The Only Footage of Mark Twain in Existence

In 1909 Thomas Edison visited his close friend Mark Twain’s estate in Redding, CT and filmed the famous author. The silent footage, the only known recording of Twain, first appeared in a 1909 production of Twain’s “The Prince and Pauper,” and it shows Twain wearing his trademark white suit, puffing a cigar. Twain would die one year later.



Via  Mental Floss

Iceland, as a literary muse

Reykjavik was the first non-native English-speaking city to be named a Unesco City of Literature. Besides being the birthplace of the Poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse poems that had a strong influence on Scandinavian literature and provided a model for later innovations in poetic meter, Reykjavik is also home to an array of literary festivals, including the biannual Reykjavik International Literature Festival, happening next from 9 to 13 September 2015, where acclaimed authors such as AS Byatt and Kurt Vonnegut have conducted interviews and readings.



More: BBC - Travel 

How To Tell If You Are In a Regency Romance Novel

1. You are either a virgin or a sad and lovely widow whose husband was lost at sea. You are spirited, but still passing ladylike.

 2. Your father is away in the colonies protecting his tobacco interests, or a bumbling idiot, or a gambler. His character flaws lead to you becoming betrothed to a man you’ve never met.

 3. Your dance card is filled up with the names of eligible gentlemen who are excessively unattractive.

 4. You have a maiden aunt who despairs of you. You have a gaggle of sisters of marriageable age and they are all silly.

 5. You are an incorrigible womanizer and you have lived in France. You are squandering your sizeable inheritance on loose women and card tables. You may very well be a pirate.

16 more signs here

As I Lay Buying

AS I LAY BUYING

BY MARCO KAYE

DARL 

 Jewel and I come up onto Macy’s fifth floor. We cannot find a present for Pa and we are in bed and bath and lost. The beds look like shorn sheep with their hooves tucked under, heads bowed, prayerful before the slaughter bleeds brown eyes black. Fluorescents burn and hum with terrible impatience.

Deepening by safety elevator to men’s basics, Jewel stares straight ahead, his pale eyes glinting like plastic set into his hard plastic face. The elevator chimes. Jewel crosses the floor in eight strides with the rigid gravity of a mannequin dressed in a herringbone suit and endued with life from the waist down. Then he’s gone.

Revolving doors tuck Jewel back into the city’s wrenching noise, a pair of socks, angry with Atlanta Falcon, tongue from his back pocket.

If I knew what to get Pa I would have but I do not. The lights blur. I can smell my tears.

More: McSweeney’s Internet Tendency

Lynda Barry's Illustrated Syllabus & Homework Assignments

Cartoonist turned professor, Lynda Barry, has turned an imaginative collection of course materials intended for her students into Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor, an old fashioned, tangible book.

More:  Open Culture

Queen Of Crime Fiction Dies

The writer PD James, who charted the transformations of British life through bestselling crime fiction starring the detective Adam Dalgliesh, has died aged 94. Her publisher Faber and Faber confirmed that she had died peacefully at home in Oxford on Thursday morning.



More:  theguardian.com

Literary Holiday Recipes

Enjoy Thanksgiving with this menu of Literary Recipes:

• Ernest Hemingway’s Absinthe Cocktail, Death in the Afternoon 
• Vladimir Nabokov’s Eggs la Nabocoque 
• Thomas Pynchon’s Banana Breakfast 
• Cormac McCarthy’s Turtle Soup 
• Robert Crumb’s Macaroni Casserole 
• Truman Capote’s Caviar-Smothered Baked Potatoes with 80-Proof Russian Vodka

Get links to these recipes and more at Biblioklept

Salvador Dali’s Cookbook

Salvador Dali's cookbook Les Diners de Gala was published in 1973. This is the table of contents:

1. Les caprices pincés princiers (Exotic Dishes)
2. Les cannibalismes de l’automne (Eggs - Seafood)
3. Les suprêmes de malaises lilliputiens (Entrées)
4. Les entre-plats sodomisés (Meats)
5. Les spoutniks astiqués d’asticots statistiques (Snails - Frogs)
6. Les panaches panachés (Fish - Shellfish)
7. Les chairs monarchiques (Game - Poultry)
8. Les montres molles 1/2 sommeil (Pork)
9. L’atavisme désoxyribonucléique (Vegetables)
10. Les “je mange GALA” (Aphrodisiacs)
11. Les pios nonoches (Sweets - Desserts)
12. Les délices petits martyrs (Hors-d’oeuvres)

Prices on Amazon range from $300 to $490.

More: Dangerous Minds

Lewis Carroll's Typewriter

Twenty years ago when Charlie Lovett found a small handwritten note by Lewis Carroll in which he asked for help in operating his new typewriter he did not know that Carroll's actual machine still existed. He wrote an article for a small Lewis Carroll journal titled “Lewis Carroll’s Typewriter” in which he described the Hammond No. 1 typewriter that Lewis Carroll (whose real name was Charles Dodgson) had bought in 1888.

In 2012 it came up for auction at a small auction house in England and Lovett purchased it. He did more research and wrote an article for an exhibition catalogue and was able to illustrate the article with pictures of the actual machine.

Read more here.

Cassady letter that inspired Kerouac found, to be auctioned

It’s been called the letter that launched a literary genre — 16,000 amphetamine-fueled, stream-of-consciousness words written by Neal Cassady to his friend Jack Kerouac in 1950.

Upon reading them, Kerouac scrapped an early draft of “On The Road” and, during a three-week writing binge, revised his novel into a style similar to Cassady’s, one that would become known as Beat literature.

It’s being offered as part of a collection that includes papers by E.E. Cummings, Kenneth Rexroth, Robert Penn Warren and other prominent literary figures. But Maddalena believes the item bidders will want most is Cassady’s 18-page, single-spaced screed describing a drunken, sexually charged, sometimes comical visit to his hometown of Denver.

Via:  NY Daily News

Four Days, Sam Shepard

Best thing I've read in a long time. From Shepard's 2010 collection of short narratives, Day out of Days. 

Majesty: (Highway 101 South)

We stop in a place called Smith’s in Paso Robles and order turkey-gumbo soup and lemon-meringue pie with black coffee. This ensemble somehow fits together although it sounds as though the tastes might clash. The theme from The Godfatheris playing on the jukebox; very dreary and always reminds me of that shocking scene with the decapitated horse head. What goes on in Coppola’s mind? How could a guy come up with that? You must have to be Italian. The skinny waitress here has the worst skin I’ve seen in a long, long time. She seems to be drowning in Clearasil, poor thing. Already suffering and she’s barely sixteen. The decor in here is very weird: old-time meat hooks hanging from the ceiling, unless maybe they’re ice hooks. Either way it’s incongruous for a roadside café, it seems to me. After blowing laboriously on his gumbo soup, Dennis, out of the blue, starts telling me how his aunt had a stroke recently and can’t remember the names of things. Some sort of aphasia or something. She seems to recognize the object itself but can’t remember the correct name for it. Like “door” might become “key” in her mind or “dog” might turn into “bug.” Close but way off. I remember that happened to me once when I was a kid—not a stroke but the confusion about naming a thing. My mother became very alarmed about it and marched me over to the icebox. She threw the door open and began hauling out things like a cube of margarine, for instance, holding it up close to my face and demanding that I pronounce the name of it. I knew it wasn’t butter because we never had butter but I couldn’t remember the other name so I called it “majesty.” I remember the panic on her face, as though she suddenly thought she had a cabbage head for a son on top of everything else she was worried about like the old man and taxes and the price of milk. I think it may have also been the extreme heat back then. We were having one of those desert heat waves that summer where it would sit and swelter around a hundred and twelve at midnight for days on end. No rain. And this was in the time before air-conditioning was even thought of. The hills were all black and smoky from wildfires and when you breathed in you could taste the ash on the back of your tongue. At night I would have dreams where the clouds would just ignite into flames. Anyway, I don’t know why it was that I suddenly had this little spell of not knowing what to call things. It didn’t last long but it was as strange to me as it must have been for my mother. I absolutely could not remember the name for margarine. That’s all there was to it.



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The Color of Shadows - Colm Toibin

CREDITANA JUAN



Ali Hyland, one of the neighbors in Enniscorthy, phoned Paul in Dublin to say that his aunt Josie, his father’s sister, had been found that morning on the floor, having fallen out of bed in the house where she lived alone; they thought that she had been lying there most of the night. An ambulance had come, Ali said, and taken Josie to Wexford hospital, ten miles away.



More:The New Yorker

Traveling library made in the seventeenth century.

This traveling library looks like an oversized book. Its shelves contain 40 small volumes, bound in vellum. The blue-painted frontispiece, opposite its shelves, catalogs the contents; the small books bear no titles on their spines.

While scholars don’t know exactly who was responsible for this volume’s construction, they believe it was commissioned by William Hakewill, an MP, lawyer, and student of legal history. Hakewill seems to have gifted four such sets to friends and associates in the years 1617 and 1618.



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Literary Coffee

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Akiko Noguchi's Tiny TV

Akiko Noguchi's tiny TV is made of wood with a body just one inch tall. Inside the body are three miniature books, each one focusing on a different aspect of the lives of Japanese children during the 1930’s and 40’s. By altering the order of the books inside, you can alter the image on the screen. The set also comes with it’s own tiny instruction manual.Link

Via Blort

Bad Sex In Fiction Award

The Literary Review sets out to find "the most egregious passage of sexual description in a work of fiction", and describes itself as "Britain's most dreaded literary prize". Established by Auberon Waugh in 1993, its purpose is to draw attention to "perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction, and to discourage them", with former winners including Sebastian Faulks, AA Gill and Melvyn Bragg.

The shortlist in full:

The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

The Hormone Factory by Saskia Goldschmidt

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

The Age of Magic by Ben Okri

The Affairs of Others by Amy Grace Loyd

Desert God by Wilbur Smith

Things to Make and Break by May-Lan Tan

The Lemon Grove by Helen Walsh

The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle by Kirsty Wark

More: The Guardian

You can vote here

This Life She's Chosen

This short story debut by Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum has been sitting on my bookcase for many years, perhaps since it was published in 2005. Reading it was part of my quest for a few empty shelves in my library. These are stories about Pacific northwest women of Scandinavian extraction whose relationships with their families are uncomfortable. Alienation, the emotional distance between people, is the theme that ties the collection together. On the surface the stories seem uncomplicated but there is a haunted feeling that lurks beneath. The subtleness of Lunstrum's writing makes each story exquisite like a tiny perfect gem or an orchid. I'd like to read other books she's written.

If Literary Characters were Lifestyle Bloggers

When Spots Won’t Listen -
L. MacBeth 

You’ve tried commanding them to leave, but those spots won’t be ousted—and they’re driving you mad. Try this mix of baking soda and… 

It’s Just the Wind” and Other Ways to Distract Your Date from the Mad Person in Your Attic - Ed Rochester 

Don’t let your crazy spouse put a damper on your romantic evening. Try these sure-fire lines to redirect the conversation… 

Gingham and Rubies: How to Mix High- and Low-Fashion Pieces -
Dorothy Gale 

Learn how to balance your wardrobe with these high and low pieces and your frenemies will be green with envy…

More: BOOK RIOT

Cool City, a Lego Concept Book

Independent Lego artist Sean Kenney has created several volumes of clever Lego design concepts including Cool City, a book about the trials and tribulations of living in the city.

Via PeopleForBikes

Afghanistan - Raymond Carver

The sad music of roads lined with larches.
The forest in the distance resting under snow.

The Khyber Pass. Alexander the Great.
History, and lapis lazuli.

No books, no pictures, no knick-knacks please me.
But she pleases me. And lapis lazuli.

That blue stone she wears on her dear finger.
That pleases me exceedingly.

The bucket clatters into the well.
And brings up water with a sweet taste to it.

The towpath along the river. The footpath
Through the grove of almonds. My love

Goes everywhere in her sandals.
And wears lapis lazuli on her finger.

Paris Review

First Editions, Second Thoughts

On December 2, Christie's will auction 75 first-edition books, each of which is a unique object that has been annotated with words and/or illustrations by its author. 

More: NYTimes.com

Kids Reading to Shelter Cats

The Book Buddies program is operated by the Animal Rescue League of Berks County, Penn. and invites children in grades 1–8 to visit the shelter and read to cats waiting for adoption.

Photos via Animal Rescue League of Berks CountyLink 

The Good House

I listened to the Audible version of this novel by Ann Leary and found the narrator's voice to be a bit grating at first but eventually realized that this was exactly how Hildy Good should sound. Hildy is a middle-aged, divorced real estate agent in Wendover, the small New England town where she was born and raised. One of her ancestors was hung as a witch during the Salem witch trials and she herself has a witchy sort of intuition about people. She is also a recovering alcoholic who was in rehab after her two grown daughters staged an intervention. She is easing back into her addiction with "just a couple of glasses of wine" in the evening but, like many addicts, denies that she has a problem now. She avoids most of her friends because she doesn't want them to know she is drinking again. She becomes the confidante of Rebecca who has recently moved to the town with her young family and is having an affair with her psychiatrist who rents his office from Hildy. There is something a little off about Rebecca and we suspect that the affair will not end well.  Hildy also rekindles her relationship with Frank, her old high school boyfriend, who is now the town's jack of all trades. When she's sober she thinks he's beneath her on the social scale but things change when she's had a few drinks.
Hildy's drinking escalates and things start spinning out of control; she has blackouts and a car accident. When Frank, who genuinely cares for her, advises her to tone it down she becomes furious with him. There are a number of subplots that unfold throughout the novel but we see them through Hildy's eyes and she is hardly a reliable narrator. It's a speedy read, not deep or complex, and Hildy is an interesting and convincing character, warts and all. I wasn't sure where the book was going and I thought it ended a bit abruptly but it was a good read and I recommend it.

On Election Day - Charles Bernstein

I hear democracy weep, on election day.
The streets are filled with brokered promise, on election day.
The miscreant’s vote the same as saint’s, on election day.
The dead unleash their fury, on election day.
My brother crushed in sorrow, on election day.
The sister does her washing, on election day.
Slowly, I approach the voices dark, on election day.
The men prepare for dying, on election day.
The morning hush defends its brood, on election day.
So still, so kindly faltering, on election day.
On election day, the cats take tea with the marmoset.
On election day, the mother refuses her milk.
On election day, the frogs croak so fiercely you would think that Mars had 
       fallen into Earth.
On election day, the iron man meets her frozen gasp.
The air is putrid, red, interpolating, quixotic, torpid, vulnerable, on
       election day.
Your eyes slide, on election day.
Still the mourners mourn, the weepers wept, the children sleep alone in
       bed, on election day.
No doubt a comet came to see me, fiery and irreconciled, torrid, strummed,
       on election day.
On election day, the trespass of the fatuous alarm and ignominious
       aspiration fells the golden leap to girdled crest.
The tyrant becomes prince, on election day.
Neither friend nor foe, fear nor fate, on election day.
The liar lies with the lamb, on election day.
The last shall be the first and first sent to the back of the line, on election day.
The beggar made a king, on election day.
“Let him who is without my poems be assassinated!” on election day.
Let he who has not sinned, let him sin, on election
       day.
The ghosts wear suits, on election day.
On election day, sulfur smells like beer.
On election day, the minister quakes in fear.
On election day, the Pole and the Jew dance the foxtrot.
On election day, the shoe does not fit the foot, the bullet misfires in its
       pistol, the hungry waiter reels before steadying himself on facts.
The grid does not gird the fiddler, on election day.
Galoshes and tears, on election day.
The sperm cannot find the egg, on election day.
The drum beat becomes bird song, on election day.
I feel like a nightmare is ending but can’t wake up, on election day.

—Charles Bernstein

 (Poetry of American Identity, Poetry of America, The Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress)

Best Films About Writers

50 Best Films About Writers of all time, with the requisite mix of biopics, book adaptations (what’s up Stephen King and John Irving), foreign films that actually feature female writers, po-mo meta surrealist studies of madness (very frequent), and the works of Woody Allen. (A thank you to writer Alexander Chee, whose lament about writers’ movies served as the inspiration.)

List: Flavorwire

History of the 20th Century in 100 Maps

1901: Jewish East LondonInfluenced by Charles Booth’s ‘poverty map’,
this shows the density of the Jewish population in east London
after a decade of pogroms in eastern Europe

Photograph: British Library

History of the 20th Century in 100 Maps by Tom Harper :

These maps tell many stories, revealing changing social attitudes towards the unfamiliar and unconventional, from Jewish London at the turn of the century to women in the workplace, and from the Edwardian opium trade to gay London in the 1980s. The maps cover the peak of imperial pageantry as well as rapid post-war decolonisation, and they explore technological change from the expansion of the London Underground system to 1980s computer games.

See the photo gallery

The 30 Most Stylish Book Covers

See the gallery at ShortList Magazine

Investigating the mystery of Samuel Marlowe

I spent more than a year reporting the story of Samuel Marlowe, the man who may have been Los Angeles' first licensed black private detective. Family members and a dogged screenwriter believe he also knew noir writers Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, and corresponded with them regularly. If Marlowe's connection to the authors could be verified, he'd belong in history books. But like so many characters out of L.A. noir, he remains cloaked in mystery, his exploits partly unverifiable...



More: Los Angeles Times

London Short Fiction: The Soho Nocturnes

A series of short fiction set in, or influenced by London. This week Sebastian Groes tries to shatter the concrete dream that is London.

Read it at Londonist