Around 1916, E. E. Cummings sent a letter and several poems to Scofield Thayer, publisher of The Dial. One of those pieces, “(tonite”, was made public for the first time ever just a few weeks ago.
Shakespeare reportedly used 17,677 words in his works, roughly ten percent of which he invented. So how does the brain deal with this?
Jean-Paul Sartre’s hypothetical cookbook: “Instructions: Place the casserole dish in a cold oven. Place a chair facing the oven and sit in it forever. Think about how hungry you are. When night falls, do not turn on the light.”
If there’s any science to fiction, it’s in the Periodic Table of Storytelling.
Yale ups the ante: a one-time $150,000 award for creative writing.
Martin Amis: “Reading Don Quixote can be compared to an indefinite visit from your most impossible senior relative, with all his pranks, dirty habits, unstoppable reminiscences, and terrible cronies. When the experience is over“ you will shed tears all right; not tears of relief or regret but tears of pride. You made it, despite all that ???Don Quixote’ could do.”
Not even the greats are spared this blog’s book-title editing. (Spoiler alert, though.)
From Herodotus to Stephen Hawking, the Guardian has attempted to boil down the past several millennia of human thought to the 100 best non-fiction books out there.