DOTD in 1938, Thomas Wolfe of Asheville. “Some of his rhetoric is effective and at times deeply moving … These are the errors of the young and the amateur; he was always to be young, always to be amateur, he would never have changed. But he also had something of real genius.” — Pamela H. Johnson

I second that opinion!

”…and pray you'll never know, The hell where youth and laughter go.” Siegfried Sassoon, English war poet, born #OTD 1886. National Portrait Gallery London

Just one of Maxwell’s novels worth reading. Clean & beautiful prose.

‘For the Dead Remember: The Life of M. R. James’ will be published by Oxford University Press on 10 September 2026. Set your watches, mark your calendars, and spread the word!

Remembering fantasy, sci-fi, horror and mystery fiction author Ray Bradbury, born August 22, 1920, Waukegan, Illinois (d. June 5, 2012). Best remembered for his Fahrenheit 451 and other novels that combined poetic language with social commentary and a recurring theme of nostalgia. More: alt text

'We can ask and ask but we can't have again what once seemed ours for ever - the way things looked, that church alone in the fields, a bed on a belfry floor, a remembered voice, the touch of a hand, a loved face. They've gone and you can only wait for the pain to pass.'

I use this Saunders quote every year w/ our J School students cc @kairyssdal.bsky.social

"I wanted to live in Paris and write nothing but fiction and be perfectly free. I had decided all this had to be settled by the time I was thirty, and so I gave up my job and moved to Paris at twenty-eight. I just held my breath and jumped." * - Mavis Gallant, #BOTD 1922 📚

Remembering novel & short story writer, journalist & notorious cat lady Ernest Hemingway, born July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, IL (d. July 2, 1961). He's known for his concise, direct writing style, which stripped away unnecessary details (the "Iceberg Theory"). More: alt text

Marvelous man!

Happy birthday to English medievalist scholar and early Weird Fiction writer M.R. James! Born on August 1, 1862. James had a successful academic career serving as Provost of King’s College, Cambridge; Provost of Eton College; and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

Remembering Elizabeth Hardwick on her birthday 🎂 📷 Inge Morath, New York, 1978 "In general I’d rather talk about other people. Gossip, or as we gossips like to say, character analysis."

My oh my oh my ... why did I ever start a James Joyce shelf?

#ResistanceRoots “It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” — James Baldwin

Many thanks to @andrewpeelauthor.bsky.social for sharing, and to Paul Bishop for his thoughtful and welcome review. #sherlockholmes into the Fire #BelangerBooks #arthurconandoyle

In a letter from William Maxwell to Mavis Gallant: “I hope that you are not foolish enough to be discouraged at this point. Your command of humorous detail is getting stronger & sharper, and so is your sense of character […] I have very serious hopes for you.” #NYRBWomen25 lithub.com/chasing-myst...

Cheap pickups.

Reminiscing on all those old paperbacks from my past.

Bouncing back & forth between.

A SPECIAL THANK YOU to @tiger-daniels.bsky.social‬ for sending me her incredibly detailed recreation from A. Conan Doyle's Sign of Four mystery! She is a talented artist and I will be showing off her handiwork to other scion members. Her passion for Sherlock Holmes is evident!

Now reading ….

Hey @margiedeck.bsky.social‬ ... for your info ....... RE: All Hallows Eve :

Happy #Bloomsday2025 - James Joyce by David Levine

Happy Father's Day to those who cannot be here.

Picked these up today at a thrift shop -- 50¢ each.

#TuesdayTimeline cleanse for #Art and Mickey Lovers. So clever. Sound up! #EastCoastKin

More than 75 per cent of films made during the silent era are now lost. Here are fragments from a few of them

My blood pressure meds.

“Our culture made a virtue of living only as extroverts. We discouraged the inner journey, the quest for a center. So we lost our center and have to find it again.” ― Anais Nin

Vincent van Gogh. Old Man in Sorrow (On the Threshold of Eternity). 1890

Next up .... ok, I'll try again, this time for my book group.

Happy #dalloway100 & happy pub to ‘Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel’ @markhussey.bsky.social a tender examination on how this literary landmark came to be & the ways it still resonates with us today 💐 out now in UK/out July 8 in US (with thanks to @manchesterup.bsky.social for the proof) #booksky

Currently re-reading ... Bradbury had an incredibly prescient gift, given our present political environment.

“There is a cult of ignorance in the US, and there has always been. …Anti-intellectualism has been…nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent.” ~ Isaac Asimov, 1980

ravenous_butterflies "The benefits of being a mature well-educated woman is that you're not afraid of expletives. And you have no fear to put a fool in his place. That's the power of language and experience. You can learn a lot from Shakespeare." Judi Dench

"No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices." Edward R. Murrow, who died on this day in 1965

Currently reading ... from The Great Maugham.

We really do have some great annotations this time from Kim Newman, Karen Murdock, Peggy MacFarlane, and Sheldon Goldfarb. Find it all at acdsociety.com/bjg/10/bjg10...

Jeff Decker, Bob Katz, Denny Dobry, Ann Behrens, & Paul Singleton in attendance at the Red-Headed League of Jersey meeting in Bound Brook, NJ last evening. Photo by Jules Spiva.

Stone. A puzzling & silly relationship.