“Grim was the world and grey last night / The moon and stars were fled.” It looks like even J.R.R. Tolkien might have been a an angsty teen. Two previously unseen poems by the legendary author have been found in a forgotten annual printed by a small primary school in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1936. For another Tolkien-related blast from the past, here is W.H. Auden’s review of The Return of the King, book three of the Lord of the Rings series.
The Return of the (Poet) King
BW on Borders
Two months after the last Borders store closed its doors, Business Week takes an in depth look at the reasons for its demise.
Jewish America
Saul Bellow on being Jewish in America, and Lorin Stein, in an interview, discusses contemporary Jewish writers.
Blursing In Disguise
“A dictionary is just a book, a product, no different from Fifty Shades of Grey and only slightly better written.” A few rules for making up words.
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Siiiick
Gnarly, dude: Leanne Shapton’s reading her new book at a surf shop.
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