At Galerie, Michelle Sinclair Colman reveals the contents of Toni Morrison’s 1,200-plus book collection at her Manhattan apartment, which is currently for sale. The details (and the photographs!) of the Beloved author’s personal library are a book lover’s dream: “Her entire multi-stack collection is alphabetized by the author’s last name. She edited as she read. She owned a beautiful, gold, illustrated copy of Song of Solomon with the bookmark on Chapter Four.” Colman continues, “The three books on her bedside table are Robert A. Caro’s Lyndon Johnson biography, David Maraniss’s Barack Obama: The Story, and Stephen King’s Revival. She had a few never-returned library books; the most interesting was a copy of her own book, The Bluest Eye, from the Burnaby Public Library, with copious notes, underlines, and cross-outs on every single page.”
For Sale: Toni Morrison’s Apartment and Personal Library
Sister Golden Hair Excerpt
There’s an excerpt from Darcey Steinke’s forthcoming novel, Sister Golden Hair, over at Granta right now. In our Great Book Preview, Emily St. John Mandel wrote that Steinke’s novel focuses on a family “on the brink of collapse” in early-70’s Virginia.
“A long, rich and lust-filled tradition”
In the Paris of the late 19th century, the courtesan was “an essential part of the pecking order,” writes Heather Hartley at the Tin House blog.
Weekend Links
Bat Segundo bags his biggest fish yet: John UpdikeOn their blog, the Freakonomics guys are looking for poker players to help them with an experiment, but the bigger news is that the post reveals a sequel to the bestseller is in the works.Part one of a interview with book designer Paul Buckley of Penguin Book Group – includes lots of examples of his work.John Batelle doesn’t mind that pirated copies of his book The Search are being sold on the streets of Mumbai.
Thirteen Poems
Check out thirteen poems by Lydia Davis in BOMB Magazine. You could also read Adam Boffa’s piece about Davis’s work and Twitter.
The Recuyell Sells
The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye, the first book published in English, recently sold at auction for almost 2 million dollars.
Matt Kish on his Heart of Darkness Illustrations
In November, Matt Kish will write a series of guest posts for Tin House’s Open Bar Blog. He’ll be “exploring some of the ideas and processes behind five of [his] Heart of Darkness illustrations.” Over on his personal blog, however, he’s asking for readers to help him select which five pieces he should discuss. Kish, who has previously illustrated the pages of Moby Dick, was recently mentioned in our Great Second-Half 2013 Book Preview.
Behind the National Book Awards
Our own Edan Lepucki interviewed National Book Award finalists George Saunders and Rachel Kushner for the National Book Foundation. Saunders discussed money issues in his writing. “Now I feel like paucity vs. grace is one of the great American issues—we all live with it every day.” Kushner explained her writing process. “The sentences are beads on a string; I see each one as essential.”