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Photography

Fascinating Early-20th-Century Color Photos of Famous People

By Emily Temple on

There are some historical figures who we always think of in black and white. After all, the world trucked on in monochrome, Pleasantville-style, until the middle of the 20th century, right? Well, not exactly. In fact, color photography dates back to the mid-1800s — the first three-color process photo was taken in 1855, but it wasn’t until 1907 that the first commercially viable method of color photography, Lumière Autochrome, was invented — and perhaps unsurprisingly, photographers jumped to take snapshots of their famous friends. Below, some notable characters, from Mark Twain to Auguste Rodin, whom we usually see in black and white, showing their true colors. … Read More

Books

Rare Footage of Famous Authors

By Alison Nastasi on

Savoring a book for weeks, months, and sometimes years inspires a natural curiosity about the person behind the words. Several scribes have reached cult celebrity status with voracious audiences, but others remain an enigma — their voices and image seldom captured, often due to lapses in technological advancement. After spotting a rare video featuring Nineteen Eighty-Four author George Orwell on Open Culture, we realized how many writers have evaded their close-up — by choice and by fate. Watch the rare footage of famous authors that we found after the break. The videos offer an intimate glimpse of literature’s most amazing minds. … Read More

Books

Seen and Overheard at a Sherlock Holmes Charity Ball

By Emily Temple on

If you’ve been seeing a few more deerstalkers roaming the streets this weekend than you’re generally accustomed to, let us let you in on a little secret. This week marks Sherlock Holmes’ birthday, and therefore we are embarking on the annual NYC Baker Street Irregulars Weekend, a few days of fun and Sherlock Holmes jokes for the surprisingly large faction of the loyal. Last night, your intrepid literary editor attended The Daintiest Thing Under a Bonnet Charity Ball, hosted by the Baker Street Babes, a young, hip group of all-female Sherlockians. The evening, which benefited the Wounded Warrior Project, was a delightful affair, with music, a pop quiz, toasts both fictional and non-fictional, and much well-deserved nerdery all around. After the jump, a few snapshots (including yours truly dressed as an admittedly droog-like Dr. Watson) and quips overheard during the evening. … Read More

Books

Books That Will Inspire You to Be a Better Person in 2013

By Emily Temple on

The holiday season is traditionally a time for charity and warm fuzzy feelings, but sometimes we need a little extra inspiration. That is, a captivating read that will also make us want to be a better person — whether because of the sterling example of a character, some choice lines of world-wisdom, or something a little more nebulous. After the jump, try out ten books that will inspire your better self to make an appearance — we’ve veered away from self-help books of any kind, though we’ve allowed for a mix of fiction and non – and let us know if we missed your personal go-to good-guy read in the comments. … Read More

Books

Famous Last Words: 15 Authors’ Epitaphs

By Emily Temple on

In this the spookiest of months, we find ourselves occupied with the world’s darker themes, and we got to wondering — what words have sent famous men and women of letters into the great unknown? Or perhaps more precisely, which words were chosen to honor them for eternity? From the tongue-in-cheek to the ponderously serious, from the knightly to the poetic, and even one that doubles as a grave robber’s curse, we’re fascinated by the epitaphs of famous authors, so we’ve collected a few of them here for your shivering pleasure.… Read More

Books

Fascinating Photographs of Famous Literary Characters in Real Life

By Emily Temple on

Though they exist in our minds in many forms — the way we conjured them up at first reading, the way they were illustrated or the way they were portrayed on screen — many of our most famous literary characters are in fact based on real people, and have “true” faces beyond any adaptation. Or at least to some extent — at least in fiction, very few characters are true carbon copies (except Kerouac’s). After the jump, we’ve collected a few photographs of the real people behind famous literary characters to invade your memories. Click through to check them out, and since there are of course many more to add to this list, get to it in the comments. … Read More

Photography

10 of the Most Famous Photo Hoaxes Through History

By Emily Temple on

In the modern age, it’s both incredibly easy to fake photographs (everyone and their mother is a Photoshop expert these days) and relatively difficult to actually pass them off as legitimate for any length of time (no one can hide on the Internet). But it wasn’t always that way. We recently discovered the awesome website Museum of Hoaxes, and we’ve been indulging in the history of fake photographs, from the first faked photo in the 1830s to much more recent attempts. Click through to check out a few of the most famous photo hoaxes in history, and let us know if we missed your favorite (or if you’re a true believer) in the… Read More

Books

10 Novels That Deserve a Prequel

By Emily Temple on

Today marks the US release of Skagboys, Irvine Welsh’s long-awaited prequel to his cult classic Trainspotting. Though in general we think the world has way too many prequels and sequels, we have to admit that we’re a little bit psyched to find out the origin stories of our favorite crew of tortured junkies. Welsh’s new book got us thinking about other classic and modern texts that we think could use a prequel — sure, it might be only to answer our own selfish lingering questions, but what else are prequels for? Click through to see the books we chose, and add your own suggestions in the comments — you never know, you just might get your wish. … Read More

Books

Photos of Famous Authors and Their Bicycles

By Emily Temple on

It’s the height of bike riding season here in New York — it’s no longer so hot that you can’t do more than duck from air conditioned shop to air conditioned shop, but it’s still beautiful, and as the air continues to crisp, the cyclist will be out in numbers. And hey, in another life, one of them might have been Leo Tolstoy. We spotted this delightful photo of Leo Tolstoy and his bicycle — he learned to ride at 67! — over at Open Culture, and we were intrigued. Bike riding seems like an appropriate pastime for authors (all those bike-powered book tours and long lazy afternoons), so we thought we’d hunt around to see how many other famous writers liked to zoom about on two wheels. Click through to check out our gallery, and let us know if we missed your favorite snap of a writer on a bike in the comments. … Read More

Film

The Ten Best Sherlocks (That You’ve Probably Never Seen)

By Emily Temple on

Basil Rathbone, in the 40s; Peter Cushing, in the 50s and 60s, plus a last gasp in the 80s; Jeremy Brett, in the 80s and 90s; and now Benedict Cumberbatch, edging out Robert Downey Jr in the 21st century. Everyone’s favourite Sherlock Holmes is surely one of the above – at the expense of so many other of their deer-stalking, pipe-puffing, violin-scraping kin, who almost always get overlooked. To attempt to fix that terrible problem, Alan Barnes, author of Sherlock Holmes On Screen, which comes out this week, presents, in chronological order, ten criminally under-rated Great Detectives for your reconsideration. Click through to check out his picks, and let us know your own favorite incarnation of the famous sleuth in the comments! … Read More