The nostalgia narrative now aches to a different tune | John Freeman
The American literary genre of you can't go home again – that fertile ground farmed by Faulkner, Twain and kerouac – has in the last half-century found a new voice abroadAt six foot, six inches tall, Thomas Wolfe had trouble entering most rooms. But he also had a problem with going back through them, especially if they led to the past. He had told too many truths – and too many lies – about where he came from in North Carolina.In his posthumous 1940 novel, You Can't Go Home Again, he gave Americans a literary catchphrase for the pain so many of us who wind up far from where we grew up feel acutely.After all, in the...
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Guardian Unlimited Books - July 29, 2010 Author: John Freeman Tags: Books Fiction Biography Culture guardian.co.uk Blogposts
The Library of America launches a blog
Los Angeles Times – “The Library of America, the nonprofit publishing house dedicated to creating an in-print library of editions of America’s greatest works, launched its first blog Friday. Called Reader’s Almanac, it focuses on joining the current online discussions that touch on the works and authors in the publisher’s catalog, such as William Faulkner, Jack kerouac, Mark Twain and Walt Whitman.”
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Library Stuff - July 25, 2010 Author: Steven Tags: Blogs
The Library of America launches a blog
"The Library of America, the nonprofit publishing house dedicated to creating an in-print library of editions of America's greatest works, launched its first blog Friday. Called Reader's Almanac, it focuses on joining the current online discussions that touch on the works and authors in the publisher's catalog, such as William Faulkner, Jack kerouac, Mark Twain and Walt Whitman"
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Peter Scott's Library Blog - July 24, 2010
Hugh Hefner in six volumes
This week Hugh Hefner moved to regain full control of the Playboy publishing empire. Christopher Turner samples the 3,500-page, £900 autobiography of the man who rebranded sex for the upwardly mobileWhen he's not popping Viagra and entertaining his harem of bunnies, Hugh Hefner likes to sit on his revolving circular bed and glue articles about himself into big books. Ever since adolescence, the legendary lothario has been compiling a scrapbook of his life. At first these consisted of comics he had drawn, doodles full of hormonal angst that starred Goo Hefner: "our hero", a "Sinatra-type of guy", "the type of high school k...
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Guardian Unlimited Books - July 16, 2010 Tags: Books Culture The Guardian Features
Books :: Jan Kurouac
Jan kerouac: A Life in Memory is the first biography of post-Beat novelist and poet Jan kerouac. Edited by Gerald Nicosia, it contains contributions by Nicosia, Phil Cousineau, Brenda Knight, Aram Saroyan, Brad Parker, John Allen Cassady, R.B. Morris, Jacques Kirouac, Adiel Gorel, Lee Harris, Mary Emmerick, Lynn Kushel Archer, Carl Macki, John Zielinski, Buddah (John Paul Pirolli), and Dan
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NewPages Blog - July 13, 2010 Author: Denise
Peter Orlovsky obituary
Member of the beat generation, poet and lover of Allen GinsbergThe writer Peter Orlovsky, who has died aged 76 of lung cancer, spent more than four decades as the companion of Allen Ginsberg, arguably the highest profile US poet of the postwar years. Orlovsky's own literary legacy was modest in scale – his best-known collection was Clean Asshole Poems and Smiling Vegetable Songs, published in 1978 – and inevitably overshadowed by his lover's lofty stature and prolific output. But he still carved out a reputation that allowed him to be regarded as an active member of the beat generation, that community of experimental n...
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Guardian Unlimited Books - July 4, 2010 Tags: Poetry Allen Ginsberg United States The Guardian Obituaries Books
Patti Smith by Joseph O'Connor
'She has been a poet, an acclaimed photographer, a memoirist, a mother, perhaps the last truly uncompromised artist in rock music'On my 14th birthday, I bought a record that changed my life. I had never heard of the artist. It was the album sleeve that captivated me. It showed a woman of mournfully beautiful gauntness, jacket draped over her shoulder. It was like a still from a French movie too cool to be made. The record was Horses by Patti Smith.I had never seen anyone who looked quite like her. A lovesick Yeats wrote that Maude Gonne had "beauty like a tightened bow", and the old priest who taught us English (...
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Guardian Unlimited Books - June 25, 2010 Tags: Books Culture Patti Smith The Guardian Features
Bombay Gin Features Collom's Eco-Lit Influence
The newest issue of Naropa University's Bombay Gin offers a special focus on "Twenty Years of Eco-Lit" and more specifically on Jack Collom, who back in 1989, "taught his first Eco-Lit course at Naropa University’s Jack kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics."A portfolio section provides a tribute to Collom’s influence: "It opens with an interview of him by two Bombay Gin editors, Jennifer Aglio
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NewPages Blog - June 24, 2010 Author: Denise
Marilyn Monroe's writings to be released
Monroe’s writings to be released: ‘Fragments’ to feature starlet’s musings on life, men
"I think the book will show that she was a really thoughtful person with a real interior life," Hodell said. "She was a great reader and someone with real writing flair. There are fragments of poetry that are really quite beautiful, lines that stop you in your tracks."A little about Marilyn Monroe and books:
The library of Marilyn Monroe contained over 400 books on a variety of subjects, reflecting both her intelligence and her wide-ranging interests. No surprise to those familiar with Monroe, they were the books of a well-read...
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The Rabid Librarian's Ravings in the Wind - April 27, 2010 Author: Eilir
Premises
Readers of Morris Dickstein's newest book, Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression, should find it an agreeable survey of the cultural expressions of the 1930s that reveals how the Depression years were portrayed and understood by those living through them. Readers of Dickstein's previous books will recognize its method, a fastidious interrogation of novels, films, and other works of art for their historical resonances and mutual assumptions, their ability to show how an entire culture at a particular time is "thinking." Readers less interested in Dickstein's signature critical...
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The Reading Experience - April 5, 2010 Author: Daniel Green Tags: Principles of Literary Criticism
Richard Yates and Easter's rising despair
I'd forgotten about Richard Yates, but his stark evocation of middle class striving manages to be both bleak and inspiringUntil Sam Mendes released his film version of Revolutionary Road, I'd forgotten about Richard Yates. I still haven't seen it; where I live, it was only shown dubbed in Italian, and I never got around to ordering the DVD. But scanning the reviews led me to read the book, and so it was that I discovered him in a big way – by which I mean a start-buying-more-books-immediately way.When Yates was first being published, I was busy with baby-boomer heroes such as Vonnegut, kerouac, Hesse. Yates belonged to t...
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Guardian Unlimited Books - April 1, 2010 Author: Suzanne Munshower Tags: Books Fiction Culture guardian.co.uk Blogposts
Book merchandise gets weird
Liked the book? Buy the mug — or the shower curtain, or the soft toy, or the golf ballsIt must be a great disappointment to those responsible for making pots of money from modern culture that the average reader doesn't very often buy into related merchandising. The science fiction and fantasy industries will knock out a fully poseable, collectable action figure of the key grip who worked on the umpteenth Harry Potter movie quicker than you can say "life-sized Quidditch broom", but those aside, you don't see many people walking around in Martin Amis T-shirts or carrying Da Vinci Code umbrellas.Distressingly, it seems as i...
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Guardian Unlimited Books - March 17, 2010 Author: David Barnett Tags: Books Jack kerouac Allen Ginsberg Mark Twain Hunter S Thompson Culture guardian.co.uk Blogposts
Fletcher Mackel's continuing one-man crusade to ruin all sports in NOLA
I know I said I was going to stop reading these but earlier this evening, Fletcher released his latest 2-year scheme to trade every Hornet more or less for the fun of it. Seriously, he does this every week or so. This time I was going to let it slide since the Hornets really are pretty much done for the season and will likely continue looking for ways to dump salary. (Not crazy Fletcheresque ways like giving away Darren Collison and David West, mind you, but, yes, they'll make some moves at some point.)Anyway, like I said, I was gonna let that go but then I just happened to glance at the Tweeter Tube a while later and fou...
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Library Chronicles - March 4, 2010 Author: jeffrey
The Story Behind the Brick
by Jason Smith
Overlooking the Brickyard, the entryway to D. H. Hill Library has become the default meeting place for students gathering for study groups or catching a breath of fresh air. On a good day, over 16,000 students, staff, and faculty pass through this entryway to study and do the research that’s at the core of NC State. Almost every one who passes through notices the inscriptions on the tapestry of bricks lining the entrance to the library. Each brick leaves the mark of a generous donor who supports the NCSU Libraries. The names, dates, and phrases on each brick carry the stories that continue to enrich our l...
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NCSU Libraries - February 10, 2010 Author: Michelle Clark Tags: FOL Headlines News brick Mike Blue
Watched any good books lately?
What are they reading in Mad Men, The Sopranos, True Blood and Skins - and what does it mean? We read between the linesFurther reading: what titles would you choose for your favourite characters? In the same way that Captain Kirk never took a loo break, the depiction of reading on TV has traditionally been considered anathema. Who turns on their telly to watch someone buried in a book? Remember that moment in Seinfeld when the characters pitch "Jerry", their (anti)-sitcom-within-a-sitcom to NBC? George stresses that one thing the characters will be doing a lot of is reading. "Reading?" shoots back the network exec in disbe...
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Guardian Unlimited Books - February 5, 2010 Author: David Stubbs Tags: Television Books Culture Mad Men True Blood Skins Lost The Guardian Features & amp; radio
Ginsberg's Howl resounds on film
In 1955, Allen Ginsberg performed a poem about sex, drugs and race that became a battlecry for the US counterculture. It also led to an obscenity trial. B Ruby Rich on a new film about the epic HowlOn 7 October 1955, at the Six Gallery in San Francisco, Allen Ginsberg brought the house down with a performance of his hallucinatory new poem, Howl. Among other things, this epic work in four parts dealt with drugs, mental illness, religion, homosexuality – the fears and preoccupations of a generation. Jack kerouac and Lawrence Ferlinghetti were both in the audience. Ginsberg was 29 years old. Also present was the future chor...
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Guardian Unlimited Books - January 19, 2010 Author: B Ruby Rich Tags: Film Allen Ginsberg Books Poetry Culture The Guardian Features
McGee on music: Jack White and the wonders of spoken word
Spoken word has become a lost art in rock'n'roll – so give thanks to the White Stripes frontman for reviving the genre"I believe in vinyl records/I believe in MP3/I believe in Tutti Frutti/I believe in R&B/I believe in psychedelics/I believe in LSD." The above words are from BP Fallon's spoken word and rock'n'roll instructional record I Believe in Elvis Presley. Fallon is a personal friend, cultural raconteur, DJ, writer, photographer, and now a musical spoken-word poet (with the help of Jack White's Third Man Records). Fallon is indeed a legend, having worked with Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, and T-Rex. I Believe in Elvis...
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Guardian Unlimited Books - January 5, 2010 Author: Alan McGee Tags: Pop and rock The White Stripes Music Jack kerouac William Burroughs Poetry Culture guardian.co.uk Blogposts
Een gek 2010
Het wordt tijd dat ik On the Road herlees. Citaten als deze mag je gewoon niet vergeten.
Ik wens iedereen een gezond en heel gek 2010.
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'"
-Jack kerouac-
@
Reminder
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Digitaal Inlichtingenwerk Zeeuwse Bibliotheek - December 31, 2009 Tags: nieuwjaar Jack kerouac On the Road Nieuwjaarswensen
Something old, something new: 2009's best photography books | Sean O'Hagan
From reissues of classic editions to an eye-opening collection of mobile-phone snaps, photography books in 2009 captured a medium in flux. Sean O'Hagan picks his favouritesIn 2009, photography grappled more than ever with the notion that the mobile phone, rather than the cheap digital camera, may yet make photographers of us all. It seemed apposite, then, that it was also a year in which old masters reasserted their importance with books that reminded us that the truly visionary are few and far between.In many ways, the year belonged to Robert Frank. Now 85, the Swiss-born photographer was garlanded with a major American ...
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Guardian Unlimited Books - December 28, 2009 Author: Sean O'Hagan Tags: Photography Art and design Culture guardian.co.uk Features
Tonight I'm a rock'n'roll scribe: Infernal moonshine of the spotless mind
The first instalment in his series of literary adventures in rock'n'roll sees novelist Richard Milward indulging in booze, book readings and fighting like Bruce LeeIt's face-crunchingly cringeworthy how far some folk go to appear rock'n'roll. Rock'n'roll, after all, is an almighty religion, inspiring even the most timid of beasts to beat their chests and act silly after one too many lager shandies. While the messiahs of rock all seem to be cocksure, bonkers bagheads like Jim Morrison, Keith Richards, or Sid Vicious, many of its followers nowadays are merely tight-jeaned, boring bedroom-dwellers. The nearest most of them ge...
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Guardian Unlimited Books - December 22, 2009 Tags: Music Pop and rock Books guardian.co.uk Features
If there's one genre you have to read before you die it's the travel book
Guidebooks, celebrity memoirs, activity-based books, travelogues, travel blogs, coffee table whoppers: travel has a ferocious grip on the books market. Here's a guide to the guidesLonely Planet Publications was set up in 1972 by Tony and Maureen Wheeler, who trekked across Asia during a time when trekking and Asia were perilous and terrifying in equal measure, parlayed their experiences into a bestselling book and parlayed that success into a publishing empire of guides for the miserly and dreadlocked.That empire recently sold its 100-millionth copy: proof of the ferocious grip travel has on the books market. It has someho...
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Guardian Unlimited Books - December 9, 2009 Author: Darragh McManus Tags: Travel Books Culture guardian.co.uk Blogposts
Do typewriters hold the keys to fine writing?
In the age of the PC, a surprising number of authors remain wedded to rather older technologyAfter five decades and 5m words, Cormac McCarthy is parting company with the faithful typewriter he bought in a Tennessee pawn shop for $50.Despite his decision to auction his elderly Olivetti – offers around the $15,000 to $20,000 mark, please – not to mention the advent of the PC, McCarthy remains a devotee of the manual typewriter.He is not alone. Will Self, Don DeLillo and Frederick Forsyth are also members of the small and select group of writers who find typewriters more conducive to the creative process than their electr...
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Guardian Unlimited Books - December 1, 2009 Author: Sam Jones Tags: Fiction Cormac McCarthy Will Self Don DeLillo Books Culture Jack kerouac guardian.co.uk Blogposts
William Miller obituary
Innovative editor, publisher and literary agent with a love of the good lifeWilliam Miller, who has died aged 75, lived a life of many passions, but perhaps the most enduring of these was to try to make "good books popular and popular books good". And, first as an editor, then as a publisher, and finally as an agent, that is what Miller did.His first job was as an editor under Frank Rudman, the pioneering paperback publisher, at Four Square. From there, in 1962 he joined John Boothe as joint managing editor at Panther Books. At the time, Panther was an independently owned middle-range paperback publisher. William and John ...
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Guardian Unlimited Books - November 24, 2009 Tags: Publishing Books Financial Times Japan Nuclear weapons Media Culture Fiction The Guardian Obituaries
The Paris Review Interviews Vol 4 edited by Philip Gourevitch | Book review
Jack kerouac, William Styron and VS Naipaul among others offer stunning insights into the art of writing, says Jessica HollandWriting is difficult and painful and writers are all a little mad. That's the first impression you get from this fourth anthology of interviews with authors about their art, which are arranged chronologically from William Styron in 1954 to Marilynne Robinson in 2008. "Let's face it," Styron says, right off the bat, "writing is hell."Of course, it offers highs as well as lows and both are fascinating to read about. Aspiring writers should find plenty of tips to prod them into action: stick to a sched...
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Guardian Unlimited Books - November 21, 2009 Tags: Books Culture The Observer Reviews
Cool. Even Batman uses Google.
When I first started at Google, Craig Nevill-Manning, engineering director here in New York, said to me: "The Google homepage doesn't belong to us. It belongs to the millions of people who use it." Besides the fact that Craig can make one of those insanely cool leaf patterns in his latte, I find the simple truth of his statement inspiring. I often refer to it as a guidepost for our work.So when we got together with the search team to brainstorm ways to talk about our latest innovations (like music in search results), we decided to feature them through stories inspired by our users. Because while we're proud of the innovati...
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Official Google Blog - November 19, 2009 Author: A Googler
Escrituras continuas
Llego vía Bibliographos / Le Bibliomane moderne y Sobre llibres / blog de Thomas Hawk a dos curiosos ejemplos de coincidencia en procedimiento de escritura: página continua en un rollo de papel.El caso superior es el manuscrito de la obra del Marques de Sade Las 120 jornadas de Sodoma, mientras que el inferior es el original mecanoscrito de On the Road de kerouac. Si en el divino marqués pudo influir la escritura en la prisión (¡y cuántas obras importantes han visto la luz en establecimientos penitenciarios!) y los medios que había a mano, en el caso de kerouac la razón puede ser más bien artística: la escritura ...
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El blog del futuro del libro - November 17, 2009 Author: José Antonio Millán
Roberto Bolaño was no literary rebel, says novelist
The myths surrounding the late Chilean author are false, says Bolaño's friend and fellow novelist, Horacio Castellanos MoyaHe's been compared to James Dean and described as the "Kurt Cobain of Latin-American literature", but the real Roberto Bolaño was very different to the myth created by the North American cultural establishment, according to the author's friend and fellow novelist Horacio Castellanos Moya. Coverage of the late Chilean author, writes Moya in an acerbic essay for La Nacion, reprinted in English in Guernica, emphasises his tumultuous youth, his decision to drop out of high school and become a poet,...
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Guardian Unlimited Books - November 5, 2009 Author: Alison Flood Tags: Fiction Books Culture guardian.co.uk News
The final cut
Raymond Carver and Ernest Hemingway are both celebrated for their brutal minimalism – but how much do they owe their renown to the interventions of their editors? As two new 'original' versions of their work are published, the question of posthumous restoration has never been more vexedIt's been a good year for dead writers: they have been an uncommonly busy bunch. This year sees the publication of "new" works by Raymond Carver, who died 20 years ago, Vladimir Nabokov, who died 30 years ago, and Ernest Hemingway, who died almost 50 years ago – as well as Roland Barthes, Jack kerouac, William Styron, Graham Gr...
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Guardian Unlimited Books - October 23, 2009 Author: Sarah Churchwell Tags: Books Raymond Carver Culture The Guardian Features
On the Road: Better with Age?
Dan Green has an interesting re-appraisal of On the Road:
In short, On the Road seemed rather tame to me, its rebellion more ingenuously earnest than hard-edged, and I read no further kerouac for many years. Not too long ago, I decided to try reading On the Road again, expecting that I would quickly enough find it the same tepid experience as the first time around, that I would in fact probably stop reading it fairly early on and consign kerouac permanently to the category of literary disappointments. However, although I can't say I immediately became entranced by it, I did not stop reading it. I did almost immediately ...
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Conversational Reading - October 22, 2009 Author: Scott Esposito
Kerouac the Writer
When I read On the Road for the first time, I didn't care for it much. I didn't exactly hate it, but I was disappointed by it. I had not at that time developed the suspicion of writers and novels alleged to be "saying something" that I now have, but I do recall being puzzled by the reputation--conveyed to me by fellow graduate students, I must say--this novel had of being a radical statement of postwar restlessness, or disaffected youth, or spiritual exhaltation, or whatever other urgent "content" On the Road was supposed to offer. I couldn't find any statements at all in it, although the ch...
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The Reading Experience - October 19, 2009 Author: Daniel Green
