Roger Boylan at the Boston Review writes about the flourishing posthumous career of Mark Twain: “…more than 5,000 previously unknown letters of Twain’s have surfaced in the last 50 years. This represents an average of two new letters per week, but still only about one-tenth of the 50,000 or so he is believed to have written.” And at Slate, Craig Fehrman discusses the “brilliant brand management” behind the handling of Twain’s autobiography.
Mark Twain’s Posthumous Career
Ireland’s Poet President
Did you know the recently elected president of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, is actually a noted poet? Though the Guardian's own Carol Rumens would disagree.
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A Deliberate Strategy
At The Rumpus, Catherine Brady interviews Daniel Alarcón, who recently came out with a new novel. Alarcón talks about his love of Roberto Bolaño and the paradox of writing about prison, among other things. (You could also read Jeff Peer’s review of the author's new book.)
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Recommended Reading: Outkast Edition
Recommended Reading: Bomani Jones’s essay on Outkast’s ATLiens, his first car, and the way things from your past just seem different as the years go by.
Fusion of the Popular
Here is Amitav Ghosh in conversation with Michael Berkeley for the BBC Radio3 broadcast about his new novel, Flood of Fire. In the interview, Ghosh talks about his childhood by the water and the influence of the sea on his work. He also curates a playlist of influential music that ranges from Bengali boat songs to Phillip Glass to ‘Hindoo airs.’
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OWS lit down the line?
Christian Lorentzen wonders, in Book Forum, what the first OWS novels will be like. He anticipates them showing up next year, but I'm thinking we've already got at least two, though they were both published well before Occupy: Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story ought to fit the bill, and, of course, there's that famous Melville story about Wall Street, but I'd prefer not to talk about it when I could just direct you to Hannah Gersen's piece instead.
It is so vast!
"A Dozen Years In The Making, Highest Resolution Picture Of Universe Released."
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