20 Incredibly Rare Author Interviews Unearthed Readers often love to see into the minds of the authors who have penned their favorite books, but sometimes, doing so is next to impossible. There are a variety of reasons why it might be difficult to track down an author interview: the writers in question only offered interviews along the same general frequency as Halley's Comet, or they typically pop up in different media, or some even lose the footage over time. But despite these struggles, the following reads, listens, and watches all earned consideration. Some of these prove far more available than others, of course, but each one stands as a lovely look into a powerful, creative mind. Yes, even the ones who tend to communicate in itty-bitty quips. Pope John Paul II in Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Sep. 19, 1995Pope John Paul II proved a prolific writer in his lifetime, with plenty of books, letters, and essays to his name, but men in his political and religious position rarely entertain the time for interviews.
d i a p s a l m a t a: Tristram Shandy & the art of black mourning pages Inventive visual design and typography have made Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy a canonical favorite among all sorts of "material book" types, with the black page after Yorick's death -- -- typically cited as one of the book's enduring innovations. In fact, the Laurence Sterne Trust hosted a quite lovely exhibit on the 250th anniversary of the black page, inviting 73 artists (note the page number) to reinterpret Sterne's "most famous experimental device." The thing is, though: while Sterne's use of the black page in a literary story is innovative, the mourning page itself is not so much. In fact, Sterne is drawing on a (by then 150-year-old) tradition -- perhaps "seventeenth-century phenomenon" would be more accurate? -- of including mourning pages or all-black prints, sometimes with a coat of arms or other insignia etched out, in printed funeral sermons and memorial verse. Some of the earliest examples I've found come from elegies upon the death of Prince Henry, King James I's son.
Shakespeare Authorship Surprising Sayings We Owe to William Shakespeare As a self-proclaimed loser word nerd, my absolute favorite class in college was Shakespeare. Regardless if the dude even existed or not, I feel intimidated writing about him using my own pathetically limited vocabulary, as I am that enthralled and marveled by his English language skillz (sorry, Will). That's why I was so stoked to see the newest Tumblr hit sweeping the Internet world: "Things We Say Today Which We Owe to Shakespeare." There are so many things! I remember reading through his plays late at night for class, coming across phrases and sayings and having the light bulb in my head go off: So that's where that came from. A 20-year-old from London named Becky scribbled down a bunch of these sayings in her notebook and posted it to Tumblr. I guess this is proof that Shakespeare and technology actually can get along. Knock knock! Green-eyed monster: "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! Did you know we had Shakespeare to thank for these phrases? Image via Tumblr
Ernest Hemingway: Alive and Well Online - Timeless Hemingway Copyright © 2001 by Timeless Hemingway This article meets the provisions set forth in section 107 of U.S.C. TITLE 17 of Copyright Law, which states that "the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright." Reflecting on the death of Albert Einstein, Isidor Isaac Rabi once wrote: "a great light has gone out in the world of physics."1 On July 2, 1961, the day Ernest Hemingway took his own life at the age of sixty-one, a great light went out in the world of literature. Forty years later and Faulkner's assertion still holds true. The Computer Industry Almanac has projected that in the year 2002, 490 million people around the globe will have access to the Internet3, thus opening a new arena for Hemingway preservation. 1. 2.
Ein Gespräch mit Wolfdietrich Schnurre - Berlin, 1986 -?-: Herr Schnurre, zuerst möchten wir Ihnen sehr herzlich dafür danken, daß Sie diesem Treffen so bereitwillig zugestimmt haben. Wir hatten, bevor wir uns mit Ihnen trafen, doch ein bißchen 'Bammel'... Wir mußten erst eine gewisse Hemmschwelle überwinden, da wir nicht jeden Tag einem bekannten Schriftsteller gegenübersitzen... Schnurre: Diese Hemmschwelle ist leider vorhanden. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? W. -? Why WH Auden is a spellbinding poet WH Auden was an astonishingly versatile poet. He wrote about rocks, about love, about psychoanalysis, about the bacteria that live on our skin, about war and about cooking. In the Thirties he was a political poet; after going to America he re-embraced Christianity. In his later years he became positively Horatian in his tastes, preaching the virtues of the domestic life and simple pleasures. In Streams (1954) Auden reflects on our relationship with water. As is the effect of Lullaby (1937), the famous poem about gazing at a sleeping lover. Lay your sleeping head, my love, Human on my faithless arm; Time and fevers burn away Individual beauty from Thoughtful children, and the grave Proves the child ephemeral: But in my arms till break of day Let the living creature lie, Mortal, guilty, but to me The entirely beautiful. And finally, in If I Could Tell You (1940) we see Auden in enigmatic mode. 'What WH Auden Can Do For You’ by Alexander McCall Smith (Princeton UP) is out now.