Piggybacking off a brief aside in Ian Frazier’s new review of James Agee’s Cotton Tenants, Claire Kelley explores an odd and intriguing question: was Agee related to Walt Whitman? (Related: Mallory Ortberg on the probability that Whitman did the dirty with Oscar Wilde.)
Family Matters
How Fact-Checking Works
Ever wondered how the fact-checking process works? Well wonder no longer. The Columbia Journalism Review posted an excerpt from their recently published Art of Making Magazines collection, and it explains The New Yorker’s workflow as well as the perils of “Shoot-the-Fact-Checker Syndrome.”
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Is Fiction the Art of Living?
From the New York Times archives, a 1984 essay “Is Fiction the Art of Living?” by recently announced Nobel Prize winner Mario Varga Llosa: “In fact, novels do lie - they can't help doing so - but that's only one part of the story.”
But Do Listen
Live in New York? Like Flavorpill? Then you should probably mosey on down to their event on Thursday, where they’ll be listening to the songwriter Holly Miranda and talking with Lindsay Hunter about her new book, Don’t Kiss Me. (If you’ll recall, our own Nick Moran wrote about Lindsay’s work here and here.)
News Roundup
Like bestseller lists? The Book Standard's giving them away for free for the next two weeks.Alibris is bought by a private equity firm. PW article suggests Abebooks could be next. (via BookFinder blog)Small publishers book big rewards (via Mumpsimus), but...Bookshops fall prey to online sales.
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Zadie Smith’s Big Week
Oh, look, the Paris Review freed Zadie Smith’s “Big Week” from the clutches of their paywall. (Bonus: you can subscribe to a dual subscription to both the Paris Review and the London Review of Books all summer long.)
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On the Family
Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney introduces us to a few of literature’s dysfunctional families at Electric Literature. For a loving family relationship, check out an interview with Phillip and Lily Lopate, collaborators on Every Father’s Daughter.
The Written World
The Written World is a five part radio series put together by Melyvn Bragg as part of the In Our Time BBC radio project. The programs look at the history of written word, and how it has shaped our intellectual history.