“I was born in the lair of Romulus and Remus, Washington D.C.” And The Los Angeles Review of Book’s interview with the late Gore Vidal just gets better from there.
City On A Hill
Who Would Want to Buy a Printed Book?
The Boston Globe interviews Andrew Pettegree, author of The Book in the Renaissance, on how no one had any idea how to sell the first printed books. (via Book Bench)
The New Gutenberg
In the latest issue of Harvard magazine, Nathan Heller writes about Arion Press, the last remaining “full-service letterpress in the United States.” Apparently Arion, which has “an in-house foundry where lead is melted into ingots,” sells editions of canonical titles (like Ulysses) that retail for thousands of dollars. (h/t our own Kevin Hartnett)
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iWalser, iBradbury
David Wright recommends five works perfectly suitable for smartphone reading.
John Jeremiah Sullivan Reads
John Jeremiah Sullivan's NY Times essay "You Blow My Mind. Hey, Mickey!" was a big hit last June. Next October, FSG will publish Pulphead, his second collection of essays. To tide you over until then, you can listen to The Paris Review's Southern Editor read an excerpt from his Disney piece.
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Living Characters
"I don’t think writing the truth makes you strong by default. I think it makes you vulnerable, which in turn can make you strong." Amy Jo Burns writes for Ploughshares about the difficulties of "Writing About Other People" and the upcoming publication of her debut memoir, Cinderland.
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