Living in Letters

Dan Piepenbring writes at The Paris Review on judging a book by its cover in the Weimar Republic and the sheer mastery of some of the early twentieth-century German cover designers. Two related pieces from The Millions: our own Bill Morris on the pleasures of the typewritten book cover and Matt Allard on reimagining some popular cover art.

“You don’t have to immediately quit your job to become a writer. You need only to start writing.” The New York Times transcribes an excerpt from the “Dear Sugars” podcast with Cheryl Strayed and Steve Almond. For more writerly advice, see our own columnists Swarm & Spark on whether writing a novel will jeopardize your mental health.

The Critterati pets-in-literary-garb contest ends at midnight tonight!  You can view a gallery of the submissions as they appear, and some of them are phenomenal.  I especially like Humbert Humbert.  I don’t know how these people got their animals to cooperate (drugs, probably).  Big Ed and Nadine, aged six months, made it quite clear that under no circumstances would they be dressed up as Lata and Kabir from A Suitable Boy (what am I supposed to do with this tiny cardboard cricket bat now?)  Henry and June was also a non-starter, but that might have been unkind to do to siblings, anyway.  No one wants to see his sister chew up a garter belt. Evidently I’m not the only one to encounter massive opposition.