Did you forget that The Morning News Tournament of Books starts today? If so, I bet you’re glad you saw this reminder. Have fun.
ROOSTER!
Scribbles in August
From 1916 to 1925, the University of Mississippi paid William Faulkner for drawings he published in the school newspaper, Ole Miss. At Open Culture, you can see some of these drawings, which struck this writer as peculiarly un-Faulknerian. (Related: our own Nick Moran found recordings of Faulkner on the University of Virginia website.) (h/t The Paris Review)
Jason Segel’s DFW
Recommended viewing: a trailer for the upcoming David Foster Wallace movie, an adaptation of David Lipsky's memoir of his road-trip with the author, Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, is now available online.
Your Okay
Sick of getting corrected for tiny grammatical mistakes? Turns out you may not be a forgetful person after all. According to a cognitive psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, our brains have a tendency to fall into bad grammatical habits, even when we know the rules we’re trying to follow. In The Washington Post, Andrew Heisel investigates. You could also read Fiona Maazel on the specter of commercial grammar.
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A Symmetrical but Opposite Study of Darkness and Light
“I was also deeply protective of my father, who at the time of my reading was struggling with illness and other demons. Yet I saw painfully how he could also be a figure of fun. It dawned on me that Cal, supposedly a great friend, might be mocking him—even just by writing about his mockery by others. I registered the first stirrings of an uncertain dislike." Diantha Parker considers her father's long friendship with Robert Lowell, immortalized in Lowell's poem "To Frank Parker."
Yellow Is the New Black
Yellow book covers are on the rise as publishers push for bold designs that pop for online shoppers. Also check out this comparison of U.S. and U.K. book covers.
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The Boot’s Literature
Why aren’t more people reading Italian literature? Is it due to an English “mistrust of ‘abroad’?” “Linguistic incompetence?” Or is it that “Italy’s not produced much that’s exciting or innovative … for a few hundred years?” Peter Hainsworth, author of Italian Literature: A Very Sort Introduction, investigates.
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