Fifty years after T.S. Eliot’s death, the poet’s estate has finally agreed to authorize a biography, which explains the publication of Young Eliot, a new book on his early years. Among other things, the book reveals details about Eliot’s first marriage, in which his wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood gave him the nickname “dearest Wonkypenky.”
Waste of the Young
Royal Books Returned
A container filled with some 1,200 books–Royal books of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910)–was returned to Korea from Japan, today, marking the completion of a mission that kicked off in 2006 to retrieve cultural heritages looted during colonial rule.
Recommended Reading from Roxane Gay
Book Riot has compiled a list of Roxane Gay’s recommended reads via Twitter. Some of her choices include Citizen by Claudia Rankine, God Help the Child by Toni Morrison, and City on Fire by our own Garth Risk Hallberg. See more books Gay recommends in our Year in Reading column.
The Great Silence
“I and my fellow parrots are right here. Why aren’t they interested in listening to our voices?” New short fiction from Ted Chiang over at Electric Literature (and introduced by Year in Reading alum Karen Jay Fowler)! Pair with our encyclopedic survey of primate lit.
Thursday Links
Mr. Sarvas aka TEV takes another turn in the limelight, this time in the Jewish Journal.Of course this story comes from a local TV news site: Pornographic comic books sold on Wal-Mart, Target web sites. Film at 11!Five things about children’s book awards from a Michigan point of view.”Digital textbooks can save college students hundreds of dollars every semester, but the market is off to an unimpressive start.”A charming remembrance of Ryszard Kapuscinski by writer Andrew Nagorski.
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“I just like reading, sir—nothing more.”
The Common has a newly translated chapter of Turki al-Hamad’s novel Al Karadib. Its publication online coincides with the one-year anniversary of al-Hamad’s arrest in December 2012 for “tweets considered apostasy.” This featured chapter is the first part of the book to be translated into English.
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Who do you Write Like?
Do you write like Stephen King? Or how about Chuck Palahniuk? That’s what the I Write Like website told me when I entered my work into their little magical computer program–of course, I had to do it more than once!