In academic literature, a “sleeping beauty” is a research paper that was neglected when it was first published but found relevance later. Pop icon and author Byrne (How Music Works, 2012, etc.) expands the concept by looking for examples not just in science but in literature, music, technology, economics, and more. Read more
The Final Masterpiece by James Sallis, Author of the Cult Classic ‘Drive’
Reading James Sallis is like reading poetry, or having a dream that is vivid and tactile but yet somehow elusive. That’s the feeling evoked in his last, posthumous novel, Backwater. Though it is ostensibly a police procedural set in a small southern community – a backwater – it is really a series of ruminations about life, death, and music from the perspective of the narrator, a retired cop turned jazz musician named Bishop. Read more
On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe
He was a deeply disturbed man who, Ogden argues, made art not to teach or shape the reader, but to connect with all that was disturbing in us, too. Poe lurched toward the “darkness” and perversity the rest of us shrink from, for no other reason than to bring us within reach of the sublime. Read more
New Adaptation of ‘East of Eden’ Premieres October 1 on Netflix
In the farmlands of the Salinas Valley in California, successive generations of two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, are destined to reenact the fateful story of Cain and Abel. Watch trailer
The Untold Story of the Cold War’s Most Extraordinary Spy
Mr. Macintyre, whose books include “The Spy and the Traitor” (2018) and “Agent Sonya” (2020), has produced an artfully constructed nonfiction equivalent to one of John le Carré’s most accomplished novels. Its setting, in the early days of Iran’s Islamic Republic, is replete with eerie echoes for today. Read more
Dayton Literary Peace Prizes Announced
A coming-of-age novel set in wartime Ukraine and the history of a Black church in South Carolina through slavery, the Civil Rights Movement and a gunman’s killings in 2015 are this year’s winners of Dayton Literary Peace Prizes. Read more
Annie Dillard, Meditative Author of ‘Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,’ Dies at 81
Annie Dillard, who as a young American writer walked into the woods and came out with a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on the wonders and horrors of creation, the modern classic “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,” died on Tuesday at her home in South Wellfleet, Mass. Read more
Oliver Wendell Holmes’ Berkshires Retreat For Sale
A Landmark Berkshire Estate of Extraordinary Provenance, the Oliver Wendell Holmes summer cottage. Set on 15 private acres in the heart of the Berkshires, a rare American legacy estate commissioned in 1847 as the summer residence of renowned physician, poet, & author Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Two centuries later, this extraordinary property remains a testament to architectural elegance, literary heritage, & timeless craftsmanship. Read more
What the World’s Most Famous Bookshop Reveals About Culture
The summer afternoon was hot, but no one in the queue seemed bothered. Dozens were patiently waiting to enter Shakespeare and Company, a storied bookshop perched on the left bank of the Seine opposite Notre Dame cathedral. “That’s where Shakespeare wrote for a while,” a passerby informed her friends. No one corrected her—discretion being the better part of valour and all. “The myth-telling is fascinating,” says Sylvia Whitman, who runs the English-language bookshop with her partner. “It adds to the house of stories that a bookshop can be.” She has heard it all: that Shakespeare, who never left England, resided here, or that Sylvia Plath, another poet, founded it. In fact, Shakespeare and Company was launched by Ms Whitman’s father, George, 75 years ago this month (first under the name Le Mistral). It is probably the most famous bookshop in the world, enjoying a halo from its proximity to some of literature’s patron saints. Around 2,000-3,000 people visit each day—nearly 1m a year—spurred by the shop’s hundreds of thousands of social-media followers. It claims more impressive screen credits than many actors, having appeared in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris”, Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunset” and a French film, “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life”. A hit TV series, “Emily in Paris”, asked to feature it, but Ms Whitman declined. The bookshop already contends with so many selfie-snappers. Read more
Adaptation of ‘Late Fame’ by Arthur Schnitzler Is in Theaters Now
Ed Saxberger, a forgotten New York poet, works in the post office. After an eager and flattering young admirer appears on his doorstep, Saxberger is beckoned into a coterie of twentysomething admirers who anoint him as a rediscovered genius. Intoxicated by the attention — and by the alluring presence of Gloria, the group’s “tragic heroine” — Saxberger gradually reckons with the authenticity of his newfound poetic circle. This thoughtful, witty film is a wistful yet unromantic look at a lost idea of downtown New York. Watch trailer
