As Nick Richardson notes for the London Review of Books, Saul Bellow’s son, Adam, has his hands full these days. When he’s not maintaining a site devoted to conservative “literature,” he’s extolling the virtues of conservative fiction writers you “probably have never heard of — and won’t, if the powers that rule the lit-crit, fanfic, and commercial publishing worlds have anything to say about it.”
Bellow’s Heir
Literary Birthdays
New Directions turned 75 yesterday, so here's a look back on the history of their colophon. In other birthday news, Iris Murdoch was born on this day in 1919, and tomorrow The Catcher in the Rye turns 60.
●
●
Smile More
Recommended (Frustrating) Reading: "Men Explain Submissions To Me," an eye-opening new piece from Sarah Blake at The Rumpus.
●
●
Donald J. Sobol Passed Away
Donald J. Sobol, author of the Encyclopedia Brown series, passed away last week at age 87.
●
●
Community of Conlangers
David J. Peterson is the man responsible for creating the Dothraki and Valyrian languages for the television adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series. Peterson, who took Martin’s 55 Dothraki names and created a 4,000 word vocabulary, is interviewed over at Flavorwire. If the Dothraki don't have a word for it, the Germans probably do. Here’s an essay from The Millions on just that.
●
●
Needs a Good Family
Seventy-two copies of One Story are looking for loving homes. Reader, will you be a dear and adopt a hungry short story?
Eden Walk
"Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and National Geographic Fellow Paul Salopek discusses plans for his epic journey around the world and a groundbreaking experiment in slow journalism."
Writing for Airports
Evidently, Alain de Botton has recovered from the unfavorable New York Times review of his latest book, The Pleasures of Sorrow and Work, for which he excoriated reviewer Caleb Crain, claiming that Crain "killed [his] book in the United States." De Botton was just named Heathrow Airport's first writer-in-residence. During his week tenure at a desk in Terminal 5, he will record his observations in "real time," with his typing appearing on a screen behind him. Afterward, the entries will be collected and published as a book, A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary.
●
●