Author P.D. James, “the Queen of crime writing” and subject of one of our Post-4o Bloomers essays, has passed away, reports the BBC.
P.D. James Passes Away
Gass Goes Digital
Stephen Schenkenberg paired a previously unpublished 15,000-word essay by William H. Gass with a series of abstract photographs by Michael Eastman, and he’s released the entire package as an interactive iPad e-book.
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Covering Anna Karenina
We care quite a bit about book covers here at The Millions, hence our recent rounds of cover-judging. To honor the hundredth anniversary of Tolstoy's death, Flavorwire has compiled a selection of Anna Karenina's many covers, and opportunities for judgement abound.
Lend Me Talent
Last Friday marked the feast day of Francis de Sales, better known as the patron saint of writers and journalists. The saint, who lived in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, got his title thanks to his propensity for using flyers and pamphlets to convert people to Catholicism. At The Paris Review Daily, Dan Piepenbring reads the saint’s most famous work, Introduction to the Devout Life.
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“Nearly Useless”
What do Treasury secretary nominee Jack Lew and J. K. Rowling have in common? No one can read their signatures.
Extras
Zadie Smith's On Beauty takes home the Orange Prize.Map of the New Yorker caption contest winners. (via emdashes)Abebooks has put together some special pages celebrating its 10th anniversary. Check out Powers of 10 - which includes the list of most expensive books ever sold on the site - and the timeline, which shows what the site looked like at its humble beginnings. (thanks Laurie.)
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In Search of Proust
Translating is notoriously difficult work, and translating Proust even more so. The Boston Review has published a very thoughtful piece about the history of In Search of Lost Time in English, the trouble with annotations, and the general "tension in translation between the spirit and the letter." We highly recommend you take the time to read it, even if you don't have time for Proust just yet.