I was recently asked to comment on the future of literary archives in an increasingly digital age. To which I noncommittally replied:I have trouble imagining an entirely electronic archive. I suspect that authors will continue to interact with the physical draft for some time. This will, however, increasingly and obviously be in conjunction with more and more electronic media (word processors, email, etc.), and this poses several problems. [...] My guess is that writers, dealers, and libraries will begin to work more closely with each other and at earlier points in authors’ careers to address these issues and ensure that...
A Bookcase-Sofa? Finally, a good reason to become a couch potato…
(the Oltre from Flexform)Pant. Drool. Swoon. Buy. [Via].
Gary Snyder Gets the Lilly
What a great ending to National Poetry Month. Gary Snyder has been awarded the 2008 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for Lifetime Achievement. “Gary Snyder is in essence a contemporary devotional poet, though he is not devoted to any one god or way of being so much as to Being itself. His poetry is a testament to the sacredness of the natural world and our relation to it, and a prophecy of what we stand to lose if we forget that relation.” says Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry magazine and chair of the selection committee. The $100,000 award is one of...
The Day Shakespeare Died
“Chandos Shakespeare” Oil painting attributed to John Taylor, c. 1610. Courtesy of the National Portrait GalleryIt was on this date in 1616, 392 years ago, that the bard left this earth.His reach remains unprecedented, his plays are still being performed in every corner of the globe and he is still taught and read in schools and universities all over the world. His work continues to attract filmakers from all over the world with over 700 film adaptations of his work to date.As his contemporary Ben Johnson said of him; Shakespeare “was not of an age, but for all time”Encyclopedia Britannica's...
Treasures of Montefiascone
The book Show