hereliesone

[hereliesone]

One of the most difficult things is the first paragraph. I have spent many months on a first paragraph and once I get it, the rest just comes out very easily. In the first paragraph you solve most of the problems with your book. The theme is defined, the style, the tone. At least in my case, the first paragraph is a kind of sample of what the rest of the book is going to be.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, born on this day in 1927 via City of Orgies by Walt Whitman | The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

Vive le paragraphe!

(via thelifeguardlibrarian)

[hereliesone]

Birth of a book.

[hereliesone]

Wish I could head to this event...

Another What the Dickens?, another tree of authors, performers, actors, and more! Lots of new faces/ornaments this year. Join these readers and SURPRISE special guests this Saturday, December 14 at 1PM for our annual marathon reading of A Christmas Carol.

All the info:

Join dozens of terrific writers and performers for a reading of Charles Dickens’s holiday classic, A Christmas Carol.

Drop in early and often to catch a few surprise performers or linger through the afternoon for the whole spirited tale. All books, movies, and more are 10 percent off, and the cafe will be stocked with seasonal specials. Finish your Christmas shopping with unique literary finds, have some festive treats from our cafe with a hot cocoa or a glass of wine and enjoy!

Festivities will kick off at 10:30AM with a special show for kid’s from The Story Pirates. At noon we’ll enjoy Christmas caroling from members of the New York City Master Chorale. The reading of A Christmas Carol will begin at 1 PM inside the bookstore and end at approximately 4:15PM.

Our thanks to Penguin Classics for donating beautiful editions of Charles Dickens’s work, which will be for sale the day of the event with proceeds benefiting Housing Works.

Readers, not including surprise special guests, in the order they will read:

Adam Gopnik

Emma Straub

Justin Torres

Rosie Schaap

Téa Obreht

Mike Albo

Sandra Bauleo

Lynne Tillman

Rob Spillman

Adelle Waldman

Elissa Schappell

Dave Hill

Anna Holmes

Lev Grossman

Lorin Stein

Fiona Maazel

Alexander Chee

Gabriel Roth

Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

Jill Hennessy

Jim Shepard

J. Courtney Sullivan

Saeed Jones

Aryn Kyle

David Goodwillie

Parul Sehgal

Justin Taylor

Bennett Madison

Jami Attenberg

Michael Kostroff

[hereliesone]

Tolkien did not initially intend for the Hobbit to be published. It began as story for his children and was shared with friends at Oxford – fellow medievalists like C. S. Lewis – for whom the archaic expressions well might have been a kind of inside joke.

Find out more about why Tolkien used so much archaic language, and what influenced him to do so on OxfordWords blog. (via oupacademic)

[hereliesone]

Meet Juliana Force: not the first female director of the Whitney Museum but the first director of the Whitney Museum. Period.

Juliana Force, ca. 1931 / Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, photographer. Marchal Landgren papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

[hereliesone]

Not many folks are familiar with Goltzius' work. He worked this minutely with a maimed hand...

Juno from the Four Deities

Hendrik Goltzius (Dutch, 1558 – 1617)

Engraving

1596

Philbrook Museum

[hereliesone]

The snail is a frequent visitor in medieval manuscript marginalia. Connection to Ancient Rome?

Cameo Ring with Snail decoration

1st - 2nd Century AD

Roman Imperial

(Source: The British Museum)

[hereliesone]

Advice to women in the early 20th c: "Live as domestic a life as possible... And never touch pen, brush, or pencil as long as you live."

Thankfully, Charlotte Perkins Gilman opted for ink and paper instead.  

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/theliteratureofprescription/exhibitionAssets/digitalDocs/The-Yellow-Wall-Paper.pdf

[hereliesone]

[hereliesone]

Julia Margaret Cameron, "The Kiss of Peace"

Cover of "Nineteenth-Century Stories by Women: An Anthology," ed. by Glennis Stephenson.  

Favorites: Rebecca Harding Davis, "Anne," a hymn to the inner world that touched me at just the right moment.

#Julia Margaret Cameron #Nineteen-Century Stories by Women #Broadview Literary Texts #Rebecca Harding Davis