tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74214436903693230752011-10-11T15:17:40.155+02:00gathered by Jennifer Kilgore-CaradecJKCnoreply@blogger.comBlogger641100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-47001678959981123262011-10-07T10:31:00.000+02:002011-10-09T15:58:03.356+02:00

Leo Stein moved to Paris in 1902, settling in the rue de Fleurus, where his sister Gertrude joined him in 1903.   Their brother Michael came to Paris in 1904 with his wife, and they settled in rue Madame.  Picasso painted Gertrude's portrait in 1906, which she said influenced her writing. The family's interest in avant-garde art led to purchases of Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso.  From October 5,

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-57195827190835597692011-09-19T20:32:00.002+02:002011-09-19T20:34:43.106+02:00

Try to develop a literary essay or commentary around a thesis statement, which is a short statement that explains what it is that you wish to demonstrate. A thesis statement is easier to find and write if you have spent some time studying the texts already. In preparation for a commentary you should plan to read the text four or five times. Relax. Give yourself a quiet space in which to

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-57861729668880064872011-08-24T08:40:00.003+02:002011-08-24T08:47:38.059+02:00

Thanks to Steve Jobs, we managed to get a choice of fonts on our computers, but have you ever considered the history and philosophy of the font you are using?  According to Janet Maslin, Simon Garfield's book Just My Type (2010) is an "excellent gloss" on the history of font culture.  Oh, and there's also some material on Wynkyn de Worde. Janet Maslin, "Font Pain and Poetry: So Much Depends on a

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-83432730356900490502011-06-17T14:38:00.000+02:002011-06-17T14:38:46.892+02:00

Armstrong, Tim.  Modernism: A cultural History.  Cambridge: Polity, 2005.Asher, Kenneth.  T.S. Eliot and Ideology.  Cambridge: CUP, 1994.Beasley, Rebecca.  Ezra Pound and the Visual Culture of Modernism.  Cambridge: CUP, 2007.—. Theorists of Modernist Poetry: T.S. Eliot, T.E. Hulme, Ezra Pound, London: Routledge, 2007.Bergson, Henri.Bernstein, Michael André.  The Tale of the Tribe: Ezra Pound and

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-39965184234115649012011-06-16T16:05:00.007+02:002011-06-17T16:52:33.144+02:00

Reading lists are not meant to be a scare tactic by the professor to the student.  The teacher is merely interested in keeping the student focused and guiding their growth in literary culture.  A student should approach reading lists with a certain liberality and freedom.  Usually a teacher is clear about what books are actually required reading (the ones you absolutely must read and understand

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-32763786821893069572011-06-15T14:32:00.026+02:002011-06-17T15:36:32.575+02:00

Robert ALTER, The Art of Biblical Narrative (1981), The Art of Biblical Poetry (1987).A. ALVAREZ, The New Poetry (1962). This is an anthology of British poetry. In the introduction Alvarez rejects the gentility of the Movement and British verse in the 1950s. Matthew ARNOLD, Essays in Criticism (1865, 1888), Culture and Anarchy, An Essay in Political and Social Criticism(1869). Erich AUERBACH, 

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-63494460276918778402010-04-19T08:35:00.003+02:002011-06-17T12:01:10.238+02:00

The Letters of Sylvia Beach have just been published by Columbia University Press, edited by Keri Walsh. Dwight Garner, "Ex-Pat Paris as It Sizzled for One Literary Lioness," New York Times (April 18, 2010).

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-55193114429084995412010-04-12T09:19:00.002+02:002010-04-12T09:23:30.755+02:00

Norman Mailer's sixth wife publishes her memoir, A Ticket to the Circus.Jennifer Senior, "Ancient Evenings," New York Times (April 8, 2010).

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-37136846158293283222010-04-08T11:36:00.005+02:002011-08-19T21:28:15.031+02:00

The Bureau of International Information Programs of the U.S. Department of State, offers an on-line crash course in American Literature, by presenting some important American writers, on a freely consultable pdf page through internet. If you need a quick brush-up, this could be helpful. (www.america.gov/publications/books). Or second link: American Embassy blog.

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-6220888068049983962010-02-09T10:05:00.005+01:002010-02-16T13:24:50.339+01:00

Since the 91-year-old J.D. Salinger passed on January 27, the attention and hommage grows...Allison Flood, "Letters reveal JD Salinger was writing regularly long after 1965," Guardian (February 15, 2010).Tim Bates, "JD Salinger obituary," Guardian (February 2, 2010).Jennifer Finney Boylan, "Raise High the P.R. Blitz," New York Times (January 31, 2010).Richard Lacayo, "J.D. Salinger Dies: Hermit

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-37780019835565876212010-02-08T09:30:00.004+01:002010-02-08T09:36:49.763+01:00

Who do you want to hear? Don Delillo? Norman Mailer? Joyce Carol Oates? Philip Roth? John Updike?BBC Radio 4 webpage offers quite an impressive list of interviews with American authors (www.bbc.co.uk/radio4).

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-30457969276063043322009-12-12T09:12:00.008+01:002011-06-17T12:18:41.837+02:00

Where did Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison go out to lunch in Paris? At "Restaurant Américain, Chez Haynes," 3, rue Clauzel, 75009. The exterior decor was made with logs, recalling American log cabins, and the inside featured Soul Food in a unique atmosphere of celebrity photos and posted clippings, along with original artistic creations donated by customers. Given the historical and cultural

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-78285171395100490802009-12-11T07:07:00.004+01:002009-12-11T07:16:35.601+01:00

A swimming pool, converted into a museum is hosting an excellent exhibit on Bloomsbury, "Conversation anglaise, le groupe de Bloomsbury" (November 20, 2009-February 27, 2010). You'll need to go to Roubaix (near Lille) to see it, but it will be worth your trip.Links:La Piscine (www.roubaix-lapiscine.com)."Bloomsbury Triangles" Lunettes Rouges (lemonde.fr).

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-21421594613372702332009-11-20T07:33:00.004+01:002009-11-20T08:01:32.656+01:00

When Tom Joad returns home after spending several years in prison, he finds himself coughing up wind and dust. He gets home just in time to leave with his family, whose profits as sharecroppers have not been enough to continue to till the land. But there is not much land left to plough. Homeless sharecroppers like the Joads headed for California. John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath (1939)

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-72937533095465364712009-11-11T10:57:00.003+01:002009-11-11T11:09:11.375+01:00

From Tristes Tropiques (1955) to The Savage Mind (1962) to Mythologies (1964-1971), Claude Levi-Strauss (1908-2009) influenced literary culture almost as much as his own discipline. Links:Biography page from the Academie Française (www.academie-française.fr).Richard Lacayo, "Claude Lévi-Strauss," Time (November 16, 2009).Roger-Pol Droit, "L'ethnologue Claude Lévi-Strauss est mort," Le Monde (

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-14918994730713347322009-02-23T07:02:00.002+01:002009-02-23T07:05:52.779+01:00

Brad Gooch has just published the authoritative biography of Flanner O'Connor: Flannery, A Life of Flannery O'Connor (Little, Brown & Co, 2009).Janet Maslin, "What Was With the Peacocks and the Gothic Fiction?" New York Times (February 22, 2009).

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-43938897913026104232009-02-13T10:00:00.002+01:002009-02-13T10:10:01.965+01:00

There has been a lot of buzz for Zadie Smith lately, and she deserves it.  Her talents are evident to most of her readers.David Gura, "Zadie Smith" Blog of the Nation / NPR (February 12, 2009).Zadie Smith, "Speaking in Tongues," New York Review of Books (February 26, 2009).

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-4541881695104917302009-02-06T09:14:00.001+01:002009-02-06T09:16:00.726+01:00

Roy Blount, Jr., "A True Friend and a Good Writer," New York Times (January 21, 2007).

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-12850168621069695192009-02-06T09:10:00.007+01:002009-02-27T09:31:44.278+01:00

A sheaf of links.Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "John Updike, a Lyrical Writer of the Middle-Class Man, Dies at 76," New York Times (January 28, 2009).Lorrie Moore, "The Complete Updike," New York Times (January 28, 2009).John Updike, "Requiem," New York Times (January 29, 2009).Verlyn Klinkenborg, "John Updike," New York Times (January 28, 2009).Clyde Haberman, "Thoughts on the City by a New York

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-72435133885854686642008-12-31T08:42:00.003+01:002008-12-31T08:46:13.467+01:00

Maybe his writing is all about self exposure -- and the possibilities of many selves informing the character Seymour, but we won't know until after his death, and maybe not even then.  Salinger will turn 90 this week, an event the New York Times is commemorating.Charles McGrath, "Still Paging Mr. Salinger," New York Times (December 30, 2008).

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-33943341071570077152008-12-13T08:39:00.003+01:002008-12-13T08:43:47.166+01:00

This initiative by the National Endowment for the Arts in the United States is intended "to restore  reading to the center of American culture."  Authors flashing before the screen on the N.E.A. website include Ernest Gaines, William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, Harper Lee, Ernest Heminway, Jack London, Carson McCullers, Cynthia Ozick, John Steinbeck, and Amy Tan... what an invitation!  Grants

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-4084453369647289562008-12-07T11:42:00.003+01:002008-12-07T11:57:08.232+01:00

Unesco designated Iowa City as City of Literature in November, in the third nomination to the position, following Edinburgh in October 2004 and Melbourne in August 2008.Links:Edinburgh, UNESCO City of Literature page."The Creative Cities Network" from UNESCO.About Melbourne from Edinburgh's page.About Iowa City from Edinburgh's page.

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-79216036766742441552008-12-07T09:59:00.002+01:002008-12-07T10:03:14.125+01:00

January 16-17, 2009 a conference on Everyman will be held in Nancy, France. Vendredi 16 janvier 20099h30-10h15Agnès Blandeau (Université de Nantes), « Everyman et Elckerlijc :échos et réfractions »10h15-11hChristopher Denny (St John's University, USA), « The Influence ofThomas à Kempis's The Imitation of Christ on Everyman »11h30-12h15Ionut Untea (Université Lyon 3), « The Other Everyman:

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-20530685007637566502008-12-05T22:14:00.002+01:002008-12-05T22:17:05.016+01:00

Is Autofiction something like auto-eroticism?  Only a look at the website will show you:http://autofiction.org

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-80691472467636237092008-11-16T18:58:00.002+01:002008-11-16T19:00:49.495+01:00

A number of speakers who attended the recent conference on Everyman in Tours (October 10-11, 2008) have been made available on on-line videos. Check out the "Canal U" site.

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-33469209106037931392008-11-09T08:27:00.003+01:002008-11-09T08:30:35.683+01:00

Maxine Hong Kingston talked about and read from Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace at Cody's Books, San Francisco (October 17, 2006).  The following video is from FORA.tv

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-64156464732596397122008-10-31T10:17:00.002+01:002008-10-31T10:20:51.132+01:00

Imagining how Rabbit would vote, Updike said that Obama seemed to be "more free" as a candidate.  He was interviewed by Sam Tenenhaus of the New York Times.  Updike mentioned that his father had voted for FDR.

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-37395974183697016332008-10-18T14:55:00.004+02:002008-10-18T15:48:55.474+02:00

Is R.W.E becoming a hot topic in France?  Marc Bel writes on "Ralph Waldo Emerson et le transcendentalism américain" in La Clé des Langues.Links:http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-72279451542556756192008-09-30T16:36:00.003+02:002008-09-30T16:39:40.953+02:00

This, too, will be on-goingCharles Peirce:  see Style and Faith p.151 re. Josiah Royce's seminar of 1913-1914, which TSE attended:  "At one of these meetings Royce introduced to the discussion Charles Sanders Peirce's belief 'that there is a mysterious harmony between the mind of the scientist and the order of nature..."

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-49403265217953428522008-09-30T10:56:00.002+02:002008-09-30T10:58:30.193+02:00

This will be on-going...Auden, W.H., "Postscript: Christianity and Art," The Dyer's Hand and Other Essays (1962).

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-53287738952020138332008-09-29T10:47:00.004+02:002008-09-29T10:58:36.495+02:00

Zora Neale Hurston's home town Eatonville, Florida, has become "a place of pilgrimmage" according to Damien Cave, "Going Down the Road: In a Town Apart, the Pride and Trials of Black Life," New York Times (September 28, 2008).  Eatonville's "Zora! Festival" welcomed Alice Walker, Toni Morrison and Ruby Dee this year.

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-46195966880291077122008-09-27T08:53:00.004+02:002008-09-27T09:26:00.375+02:00

Dorothy Gallagher, author of Hannah's Daughers (1976), All the Right Enemies: The Life and Murder of Carlo Tresca (1988), How I Came into My Inheritance (2001), Strangers in the House: Life Stories (Random House, 2006), and co-author of Mural at the Waverly Inn: A Portrait of Greenwich Village Bohemians (Knopf, 2008), reveals her debt to Helene Pleasants in a moving essay "What My Copy Editor

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-63588720876692515342008-09-26T17:41:00.003+02:002008-12-07T11:58:57.241+01:00

Poet George Herbert's A Priest to the Temple, Or, The Country Parson (1652), the full text with original spelling, can now be read on-line from Project Canterbury. 

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-88134923675232801562008-09-25T10:36:00.002+02:002008-09-25T10:41:06.466+02:00

The introduction to Walker Percy's commencement address to the graduating class of the University of Notre Dame in 1989 speaks of Percy's focus on "that in us which must prevail."

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-44865586031518076792008-09-24T09:38:00.003+02:002008-09-24T09:48:15.246+02:00

In September 2006, All Things Considered invited Lawrence Wright to talk about Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language" (1946).The essay is available on-line in a number of places.http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htmhttp://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-16587336045850117992008-09-22T10:52:00.004+02:002008-09-24T09:38:22.035+02:00

What can a poet's prose tell you about his or her poetry?  Quite a bit at times.  Rowan Williams's interests in language and faith are evident in his poetry and he may have taken some of his preoccupations from Dostoevsky, whom he is able to read in the original Russian.  Salley Vickers reviewed Dostoevsky: Language, Faith, and Fiction (2008) in the Times (September 19, 2008).

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-88434471928962406772008-09-18T11:09:00.004+02:002008-09-18T11:17:21.687+02:00

To whet your appetite, you might try reading Elisabeth Angel-Perez and Alexandra Poulain (eds), Hunger on the Stage, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008.  See the Flyer for the volume here, and visualize the first 20 or so pages here.

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-76559341496309639152008-09-17T11:04:00.001+02:002008-09-17T11:14:33.395+02:00

First she published A Mother's Essays from Ground Zero (2001), then the essays became Calling: An Opera of Forgiveness which will have its debut performance at La MaMa theatre on September 12, 2008. See article in the New York Times (August 31, 2008).

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-24664871926103235652008-09-17T11:02:00.000+02:002008-09-17T11:03:41.688+02:00

Filmmaker Errol Morris (his The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara won an Academy Award for best documentary in 2004) keeps a blog in which he has just described how photography can be used as a weapon (NYT, August 11, 2008). Since the Gulf War of 1991 when fireworks that were bombs were flashed on TV screens live, and the September 2001 attacks which were also filmed

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-51581376690525531192008-09-17T10:56:00.001+02:002008-09-17T11:02:10.683+02:00

Photos from the beginning of the 20th Century from collections at the Library of Congress have been posted on flicker. This one features "Jackies on Parade between 1910 and 1915"... it was added to Flickr on August 8, 2008, and there are no known copyright restrictions to use it (and the many others, about sports, NYC, etc).It is possible to view the photos without having a flickr account.

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-54705278211238012042008-09-17T10:55:00.001+02:002008-09-17T10:56:44.979+02:00

Could Odysseus's return to Ithaca correspond to a total solar eclipse, and was Plutarch right in assessing that a passage from book 20 is a poetic description of the event? This thesis has been confirmed by scientists as the 1178 B.C. solar eclipse in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (June 2008). See "Homecoming of Odysseus May Have Been in Eclipse" by John Noble Wilford in

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-38938153850600013462008-09-17T10:42:00.007+02:002008-09-20T07:32:11.086+02:00

Roth's new book Indignation was reviewed by Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times (September 16, 2008) and by David Gates (September 19, 2008) the first chapter is available here.  In it, a Korean War soldier who died lives on.Links pages for Roth:http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/philip_roth/index.htmlA series of interviews with Roth have been posted on You Tube.

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-55563929248424203572008-09-13T08:27:00.004+02:002008-09-13T08:40:35.607+02:00

The Library of Congress gave an reading in honor of Herman Wouk last Wednesday, as announced in the New York Times (September 9, 2008) and the Los Angeles Times (September 10, 2008).  An account of the event was also published in the Washington Post (September 11, 2008).  The Library of Congress has also honored Wouk in the past with the Living Legend Award (April 2000).

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-58642451458895544342008-09-12T09:29:00.006+02:002008-09-12T09:34:05.997+02:00

Discovery today of two blogs relating to American Letters:Fric-Frac Club (apparently started in February 2008)and L'escargot Garpien (begun in 2003)One of the obsessions on both is Thomas Pynchon.

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-71572090841519689812008-09-10T08:35:00.003+02:002008-09-10T08:39:45.468+02:00

Maurice Sendak who celebrated his 80th birthday this past year was honored in a perceptive article by Patricia Cohen in the New York Times (September 9, 2008).

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-82919125761601822342008-09-07T15:46:00.004+02:002008-09-08T09:17:09.913+02:00

Since Richard Ford is on the program of the French Agrégation for the second year in a row, he's catching a good bit of attention in France right now.  He will be speaking at the Université Marc Bloch in Strasbourg on September 20, 2008 at 3 p.m. at Club de la Presse, 10 place Kléber.Recent publications on Ford include:Florian Tréguer and François Henry, Lectures de Richard Ford: A Multitude of

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-91603985412149845622008-09-07T10:15:00.003+02:002008-09-14T12:23:38.890+02:00

James Campbell's Syncopations: Beats, New Yorkers, and Writers in the Dark (2008) was reviewed by Sam Munson in the New York Times (September 7, 2008).

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-23446799437458303042008-09-07T09:54:00.006+02:002008-12-07T11:56:03.339+01:00

Robert Giroux who recently died, was responsible for publishing Flannery O'Connor, Jack Kerouac, and Robert Lowell, but he lost a chance to publish J.D. Salinger, as described in the New York Times (September 6, 2008).  Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote a detailed obituary for Giroux (September 6, 2008).

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-74194281939589878842008-09-06T11:39:00.003+02:002008-09-06T11:46:30.642+02:00

Philadelphia lays claim to Edgar Allen Poe, as described by Ian Urbina, "Baltimore Has Poe; Philedelphia Wants Him" in the New York Times (September 5, 2008).

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-82253309154751683842008-09-02T10:50:00.003+02:002008-09-02T11:00:30.353+02:00

Curtis Sittenfeld's novel American Wife (2008) was reviewed by Joyce Carol Oates in the New York Times (August 29, 2008).  The novel, writes Oates, is "conspicuously modeled after the life of Laura Bush as recorded in Ann Gerhart's biography The Perfect Wife: The Life and Choices of Laura Bush (2004)." Some readers may be disappointed: this is not political satire, with "very little that is

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-17634958698762233442008-08-26T09:50:00.003+02:002008-08-26T10:01:01.249+02:00

Tad Mosel, who wrote many scripts for live television in the 1950s, and who won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1961 for the play "All the Way Home," has died.  His obituary in the New York Times (August 26, 2008) retraces a rich career.

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-3314987702542399962008-08-22T09:39:00.003+02:002008-08-26T09:53:19.622+02:00

The home of the author of The Living is Easy (1948) and The Wedding (1995) is now part of the African American Heritage Trail of Martha's Vineyard, as an article in the New York Times (August 17, 2008) relates.

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-23908620746455636692008-08-12T09:38:00.003+02:002008-08-26T09:53:55.834+02:00

From 1967 to 1977, Theodore Solotaroff edited The New American Review.  Solotaroff's education began at the University of Michigan where he got a degree in English, and he continued at the University of Chicago, but didn't finish his thesis on Henry James.  Instead, after working as an editor for Commentary, and the books pages of the New York Herald Tribune, he began the New American

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-82881195196645622692008-08-10T10:57:00.006+02:002008-08-26T09:54:29.815+02:00

Evagrius Ponticus listed eight sins in his treatise "On the Eight Evil Thoughts" (4th century A.D.):gluttonyfornicationavaricedejectionangerwearinessvaingloryprideand see the New York Times (August 8, 2008) for more about the number 8.

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-70890770380838389122008-08-09T07:33:00.003+02:002008-08-26T09:55:39.496+02:00

A series of articles has been published about Doris Lessing by the New York Times (August 10, 2008) and an index page for articles that have appeared in the NYT about her, as well as a video of the Noble Prize announcement can be found here.

JKCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-5592402017796058182008-06-27T10:59:00.004+02:002008-08-09T07:46:04.352+02:00

This will be an on-going entry to make some sense of the enormous amount of literature representing September 11, 2001.Book Review of Lawrence Wright's non-fictional account, The Looming Tower (2006) in Christian Science Monitor (September 5, 2006):http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0905/p14s03-bogn.html

JKCnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-12817291405827200032008-06-23T07:28:00.009+02:002008-08-26T09:55:11.553+02:00

A compilation of photos, including T.S. Eliot, Gwendolyn Brooks, Truman Capote, Carl Sandburg...http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/history/writers-at-home-photographs-by-slim-aarons-053401

JKCnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-51678890375307371472008-06-16T11:14:00.007+02:002008-08-26T09:57:44.604+02:00

"My deepest passion was reading," said Toni Morrison, answering a question about how she took up writing, in Time, May 19, 2008. Her latest book, What Moves at the Margin (nonfiction) has just been published.Hear Toni Morrison:http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1738303,00.html

JKCnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-65154903227601401602008-06-13T14:51:00.009+02:002011-06-17T15:59:31.169+02:00

William Grimes wrote an essay for The New York Times, "Volumes to Go before You Die" (May 23, 2008) concerning 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, compiled by Peter Boxall (Sussex University) with the help of some 105 critics, editors and academics. The list and surrounding discussion at www.liswtology.com reveal that the notion of canon is perpetually a thorny problem. Perhaps the best

JKCnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-67114502959769043222008-06-10T10:42:00.006+02:002008-08-26T09:57:11.377+02:00

In this podcast from The New Yorker (April 7, 2008) Louise Erdrich compares Lorrie Moore's humor to Philip Roth and notes that no-one has ever categorized Moore's stories as "chick lit"... Erdrich and Moore were both first published in The New Yorker in 1989. After the informative introduction, Erdrich reads Moore's short story "Dance in America."

JKCnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-42008241353205581022008-06-09T08:59:00.005+02:002008-08-26T10:02:15.297+02:00

Joshua Kendall wrote to The New York Times about Noah Webster Jr. (yes, the man who gave us the dictionary) in a letter published June 8, 2008. He suggested we bear in mind that the first American daily newspaper, The American Minerva, (first published December 9, 1793), was edited by Webster. Kendall ends his letter with a quote from Webster: "The foundation of all free governments, seems to

JKCnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-26504838664279939592008-04-21T10:32:00.004+02:002008-08-26T09:58:38.400+02:00

Tony Harrison wrote:  "If art can't cope/ It's just another form of dope."

JKCnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-67639530377987247632008-04-20T18:16:00.004+02:002008-08-26T09:56:29.043+02:00

Sébastien Brant wrote in La Nef des fous (a 16th Century best-seller):"Qui va chanter clair ses projetsEtend au grand jour ses filetsIl est facile à déjouer."

JKCnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421443690369323075.post-17296555909089150442008-04-19T16:01:00.000+02:002008-04-19T16:06:50.766+02:00

Creation of a space in which to jot down those odds & ends that one doesn't want to lose...  and perhaps some of them are worth sharing.  

JKCnoreply@blogger.com0