New York Times (Free subscription) | 09/05/2008
When William Styron published “The Confessions of Nat Turner” 40 years ago, black writers objected to his use of dialect and his invocation of inflammatory stereotypes.
TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home (Free subscription) | 08/03/2008
Wowio, the ad-supported book site, once worried me. I didn’t see enough ads in the free PDF files. Someone had to pay for this feast. Kurt Vonnegut, William Styron, Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn—those were among the distinguished writers whose works you could download for free. Wowio catered to comic fans, but it offered plenty else, in [...]
Culture Parody Center (Free subscription) | 08/01/2008
Readers, we’re hard at work on a buggery of the William Styron classic ”Sophie’s choice”, starring Dr Jodianne Fossey as Sophie, Patrick J. Mullins as Nathan, Dejan Nikolic as Stingo and dr. Slovenly Zizek as Our Highness. Here are some exciting stills we managed to steal from the shoot (being made somewhat difficult by Mullins’s [...]
The Media Mob (Free subscription) | 07/07/2008
A new collection of short fiction—including the first chapter of an unfinished novel—is coming from the late William Styron, according to InkWell Management agent Michael Carlisle. Mr. Carlisle, one of the founding partners of InkWell and a close childhood friend of Styron's kids, said the collection, like the rest of Styron's work, will be published by Random House and overseen by the legendary editor...
Culture Parody Center (Free subscription) | 06/24/2008
Readers, a preview of the upcoming buggery of the William Styron classic SOPHIE’S CHOICE, starring the gorgeous Dr. Jodianne Fossey as a concentration camp survivor faced with hard choices. SS OFFICER: Du musst ein choice maken! Either an alle-expenses Reize to Carribean, or you work dein Arsch off until you’re promoted to der Senior Lecturer! DR FOSSEY: [...]
ricklibrarian (Free subscription) | 06/14/2008
Before he died in 2006, William Styron selected fourteen of his essays for a volume reflecting his lighter side. Of course, Havanas in Camelot is still very frank and confessional, for he was a man of strong opinions willing to take on anyone in a debate. Still, he succeeded in avoiding the topic of depression to celebrate the mostly good times of his life. The title essay ran in Vanity Fair in 1996....
Bill Peschel (Free subscription) | 06/11/2008
B orn today: Ben Jonson, playwright, poet, London, 1572; Anne Newport Royall, journalist, New Baltimore, 1769; Yasunari Kawabata, novelist, Osaka, Japan, 1899; Irving Howe, literary scholar, critic, essayist, New York City, 1920; William Styron, novelist, memoirist, Newport News, Va., 1925; Athol Fugard, playwright, director, actor, Middelburg, South Africa, 1932; Allan Gurganus, novelist, Rocky Mount,...
Bibliobibuli (Free subscription) | 06/06/2008
Two works of non-fiction I've read this week were both in a sense journeys into the heart of darkness. I picked up a copy of William Styron's Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness at the Big Bookshop sale. It's a very slim volume, just 84 pages long, which started life as a lecture given at a symposium sponsored by the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. It...
Cinematical (Free subscription) | 05/21/2008
Filed under: Drama , Deals One would think that after Sophie's Choice , which grabbed five Oscar nominations and a leading actress win for Meryl Streep in 1982, more of William Styron's writing would get the feature treatment. So far, Sophie stands alone. There were, however, some attempts: His 1951 bestseller Lie Down in Darkness was first optioned by John Frankenheimer in the '60s, and then Jay...
New York Times (Free subscription) | 05/09/2008
Essays by William Styron illuminate his fiction's themes.
LisNews (Free subscription) | 04/17/2008
William Styron died at the end of 2006, but left behind a wonderful collection of essays, "Havanas in Camelot", reviewed here by The New York Times Michiko Kakutani. Having enlisted at 17, but considered too much of a tenderfoot to send overseas, the United States Marine Corps introduced him “to the glories of the library.” He was sent first, instead, to a military-sponsored college program at Duke...
International Herald Tribune (Free subscription) | 04/15/2008
A love of books and a veneration of the printed word animates many of Styron's essays in this volume, conjuring that era in which the author came of age, when young, aspiring artists regarded novel-writing as an almost holy profession.
New York Times (Free subscription) | 04/15/2008
The veneration of the printed word as a source of wisdom, redemption and refuge animates many of William Styron’s essays in this volume.
Lynne's Little Corner of the World (Free subscription) | 04/07/2008
I completed the Book Awards Reading Challenge. Listed below are the books that I read. You can link on them for my reviews. MURPHY'S LAW (Rhys Bowen) - Agatha Award IF I'D KILLED HIM WHEN I MET HIM (Sharyn McCrumb) - Agatha Award SCHINDLER'S LIST (Thomas Keneally) - Booker Prize BOOTLEGGER'S DAUGHTER (Margaret Maron) - Agatha Award BEL CANTO (Ann Patchett) - Orange Prize ATONEMENT (Ian McEwan) - NBCC...
Lynne's Little Corner of the World (Free subscription) | 03/31/2008
March turned out to be a pretty good reading month. I finished 9 books, 26 for the year so far. Here's my list: THE MIRACLE (Irving Wallace) - Celebrate the Author Challenge ALL SOULS (Michael Patrick Macdonald) - Every Month is a Holiday Challenge AMONG THE HEROES (Jere Longman) - In Their Shoes Challenge BRAINIAC (Ken Jennings) - In Their Shoes Challenge THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER (William Styron)...
