This past week, Jack Kerouac’s first-ever novel, The Sea is My Brother, was finally published 40 years after his death. The novel, long thought to be lost by experts, was unearthed in Kerouac’s personal archive by his brother-in-law. We are constantly inspired by the way that our over-processed world still hangs on to its secrets, and even more by the way that bits of history can hide in plain sight, so to celebrate this newest development in the literary canon, we decided to take a look at Kerouac’s newest/oldest book and other lost novels that were eventually found again. Click through to see our list of lost and found novels, and if you’ve ever had a literary relative, get ready to go hunting in your attics for your own treasure chests. Read More »
Today at Flavorpill, we wanted to buy a set of these hilarious letterpress cards based on submissions from Dear Blank, Please Blank. We discovered a website that collects photos of all of those crappy handheld electronic games that we used to play back in the day. We swooned over Jim Tierney’s beautiful cover designs for four Jules Verne novels. We watched a brief cartoon history of social networking. We placed our votes in the ultimate Southern food bracket (deviled eggs, FTW!). We were surprised by how bad some of the reviews for Wuthering Heights were when it first came out. We liked The Daily’s recipe for Radiohead. We read about some ways that one might get around the impending New York Times paywall. And finally, we came across Dinner in the Sky, a Belgian company that hoists people up in the air by crane for dinner parties in cities around the world. How cool would that be?!
The wait for Nabokov’s unfinished novel, The Original of Laura, is almost over (countdown to November 17th, people). The story, if you hadn’t heard, is that before his death the grand master ordered his son, Dmitri, to destroy the notecards on which he had been crafting his newest novel. Dmitri, after much struggle (both in the press and personally, we expect), has decided to publish the thing anyway, and we hear it’s true-to-form amazing.
If you’re really anxious (or just a fanboy), check out the awesome-sounding celebration of Nabokov’s work at the 92nd Street Y the day before Laura comes out. Martin Amis, Brian Boyd, and Chip Kidd will be there. Or while away the hours by starting in on our list of the most exciting unfinished novels, both classic and forthcoming.
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