Ur-Road Movie
Tolstoy’s Letter on Indian Independence
In 1908, Leo Tolstoy sent “A Letter to a Hindu” to Tarak Nath Das, a leader of the Indian freedom movement. In it, Tolstoy made the case for nonviolent resistance as the only way for India to gain independence from Britain. You can read the letter, along with Mohandas Gandhi’s introduction, over here.
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Fitzgerald Ales
We all know F. Scott Fitzgerald would’ve made a great drinking buddy but how about a microbrewer? Here’s his prohibition ale recipe. It gets the job done, but Jay Gatsby probably wouldn’t buy this hooch.
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This Curiosity is Awful
Looking for someone to whip your writing into shape? Then tweet the new Gordon Lish bot, a Twitter account which offers unvarnished critiques of your tweets and fictional sentences. (Related: Frank Kovarik on the editor’s relationship with Raymond Carver.)
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The Patriarch
This week, Richard Ford published his first novel in a while to feature Frank Bascombe, the protagonist of his Pulitzer-winning book The Sportswriter. At Salon, our own Lydia Kiesling posits a through-line from Bascombe to a certain TV gangster, arguing that The Sopranos shares its view of manhood with Ford’s novels. You could also read our own Michael Bourne on Ford’s 2012 book, Canada.
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Bio Unbound
At Salon, Cornel Bonca reviews Roth Unbound, a new “hybrid” biography of Roth that New Yorker staff writer Claudia Roth Pierpont wrote after months of interviews. Although the book glosses over Roth’s personal flaws, it gives a great overview of his work, Bonca writes.
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Romance Pioneer Vivian Stephens Gets Her Due
Vivian Stephens was an editor at Dell, an imprint of Doubleday, and was instrumental in founding the Romance Writers of America before she was pushed out.
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