Central Crime Zone (Free subscription) | 11/16/2009
Blogger and Crimespree contributor Patty Abbott runs Forgotten Friday. For those of you that are not familiar with it, FF runs on Fridays (but you figured that out, right') and featured a number of folks offering up some little known books that we should all check out. Here is the line-up for Nov 13th. Mark Arsenault, The Mysterious Stranger, Mark Twain Paul Bishop, The Venetian Affair, Helen MacInnes...
Execupundit.com (Free subscription) | 09/12/2009
I ran across a worn copy of "Tobacco Road" in a box of old books in my garage. It reminded me of a story a boss of mine once told. He was seated near Erskine Caldwell on a flight and was stunned by the amount of work the novelist completed during the trip. He said the man seemed capable of total focus. I suppose that helped to produce material like this: "Quit chunking that durn ball...
look back in anger (Free subscription) | 08/08/2009
erskine caldwell has sold more books than anyone. it's true. as difficult as it is to grasp the circumstances and ignorance of some of his characters, his work is illuminatingly fresh. 'tobacco road' was written in 1932. the 1941 film of the same name does not come close. period. however, if the right people got together to capture the mayhem, it could be great. photos: kate moss/william gedney image...
Velociworld (Free subscription) | 06/28/2009
Erskine Caldwell wrote a seminal novel in 1932, Tobacco Road. I won't say I don't like the novel, as I had him autograph a deluxe Beehive Press edition for me in 1980, when he was 77 years old (as perverse...
Execupundit.com (Free subscription) | 06/10/2009
Cultural Offering has a great piece on how the music of George Jones grows on you . That's true. I tell that to my children and they flee. But one day they'll know the allure of a voice that combines cigarette smoke, cold beer, and juke box. The first George Jones song I heard was "Big Harlan Taylor," which was written by Roger Miller. One memorable verse: I wanted revenge and waylaid for...
Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine (Free subscription) | 12/17/2008
The View From Graustark: It all peaks when Dude runs over Grandma : "Erskine Caldwell was born exactly 105 years ago in Coweta County, Ga. Twenty-nine years later he published a novel that for decades would be a cultural touchstone in this country." I urge you to read the whole post at the link.
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 12/14/2008
The youngest of seven children born to an impoverished farming family in Grabtown, North Carolina (which sounds like a redneck community in a novel by Jim Thompson or Erskine Caldwell), she grew up to be a green-eyed, dark-haired beauty, one of the most voluptuous women of the 20th century. An MGM scout spotted her portrait in the window of her brother-in-law's New York photographic studio, a long-term...
Pete Lit (Free subscription) | 09/03/2008
Having just finished Erskine Caldwell's grim but invigorating Tobacco Road (a very good book, despite being perhaps the only book I've ever read which lacks even a single sympathetic or redeeming character), I thought the obvious natural progression in my...
The Valve (Free subscription) | 06/02/2008
<< | Monday, June 02, 2008 “What William Faulkner implies, Erskine Caldwell records”Posted by , Guest Author, on 06/02/08 at 12:28 PMA reviewer for the Chicago Tribune made that comparison, and it feels apt, whatever one takes the difference between “recording” and “implication” to signify. Caldwell and Faulkner do seem to be doing something strikingly similar,...
Maggie Reads (Free subscription) | 05/17/2008
C ongratulations N icola of Back to Books ! You won a magnolia tin chocked full of delicious Pecans! Don't worry your shipment will be much smaller than this giant pecan in Brunswick, MO, but the taste will prove HUGE! :D Instead of Bon-Bons you will be able to read Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell with Bon-Pecans! Congrats Girl!
Bill Peschel (Free subscription) | 04/11/2008
B orn today: Margaret of Navarre, poet, essayist, playwright, Angoulême, France, 1492; Christopher Smart, poet, Shipbourne, Kent, 1722; Edward Everett, orator, Dorcester, Mass., 1794; Glenway Wescott, novelist, essayist, poet, Kewaskum, Wis., 1901; Leo Rosten, humorist, novelist, Lodz, Poland, 1908; Ellen Goodman, journalist, columnist, Newton, Mass., 1941. Died: Richard Harding Davis, journalist,...
THE OUTSIDER (Free subscription) | 03/28/2008
I read two articles about Easton Ellis this morning and have ready many more. Everyone talks about his violence and drug use and shit. Which I don't understand why it is so controversial. De Sade, Bataille, Burroughs, Selby Jr. and Iceberg Slim had way more violent novels, way more sexual, way more realistic versions of people acting fucked up than Easton Ellis. I thought American Psycho was creepy,...
PlayBill (Free subscription) | 01/23/2008
Kaufman's 33 Variations, Woodard's Solo Night Watcher Added to La Jolla SeasonMoisés Kaufman's 33 Variations and Charlayne Woodard's The Night Watcher join the previously reported Xanadu, a revival of Tobacco Road and Charles Busch's The Third Story in the new season at La Jolla Playhouse. Artistic director Christopher Ashley officially announced five of the eight shows to be featured in his...
ABC TV (Free subscription) | 01/02/2008
From the novel by Erskine Caldwell about a lusty, eccentric Georgia family whose patriarch has a mad obsession that there's gold on his land. CAST: Robert Ryan, Tina Louise DIR: Anthony Mann (1958)
Language Log (Free subscription) | 12/22/2007
Caught on television yesterday: That'll teach you to blow your quarters on the arcade. [Walker, Texas Ranger episode "The Covenant"] conveying 'that'll teach you not to blow your quarters on the arcade'. Undernegation, of a sort we haven't seen...
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