literature

Stories 221 - 240 | << Prev   Next >>

Is Something Rotten in the Bard's Works?

Debate over who really wrote Shakespeare's plays rages on

(Newser) - Did William Shakespeare really write the plays attributed to him? The question remains the subject of an intense academic debate, NPR reports. Those who doubt the “man from Stratford” penned his plays point to a lame rhyming epitaph on the supposed bard’s headstone, and to lack of documents...

That's Sir Salman Rushdie
That's Sir Salman Rushdie
Jun 25, 2008 12:54 PM CDT

That's Sir Salman Rushdie

Pshaw Iran, Queen Elizabeth knights the controversial author in a 'private moment'

(Newser) - Queen Elizabeth officially knighted Salman Rushdie today, the AP reports, a year after the award was announced to widespread Muslim protest. “I have no regrets about any of my work,” said Rushdie, when asked about his novel The Satanic Verses, for which the Shah of Iran awarded him...

Christian Novel Outstrips Oprah Pick

Somewhat controversial book depicts God as a black woman named "Papa"

(Newser) - Once rejected by multiple mainstream publishers, the slim Christian novel The Shack is flying off shelves, topping the New York Times trade paperback bestseller list. “Everybody that I know has bought at least 10 copies,” says one devotee. The Times looks at a blockbuster built around an unconventional...

Sentences That 'Evoke an Entire Universe'

Esquire celebrates some favorites it's seen over its first 75 years

(Newser) - Celebrating 75 years of fiction, Esquire offers some samples from "writers who could evoke an entire universe with a single sentence." A smattering:
  • "Now he would never write the things that he had saved to write until he knew enough to write them well," Ernest Hemingway,
...

'Realish' Sedaris Book Skirts Memoir Scrutiny

Genre 'the last place you’d expect to find the truth,' humorist says

(Newser) - With his new book of nonfiction essays, Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris finds himself engulfed in questions of truth and accuracy. In America, the recent explosion of memoirs has been followed with one scandal after another, prompting more scrutiny of the humorist’s work. “I do think Sedaris exaggerates...

Bored at Work? Site Disguises Classic Lit

Readatwork.com lets you fool the boss

(Newser) - Business world got you down? Want to escape into a classic poem or short story? The New Zealand Book Council has made a website to help you: ReadatWork.com. The site brings up a fake Windows desktop with folders and PowerPoint files, the Wall Street Journal reports. Click on them,...

Fritzl's Crimes Rooted in Literary History
Fritzl's Crimes Rooted in Literary History
analysis
May 18, 2008 8:03 PM CDT

Fritzl's Crimes Rooted in Literary History

Dark Austrian captivity stories formed his 'cultural matrix'

(Newser) - Josef Fritzl's crimes stunned the world, but such demented patriarchs have long haunted Austrian literature. The dark 1852 story "Turmalin" depicts a deranged husband locking up his daughter; the 1917 novel The Grave of the Living tells of a troubled family and an imprisoned child. "This is the...

Famously Bad Poet Fetches Big Bucks at Auction

Verses from the 'world's worst poet' fetch big bucks at auction

(Newser) - William McGonagall had a tough time after deciding poetry was his calling, being roundly insulted by critics and even pelted with rotten fruit. But the 19th-century Scotsman has been remembered long after his peers—as the worst poet ever to mangle the English language. His works commanded a price higher...

Publishers Bank On a 007 Comeback
Publishers
Bank On a
007 Comeback
May 8, 2008 1:55 PM CDT

Publishers Bank On a 007 Comeback

Bond franchise hoping new author can leave book sales, fans stirred

(Newser) - This year is the centenary of author Ian Fleming's birth, but while Daniel Craig gave the James Bond movie franchise a much-needed recharge, sales of the 007 books haven't caught up. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports, the Fleming estate has commissioned respected writer Sebastian Faulks to pen a new...

50 Favorite Cult Books
50 Favorite
Cult Books 
Apr 27, 2008 10:53 AM CDT

50 Favorite Cult Books

From Hunter to Ayn, the Telegraph lists books you can 'wear like a leather jacket'

(Newser) - It’s hard to define the "cult" book, but the Telegraph compiled 50 of the top contenders that “rewire your head.”
  • The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe (1968)
  • Baby and Child Care by Dr Benjamin Spock (1946)
  • Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (1922)
  • The Fountainhead by
...

We Need to Talk ... About Your Books

Disagreements over books can kill the romance

(Newser) - Forget toothpaste habits: Sometimes “a missed—or misguided—literary reference makes it chillingly clear that a romance is going nowhere fast," writes Rachel Donadio in the New York Times. Pasting your literary acumen all over your MySpace page has become the norm, and not a bad one. Just...

Arthur C. Clarke Is Dead at 90
 Arthur C. Clarke Is Dead at 90 
Mar 18, 2008 8:55 PM CDT

Arthur C. Clarke Is Dead at 90

'2001' author shaped space-age thought

(Newser) - Arthur C. Clarke, the sci-fi author who helped shape 20th-century scientific imagination, is dead at 90, the New York Times reports. The co-creator of 2001: A Space Odyssey faced post-polio syndrome in recent decades and died at his home in Sri Lanka due to breathing trouble. “No one can...

Nabokov's Ghost: Make Buck off Laura
Nabokov's Ghost: Make Buck off Laura
OPINION
Feb 29, 2008 7:59 PM CST

Nabokov's Ghost: Make Buck off Laura

Son's imagined convo with dead dad might've saved final manuscript

(Newser) - Dmitri Nabokov's decision not to destroy his famed father's unfinished manuscript followed an imagined conversation with Vladimir's ghost, writes Ron Rosenbaum for Slate. Rosenbaum, who sleuthed his way through the "to burn or not to burn" debate, was previously told by Dmitri—who hinted at the book's genius before...

The House of Mirthlessness
The House of Mirthlessness
Feb 28, 2008 12:19 PM CST

The House of Mirthlessness

Drowning in debt, Edith Wharton's Mass. estate faces foreclosure

(Newser) - Edith Wharton's masterpieces include The House of Mirth, but the story of her own house is much less joyous. Her estate in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, currently a museum called the Mount that chronicles her life and career, is drowning under some $9 million in debt. Now, writes the Berkshire ...

Don't Know Much About History...
Don't Know Much About History...
Feb 26, 2008 7:00 PM CST

Don't Know Much About History...

US teens have big holes in history, lit education: study

(Newser) - US teens know little history and less literature, says a study out today. Only 52% of 17-year-olds could name the theme of George Orwell's 1984, and 43% knew when the Civil War was fought. Students faired far better on topics that schools cover, however, such as Pearl Harbor and Martin...

Literary Pioneer, Filmmaker Robbe-Grillet Dead at 85

Developed the French 'new novel' style

(Newser) - French novelist and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet died today at 85, AFP reports. A pioneer of the “new novel” literary style, he was best known in the US as the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Last Year at Marienbad (1961). "The Academie Francaise today loses one of its most illustrious members,...

Nabokov's Last Work: Burn It?
Nabokov's Last Work: Burn It?
Feb 14, 2008 10:43 AM CST

Nabokov's Last Work: Burn It?

Writers debate last request of Russian-American novelist

(Newser) - His works include Lolita and Pale Fire, but Vladimir Nabokov's greatest masterpiece might be an unfinished manuscript languishing in a Swiss safe deposit box. Nabokov demanded that The Original of Laura be burned after his death, but his heir has vacillated. Now that Dmitri Nabokov is hinting he might go...

McSweeney's Is Taking Over the World
McSweeney's
Is Taking Over the World
OPINION
Feb 6, 2008 4:22 PM CST

McSweeney's Is Taking Over the World

Soon we'll all wear cool glasses and pray daily to Michael Chabon

(Newser) - McSweeney's, the hipper-than-thou literary quarterly founded by Dave Eggers in 1998, has become possibly the most influential American literary journal, critic and novelist Stephen Amidon writes in the London Times. Once the champ of spotting new talent, Granta magazine is now taking a backseat to Eggers' baby, and looking stale...

To an Artist Dying Young
To an Artist Dying Young
OPINION
Jan 25, 2008 12:15 PM CST

To an Artist Dying Young

Disband cult of squandered potential and concentrate on accomplishments

(Newser) - Heath Ledger's death at 28 recalls a long tradition of bright young careers snuffed out before their time, from Shelley and Keats to James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. The Romantic ideal of the doomed artist holds great appeal, Ben Macintyre writes in the Times of London, but we go too...

If You Really Want to Hear About It ...

Though pushing 60, Holden Caulfield's story never gets old

(Newser) - Holden Caulfield was an angsty teen before James Dean and rock and roll made alientaed youth an icon. "There's really not the sense of teen culture that there is now," says the producer of "Gossip Girl." NPR takes the measure of Holden, J.D. Salinger, and...

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