May 2, 2012 On the Shelf ‘Bartleby,’ ‘Star Wars,’ and Animal Authors By Sadie Stein May Day viewed through the prism of Bartelby the Scrivener. In Afghanistan, women are risking their lives for poetry. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s wall text will now reflect Gertrude Stein’s complicated war record. Controversial almost-ran New Yorker covers. The Star Wars cookbook. Last but not least, books authored by famous animals.
May 1, 2012 On the Shelf ‘Walden’ the Video Game, Merwin the Movie, Space-Age Books! By Sadie Stein Walden: the most contemplative video game ever created? W. S. Merwin: the movie. The dog from The Artist has a book deal. Gertrude Stein’s bad war record. This is your kids on books. The Casablanca e-book: the beginning of a beautiful friendship? Predictions from 1962 on the future of book publishing: “Books will be smoother, faster and slicker, and will be strongly influenced by space travel.” New York Public Library, Monday afternoon.
April 30, 2012 On the Shelf Futures, Fiction, Tigers: Happy Monday! By Sadie Stein Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, at 150. The Wall Street Journal examines the curious appeal of serial novels. The New York Times examines the future of publishing. The Millions examines the popularity of tiger lit. With e-books, fiction reigns supreme. James Franco as Hart Crane. iPhone chargers disguised as books.
April 27, 2012 On the Shelf Poems, PEN, and Poe By Sadie Stein The restored Edgar Allan Poe cottage in the Bronx has won the “Preservation Oscars,” a Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award. Guests of the PEN World Voices Festival will get a gift bag of books hand-selected by Jennifer Egan. The art of the toast. A roundup of literary curmudgeons. Celebrate poem in your pocket day. Jason Epstein: “The revolutionary process by which all books, old and new, in all languages, will soon be available digitally, at practically no cost for storage and delivery, to a radically decentralized world-wide market at the click of a mouse is irreversible.”
April 26, 2012 On the Shelf Good-bye Doris Betts, Remembering Guy Davenport By Sadie Stein RIP Doris Betts. Our very own Southern editor, John Jeremiah Sullivan, on Guy Davenport, on the Rumpus. The case of Lena Dunham’s literary internship. Things you (maybe) didn’t know about E. B. White. Quoth the Globe and Mail, “A Prince Rupert elementary teacher has been told a quote from Dr. Seuss’ ‘Yertle the Turtle’ is a political statement that should not be displayed or worn on clothing in her classroom. The teacher included the quote in material she brought to a meeting with management after she received a notice relating to union material visible in her car on school property … The quote in question—“I know up on top you are seeing great sights, but down here on the bottom, we too should have rights”—comes from … the tale of a turtle who climbs on the backs of other turtles to get a better view. In the midst of a labor dispute between the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation and the province, the quote was deemed unsuitable.”
April 25, 2012 On the Shelf Crowdsourced Books, Twenties Muses, the World’s Worst Word By Sadie Stein Reckless, glamorous It Girls of the Jazz Age. The strange tale of Bram Stoker. For the first time since 1945, there will be a new German edition of Mein Kampf. Perhaps inevitably, a crowdsourced book written by the Internet. This Philip Larkin tribute was fantastic. The people have spoken, and they loathe the word moist.