Author Archives: maedez

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About maedez

Writer, biographer, poet. History nerd, silent movie maven. Punk rocker, amateur baker, bookworm. Cricket fan, Scotch drinker, craft beer snob.

A Year in Books/Day 95: John Sloan Painter and Rebel

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  • Title: John Sloan Painter and Rebel
  • Author: John Loughery
  • Year Published: 1995 (Henry Holt and Company, Inc.)
  • Year Purchased: 2001-2003
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: Even though I’ve worked in galleries on and off for years, I had never heard of John Sloan before I bought this book; he’s now one of my favourite twentieth century painters AND iconoclasts. Although he is considered a founder and leading light of the “Ash Can” school of painting, it is a term and categorization that he disliked. Loughery’s biography is almost a twin study-that of its avowed subject and the New York City that he called home for decades. This now-vanished world was peopled by an inspiring cast of real-life eccentrics (Robert Henri, John Butler Yeats, Sloan’s wife Dolly). The result? It almost reads like a novel.
  • Motivation: I’m such a sucker for a good biography, even (especially?) someone I have never heard of or know little about.
  • Times Read: 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 273: “He wanted no budding academic painters in his class, but neither was he sparing of those students who didn’t worry about technique because of some natural facility. Facility struck him as dangerous. Anything that mattered should come hard, should require thought and labor. To one student whose drawings seemed effortless, Sloan suggested that he use his left hand or, failing that, his feet. Resist anything that comes too easily, he warned. Resist an empty show.”
  • Happiness Scale: 9
    Yeats at Petitpas (1910) by John French Sloan ...

    Yeats at Petitpas (1910) by John French Sloan oil on canvas, Corcoran Gallery of Art (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

A Year in Books/Day 94: 1900

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  • Title: 1900
  • Author: Rebecca West
  • Year Published: 1982 (Crescent Books)
  • Year Purchased: 2000-20002
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: I just realized that this is the second book with the title ‘1900’ that I have profiled this year. They both set out to chronicle the massive changes that brought the Victorian Era gasping and screaming into the modern world. While the goal is essentially the same, the methodology is jarringly different. The clear victor in the battle, if a battle it be, is the sublime Rebecca West. She, of course, had the same advantage as the writers compiled in the later volume-that  of living through the time and world that she wrote about (although she waited eight decades to do so). As an eight year old, she may not have understood things on an intellectual level but she had a child’s intuitive emotions; she experienced the excitement and unease that comes with the changing of the centuries. Her edge is the result of two things: of living long enough to have perspective and, as the sole writer of her book, a cohesion of intent and style. The 90-year-old Rebecca covers a wide swath of historical territory-arts, literature, science, psychology, music and politics-while maintaining clear-eyed yet evocative prose. The photographs spread throughout are stunning and add considerably to the book’s appeal.
  • Motivation: Repeat after me, “Rebecca West.” The turn of the twentieth century is also one of my favourite periods for literature, fashion, activism, plays and music.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 129: “My father guessed that the designer had probably been a man no longer young, impressed in his childhood by the sort of lectures which were given in mid-Victorian days at working men’s clubs such as the Mechanics’ Institutes. It was possible. The chiton and the amphora and the tag from Epictetus exemplified a curious tendency manifested by many of the new proletariat, which felt herself ill done and wanted a larger share of the best. They craved to be accepted in all the institutions which served the upper classes, though they did not think much of the upper classes.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10 1/2

Shopping for the Bookworm: Mystic Moose Book Bags

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Since I usually schlep around half a dozen books on my petite person, not to mention all manner of writing paraphernalia, I cannot have too many tote bags (or, that’s what I tell  myself whenever I whip out my debit card to add another to my collection). I buy them like some people buy socks or lip balm, which is to say frequently.  Continue reading →

Diversions-7 April 2012

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Here are some recent discoveries from around the ‘net. They are not all literary based but they are still compelling.

  • Few things in life beat the sensory joy-fest of clutching a book in your palms. But my love for the written word is too large to be contained by inky pages alone; I’m greedy, I want to read all of the words in the world! This voraciousness has forced me to accept technology in all of its modern mediums, from a Nook to downloadable PDF books. I still buy way too many physical volumes, as curling up with a glowing and buzzing machine is a huge atmospheric mood killer. However, since so many classics are free, it’s painless to give them a test-run before buying a real-life copy. I don’t do that as much as I should because I am a really compulsive book shopper; wandering through aisles between stacked books makes me absurdly happy. But there are times when I appreciate the chance to read something for free without hoofing it to the library. Finding a free downloadable PDF of Alan Watts’ ‘On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are’ is definitely one of those times. I’ve never gotten around to reading this volume-until now. You can find it here.
  • Sal at Already Pretty has a thoughtful, well-mannered piece about defying cultural expectations about dressing as we ladies get older. I’m an extremist and fierce individualist with authority issues, so I am not about to turn into a pearl-wringing, neutral-wearing forty-something when the time comes. Although she doesn’t take the discussion as far as I think it needs to go, it’s nice to see it discussed at all.
  • The lovely Gala Darling gives detailed pointers about how to have an at-home retreat. Yes, please.
  • Vintage hand-painted suitcase by bluebernice

    Vintage hand-painted suitcase by bluebernice

    Would it be a bit odd for me to pack a suitcase for that at-home retreat? If I had this one, I definitely would!

  • Marc Wavra is a fantastic Cincinnati-based photographer-artist. I’ve been crushing on his colourful images for a few months now.

    Mt. Adams Steps by Marc Wavra

    Mt. Adams Steps by Marc Wavra

  • I came across this scrumptious Grilled Portobello and Peach Burgers recipe by Green Kitchen Stories on Design Sponge just in time for grilling season. I want it in my belly now! The photographs are guaranteed to make your jaw drop and mouth water.

A Year in Books/Day 93: Retro Happy Hour

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  • Title: Retro Happy Hour Drinks and Eats with a ’50s Beat
  • Author: Linda Everett
  • Year Published: 2003 (Collectors Press, Inc.)
  • Year Purchased: n/a
  • Source: This was a gift from a close friend.
  • About: This is one gaudy book. From the bright, hilarious vintage photographs and illustrations that decorate every page to the cheesy, mysteriously appetizing recipes, it’s a step back into the best of the colorfully bland, chipper Eisenhower Era. If the photos of my grandparents’ home, circa 1955, could be colorized and re-animated, I’m pretty sure this is what it would look like. The menus can, with very few exceptions, be made with on-hand ingredients. Go ahead and plant your tongue firmly in your cheek; now just try to resist deliciously middle-brow dishes with zany names like Elfin Mushrooms, Southern Belle Hot Pecans, Front Porch Nibblin’ Corn, Flip-Flop Fizzee, Red Dawn and Swindler’s Bay Punch. You can’t, it’s impossible! Every time I flip through this not-quite-a-cookbook, I have the throbbing urge to dress up like Amy Sedaris and throw a retro-tastic shindig.
  • Motivation: I borrowed this book from a friend on behalf of my mom, who was throwing some kind of small bites and booze party for her lady friends. When I tried to return it to its owner, she insisted that I keep it. Aww, I have fabulous friends!
  • Times Read: ?
  • Random Excerpt/Page 15: “That’s What I Call Entertainment!: If your budget can handle it, consider hiring professional entertainment other than a band: a magician, juggler, fortune-teller, comedian, clown, or Santa. Be creative!” (I think that I am going to throw a party in December just so that I can hire a Santa. Who does that? Me, I do!)
  • Happiness Scale: 10

A Year in Books/Day 92: Herself Defined H.D. and Her World

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  • Title: Herself Defined H.D. and Her World
  • Author: Barbara Guest
  • Year Published: 1984/This Edition: 2003 (Schaffner Press, Inc.)
  • Year Purchased: 2008
  • Source: Daedalus Books
  • About: ‘Herself Defined’ follows Hilda Doolittle from Pennsylvania to Europe, where she became the eccentric, world-famous Imagist poet H.D. She was engaged to Ezra Pound before her transformation; they remained close for the rest of their lives. The life story of H.D. reads like particularly imaginative fiction, with the woman poised at the center of it all a robust and singularly odd specimen. In some ways she reminds me of Ottoline Morrell: striking, commanding, polarizing but always interesting. This book is also a damn fine reminder of how thoroughly distasteful I have always found Pound (and his poetry).
  • Motivation: I’m always excited to expand the Eccentric Literary Ladies section of my personal library (yes, that’s a real thing).
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 25: “Although Hilda was only at Patchin Place a short time, she detested it and this was an unhappy period. The bitterly cold city was unfamiliar. How could she anticipate that Patchin Place would become a famous address because of its occupants, Djuna Barnes and E.E. Cummings, writers with whom H.D. later would be associated. What mainly preoccupied her in 1910 was Pound’s neglect.
  • Happiness Scale: 8

A Year in Books/Day 91: An American Childhood

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  • Title: An American Childhood
  • Author: Annie Dillard
  • Year Published: 1987 (Harper & Row, Publishers)
  • Year Purchased: 1987
  • Source: My Mom.
  • About: Dillard’s impressionistic memoirs of growing up in Pittsburgh between the years 1950-1962.
  • Motivation: This is one of the definitive books of my girlhood. I nicked it from my Mom’s shelf in late autumn or early winter of 1987; I never gave it back. Why I honed in on this particular volume on that long-ago day is somewhat foggy, although I’ll venture to say that it was due to a combination of the title and boredom. I was in the midst of my own, although very different, American Childhood. What remains in my mind, as brilliant and clear as ice, is curling up on the floor next to my bed and reading it straight through in a couple of hours. Already a budding writer, with scores of stories, poems and plays to my name, I desperately wanted to be able to write like that: simply, divinely, forcefully. It’s twenty-five years later and my writing voice, developed long ago yet still tightening, transitioning, is nothing like Dillard’s; it contains no trace of my pubescent infatuation with her wordplay. What remains is a sense of gratefulness to one of my many literary heroines, one that I needed at an age when so many dreams scatter and fade away. Her book is a fine thread in the narrative of my formative years.
  • Times Read: 3 or 4 (all back in 1987/1988)
  • Random Excerpt/Page 51: “By the time I knew him, our grandfather was a vice-president of Pittsburgh’s Fidelity Trust Bank. He looked very like a cartoonist’s version of “vested interests.” In fact, he almost always wore a vest, and a gold watch on a chain; he was short and heavy; he had a small white mustache; he smoked cigars. At home, his thin legs crossed under his belly, he read the financial section of the paper, tolerant of children who might have been driven, in the long course of waiting for dinner, to beating their fingertips on his scalp.”
  • Happiness Scale: In importance and satisfaction to my young self,  is incalculable.

A Year in Books/Day 90: The Victorian Visitors

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  • Title: The Victorian Visitors Culture Shock in Nineteenth-Century Britain
  • Author: Rupert Christiansen
  • Year Published: 2000 (Atlantic Monthly Press)
  • Year Purchased: 2001-2002
  • Source: History Book Club (I think)
  • About: It is exactly what it says it is, with each chapter devoted to the experiences and impressions of a noted foreign tourist (from Emerson to Wagner). I especially love the parts dedicated to Australian cricketers and Yankee Spirit-Rappers!
  • Motivation: I’m quite the Victorian-era connoisseur. I also love the strange niche that is the Victorian travelogue. This is a wondrous combination of both of those things, with a dash each of literary and cultural history added to the mix. Plus, it’s well-written and funny, the latter being an especial quality in this type of book.
  • Times Read: 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 158: “But (Daniel) Home had departed before the spirits had reached the villas of Holloway and he passed over to the other side with his glamour unsullied by low associations. Today, he remains secure in his reputation as the supreme exponent of his art: it is his bust which presides over the library of the Society of Psychical Research in Kensington, defying the ghost-hunters’ theories and explanations as bafflingly as he did a hundred and fifty years ago. Spiritualism’s history would look completely different without him. His visit-his visitation-was without doubt the most consequential of any in this book.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10+++

A Year in Books/Day 89: The Woman’s Book of Courage

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  • Title: The Woman’s Book of Courage Meditations for Empowerment & Peace of Mind
  • Author: Sue Patton Thoele
  • Year Published: 1991 (Conari Press)
  • Year Purchased: 1992
  • Source: According to the hand-written inscription, this was a Christmas gift from my Mom in 1992.
  • About: This pocket-size book contains one to two page ruminations on the emotional challenges faced by so many women, counterbalanced by practical wisdom and encouragement.
  • Motivation: I was a teenager with waffling self-esteem, in need of reassurance that I could handle the baffling transition to adulthood. Momma knows best!
  • Times Read: A few
  • Random Excerpt/Page 14: “Many times our automatic reaction when faced with an uncomfortable or confusing situation is to thrash around trying to change it immediately. We attempt to swallow the whole predicament at once and spit it out, solved. Very rarely does this approach ease our pain or alter the situation. In fact, thoughtless, quick action is often more frustrating than productive.”
  • Happiness Scale: 9 (at the time)