P.L. Travers Biography — New!
She wrote Mary Poppins and hated the movie version. Now she’s the central character in a big new Disney movie starring Tom Hanks as Walt Disney.
Posts tagged: Writers
All America is an Insane Asylum
Poet Ezra Pound said “All America is an insane asylum,” after being released from an American insane asylum in 1958.
On the Thomas Pynchon Trail
Vulture.com catches up (sort of) with mysterious author Thomas Pynchon, whose new novel is Bleeding Edge.
Ernest Hemingway’s Childhood Scrapbooks
In July the John F. Kennedy Library presented digital versions of Ernest Hemingway’s childhood scrapbooks.
Happy Birthday, Charles Bukowski
Writer Charles Bukowski was born in Germany on 16 August 1920. He was drunk by 17 August 1920.
Chinua Achebe Biography, New!
We have a new profile of Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, who died 21 March 2013, at the age of 82.
Ernest Lehman Biography: New!
Ernest who? That was his big complaint, that writers for the movies never get their due. And most people have seen at least ONE of Lehman’s movies, and probably more.
Gore Vidal, Ladies’ Man
There’s a good feature in Vanity Fair about writer and high society gossipmonger Gore Vidal.
Where E.B. White Wrote ‘Charlotte’s Web’
A fan visits the old Maine home of author E.B. White.
George Sand Biography: New!
Outside of France, not so many people know about George Sand, a woman whose 19th century celebrity sounds like something right out of this year’s gossip pages.
John Keats: Minute Biography
Happy Halloween and happy birthday to poet John Keats, born 31 October 1795.
Henry Fielding Biography: New!
Now that he’s been dead 258 years, we thought it would be safe to have a biography of 18th century novelist Henry Fielding!
Kurt Vonnegut’s Marital Contract
In 1947 Kurt Vonnegut drew up a contract with his wife — he didn’t want her to “nag, heckle or otherwise disturb” him.
No Orwell Statue for the BBC
There will be no statue of George Orwell at the headquarters of the BBC. Because he was too far left?
Philip K. Dick Books You’ve Never Heard Of: A Photo Gallery
A photo gallery of books by Philip K. Dick, most of which most people aren’t familiar with. In other words, books that aren’t Blade Runner.
Nora Ephron Biography and Photos
Read about the three Oscar nominations, three marriages and much more in our new biography of the writer and director.
Ray Bradbury, 1920-2012
Author Ray Bradbury has died at the age of 91.
Common Bonds: Publish and Perish
Six authors who made a bundle — after they were buried.
Neil Gaiman Interviews Stephen King
Comic book writer Neil Gaiman has a long conversation with tons-of-books writer Stephen King.
E.L. Doctorow Tees Off
Celebrated author E.L. Doctorow offers a how-to guide to American “unexceptionalism.”
Somewhere, Captain Ahab is Frowning
Moby-Dick has been spotted off the coast of Russia.
‘Wear Sunscreen’ Email Author Wins Pulitzer Prize
Mary Schmich, longtime columnist for the Chicago Tribune (and author of that email) has won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary.
Harper Lee and ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’
American Masters from PBS presents ‘Harper Lee: Hey, Boo’ on April 2nd.
Christopher Hitchens: Obituary First Lines
Troublemaker, charmer, provocateur, polemicist… that’s what the obituaries are calling Christopher Hitchens. He died yesterday in a Houston hospital at age 62.
Beatrix Potter Sesquicentennial -5
Happy 145th birthday, Beatrix Potter. Love you, babe!You were born the same year as Butch Cassidy and H.G. Wells.
Fedor Dostoevsky Predicts the Summer of 2011
“The heat in the street was terrible and the airlessness, the bustle and the
plaster, scaffolding, bricks, and dust all about him, and that special
Petersburg stench, so familiar to all who are unable to get out of town
in summer — all worked painfully upon the young man’s already overwrought nerves. The insufferable stench from the pot-houses, which are particularly numerous in that part of the town, and the drunken men whom he met continually, although it was a working day, completed the revolting misery of the picture.”
Ernest Hemingway = Captain Kirk?
“There’s a lot there to pick apart in the man: the bluster, exaggerated machismo, mood swings, four marriages, alcoholism, death-wooing in the bullring, at the D-Day landing, and in bed. No small ego there. But, in all the fancy analytical footwork, it’s sometimes forgotten that, like Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, Hemingway explored ‘strange new worlds … to boldly go where no man has gone before.'”
Ernest Hemingway: Epic Self-Destruction or Just Plain Old Suicide?
“It’s hard to shake off the feeling that what he was doing wasn’t bravery, but psychotic self-dramatisation. And when you inspect the image of Hemingway-as-hero, you uncover an extraordinary sub-stratum of self-harming.
It’s the Elizabeth Barrett Browning Deathquicentennial!
Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning died on this day 150 years ago.
Noah Webster’s Soop on Your Tung
Here is another great video from Merriam-Webster’s Ask The Editor feature on YouTube:
Connie Willis Wins Her Seventh Nebula Award
Science fiction author Connie Willis has won her seventh Nebula award, this one for Blackout/All Clear, her two-volumes-makes-a-book time travel novel.
Read the news account here. Find out more about the Nebula award by reading the rules provided by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
Kenyon Grads Remember David Foster Wallace
The Millions has a good little feature they call “He Was Water: Kenyon Grads Remember David Foster Wallace’s Commencement Speech”.
Here’s a video/audio excerpt:
The Secret Artworks of Beryl Bainbridge
It is not a puzzle why they have been overlooked until now; Bainbridge dismissed them herself. If anyone admired a painting, “she’d pull a face and say, ‘Oh, darling, don’t be silly'”.
Norman Mailer’s Super-Cool Nautical Home in Brooklyn Heights
It’s for sale.
Harper Lee Is 85 But Is Not Spilling the Beans
Harper Lee, author of the beloved novel To Kill a Mockingbird, turns 85 today. She’s living quietly in Alabama, as always.
K.W. Jeter and the Birth of Steampunk
“Personally, I think Victorian fantasies are going to be the next big thing, as long as we can come up with a fitting collective term for Powers, Blaylock and myself. Something based on the appropriate technology of that era; like ‘steampunks,’ perhaps….”Letters of Note pins the term steampunk to a letter from sci-fi author K.W. Jeter in 1987.
Charles Portis Biography, with Anecdote
While reading up on author Charles Portis, I came upon the transcript of a lengthy interview he did with Roy Reed in 2001. The interview was for a project about the history of Little Rock’s Gazette, a newspaper Portis worked at in 1958.
Charles Portis went on to become a novelist. He wrote The Dog of the South and True Grit.
You can find the interview by way of this unofficial tribute to Portis.
Add Another Enid Blyton Novel to the Pile
It looks as if there is such a thing as an unpublished novel by Enid Blyton.
You wouldn’t think so, given that Blyton supposedly published nearly 800 books. Enid Blyton wrote the successful series of books about The Famous Five, as well as the Noddy series of books for younger children. She also wrote several other series, articles, poems, short stories and picture books. Blyton became one of Britain’s best-loved authors. She died in 1968.
Mary Shelley +160 Years
The mother of Frankenstein died 160 years ago today.It’s been closer to 200 years since she first published Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus in 1818.
Happy 130th Deathday, Fedor Dostoevsky
Fedor Dostoevsky, author of Crime and Punishment — and the beloved Russian author not played by Christopher Plummer — died on this day in 1881. Speaking of crime and punishment: Dostoevsky beat Billy the Kid to the grave by just six months.
Paul Bowles, Happy 100th Birthday!
Paul Bowles, noted expatriate and author of The Sheltering Sky, was born on this day 100 years ago.Fans have been celebrating all year.Paul Bowles lived to be nearly 89 and stayed in Morocco ’til the bitter end, as this 1998 interview shows.
Elmore Leonard is 85 Years Old and Just as Beloved As Ever
Happy birthday to author Elmore Leonard, who turns 85 years old today.
Beryl Bainbridge, Distinguished and Not-Eccentric Author, Dies at Age 75
Beryl Bainbridge, author of An Awfully Big Adventure and many other dark-ish novels, has died at age 75. Cancer was the cause.She was a fascinating gal, but didn’t like being called “eccentric”: