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Henry David Thoreau

Books

10 Famous Writers on How to Read

By Emily Temple on

Recently, we came across Kurt Vonnegut’s term paper assignment for his 1965 “Form of Fiction” course at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, recently reprinted in Kurt Vonnegut: Letters, edited by Dan Wakefield. Needless to say, the assignment is almost a short story in and of itself — filled with Vonnegut’s delicious turns of phrase and serious expectations, plus his advice on how best to read fiction, or in particular, how best to read short stories that one can then talk or write about well. Inspired, we hunted around for other famous authors with opinions on how best to read — get a little instruction in something you’ve been doing all your life after the jump. … Read More

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Books

19th Century Writers Who Are Even More Relevant Today

By Emily Temple on

Mary Shelley has some serious staying power. The author was born a whopping 215 years ago today, and her work is more relevant now than ever. Not only is Frankenstein, which Shelley began writing when she was eighteen years old, still ubiquitous in classrooms, but the cultural phenomenon of the cobbled-together monster has and continues to inspire and inform artists of every stripe (Tim Burton’s rebooted Frankenweenie is only the most recent example, we think you’ve probably heard of a few more). To celebrate the life and legacy of this fantastic author, we’ve but together a list of a few 19th century writers who are continually — and sometimes exponentially — culturally relevant in our time. Though some of these authors did garner some amount of acclaim during their own lifetimes, we’d venture that they’re all much more famous and more important to the culture at large today. Click through to check out our list, and as always, add any writers you think we’ve missed in the comments. … Read More

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Books

10 Great Works of Literature Written in Prison

By Heba Hasan on

When we imagine the places where our favorite authors penned their greatest masterpieces, a jail cell usually doesn’t come to mind. But, whether their writers were prisoners of war or victims of bigotry, the solitude and lack of distractions have produced many a great book. From Oscar Wilde’s apologia on spiritual awakening to Thoreau’s thoughts on civil disobedience, we survey authors whose great mental escapes from incarceration resulted in some of their most insightful and profound works, after the jump. … Read More

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Design

10 Antisocial Designs for Your Inner Recluse

By Claire Cottrell on

After an intense week of to-ing and fro-ing in the sociable modern metropolis that is New York City, come Friday we often find ourselves depleted and desperate for a (gasp!) night alone save for the book we’re currently reading or our ever dependable friend, … Read More

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Books

10 Beautiful Buildings Inspired by Famous Books

By Emily Temple on

Truly wonderful books have a habit of growing and changing years after they’ve been written, worming themselves into places you might not expect — our decisions, our aesthetic and cultural sense, and even, with the right kind of care, our physical world. Case in point: Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence, which opened in Istanbul last weekend, is an extensive museum (reportedly, he spent almost all of his 1.5 million Nobel Prize dollars on it) devoted to expanding on and complementing his recent novel, The Museum of Innocence. Since we can’t make it to Turkey to experience the place for ourselves, we’ve collected a few other amazing buildings born from books — whether inspired by particular novels, stories, or a writer’s entire oeuvre — to tide us over. Click through to see our gallery of real-life architecture inspired by literature from all over the world, and let us know if we’ve missed your favorite literary tribute in the comments. … Read More

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Books

There's Going To Be A Henry David Thoreau Video Game

By Emily Temple on

We might have just discovered the most boring idea for a video game ever — but it’s a video game that we still kind of want to play. The University of Southern California recently received a $40,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts “to support production costs for a video game based on the… Read More

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Pop Culture

WTF of the Day: Marx, Mao, Lenin and Thoreau Action Figures

By Emily Temple on

No idea what to get your kid brother/niece/new neighbors for that upcoming holiday? Need to decorate your mantle with a tasteful yet worldly display? Well, Japanese company Mountain Research has just the thing for you: a set of limited edition Mountain Men figures featuring “four global revolutionaries:” Chairman Mao, Karl Marx, Lenin and Thoreau. These are clearly men who need action figures created out of them. Think of all the scenarios you could play out bouncing the four personalities off one another! Actually, we can only think of one scenario: nuclear holocaust. … Read More

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Books

Books That Changed The Way We Think About the Earth

By Kathleen Massara on

We may be incredibly pessimistic about the direction our country is headed at the moment, but so were many residents back in the last days of Manifest Destiny, when Henry David Thoreau wrote Walden. (If you’re angry with President Obama, think about having Franklin Pierce as the commander-in-chief. That New Hampshire pretty boy came out in favor of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, for chrissakes.) The titles below are books that changed the way we see the environment and the world at large, whether it was during the tumultuous political situation in the mid-1800s or today, where people are still arguing with each other about whether global warming actually exists. Some of these books changed laws, and all served (and continue to serve) as the Cassandras of our time. So happy Earth Day, everyone! Grab a book and get informed about how the world is going to hell in a handbasket, and what you can do about it. … Read More

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