How it all got started: in 1868, The Nation published an article by John William De Forest titled “The Great American Novel.” (via American Literary blog).
The Great American Novel
Joshua James
If you like your music country/folk-ish with a difference, Joshua James new album Build Me This might be of interest. No Depression, the roots music blog, describes the album as a hybrid of "chain-gang chants, country-fuzz rave-ups, gospel rafter-raisers, southern blues grinds, and civil war camp songs." Try not to be taken aback by the Jared Leto-in-a-mud-mask cover art.
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Dispatches from the RNC in Tampa
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Antony Gormley, Suicide Artist
According to the New York Post, a new installation by British artist Antony Gormley--life-sized, cast iron sculptures of men placed on rooftops and building ledges around the city--has caused some New Yorkers and NYPD officers to take the sculptures for live jumpers. Oh, the price of art!
To Paraphrase Potter Stewart
“The more you take, the more you have to give back — the better the work has to be.” The New York Times features Year in Reading alum Rivka Galchen in dialogue with Anna Holmes (“You can’t always prove appropriation, but you usually know it when you see it”) on the distinction between artistic license and cultural theft. Pair with our review of Galchen's Little Labors.
“Getting Angry, Baby?”
The fiftieth anniversary of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is coming up on October 13th, so to get ready, pour yourself a drink (or five), don your best academic tweeds, and read these interviews with playwright Edward Albee and audience members who attended the play's original 1962 run.
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“Happiness was born a twin.”
Robert and Richard Kalich are identical twins, and their family had the misfortune of having them both grow up to be writers.
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The Pioneer Detectives: Now on iTunes!
Good news folks. The Pioneer Detectives, our new ebook original, is now available on iTunes.