WilliamLanday.com

From Life magazine, a photo of a box of index cards that is actually a draft of “Lolita.” Nabokov wrote most of his novels on 3×5 note cards, keeping blank cards under his pillow for whenever inspiration struck.

Tags: How Writers Write · Lolita · Vladimir Nabokov

Dec. 8, 2010

In the wry

A note from J.D. Salinger to aspiring movie director Hubert Cornfield declining an offer to turn “The Catcher in the Rye” into a movie.

Tags: Hubert Cornfield · J.D. Salinger

Aug. 30, 2010

Experimental Writers vs. Conceptual Writers

Economist David Galenson posits that there are two types of writers: experimenters, a group that includes Dickens, Twain, and Virginia Woolf; and visionaries, such as Melville, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway. Experimental innovators are seekers. Their most basic characteristic is persistent uncertainty about their methods and goals: they are typically dissatisfied with their current work, but have [...]

Tags: David Galenson · Malcolm Gladwell

Aug. 23, 2010

Hemingway’s standing desk

I’ve always wanted a desk like Papa’s (photo).

Tags: Ernest Hemingway · Portraits of Writers · standing desks · writing tools

Aug. 6, 2010

Young Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway, American Red Cross volunteer, 18 or 19 years old, in Milan, 1918. Photo credit: Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston. Portrait by Ermeni Studios, Milan, Italy. (Via.) Image above is a little Photoshopped from the original. View full size here.

Tags: Ernest Hemingway · Portraits of Writers

Jul. 13, 2010

How James Bond Got His Name

Ian Fleming explains.

Tags: Ian Fleming · James Bond · video

Writers

Aug. 12, 2011

Public Writer, Private Writer

Jun. 2, 2011

Orwell on Dickens

May. 27, 2011

Harlan Ellison: Pay the Writer!

Jan. 16, 2011

Flaubert at Work

Dec. 14, 2010

Nabokov’s cards