A few chapters into Universal Harvester, you might be forgiven for thinking you were reading an unusually artful novelization of some forgotten X-Files episode. John Darnielle—front man of the Mountain Goats and author of the National Book Award–nominated novel Wolf in White Van—opens his story in a Nevada, Iowa, video store, a shop that, like the town itself, is poorly weathering the final years of the 20th century.* One day, a customer returns a tape, telling the clerk, Jeremy, that there’s something on it, something wrong with it. Soon after, Jeremy hears similar news from another nonplussed regular. Hesitant at first, he begins to investigate. Continue reading at 'Slate'
[ Slate | 2017-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
The following essay by Tom Borders is excerpted from Among Friends: An Illustrated Oral History of American Book Publishing & Bookselling in the 20th Century, edited by Buz Teacher and Janet Bukovinsky Teacher (Two Trees Press). * In 1970, Louis Borders was working in a bookstore in Boston... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-11-28 09:49:05 UTC ]
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I was surprised to read this morning that Milan Kundera, the eminent Czech novelist best known for The Unbearable Lightness of Being, died yesterday at the age of 94. Mainly because I thought he was already dead. For a generation of literary types (Gen X in particular), Kundera was the cool,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-07-12 15:34:43 UTC ]
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This fall, Running Press cofounder Buz Teacher will release 'Among Friends,' a book featuring more than 100 personal essays by people who had a hand in shaping the book business in America in the latter half of the 20th century. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-07-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Richard Snyder, a visionary and imperious executive at Simon & Schuster who presided over the publisher’s exponential rise during the second half of the 20th century and helped define an era of growing corporate power, has died Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2023-06-08 01:26:39 UTC ]
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Last year’s historical fiction was all about the 60s, baby, while this year’s features more from the 1950s, the long 19th century, and the 1970s. I have bad news for Gen-Xers and Xennials: the 1990s are now historical fiction, and there’s plenty coming out about the tail end of the 20th century... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-30 09:52:54 UTC ]
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Widely recognized as one of the great Christian writers of the 20th century, Frederick Buechner died on August 15. He was 96. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-08-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Joan Didion, one of the most widely respected journalists and writers of the latter half of 20th century, has died due to complications from Parkinson’s disease. She was 87. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-12-23 05:00:00 UTC ]
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News and Events (c) Rama, Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr NORMAN, OKLA. – World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine of international literature and culture, announced late Tuesday evening that Boubacar Boris Diop is the 27th... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-10-26 21:56:54 UTC ]
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Carlo Collodi’s version of Donkey Skin, by French author Charles Perrault, will appear in a new collection of Italian fairytalesCarlo Collodi is remembered today for Pinocchio, his 1881 children’s story about a puppet who turns into a real boy, immortalised on screen by Disney. Now another... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-10-01 13:46:15 UTC ]
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Air Miles has been illustrated by his wife Helen Oxenbury and finished by Bill Salaman, friend of the author who died in 2019The final picture book from the late, much-loved children’s author John Burningham – in which “difficult dog” Miles goes on one final journey – has been completed by his... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-05-15 06:00:18 UTC ]
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Today, April 9th, marks the fifty-eight publication anniversary of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. Perhaps the most beloved children’s book of the latter half of the 20th century, Sendak’s gorgeously-illustrated tale of a young boy in a wolf suit who, upon being sent to bed with no... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-04-09 16:58:23 UTC ]
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At the turn of the 20th century, with few children's books featuring Black characters, one young editor implored his peers to 'Let us make the world know that we are living.' Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2021-02-05 13:08:13 UTC ]
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AS AN EXPRESSIVE MEDIUM, video games have a strange way of reducing central concepts of modernist art and theory to basic operational elements. The technical specifications of “point of view” that have preoccupied novelists since the turn of the 20th century are crudely literalized within game... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-31 17:00:02 UTC ]
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Welcome to part two of the first episode of our new original podcast, Lit Century: 100 Years, 100 Books. Combining literary analysis with an in-depth look at historical context, hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols choose one book for each year of the 20th century, and—along with special... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-20 08:51:44 UTC ]
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Quercus will publish Al Murray's look at 20th-century British history, The Last 100 Years (Give or Take) And All That. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-13 18:04:25 UTC ]
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“Borges and Me,” a memoir by Jay Parini, recounts a young poet’s travels with Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentine master. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-08-18 09:00:07 UTC ]
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When Sylvia Beach, the New Jersey native who published Ulysses and opened Paris’ Shakespeare and Co. (“the most famous bookstore in the world”), died in 1962, Princeton University purchased and catalogued her papers. This trove of materials reveals, among other things, the reading preferences of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-08 19:46:30 UTC ]
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Blake Gopnik argues that Warhol had a lasting effect on advertising, fashion, music, film, television and photography. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-04-17 15:51:05 UTC ]
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Stephen Dixon left us yesterday. The author of Frog (1991) and Interstate (1995) two National Book Award finalists, published some thirty other books, including collections of his over 500 short stories. I first met Dixon on the final day of a class in my junior year of college called “Short... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-11-07 20:03:05 UTC ]
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