth-century book "The Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan, which portrays a Christian's spiritual "journey" through life. In this story, the pilgrim journeys by iron horse rather than by foot, the burden of sin that Bunyan portrays is pulled by the same train, and Bunyan's figure Evangelist, preaching a message of conversion, is replaced by a figure known as "Mr. Smooth-it-away." Hawthorne mostly wrote against his own religious belief, popular at the time, Unitarianism or Transcendentalism, but according to some educators, several of his comments also indicate his dissatisfaction with Bunyan's religiously exclusive theology. In addition to this underlying view, however, he states "we were rushing by the place where Christian's burden fell from his shoulders at the sight of the Cross...for our burdens were rich in many things esteemed precious throughout the world." The story ends with the traveler's relief that what he'd seen was just a dream and an element of hope that is rare in Hawthorne's romantic era literature.
Night on the Galactic Railroad Night on the Galactic Railroad (銀河鉄道の夜 , Ginga Tetsudō no Yoru ) , sometimes translated as Milky Way Railroad, Night Train to the Stars, or Fantasy Railroad In The Stars, is a classic Japanese fantasy novel by Kenji Miyazawa written around 1927. The nine-chapter novel was posthumously published in 1934 as part of "Complete Works of Kenji Miyazawa" Vol. 3 (『宮沢賢治全集』第三巻 ) published by Bunpodō (文圃堂 ) . Four versions are known to be in existence, with the last one being the most famous among Japanese readers.