At Jezebel, Jaime Fuller takes a closer look at one of Willa Cather‘s lesser-known novels, A Lost Lady, whose film adaptation was a sore spot for the author. “Cather hated the second film so much that when she died in 1947, she codified that fury in her will,” Fuller writes. “Any adaptations of her work, ‘whether for the purpose of spoken stage presentation or otherwise, motion picture, radio broadcasting, television and rights of mechanical reproduction, whether by means now in existence or which may hereafter be discovered or perfected’ were forbidden. The copyright has worn out on A Lost Lady and it’s now in the public domain, which makes it a good time to pick up the book.”
Willa Cather’s Lost Lady
“Our job is to analyse data, not to love words.”
The Telegraph catches up with John Simpson as he prepares to retire from his role as chief editor for the Oxford English Dictionary. “I used to keep a notebook in my pocket in case I came across new words,” Simpson says at one point. “That worked until I put my trousers in the washing machine.”
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The Hellman’s Virgin
Recommended Reading: Ottessa Moshfegh on eating mayonnaise for the first time.
The Fitzgeralds in Comic Form
This is the best comic about F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald you’ll read all day, I promise.
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Author Internet 101
“I think the key to social media for authors is remembering this: its main purpose is really to show that you are a real human being who lives in this world.” Year in Reading alums (respectively) Celeste Ng, Alexander Chee, Roxane Gay, and Adam M. Grant talk to LitHub about how to be a writer on the internet.
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The Writing Life Game
How do you become a writer? The Los Angeles Times asked 200 writers participating in their Festival of Books how they got started and created a board game based on their responses. Roll the die to find out if you’ll be a successful writer or not.
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Sleeping Like a Genius
Stay up until 4am reading that new release? Dread your early alarm after a night spent with a book? Maybe you’re just on Flaubert‘s schedule. Or, if you find it easy to fall asleep before midnight and enjoy early mornings, perhaps you’re running on Victor Hugo time. New York Magazine has compiled an infographic of the sleeping habits of geniuses, and the good news is that no matter when you fall asleep and wake up, someone brilliant has more or less kept your same schedule. So take heart, late-night readers and early risers. We’re all in good company.
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The War on Baby Girls
We’re headed toward a future with a “biologically unnatural excess of males,” writes Nicholas Eberstadt. Indeed, “It’s a girl” can be recognized among “the three deadliest words in the world.”