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From: Renaissance Quarterly
Date: 19940922
Author:Kirkham, Victoria

Webster defines "Pollyanna," from the name of the heroine in a novel by the American writer Eleanor H. Porter (1868-1920), as "an excessively or persistently optimistic person." What is its antonym? Apparently sunshine is simpler than gloom, since for the latter outlook Roget's Thesaurus can propose a whole string of options, including "pessimist," "malist," "killjoy," "calamity howler," "worrywart," "prophet of doom," "Cassandra," "Eeyore," and "one who is always building dungeons in the air." Just such "dungeons" of the imagination, surprisingly, seem to have housed Giuseppe ...

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