Readerville

"A Traveler from Altruria" by William Dean Howells

The Year of Reading Politically | #2 of 12
By Paul Clark

By 1892, William Dean Howells had already published the novels that would ensure his literary legacy — The Rise of Silas Lapham, Indian Summer and A Hazard of New Fortunes among them. He had moved from Cambridge to New York City to become editor of Cosmopolitan magazine. Although he had been actively involved in Republican politics, even writing a biography of Rutherford B. Hayes, he had over the previous decade become increasingly disenchanted with the GOP and more interested in the progressive politics of the era. In a letter to his father in November of 1892 he noted that the Republican party was "a lie in defamation of its past. It promises nothing in the way of economic or social reform, and it is only less corrupt than the scoundrelly democracy. The only live and honest party is the People's Party."

That fall he started writing a series of articles in Cosmopolitan that later was published as the novel, A Traveler from Altruria. This utopian novel was in the vein of dozens of novels published in the United States between the end of the Civil War and the end of the century. (The most popular of these novels, probably the only one remembered by most readers, was Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward.) ... continue reading

Fully Committed: Restaurant Books

The Odd Shelf #67
By D.G. Strong

"Adam and Eve on a raft and wreck 'em! " "Groundhog and fifty-five on number seven!" "Dough well done with cow to cover!" With pre-written dialogue like that, I don't know why there are so few good books set in the restaurant world. The things should practically write themselves! But they don't and there are precious few restaurant books — especially novels — that really get the rhythm of restaurants right. I guess writing about restaurants is a little bit like writing sex scenes: You really have to know your stuff or it sounds like you've never experienced it. I keep these precious few restaurant volumes on a little mental Odd Shelf and I'm always looking for more. ... continue reading

BibliOdyssey

BibliOdyssey, one of the crown jewels of the blogosphere, is an extraordinary showcase of old, beautifully printed books, illustrations, advertisements, maps, illuminated manuscripts and a wealth of other "visual materia obscura," as its curator, Paul, describes his splendid museum. Paul (aka PK), who lives in Sydney, Australia, doesn't use his last name. "I’m not a mysterious persona by intent," he explains. "To me, the content of this site (wonderful things made by other people) far outweighs my own pedestrian talents." Whatever. His talents hardly seem pedestrian. The erudite, informative commentary on the exquisite images he finds and posts, sometimes daily, is engaging, accessible, and clearly the result of hours of research. The images themselves are never less than stunning; his taste is impeccable. ... continue reading

"Dead Boys" by Richard Lange

Most Coveted Covers #163
By Karen Templer

I regret that the available scan of this isn't better because it's a lovely, detailed piece of work. It's Allison J. Warner's cover for Richard Lange's story collection Dead Boys. Warner has taken a pair of intriguing pen-and-ink drawings by Ali Campbell and layered them onto what appears to be the book jacket and a second wrapround, the latter all folded and tattered. There's a nice play between the crispness of the line drawings (and the type, for that matter) and the murkier backgrounds they're dropped onto. And the layering continues with the use of the inks, with the negative space of the window anchoring it all. The drawings — one the underside of a highway overpass and the other a window with a fire escape — quickly telegraph a gritty urbanness. But then what's with the palm tree growing out of the fire escape? It's the kind of cover that invites you to linger awhile before flipping it open.

Talk about it: Judging a Book

—Karen Templer is the founder and editor of Readerville. She's currently dipping into The New York Stories of Edith Wharton.

[To view the Most Coveted Covers 2001-2007 click here.]

The Irreversible Decline

By Sue Russell

Illustration by D.G. Strong

Eddie Socket is a marginally employed Oberlin graduate with no medical coverage living on the lower East Side of Manhattan with his college friend, Polly Plugg, with whom he shares everything but sex (well, with one experimental exception). He's chosen his own surname as a match for Polly's, so there they are, a hole and something to fill it, complete unto themselves. Eddie is gay and uncloseted but not especially lucky in love. His favorite activities are going to the movies and taking long baths. His favorite question is "Who am I quoting?" He's a human repository of movie scenes, show-tune lyrics (especially Larry Hart), Shakespearean soliloquies and the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop. In short, he is a character after my own heart. Last month, while grieving for the loss of another friend with similar attributes, I was drawn again to Eddie. Call me a self-destructive fool, but I've always felt that the only way out is through. ... continue reading

The Lost Story

Flashback | The Readerville Journal, September/October 2002
By Susan Ito

Illustration by Bob Bechtol

It is a miraculous thing, to search for something for decades, to come to doubt its existence outside your own memory, and then to have it handed to you, solid and whole.

For 30 years I have yearned for a story that was read to me when I was 12 by a woman in a beige bathrobe, the mother of a summer friend of mine — I don't remember either of their first names anymore. The husband and father, who lived with his family in Charlotte, North Carolina, was a sales trainee of my father's. My mother and I had driven south from New Jersey to where he was working the Gift Show in the cavernous Merchandise Mart.

The man, named Roberts, was large and bearded, and I had a bit of a crush on him. He looked like Grizzly Adams, and he lumbered after my father, hugging a clipboard of order forms, trying to learn how to be a salesman. He had a girl my age, and after a day or two of playing waitress together — taking orders of coffee and biscuits for the salesmen and the customers — she invited me home for a sleep over. They lived in a small house with a big yard, almost smothered by green foliage. I remember a pleasant dinner, and bathing in the sweet drawl of their Carolina voices. The girl and I played a game with dice on the floor of their parlor, and she showed me her cheerleading outfit, and the paperback yearbook from her junior high school, and we pointed out which boy was cutest on each page.

But my eyes kept drifting to the wall of books that climbed to the ceiling of that room, and after a while I went and stood by them, holding my head sideways to read the titles. Our home did not have even one bookshelf (although we had four televisions) other than the one that was built into the desk in my bedroom. All the books in the house were mine. I had not been fully aware until that moment that adults, other than teachers and librarians, liked to read as well. ... continue reading

Women and Watergate

The Odd Shelf #66
By Nancy Sirvent

Once upon a time, in 1972, five men were caught burglarizing the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington DC and arrested. No one knew they were paid, or by whom, until a resentful former FBI man surreptitiously tipped off a couple of young guys from The Washington Post who followed a trail of macho mischief that led them to All the President's Men, and ultimately to the President himself. There were firings, betrayals, official Senate hearings, revelations, prison sentences and, ultimately, a Presidential resignation.
        This fascinating story unfolded from 1972 through 1974, alongside some of the most influential events in women's contemporary history. During those years, the ERA was passed by Congress, Roe v. Wade made abortion legal, Eisenstadt v. Baird gave single women the right to use contraception, Title IX banned sex discrimination in schools, Ms. Magazine was launched, and the book Our Bodies, Ourselves was first published. Adolescent women of that time, of which I was one, knew that they were coming into adulthood on the cusp of a great shift in what it meant to be female in America.
        It is in that context that I fell in everlasting love with Watergate. It is a great story in U.S. history, full of good guys and bad guys, heroic actions and outrageous vindictiveness. It made great TV and hilarious comedy, influenced American language (the word Watergate itself is a fine example), remade the art of journalism, and forever changed U.S. politics and culture. What I love most about Watergate, though, are the many other Watergate stories: the ones that have been forgotten, the ones that have been deemed irrelevant, unseemly, or unimportant. Not surprisingly, many of these stories involve women. ... continue reading

Ex Libris: Margery Snyder & Whitman McGowan

Photos by Michele Lee Willson

By Douglas Cruickshank

It's a cosmic law. When lovers of words, two poets in this case, fall in love and live together for a couple of decades or more, they accumulate books, lots of them. Margery Snyder co-edits (with Bob Holman) About Poetry for About.com. She's read her own work up and down the West Coast, in the Southwest, and in London and Paris. Snyder's books include Loving Argument; The Gods, Their Feathers; and Earthly Magic. Consider yourself blessed if you come across them. Two of her poems can be read on the About Poetry site: "If There Are Only Minds, Who Will Breathe for Us?" and "Heathrow To Russell Square."

Whitman McGowan is a spoken word performer and the veteran of incendiary appearances in the U.S. and Europe, including an August 2007 spontaneous combustion at Scotland's Edinburgh Fringe Festival. To learn more about his books, recordings, and to read some of his poetry, visit his website. Snyder and McGowan live in San Francisco. ... continue reading

"Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison

Most Coveted Covers #162
By D.G. Strong

I recently attended an exhibit of paintings, sculpture and collage (and film and music and, oh, pretty much everything else) from the original Société Anonyme exhibit of 1920. It was a pretty overwhelming show, and it was interesting to see all these pieces together, as they were originally shown. I heard some people complain that it felt too intellectual or whatever but I thought it was a refreshing change from water lilies and sunflowers, frankly. One thing that really jumped out at me was how influential the Modernist movement has been on graphic design for decades, long after its influence on painting and sculpture seems to have waned. Working parallel to Duchamp, Arp, Man Ray et al. was designer Edward McKnight Kauffer, who's responsible for a whole raft of famous book jacket and poster designs. Just Google him and you'll see. A prime example of Kauffer at his best (and latest — he died two years later) is his original cover for Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, about which there is nothing to say beyond "sheer perfection." One thing I find telling about it is there have been how many editions of the book since this 1952 first edition? It 's still the best cover the book's ever had, and it was created thirty years after the Société Anonyme show. Kauffer had kept at it, refining the tenets of the movement down to a few strokes and lines. He was truly one of the great Modernists — in any medium.

Talk about it: Judging a Book

—D.G. Strong is a regular contributor to The Readerville Journal and Forum.

[To view the Most Coveted Covers 2001-2007 click here.]

Puritan: Look After Thy Stomach

By Karen Templer

Photo by Elizabeth Berger

There's been no shortage of books about food in recent years — you've no doubt noticed. From Anthony Bourdain to John McPhee to Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver (not to mention everyone from Suzanne Somers to Dr. Oz), the subject has been tackled repeatedly and with gusto. Frederick Kaufman, on the other hand, isn't so much interested in food. His interest lies in our relationship to food, or more specifically (and interestingly), in food's role in America's history and national identity — from the Puritans who fasted before their voyage to the New World and feasted upon arrival to modern-day raw milk smugglers, food engineers, and, yes, Rachael Ray.

You may have seen Kaufman's 2005 article in Harper's, famously titled Debbie Does Salad, which is actually the first chapter of his new book, A Short History of the American Stomach. While many use the term 'gastroporn' to describe today's food media approach, Kaufman studied Food Network footage with a porn industry executive and crafted a point-by-point comparison. It was just part of his quest to understand the network's rise and its popularity even among people who aren't especially interested in cooking. And as with the rest of the book, it's some combination of funny, informed, and educational.

Not surprisingly, Thanksgiving features prominently in the book. The quintessential American holiday, it manages to be neither especially patriotic nor materialistic in nature. It's a holiday about food, and moreover, too much of it. What is surprising is what Kaufman has dug up, through years of research, on Early American eating disorders and even a Puritanical fixation on indigestion. Citing such sources as Cotton Mather, the Beecher sisters, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ben Franklin, Fannie Farmer, Barry Sears and even the Torah, Kaufman tells what is essentially a morality tale. As it turns out, never in the history of America has there been any shortage of books about food. Kaufman is continuing a grand tradition while taking an amusing meta look at it. He spoke with me by phone about the book. ... continue reading

Biographies I Have Most Enjoyed

The Odd Shelf #65
By Kat Warren

I used to think people read biographies of those who appealed one way or another, or because the subjects were famous or interesting or brilliant at whatever it was they did. (Ruling, writing, composing, building, painting, making money, doing good, making justice, inventing, discovering...) Many read about people who make history and/or waves but I discovered some time ago that I'm willing to read just about any biography so long as it is well written. Case in point: Anne De Courcy's gripping biography of Diana Mosley whose fascist politics and anti-Semitic notions revolt me. 

I was surprised to learn I could enjoy biographies of subjects I don't like, or hadn't heard of, or had been only vaguely aware of. My ongoing affair with biography has shown I'll read about almost anyone. What matters is not the subject so much as the blend of subject and writer. It takes a particular combination of brilliant researcher and fetching writer to pen a powerful and compelling biography and that's what you'll find on this list ... continue reading

Mr. and Mrs. Dove

Illustration by D.G. Strong

By Katherine Mansfield

Of course he knew — no man better — that he hadn't a ghost of a chance, he hadn't an earthly. The very idea of such a thing was preposterous. So preposterous that he'd perfectly understand it if her father — well, whatever her father chose to do he'd perfectly understand. In fact, nothing short of desperation, nothing short of the fact that this was positively his last day in England for God knows how long, would have screwed him up to it. And even now ... He chose a tie out of the chest of drawers, a blue and cream check tie, and sat on the side of his bed. Supposing she replied, "What impertinence!" would he be surprised? Not in the least, he decided, turning up his soft collar and turning it down over the tie. He expected her to say something like that. He didn't see, if he looked at the affair dead soberly, what else she could say. ... continue reading

Authors@Google

There's apparently no end to the things that Google has its hot little paws on — literature, for example. Authors@Google is an ongoing series in which prominent writers visit Google and talk about their book or books and answer questions posed by the Googlistas. The event is videotaped and the videos are posted on YouTube along with every other video on planet earth. You can wander through all the Google author presentations by going to YouTube and searching Authors@Google. To get you started, not to say addicted, try Junot Díaz or Aimee Bender or Elizabeth Gilbert or Greil Marcus or even Christopher Hitchens. If you can't stand the thought of leaving Readerville, even for a moment, stay right here and watch Tess Uriza Holthe talk about her first novel, When the Elephants Dance, on the little screen above.

Talk about it: All About Authors

"Men and Gods" by Rex Warner

Most Coveted Covers #161
By Karen Templer

Breezing past the poetry section of my tiny local indie, en route to the register, I was quite literally stopped in my tracks by this NYRB edition of Rex Warner's Men and Gods, with its cover and illustrations by Edward Gorey. Petite and hard-bound with illustrated boards in what I can only call 'Loeb green,' it begged to take up permanent residence in my bag. And so off it went with me to the register. I'd love to tell you a whole big story about how much personal resonance this one has for me — and given that my favorite childhood library book was an oversized, grey cloth-bound volume of Greek myths and that I have an ongoing obsession with Loeb Library editions, I could do it — but I won't. It's not clear to me whether this is a direct reprint of an older edition or whether it's an NYRB repackaging of the author's and illustrator's previous work. But I'm left wondering if that big book I checked out over and over wasn't Rex Warner's work, and whether it wasn't perhaps also illustrated by Gorey, who I can't say has ever had any special appeal for me. I do really like the notion that it could be a portable edition of my childhood favorite, but I've no doubt this book would have leapt off that shelf at me regardless. The big orange cats, the hand-lettering, that fantastic green — and you should see the snake on the back. It's a pretty irresistible little package. I'm having trouble refraining from looking up the two other Goreys on the NYRB list.

Talk about it: Judging a Book

—Karen Templer is the founder and editor of Readerville. She's currently reading The Master and Margarita. Honest.

[To view the Most Coveted Covers 2001-2007 click here.]

The Talented Ms. Highsmith

Illustration by Martin McMurray

Flashback | The Readerville Journal, July/August 2003
By Sue Russell

A common complaint about biographies of writers is that the work should be able to "stand for itself," without any cult of personality being formed around the author. However, very few literary personalities are as interesting as Patricia Highsmith, and very few lives are as closely linked with a body of work. Throughout her career, Highsmith sought recognition by her American publishers and readers as more than a genre writer. She felt that the European audience was more inclined to look beyond such labels. Now that she is no longer here to enjoy the validation, as it so often happens, she may be getting her wish. ... continue reading

Buddhist Novels and Zen Interpretations (cont.)

The Odd Shelf #64 | Part Two
By Richard L. Pangburn

• Finding Joy in Joyce: A Readers Guide to Ulysses by John P. Anderson
One of my all-time favorite volumes of lit crit. A line-by-line study with over 600 pages, this sparkling work uses a custom blended tonic of Christianity and Buddhism in its interpretation. Jesus and Buddha, side by side.

• Siddhartha, Journey to the East and the later novels by Hermann Hesse
Popular before World War II, the author faded into obscurity before he won the Nobel Prize in 1946. Still, he did not become popular again in America until his books were reprinted in the mystic 1960s, and he remains in print. I like his obscure novels best, if only because they are more literary and require more thought.

• Lost Horizon by James Hilton
This 1933 novel gave readers an overview of the compassionate philosophy of Buddhists; however, it also featured a western materialist conception of eternal life rather than an inward eastern spiritual one. Utopia is not to be found outside in the material world. Still, I like the novel as a literary metaphor. Lost Horizon and the 1934 movie made from it did much to enhance the mystique of Tibet. Shangri-La became a synonym for contentment. Your kisses take me to Shangri-La, the song goes. Peggy Lee made a lovely recording of that song in 1946 and after the movie was remade in 1954, the song was covered by The Four Coins, The Lettermen, Bobby Vinton and a host of other singers. ... continue reading

Buddhist Novels and Zen Interpretations

The Odd Shelf #64 | Part One
By Richard L. Pangburn

Buddhism is the most secular of religions. It is practiced in various forms in the United States today, often by Christians and Jews as an auxiliary to their original belief systems. The basic principles are universals which sometimes occur to individuals even though they may never have studied Buddhism, nor even have heard of it before. Small wonder, then, that there are so many Buddhist interpretations of classical literature. ... continue reading

Colors' White Album

By Douglas Cruickshank

Colors, the splendidly eccentric magazine published by Benetton, has done it again. The theme of issue No. 72, now on newsstands with its all-white, Braille-embossed front cover, is blindness (that's the back cover at left). The interior text is not printed in Braille, but a CD with the entire magazine read aloud comes with each copy. The audio can also be downloaded from the Colors website.

Every issue of Colors has a single theme. Past numbers have focused on Lust, Slums, the Amazon, Food, Slavery, Toys, Monoculture, Status, Venice, Time, Water, Frontiers and, well, you get the idea. The odd but commendable thing is that it's taken a clothing company to publish a passionate photojournalism magazine that is unfailingly compelling and usually takes up subjects that mainstream newsmagazines tiptoe around in balanced, clinical fashion if they address them at all. But I repeat myself. Six years ago I wrote a similar rant when Colors devoted an entire issue to Madness.

This time, as with the Madness issue, the stories rely heavily on the words of the individuals featured in the photographs. Here's Hein Wagner, age 35: "I remember running into an empty fireplace in the school and a little sighted girl climbed in with me. 'Why are you in here?' she asked. 'Because I can hide,' I told her, kind of explaining that it allowed me to feel safe. She ran off, and that's when I realized I was different.... It's an uncomfortable memory."

And here's Simone Camargo da Silva, 31: "It's not love at first sight. It's more like love at first conversation.... The images I have of beauty, my references, come from the time I could see. I like colors and I remember them. I remember nature as something beautiful. It is the same with beauty in people."

This issue of Colors is a particularly beautiful one. Find it and have a look. Or a listen.

Talk about it: The Magazine Stand

—Douglas Cruickshank is the features editor of The Readerville Journal. His other favorite magazine these days is Stop Smiling.

"For Freedom" by Arthur Huff Fauset

Most Coveted Covers #160
By D.G. Strong

First off, let me say that this is not really the cover that I Most Covet. I recently attended an exhibit of the work of Aaron Douglas and was sort of blown away by his graphic sensibility. I don't think he was a great painter, necessarily; there was a surface flatness to the actual la-ti-da paintings that didn't resonate with me, but there's no doubt in my mind that he had a fantastic eye for composition. Douglas was one of the leading lights of the Harlem Renaissance and in addition to canvasses and murals, he designed music programs and posters and — most successfully of all — book jackets. He did a few for Langston Hughes but the one I admired the most was for Wallace Thurman's The Blacker the Berry, which I cannot find online for the life of me. I apologize, and you all must come to Nashville to see it in person in the fancy vitrine at the museum. But this cover for Arthur Huff Fauset's For Freedom does hit a few of the same notes that the Thurman I admired does. Douglas practically invented this style of illustration, the ostensibly uneasy mix of silhouette-y Art Deco and Harlem chic, though now it's so common it's a cliché. But can you imagine seeing this on a bookstore shelf in the late 1920s? Look at the way the female figure on the right blends into the edge; it's almost an optical illusion: Is she there or not? Which is positive, which is negative? It's a visual question Douglas revisited again and again, and I'm glad he bothered to bring his inquiry to commercial design. People have been copying him for decades without even knowing it.

Talk about it: Judging a Book

—D.G. Strong is a regular contributor to The Readerville Journal and Forum.

[To view the Most Coveted Covers 2001-2007 click here.]

A Condensed Tree Grows

Illustration by Bob Bechtol

By Gretchen VanEsselstyn

For ten years, my favorite book was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Reader's Digest Condensed Version. I read it again and again, hypnotized. What drew me, a bookwormy suburban 1970s kid, into this often-dark story of deprivation, loss and eventual triumph in turn-of-the century Brooklyn? It is about a lonely young girl who loves to read. Bingo.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn gave me a connection with the past and with my own family's history in New York City. The poverty that the characters endured was far away enough to seem fascinating, though you would not have to go far back on my family tree to find similar hardships. The Tammany politics, the race relations, the war news, all breezed past me, over my head. But the background wasn't important. I knew that I loved Francie and that we would always be friends.

When Francie told a lie, explaining that she would give a "charity" pumpkin pie to two poor children she knew, I sweated for her, knowing how it felt to walk the line between truth and fiction. I bit my lip when Johnny died and wept out loud when Katie requested that "acute alcoholism" be removed from his death certificate. Each time I closed the book, I wished that I could learn more about Francie and her family, that I could find out what happened next. My wish came true. ... continue reading

"Washington, D.C." by Gore Vidal

The Year of Reading Politically | #1 of 12
By Paul Clark

When I was in high school in the early 1970s, I read the usual authors that teenage boys get hooked on, such as Tolkien, Vonnegut and Heinlein. To be honest, however, my favorite author during those years was Fletcher Knebel. His books — Seven Days in May, Convention, Night of Camp David, Vanished — all dealt with the intrigues of political campaigns and Washington, D.C. And they contained little that related to the way American politics was taught in school.

The era of my high school years certainly influenced what I read. In July of 1972, the raucous and undisciplined Democratic convention provided fascinating television. In the summer of 1973, I spent as much time watching the Senate Watergate hearings as doing anything else. In the summer of 1974 I had my first real job, but I followed with rapt interest the unraveling of Nixon's second term and his resignation that summer. ... continue reading