Entries from July 2010
Jul. 29, 2010
A Writer on Monday Morning
Buzz Bissinger vents his self-doubt on Twitter.
Tags: Buzz Bissinger · writing life
Jul. 27, 2010
Divers, East River, 1948
Arthur Leipzig, “Divers, East River, 1948.”
Tags: Arthur Leipzig · New York
Jul. 26, 2010
Gorgeous Borges
From the latest round of Penguin’s Great Ideas series, a sumptuous cover for a collection of essays by Jorge Luis Borges. It’s enough to make a writer green with envy. Design by We Made This, a graphic design studio in London (with a lovely blog, too). More about the Borges cover is here. Still, my [...]
Tags: book design
Jul. 19, 2010
Fitzgerald on creating characters
“Start out with an individual and you find that you have created a type — start out with a type and you find that you have created nothing.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
Jul. 19, 2010
Stephen Fry: What I Wish I Knew at 18
This video runs about 32 minutes, so save it for when you have a moment. A half hour with one of the world’s great talkers. (Copped from Frank Chimero.)
Tags: Stephen Fry · video
Jul. 16, 2010
Starting Over
Finishing one book, starting another
Tags: bookfour · Defending Jacob · writing life
Jul. 13, 2010
How James Bond Got His Name
Ian Fleming explains.
Tags: Ian Fleming · James Bond · video
Jul. 11, 2010
Portrait: Henry James
Henry James, ca. 1900, age 57. From the collection of the George Eastman House on Flickr. Not many photos of James exist, and none are as revealing as this. The most recognized image we have of “the master” is the iconic John Singer Sargent portrait of 1913, which shows James as the Great Man. And [...]
Tags: Henry James · Portraits of Writers
Jul. 9, 2010
Losing LeBron
There is not much left to say about the LeBron James debacle. There is enough harrumphing already about James’s narcissism. (Good examples here, here, here or, well, anywhere you look today.) But at least one good thing came out of it: this memorable front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. What a brilliant minimalist design. [...]
Tags: graphic design · LeBron James
Jul. 9, 2010
Flaubert on Life and Work
“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” — Gustave Flaubert
Tags: Flaubert · quotes for writers
