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Ezra Pound

Books

9 Famous Authors Who Did Stints in Mental Institutions

By Emily Temple on

Everyone knows that all authors are totally crazy, right? After all, that’s what makes so many of them so brilliant. But today, on the anniversary of Ezra Pound’s federally mandated release from St. Elizabeth’s Hospital for the criminally insane, where he had been held for 13 years following his arrest on charges of treason, we celebrate those authors who have actually been institutionalized for their mental illnesses (or, in some cases, for what others thought was mental illness). … Read More

Books

Photos of Famous Authors Reading Famous Books

By Emily Temple on

“If you want to be a writer,” Stephen King tells us at the beginning of his classic craft book On Writing, “you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” We think it’s pretty fair to say that King has done both — and so have most other famous authors. After all, that’s how they got there. But what do they read? We scoured the web to find pictures of a few of our favorite authors reading — and from what we can tell, they spend a lot of time reading their own books (or at least a lot of time being photographed reading them). After the jump, check out a few famous authors reading, whether their own books or other writers’, and if you have a cool photo we missed, add to our collection in the comments! … Read More

Books

The Artist and the Critic: 8 Famous Author/Editor Relationships

By Emily Temple on

This week, we were totally psyched to hear that Colin Firth and Michael Fassbender will be playing Thomas Wolfe and his legendary editor Max Perkins in a film adaption of A. Scott Berg’s National Book Award–winning account of their relationship, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius. And not just for all the Firth/Fassbender it means we’ll be getting. Inspired by this national nod towards an important literary relationship, we’ve rounded up a few other famous author/editor relationships to inspire both the critics and the scribblers among you. Read about them after the jump, and if we’ve missed your favorite, tell us the story in the comments. … Read More

Photography

Man Ray’s Avant-Garde Portraits of Famous Friends

By Alison Nastasi on

Man Ray’s most prolific years were during his time in Paris in the 1920s. The artist left New York for France’s bohemian metropolis where the former painter and Dadaist was embraced by the Surrealist community, and his photography career started to take shape. Most of Man Ray’s models were the hipster elite of his social circle — famous friends with impressive careers of their own, many burgeoning legends in the art and literary worlds. He took snaps of everyone from a baby-faced Salvador Dalí, Hemingway, New York collaborator Marcel Duchamp, and model-cum-muse and photographer Lee Miller. The portraits are modern (several look like they were taken just yesterday), bold, humorous, and quintessentially Man Ray. Check out our gallery past the break for a closer look. … Read More

Books

Our Favorite Writers as Legos

By Emily Temple on

We already knew that you can do just about anything with Legos, but we never imagined we’d see our favorite writers portrayed with that telltale yellow skin and weird cup hands. Luckily for us, way back in 2007, Fine Clonier held a contest asking people to build Lego versions of historical figures. But it’s only now, via Booklicious, that we’re hearing of it, and we thought we’d share. Obviously our favorites are the literary figures, but there are many great ones, so click through to see all the literary legos, and browse all the contest entries, from Hatshepsut to Pelé, here. … Read More

Books

Typewriters and Mug Shots: The Top 10 Literary Outlaws

By Kathleen Massara on

It’s hard being a member of the creative class sometimes. Writers throughout history have been known to run afoul of the law, with charges ranging from disorderly conduct to murder. With the advent of the mug shot in the late 1800s, a latent image emerged of these various offenses, realized through this new, curious medium. In On Photography, Susan Sontag wrote, “The camera has the power to catch so-called normal people in such a way as to make them look abnormal.” But what if you’re unusual to begin with — what does the camera capture then? The following is a list of the top 10 authors to have walked the line. … Read More

Books

Frankenstein Paternity Test Ordered…

By Caroline Stanley on

FRANKENSTEIN is one of the most mythologized stories in modern history. Whether the name evokes the bumbling monster played by BORIS KARLOFF, or the overzealous doctor of the novel version, Frankenstein is a patched together mish-mash of cultural references and horror touchstones.

Including the strange and persistent rumor that MARY SHELLEY didn’t even write it. … Read More