You’ve heard it before, but we’ll say it again: it’s a shame people don’t write letters anymore. Especially writers, whose missives are often so beautifully composed and simply inspiring that we hoard them in volume upon volume. We’ve already put together a collection of authors’ letters to their young fans, but this week, we spotted this wonderful letter from Sherwood Anderson to his son over at Brain Pickings, and we were inspired to dig a little further into the letters writers send their own children. After the jump, read loving, advice-filled, gentle parental love letters from some of our favorite authors to some of their favorite people — their kids. … Read More
Leo Tolstoy
The Surprising Meanings of 20 Famous Authors’ Last Names
As kids, we were always fascinated by the meaning of our names — what did they say about us? What ancient history were we somehow connected to? And while we’re not so interested for ourselves anymore (as you can see, this writer has a pretty boring last name), it’s still fun to find out what other people’s names mean. Especially if those other people are famous writers, some of whom are now known only by the words that surround and come from them. To this end, we did some snooping, and using a mixture of foreign language dictionaries and online genealogy databases, we came up with the list below. Some might surprise you — but some fit like a glove. After the jump, school yourself on the meaning of 20 famous authors’ last names, and if you know of any secrets we’ve missed, add to our list in the comments. … Read More
Elegant and Pithy Literary Posters for Readers
When a particular line sings, sometimes underlining just isn’t enough. We’ve come across more than one quote or literary quip that we wanted to hang on our walls, but a postcard with a scribbled phrase doesn’t have quite the same impact as Evan Robertson’s elegant literary posters. We’ve already gushed about Robertson’s work, but when My Modern Met tipped us off that he had some new posters, we just had to share them with you again. So far, Robertson has created 32 posters, and aims to make the series an even 50. As he told My Modern Met, his aim for the series is to encourage “a reconnection with great thinking. It’s a call to action to pick up a great book. And the inspiration to slow down for a bit, I hope, to enjoy the luxury of thinking about something with no practical aim.” Sounds good to us. Click through to check out a few more of our favorite posters from Robertson’s series, and then head on over to his Etsy shop to buy a print for yourself or a book-lover you love. … Read More
The Very Best of Strange Soviet Architecture
Inspired by the arrival of Anna Karenina in theaters, we decided to take a look at the strange, experimental architecture that was born out of the collapse of the old Russian… Read More
Flavorwire’s Flick of the Week: ‘Anna Karenina’ Is a High-Spirited, Robust Adaptation
Joe Wright’s new adaptation of Anna Karenina opens with a wide shot of a stage, the sounds of an orchestra tuning, and a curtain rising. The telling of the story that follows is immersed in artifice, much of it taking place in a fluid theatrical space with lighting and staging effects, and moving flats, backdrops, and scenery. What Wright and his screenwriter Tom Stoppard (who knows a little something about The Theatre) have done is not adapt Tolstoy’s novel so much as they’ve staged it, creating a fluid three-way dialectic between the page, the stage, and the frame. It’s a fresh and ingenious approach, and results in a surprisingly high-spirited picture. … Read More
Photos of Famous Authors and Their Bicycles
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
Literature’s Most Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives spawned many popular (if questionable) offspring. From The Real Housewives series to Basketball Wives to Mob Wives, the cultural term has certainly captured the American imagination. But the societal trope, which is comprised of idle, seemingly perfect settings, restless and beautiful women, and often aloof men, is nothing new in the realm of literature. These ladies were not just throwing dinner parties and getting into petty squabbles like their reality show counterparts; rather, they lived in desperate times and were driven to desperate measures. We take a look at the ladies of literature who rebelled against their domestic constructs, often with fatal results. … Read More
Exclusive Infographic: The Greatest Books of All Time
What are the greatest books of all time? And who should be the judge? Recently, Brain Pickings pointed out an awesome book of lists wherein 125 famous authors — everyone from Norman Mailer to Claire Messud to Annie Proulx to Stephen King — choose their ten favorite books. The book, The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books, then handily synthesizes all that info (544 works total mentioned in 125 lists) into a few important master lists: namely, the greatest books and authors of all time. Each book is assigned a value based on its position in any given list — that is, ”a first-place pick is worth ten points, and a tenth-place pick is worth one point” and so on — and those numbers are then added up to give each book a ranking. We’ve collected a few of the top rankings here in an easy to digest infographic. How many have you read? … Read More
Even Maurice Sendak Worried About Not Being Tolstoy
In 1961, a 33-year-old Maurice Sendak, tasked with illustrating one of Tolstoy’s books, wrote to his editor Ursula Nordstrom — the publishing legend behind in children’s literature — expressing some trepidation about his own artistic abilities in the face of the great Russian writer; specifically, he complained that Tolstoy and Melville filled their books with furniture,… Read More
The Art of the White Female F*ck-Up Novel
Last week, we had the pleasure of reading John Warner’s great article, “The White Male F*ck-Up Novel,” over at Book Riot. “You know the story,” Warner writes, “white male protagonist, comes from a privileged background, should have the world by the short hairs, but manages to screw up his life at every turn. Depression, extra-marital affairs, other methods of self-sabotage. Bellow made a career of them.” While it’s true that the field is overrun with these “WMFuNs,” we couldn’t help but wonder: what about all the lady bunglers in literature? True, the male screw up is more iconic (as of course is the male protagonist, for that matter), but we wanted to give our favorite tragic heroines a little love as well. After all, as Daisy Buchanan famously opined, “that’s about the best a girl can hope for these days, to be a pretty little fool.” Right. Click through to see our list of white female fuck up novels, and let us know if we’ve missed any of your favorites in the comments. … Read More
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