Category Archives: Fiction

A to Z Reading Challenge: My Answers

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I ran across this on Not a Punk Rocker. I enjoyed reading her answers, so I thought I would participate, too. It’s not as if I am working against a deadline today. Nope, I am not shirking my professional duties to write this post. Okay, so maybe I am taking a slight break. Yes, that is it. A break.

If you’re a long-time reader of A Small Press Life (and if you are, thank you!), you’ve probably wondered what happened to our own reader questionnaire series, [R]evolving Incarnations. Never fear. It returns this Friday.

Until then, there’s this.

Oh, and I’ve decided to do it backwards. Z to A, which is how my books are organized.

ZZZ-SNATCHER BOOK (LAST BOOK THAT KEPT YOU UP WAY LATE): I am a late-night reader, so this is a pretty normal occurrence. It helps that I work from home and set my own weird hours.

YOUR LATEST BOOK PURCHASE: You can read about my most-recent book shopping extravaganza here. I don’t think I’ve bought any since then, but I cannot be totally sure. Yes, I have a problem. Oops, okay. I was wrong. I purchased a book whilst on vacation, as well as this one in early August:

The Winning of Barbara Worth

The Winning of Barbara Worth by Harold Bell Wright

I totally have a problem! Continue reading →

Daily Diversion #219: My Book Family Keeps Growing, One Old Volume at a Time

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Please welcome the newest member of my book family. A Western with a lovely cover, it’s at least mildly appropriate that I bought it at the State Fair. Note: The Antique Barn is next to the building where they display chickens, ducks, turkeys, and rabbits.

The Winning of Barbara Worth

The Winning of Barbara Worth by Harold Bell Wright. It was first published in 1911.

Fifteen years later, it was turned into a silent film starring Vilma Banky, Ronald Colman, and a fresh upstart named Gary Cooper in his first substantive role (but more on that another day).

“Not a line of Jefferson Worth’s countenance changed as the tall surveyor, pushing his way through the crowd about the new arrivals, greeted him. But Abe Lee felt the man from behind his gray mask reaching out to grasp his innermost thoughts and emotions.”-The Winning of Barbara Worth, Harold Bell Wright

Shopping for the Bookworm: C is for Cather, Willa

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“Let your fiction grow out of the land beneath your feet.”-Willa Cather

Willa Cather My Antonia Library Card Catalog Pendant by Parker's Porch

Willa Cather My Antonia Library Card Catalog Pendant by Parker’s Porch. $27.00

Continue reading →

Bookish Cinema: Greed (1924)

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A beautiful and provocative poster for Erich von Stroheim’s 1924 production of Greed, which was adapted from Frank Norris’ turn-of-the-century novel, McTeague:

Greed

Greed (1924)

The book was previously brought to the screen in 1916, under its original name. That version is lost. Von Stroheim’s famously beleaguered masterwork is the stuff of modern legend. His fight with MGM for control of the final product–particularly the editing–was painfully operatic. Although the film does not fully match the great auteur’s ambitious blue print, what we have been left with is brutally and strikingly epic.

Bookish Cinema: Far from the Madding Crowd (1915)

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A 1916 advert for the 1915 adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s first successful novel,  Far from the Madding Crowd:

Far from the Madding Crowd Advert

Far from the Madding Crowd Advert

It featured early film favourite, Florence Turner. She was a wildly popular star who first came to public notice as, simply, The Vitagraph Girl.  By the time she acted in Far from the Madding Crowd (which was made for her own production company), she had well over 100 screen credits to her name. No copy of this film is known to be extant.

“Misfortune is a fine opiate to personal terror.”-Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd