Archive for November, 2006

“True artists are possessed,” wrote John Gardner. “They are messianic egomaniacs. They believe that what they do is unspeakably important: it is only that conviction that makes the writer himself important.”

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Many home- schooling parents “unschool” their children — i.e., reject not just school, but “classes, curriculums and textbooks.”

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Shields to write Vonnegut’s biography, with blessing

When you think of Harper Lee, do you think bad-ass? Neither did I, until I started reading Charles J. Shields’ Mockingbird, an unauthorized biography that paints the young Lee as a quick-witted, potty-mouthed, intensely private law school drop-out whose success as a first-time novelist so overwhelmed her that she retreated into the bosom of her Alabama hometown, never to publish . . .

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Caitlin Flanagan & The New Yorker: did she quit, or was she pushed? Regardless, we’ll soon be plagued with publicity for a book starring her Girl Gone Wild action figure. (Via.)

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Poet Paul Muldoon‘s band, Rackett, plays Joe’s Pub tonight (11/21). I’m curious. (Thanks, David.)

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