She read my manuscript and said she loved it, and then she asked why I decided not to write the other part of the story in the same book. “I thought it was too ambitious,” I said. “I was afraid I couldn’t do it.” “That’s not a good reason,” she said. “Of course you can do it.” And now, I . . .
In the food issue of the New York Times Magazine, out this weekend, writers answer various questions. Mine was “How does rattlesnake taste?” Obviously I roped Dana, Max, and Nick into finding out with me, and obviously we intended to follow (to the extent possible) my former teacher Harry Crews’ instructions. Tracking down a diamondback in New York City proved . . .
Ernest Hemingway wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald “a cutting letter about [Tender is the Night], accusing him of cheating” by fictionalizing Gerald and Sara Murphy. I’m rereading the fascinating 1962 profile of the couple who inspired Fitzgerald’s flawed masterpiece. (Via.)
“Alfred Kazin was eaten alive by his own demons. Some who are being eaten alive withdraw into brooding silence; some cry aloud to the heavens. Kazin was distinctly of the second type.” — Vivian Gornick on Alfred Kazin’s journals and his hungry soul