This will probably be a recurring feature, because… yes.
- The scuzzy salmon-pink Chucks Robert De Niro wore in Great Expectations.
- Knopf rejection sheets for works by Joyce Carol Oates, V.S. Naipaul, Italo Calvino, Salman Rushdie.
- David Mamet’s (extremely detailed) baby book, complete with report cards from pre-school–apparently he handled scissors very safely.
- Houdini’s collection of magic-related manuscript materials.
- Ms. for a minor Beckett work, which I needed to measure in order to answer a patron’s query.
- A rather accomplished landscape sketch by Charlotte Brontë, with a title written in by her mother.
- Publicity photographs of a famous blackface performer, in and out of costume and paint.
- Ink on paper self-portrait by Henry Miller. T. was disappointed to learn that the self-portrait was not at all pornographic.
- A small model concept car designed by Norman Bel Geddes that looks far more like a spaceship than like an automobile.
Not much to report otherwise; I’m studying French like a fiend, doing dissertation-related reading, and working up grant proposals for an exciting new digital humanities project in our department. More on that once we have a good demo up, I hope.
Katharine,
I don’t know if you’ve been on lj lately, but I’ve just finished a series of 7 (!) posts in answer to that question you asked me some months ago: advice for a first time fantasy novelist.
It’s also post as a single long post on Deep Genre.
I hope all is well there. My continuing best wishes to your dad.
Alis (aka Kate)
7 posts! Thank you so much! I had gotten to read a couple of the posts quickly, and really enjoyed them, but I had no idea my question was the direct inspiration for all that work. And now I’m about to go read the whole thing on Deep Genre. Thank you, thank you!