Peter Matthiessen, 1927-2014 [courtesy the Paris Review]
[Book Nerd News] Peter Matthiessen is Dead
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Category Archives: Reading
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“I don’t believe that responsibility in an author ever worked. I don’t believe that any author ever did any good because he was feeling a responsibility. I believe some authors instinctively feel a certain love for the human being, and they will do a lot of good, I hope. And some of the ones don’t, and that’s all.”-Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir Drawing by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1901
You’ll Never Perfect Your Craft
How does that make you feel?
You’ll never perfect your craft.
The idea that you can perfect your craft is a chimera, a distraction.
Books in Art: Nurse Reading to a Little Girl by Mary Cassatt
Nurse Reading to a Little Girl by Mary Cassatt, 1895
Nurse Reading to a Little Girl by Mary Cassatt, 1895
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Allen Ginsberg Quote
[Book Nerd News] Arthur Conan Doyle/Edgar Allan Poe
- AN UPDATE ON SAVE UNDERSHAW: Arthur Conan Doyle’s house to be converted into special school [courtesy The Guardian]
- Boston’s Edgar Allan Poe Statue Will Be Unveiled in October [courtesy Boston Magazine]
Happy 100th Birthday, Marguerite Duras!
Marguerite Duras was born on 4 April 1914.
“She had lived her early years as though she were waiting for something she might, but never did, become.”-Marguerite Duras, The Ravishing of Lol Stein
The tomb of Marguerite Duras
3 April 1783: Washington Irving, American Dreamboat
Washington Irving, a titan in the annals of American Literature, was born on 3 April 1783.
“There is a serene and settled majesty to woodland scenery that enters into the soul and delights and elevates it, and fills it with noble inclinations.”-Washington Irving
Surprisingly, the father of Ichabod and Rip was something of a dreamboat as a young man.
Washington Irving at 22.
Portrait of Washington Irving by John Wesley Jarvis, 1809.
Washington Irving in 1820.
[Alternative Muses] Birthday Mashup: Émile Zola/Buddy Ebsen
“If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud.”-Émile Zola (born 2 April 1840)
Buddy Ebsen, 1936. He was born on 2 April 1908.
Shirley Temple and Buddy Ebsen in Captain January (1936).
Darwin on Poetry
“If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.”-Charles Darwin
The Drawbridge by Vincent van Gogh, 1888. I’d add “look at beautiful things as often as possible” to the list.
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