Oscar Wilde: a “fatuous fool,” a “tenth-rate cad,” and an “unclean beast?” According to Henry James, all of the above.
When James met Wilde
Unpredictable Prestige
In 1929 readers ventured that John Galsworthy was the author most likely to be read in 100 years. Why were they so wrong?
Marable’s Works Donated
The late Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Dr. Manning Marable “informed his family that one of his passing wishes was to make his work available to incarcerated individuals.” His collection of authored works has recently been donated by his family to Otisville Correctional Facility.
Dear Diary
Craig Brown recommends five published diaries for your reading pleasure.
Another Launch from Flatmancrooked
Starting today, you can launch occasional Millions writer James Kaelan and his book, We’re Getting On, a “composite novel” (made up of two stories and two novellas, all thematically linked). And because this is part of his Zero-Emissions Book Project, Kaelan will promote his book by bike on a cross-country reading tour.
Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs
Year in Reading alum Maria Popova of Brain Pickings writes her first book review for The New York Times on Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs by Lisa Randall, a Harvard cosmologist. Randall proposes ”that a thin disk of dark matter in the plane of the Milky Way triggered a minor perturbation in deep space that caused the major earthly catastrophe that decimated the dinosaurs.” Jenny Hendrix writes about modern-day extinction for The Millions.
Reviewer and Novelist Debate!
“Perhaps I can’t fully feel empathy and emotion for characters when I feel nothing but disdain for them.” Pank Magazine’s Kirsty Logan (who wrote today’s piece on the joys of unread books) debates with James Kaelan about We’re Getting On.