2015 marks the 60th anniversary of City Lights Publishers and the beginning of the seminal Pocket Poets Series. It began with a 500 copy letterpress printed edition of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Pictures of a Gone World, his first book, in 1955. In 2011 they published the 60th title in the series, David Meltzer‘s When I Was a Poet. But it was the 4th book in series that single-handedly changed the course of American poetry and put City Lights on the map for good. That was Allen Ginsberg's masterwork, Howl and Other Poems. About the series: Inspired by the French poetry series, Poètes d'aujourd'hui, Lawrence...
New book chronicles the glory days of airline visuals
Once upon a time flying wasn't such a hassle. At its height the airline industry was the bees knees of postwar culture. From the mid-forties to the the mid-seventies flying was the way to go. The world got smaller as new opportunities and possibilities connected the four corners of the globe. It was also a time of some stunning graphic design. The posters and printed detritus that accompanied the golden age of air travel mark a high-spot in the history of advertising and corporate design. It is the graphic side of these times that M. C. Hühne chronicles in Airline Visual Identity...
Of Interest: New Poetry, The Little Free Library Book, Steve Jobs and Philosophy and more
On Elizabeth Bishop by Colm Tóibín The latest in the Princeton University Press series Writers on Writers is a meditation on the poet Elizabeth Bishop by Irish novelist Colm Tóibín . Sprinkling biography and criticism over a deep appreciation of her work Tobin weaves a complex portrait of Bishop while relating his own experiences of loss and exile. Publisher | Amazon What About This: Collected Poems of Frank Stanford By the time he took his own life at age 29 Frank Stanford had already published 10 books of poetry and a collection of short stories; none of them are easy to find. He also left behind...
Jack Kerouac: A Birthday Salute
First Edition of the On the Road, 1957 Today is the birthday of Jack Kerouac. Best known as the father of The Beat Generation his spontaneous prose style changed the game, bringing a fresh approach to the novel. Kerouac's iconic status shows no signs of letting up. All is books are still in print and his masterpiece On the Road remains a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations. On his spontaneous writing style: Many of his books exemplified the spontaneous approach, including On the Road, Visions of Cody, Visions of Gerard, Big Sur, and The Subterraneans. The central features of this...
A Salute to Black History Month
[metaslider id=9195] Before Black History Month wraps up for this year we should remember that 2015 is the 50th anniversary of two seminal events. It's the 50th anniversary of the three Selma to Montgomery marches that were part of the Selma Voting Rights Movement which led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act. It's also the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X. First a photo salute to Black History Month from the vast archives at Corbis followed by a few selections from our inventory. Enjoy! Signed by the President The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack...