The Guardian (Free subscription) | 11/28/2009
Metamorphoses by Ovid Ovid gives you any number of chases, usually with an alluring female pursued by an impassioned male deity. Escape comes only via metamorphosis. The pattern is set in Book 1, where Daphne is the object of Apollo's fiery affections. As she makes a run for it her garments blow aside: "She seemed most lovely to his fancy in her flight." He is about to catch her when her...
Erica Wright (Free subscription) | 11/03/2009
I blame James Fenimore Cooper for rampant literary disinterest in the United States. In their sophomore years of high school, millions of teenagers come to the simultaneous conclusion that novels are boring. Continue...
...an endless banquet (Free subscription) | 10/24/2009
fig. a: Kaaterskill Falls One of the prime attractions in the Catskills are the legendary Kaaterskill Falls. And when I say "legendary," I mean it. The cult of Kaaterskill Falls dates back to the early 19th century, when casual references to the Falls' breathtaking natural "amphitheater" in Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" and in the work of James Fenimore Cooper turned...
ricklibrarian (Free subscription) | 10/09/2009
Above a collection of house plants on the built-in shelves in the paneled and enclosed back porch of my paternal grandmother's house were dozens of old Western novels, including several by Zane Grey. I can not report that I read them as a boy. I was not a dedicated reader at the time, being more prone to watching The Man from U.N.C.L.E. or Mission Impossible . So I grew up with some mistaken assumptions...
BLDGBLOG (Free subscription) | 10/06/2009
This autumn in New York City, Edible Geography and BLDGBLOG have teamed up to lead an 8-week design studio focusing on the spatial implications of quarantine; you can read more about it here . For our studio participants, we have been assembling a coursepack full of original content and interviews—but we decided that we should make this material available to everyone so that even those people...
The Diary Junction Blog (Free subscription) | 09/15/2009
James Fenimore Cooper, an American 19th century author best known for The Last of the Mohicans, died 220 years ago today. He wasn’t much of a diarist but there are a few pages extant of a journal he kept while living among the aristocracy in Paris just after France’s July Revolution of 1830. From the evidence of these pages, Cooper was as interested in etiquette as he was in the news from...
National Portrait Gallery | Face to Face blog (Free subscription) | 09/15/2009
James Fenimore Cooper wrote the first great American novel, and then he wrote the second, third, and fourth as well. Born in New Jersey as James Cooper on this date in 1789, he added Fenimore (his mother’s maiden name) as...
Baxojayz - Centricity (Free subscription) | 09/15/2009
lucubration \loo-kyoo-BRAY-shun; loo-kuh-\, noun: The act of studying by candlelight; nocturnal study; meditation. That which is composed by night; that which is produced by meditation in retirement; hence (loosely) any literary composition. Lucubration comes from Latin lucubratus, past participle of lucubrare, "to work by night, composed at night (as by candlelight)," ultimately connected...
composite drawlings (Free subscription) | 09/14/2009
Go away. When will you be going? Why aren't you already gone? Do you have some sort of hatred for seekers of solitude, that you should stay? Why, why, why are you still here? You came here looking for something. I see. And I should care about this... why? Because only I can give this something to you. Meh. I'm unimpressed. What is it I'm supposed to have that nobody else gives you (besides a tongue-lashing...
Media News (Free subscription) | 09/09/2009
"Linda Lovelace and James Fenimore Cooper. Together at last. Welcome to Harvard’s wacky “New Literary History of America,’’ arriving in bookstores as we speak. “Deep Throat,’’ “Roll Over, Beethoven,’’ the election of Barack Obama - it’s all literature now. What exactly is this wildly uneven, 1,100-page doorstop retailing for a mere...
Penelope Marzec (Free subscription) | 09/05/2009
This summer we spent the entire month of July at the hospital with Mom. And then we went to Florida to help out hubby's parents. We did not have a vacation. But we salvaged a few days last week and this week as our staycation. Fortunately, since we live in New Jersey, there are plenty of things to do nearby. We went to Snug Harbor in Staten Island one day. They have beautiful gardens but they also...
Educating Petunia (Free subscription) | 08/03/2009
OnlineCourses.org recently posted an article called " The 100 Essential Books You Should Have Read in College ". Go to the site if you want to see the division and a brief explanation of why each book is on the list. Or, for your convenience, I have made a copy of the titles just for you. (Ain't I thoughtful') 1.Beowulf, Anonymous 2.The Iliad, Homer 3.The Odyssey, Homer 4.The Republic, Plato...
Jesus' General (Free subscription) | 08/01/2009
The Summer Game is in full stride and last week Baseball's Hall of Fame inducted Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice among the the other great immortals of the National Pastime. So Chafets', Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues, and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame (Bloomsbury $25.00) book seems timely, even if only to this old baseball fan. And a fascinating look at the Hall-of-Fame it...
Joe Pastry (Free subscription) | 07/31/2009
If, like me, you're weary of being shamed over the foods you eat (think HFCS, think veal, think foie gras, think hand-caught baby harp seal en croûte), you might be comforted to know that the practice of shaming others over their dietary choices is nothing new in America. Cane sugar is perhaps the archetypal politically incorrect food. Various groups, notably religious groups (especially Quakers)...
A Western Heart (Free subscription) | 07/27/2009
As I mentioned on my personal blog , my son was recently awarded the degree of Bachelor of Science with first-class honours in mathematics. I of course attended the graduation ceremony, which was for science graduates only. Such ceremonies are in general rather tedious, though we did have one good speech and some excellent music. So I amused myself while I was sitting there by speculating on the ethnicity...
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