“Russia’s most celebrated writers – including Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Nabokov, Bulgakov, Solzhenitsyn and Mandelstam – are often depicted as solitary geniuses. But many of their works were the fruits of creative partnerships with their wives. Far from being passive typists, they served as editors, researchers, translators, publishers and more.”
The Wives of Russian Masters
Happy Birthday, Lord Byron
Happy Birthday to Lord Byron, who was born on this day in 1788. Read some of his poems aloud or check out illustrations of “Don Juan” at Brain Pickings to celebrate his life’s works.
●
●
Jenny Offill on the Shocks of Recognition in Mrs. Dalloway
Jenny Offill writes about the multitudes found within her favorite book, Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.
●
●
●
Joyce Carol Oates Is A Glass of Water
“I feel very transparent to myself. I’m more like an observer. I’m interested in what’s going on. I’m not sure that I really have a personality,” Joyce Carol Oates said in The New Yorker’s micro documentary about her writing life and routine. Pair with: our essay on Oates’ The Accursed.
Hermione Hoby Untangles a Web of Perceptions
Hermione Hoby discusses her new novel, Virtue, and why she chooses to focus on characters rather than themes in her writing process.
●
●
●
Appearing Elsewhere: DFW Roundtable
Along with D.T. Max, Laura Miller, and Jason Kottke, I’ll be participating in this week’s discussion of Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip With David Foster Wallace over at New York Magazine.
●
●