March 28, 2013

Seventy-two years ago today, Virginia Woolf drowned herself.

Woolf was one of the most significant, influential writers of the twentieth century. The Atlantic had the privilege of publishing her work, as you can see below.

  • “Equality of Opportunity and Pay” (May/June 1938): As war brewed in Europe, Woolf responded to a letter urging “daughters of educated men” to join in opposition to the conflict. Her surprising retort called for fair wages for women—not just to advance equality, but to hasten the fighting’s end.

[Images: Wikimedia Commons]

12:37pm
(Notes: 335)
  
Filed under: Lit Virginia Woolf History Feminism 
November 29, 2012
"If what a bookstore offers matters to you, then shop at a bookstore."

— Ann Patchett, author and co-owner of Parnassus Books, Nashville’s only independent bookstore. 

9:27pm
(Notes: 186)
  
Filed under: Books Bookstores Longreads Lit Small business Ann Patchett Nashville Parnassus Books 
October 19, 2012
"Is the life of a writer ever easy? Of course not. That’s not why anyone goes into this business."

— Our own Sadie Stein, interviewed in The Atlantic, on “why the short story survives.” (via theparisreview)

(via theparisreview)

11:11am
(Notes: 315)
  
Filed under: Writing Lit Short stories Fiction Short story 
October 18, 2012
"Chekhov. I don’t want to know anything in particular — I’d just like to carve up a pheasant with him, served with new potatoes and green beans from the garden. Then we could polish off some dodgy Crimean wine and play a few rounds of Anglo-Russian Scrabble and lose track of time and the score."

— David Mitchell’s answer to “If you could meet any writer, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you want to know?”, David Mitchell - By the Book - NYTimes.com (via housingworksbookstore)

(via housingworksbookstore)

12:57pm
(Notes: 78)
  
Filed under: Lit Writing Books David Mitchell 
October 16, 2012
"The creative writer does the same as the child at play. He creates a world of phantasy which he takes very seriously—that is, which he invests with large amounts of emotion—while separating it sharply from reality."

— Sigmund Freud

12:23pm
(Notes: 215)
  
Filed under: Lit Writing Fiction Sigmund Freud Freud 
October 15, 2012
A Pig, a Girl, and a Spider: ‘Charlotte’s Web’ at 60 Some books are so much a part of our childhood experience that when we hear their titles we can almost smell the pages of the book itself, remember where we were when we first opened it, and conjure up entire scenes and memories of reading it for the first or many times thereafter. Charlotte’s Web is one of those books. Today, the most famous book by the masterful E.B. White has turned 60. It is no worse for wear in terms of readability and resonance, even amid a world of Y.A. dystopias, fantasies, and futuristic plots and themes. The simple tale of a pig, a girl, and a spider, beginning with a life saved (Wilbur’s, by the girl, Fern, and later by Charlotte the spider) and ending with a death—but then new life—is threaded through with the personal conflicts, conversations, and camaraderie of the various barnyard creatures involved. It’s one for the ages. Read more. [Image: Paramount]

A Pig, a Girl, and a Spider: ‘Charlotte’s Web’ at 60

Some books are so much a part of our childhood experience that when we hear their titles we can almost smell the pages of the book itself, remember where we were when we first opened it, and conjure up entire scenes and memories of reading it for the first or many times thereafter. Charlotte’s Web is one of those books. Today, the most famous book by the masterful E.B. White has turned 60. It is no worse for wear in terms of readability and resonance, even amid a world of Y.A. dystopias, fantasies, and futuristic plots and themes. The simple tale of a pig, a girl, and a spider, beginning with a life saved (Wilbur’s, by the girl, Fern, and later by Charlotte the spider) and ending with a death—but then new life—is threaded through with the personal conflicts, conversations, and camaraderie of the various barnyard creatures involved. It’s one for the ages.

Read more. [Image: Paramount]

6:14pm
(Notes: 283)
  
Filed under: Lit Books Charlotte's Web Reading E.B. White News 
October 15, 2012
mojoeditors: Spring Pools These pools that, though in forests, still reflectThe total sky almost without defect,And like the flowers beside them, chill and shiver,Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone,And yet not out by any brook or river,But up by roots to bring dark foliage on. The trees that have it in their pent-up budsTo darken nature and be summer woods -Let them think twice before they use their powersTo blot out and drink up and sweep awayThese flowery waters and these watery flowersFrom snow that melted only yesterday.  Great find! Here’s the cover story.

mojoeditors:

Spring Pools

These pools that, though in forests, still reflect
The total sky almost without defect,
And like the flowers beside them, chill and shiver,
Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone,
And yet not out by any brook or river,
But up by roots to bring dark foliage on. 

The trees that have it in their pent-up buds
To darken nature and be summer woods -
Let them think twice before they use their powers
To blot out and drink up and sweep away
These flowery waters and these watery flowers
From snow that melted only yesterday. 

Great find! Here’s the cover story.

11:25am
(Notes: 62)
  
Filed under: Lit Robert Frost Poetry Writing 
October 9, 2012
A Map of the World Based on Book Publishing When it comes to book publishing, not all countries are created equal, as this distorted map of the world by the International Publishers Association shows. […] As you can see, places like the U.S., Europe, and parts of Asia are engorged in illustration of their strong publishing industries. Meanwhile, Africa and the Middle East are tiny slivers, meaning that the number of books published in those places is extremely low compared to the rest of the world. [Image: International Publishers Association]

A Map of the World Based on Book Publishing

When it comes to book publishing, not all countries are created equal, as this distorted map of the world by the International Publishers Association shows. […]

As you can see, places like the U.S., Europe, and parts of Asia are engorged in illustration of their strong publishing industries. Meanwhile, Africa and the Middle East are tiny slivers, meaning that the number of books published in those places is extremely low compared to the rest of the world.

[Image: International Publishers Association]

5:07pm
(Notes: 1,188)
  
Filed under: Books Lit Maps Charts Publishing 
September 24, 2012
How F. Scott Fitzgerald Responded to Hate Mail F. Scott Fitzgerald—literary legend, master of the muse, star of early book ads, and one amazing dad—was born 116 years ago today. In 1920, shortly after the publication of his debut novel, This Side of Paradise, he received a piece of “hate mail” criticizing the book as an affront to the respectable members of society, particularly those in power. This was Fitzgerald’s feisty, brilliant response: Dear Bob: Your letter riled me to such an extent that I’m answering immediatly. Who are all these ‘real people’ who ‘create business and politics’? and of whose approval I should be so covetous? Do you mean grafters who keep sugar in their ware houses so that people have to go without or the cheap-jacks who by bribery and high-school sentiment manage to controll elections. Read the rest of Fitzgerald’s letter. [Image: AP]

How F. Scott Fitzgerald Responded to Hate Mail

F. Scott Fitzgerald—literary legend, master of the muse, star of early book ads, and one amazing dad—was born 116 years ago today.

In 1920, shortly after the publication of his debut novel, This Side of Paradise, he received a piece of “hate mail” criticizing the book as an affront to the respectable members of society, particularly those in power. This was Fitzgerald’s feisty, brilliant response:

Dear Bob:

Your letter riled me to such an extent that I’m answering immediatly. Who are all these ‘real people’ who ‘create business and politics’? and of whose approval I should be so covetous? Do you mean grafters who keep sugar in their ware houses so that people have to go without or the cheap-jacks who by bribery and high-school sentiment manage to controll elections.

Read the rest of Fitzgerald’s letter. [Image: AP]

4:39pm
(Notes: 526)
  
Filed under: Books Lit F. Scott Fitzgerald Writing Celebs 
September 24, 2012
"It’s not simply that Hemingway can write beautifully, but that he can write beautifully in many different ways. He opens up with this really lyrical, almost dreamscape-like description, and then throughout the book alternates that style a kind of hard-edged staccato. He doesn’t much like to go on with long descriptions of characters, he just sort of puts them there and lets you get to know them."

— Ta-Nehisi Coates, on A Farewell to Arms.

3:59pm
(Notes: 171)
  
Filed under: Lit A Farewell to Arms Books Ernest Hemingway Writing 
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