bookstore holiday shopping 1970-style

During this holiday season, if you happen to board a mysterious Polar Express train that takes you back to 1970 and lots of pale blue eyeshadow, among the New York Times' bestselling fiction books for the year would have been Mario Puzo's The Godfather, John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman, and Erich Segal's Love Story  -- all destined to be Oscar-nominated movies as well.  Long before gift cards and Kindles and internet shopping, people had to actually trudge to stores and wait in line to buy books for friends and/or family, and while they were out their landline phones went unanswered at home and there wasn't even anywhere to Yelp if someone working at the bookstore was rude or incompetent.  (Seriously, thanks and praise to the technology gods for what they have given us in the 45 years since.)

For non-fiction book shoppers, 1970's top NY Times nonfiction bestsellers were The Selling of the President 1968 by Joe McGinnis, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) by David Reuben (Woody Allen apparently read that one), Up the Organization by Robert Townsend, The Sensuous Woman by "J" or Joan Garrity, and The Greening of America by Charles A. Reich.  All titles that sound quite fitting for the beginning of a decade that would definitely leave its mark on American history.

fumio niwa

Today was the birthday of Japanese author Fumio Niwa (born November 22, 1904), who penned many works but is probably best known for his 1956 novel The Buddha Tree.  Niwa's writings often went against the traditional grain of Japanese culture, such as his 1947 The Hateful Age, which focused on the hold an aged grandmother has on her family and their societal obligation to care for her.  Grandma is not lovingly wise and appreciative, however, but rather at a point where her already flawed personality has "coagulated into a solid core of wickedness."  In The Buddha Tree, Niwa's troubled childhood as the son of a Buddhist priest is fictionalized as anything but serene and contemplative. 

Beyond his controversial works, Niwa was known for his charismatic personality and for helping his colleagues as a director of the Japanese Writers' Association.  In his later years he was drawn back to the Buddhism he had rejected as a young man, and he also entered a hateful age of his own through his battle with Alzheimer's.  He died at age 100 on April 20, 2005.

miguel and miguel

Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Unamuno

It's no doubt been noted somewhere and on various occasions that two of Spain's greatest writers, Miguel de Cervantes and Miguel de Unamuno, had the same birthday.  Presumedly born on September 29, 1547, Cervantes famously gave the world Don Quijote, along with the wonderful word quixotic.  Born September 29, 1864,  Unamuno was a writer, intellectual and educator -- and part of the restlessness of thought that brought about Spain's Generación de '98.  One of Unamuno's better-known books was the fictional Niebla (Mist) written in 1914, but he also took it upon himself to pen Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho, a reworking of Cervantes' epic.  Unamuno was dissatisfied with too many tangents in the original version, and he seemed to prefer an individualistic vs. idealistic ending.

The real Don Quixote, he who remained on earth and lives among us with his spirit — this Don Quixote was not converted, this Don Quixote continues to incite us to make ourselves ridiculous, this Don Quixote must never die.

Miguel de Unamuno  

a new york minute circa 1883

New York is one of the most wonderful products of our wonderful western civilization. It is itself a world in epitome. Thoroughly cosmopolitan in its character, almost every nationality is represented within its boundaries, and almost every tongue spoken. It is the great monetary, scientific, artistic and intellectual centre of the western world. Containing much that is evil, it also abounds with more that is good...The record of its crimes is undoubtedly a long one; but when the number of its inhabitants is considered, it will be found to show an average comparing favorably with other cities. Thousands of happy homes are found throughout its length and breadth. Hundreds of good and charitable enterprises are originated and fostered within its limits, and grow, some of them, to gigantic proportions, reaching out strong arms to the uttermost confines of the country and even of the world, comforting the afflicted, lifting up the degraded, and shedding the light of truth in dark places.   **  Willard W. Glazier -- Peculiarities of American Cities (1883)


Pictured:  New York Public Library (1910s) -- Colin Campbell Cooper

dog days of gatsby

The Great Gatsby is a summer novel that begins with the exciting promise of a glamorous season for Nick yet ends with disillusion and tragedy, a thirtieth birthday, and leaves from "yellowing trees" about to turn and start dropping downward into Gatsby's fateful swimming pool.  There's the longest day of the year that Daisy always forgets to remember, Gatsby's lavish weekend parties on endless warm nights, gin rickeys and mint juleps, and lilac trees in the July rain.  But in the middle of another sticky August heatwave, even summer-loving people might start to agree with Jordan Baker's comment that "Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall."  Or we can just take Tom's bullying advice to just forget about the heat:  "You make it ten times worse by crabbing about it."

Pictured:  Beach Scene with Lavender Sky -- William Glackens, 1914 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

cicada days

“Again and again, the cicada’s untiring cry pierced the sultry summer air like a needle at work on thick cotton cloth.”

Runaway Horses -- Yukio Mishima (1925-1970)

(Pictured:  Moonlight View of Tsukuda with Lady on a Balcony -- Utagawa Hiroshige)

born today

 

Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 - September 28, 1891), author of Moby Dick, Billy Budd, Typee, and a personal favorite, "Bartleby, the Scrivener."

It is, of course, an indispensable part of a scrivener's business to verify the accuracy of his copy, word by word. Where there are two or more scriveners in an office, they assist each other in this examination, one reading from the copy, the other holding the original. It is a very dull, wearisome, and lethargic affair. I can readily imagine that to some sanguine temperaments it would be altogether intolerable. For example, I cannot credit that the mettlesome poet Byron would have contentedly sat down with Bartleby to examine a law document of, say five hundred pages, closely written in a crimpy hand. 

Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street -- Herman Melville, 1853

june bloom

It's that day in June again, also known as Bloomsday, in commemoration of the famed 24 hours of James Joyce's Ulysses.  Celebrated throughout the world (especially in Dublin, Montreal, and in Philadelphia by the Rosenbach Museum and Library, where the original handwritten Ulysses manuscript can be found), the costumed reenactments of the novel, along with singing, pub-going and other revelry are a great testament to the power of literature.  It's also a good day to read or re/read Ulysses (click here for an online version), and maybe have a gorgonzola sandwich and glass of burgundy to warm the memory and mind.  And some Italian olives and a nice cool salad, while pondering indeed whether God made food, the devil the cooks....

happiness

Give me books, fruit, French wine and fine weather 

and a little music out of doors, played by someone I do not know....

John Keats

Pictured:  Still Life with Fruit and Wine -- Severin Roesen, 1852 (Wikimedia Commons)

the right wright?

 

Chris Wild's Mashable feature of 1946 Alfred Eisenstaedt photos taken at Howard University includes a young woman described as Sophomore Sara Wright.  Sara, standing next to dapper Walter Hall, has a bit of a quirky smile on her face, and both she and Walter look like they're trying not to seem self-conscious or burst out laughing at the prospect of being photographed for Life magazine.  Flashing forward to September of 2009, the New York Times laments the passing of Sarah E. Wright, novelist, whose 1969 This Child's Gonna Live received rave reviews and is considered a groundbreaking work of African-American fiction. 

According to Margalit Fox's obituary, Wright was born in 1928 and attended Howard University, eventually becoming editor of the college newspaper.  A serious lack of funds forced her to leave Howard before graduating, yet she continued to write through lean times.  She married, raised a family and became Sarah Wright Kaye, pursued political and literary passions, and worked as a bookkeeper.  This Child's Gonna Live came deep from Wright's personal experience of growing up along the Maryland shore, introducing an overburdened but still spiritual heroine named Mariah Upshur.  Death and poverty are intertwined in Wright's fictional Depression-era Tangierneck, Maryland, and Mariah struggles to keep her troubled world together: 

Mariah commenced into wrestling with Satan on that long road -- road that stretched on forever.  Went into her secret closet praying, "I'm in your service, Lord.  Clean my soul.  Clean my mouth that I may speak your words."

Sarah's husband noted in her obituary that a Tangierneck trilogy was planned and considerable work had been put into a second novel.  But she had kept progress on the project to herself, and the pages now are in the same box they were placed in by their author before her death.  And whether Sara Wright of the 1946 Eisenstaedt photo is the same Sarah E. Wright whose full life was detailed by the NY Times -- This Child's Gonna Live is a pearl of a novel worth discovering, along with Wright herself.

the razor's edge and oscar gold

W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge is one of my favorite books, with many fine turns of phrase and dialogue and memorable main and side characters.  The 1944 novel was made into a 1946 film starring romantic leads Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney, along with Herbert Marshall as Maugham himself, gliding in and out of scenes as the worldly but not always present narrator.  Clifton Webb as shrewdly snobbish and haute Uncle Elliott Templeton steals the show, as does Anne Baxter in the more tragic role of Sophie.  Baxter earned an Academy Award for her performance; Webb was nominated but didn't win an Oscar (he did, however, score a Golden Globe).  The 1946 film is very good but doesn't totally capture the essence of the novel -- though that was unlikely to happen in Hollywood at the time.  The 1984 remake with Bill Murray seemed to have high hopes to come closer to the book, but didn't quite make it either for different reasons.

As noted, the original novel is full of great quotes and descriptives, but one of the best lines from the 1946 movie is Elliott's frank observation: "I do not like the propinquity of the hoi polloi." And regarding Maugham's character being invited to dinner, Elliott advises his guests:  "He's an English author. He's quite alright. In fact he's quite famous. So pretend you've heard of him even if you haven't."

Indeed.

(Pictured:  Clifton Webb as Elliott Templeton snobbing it up while Herbert Marshall/Somerset Maugham listens.)

man of mystery

Are you a fan of unflappable pipe-smoking French detective Jules Maigret? Georges Simenon, the Belgian mind and man behind the sleuth was born today in 1903 (d. 1989) -- and perhaps having a birthdate on the cusp of Valentine's Day gave him special powers involving the opposite sex, as he claimed to have had some 10,000 female lovers throughout his lifetime.  (Reportedly many of these were prostitutes but maybe he just considered it like going to Starbucks every morning.)  With such a busy extracurricular schedule, it's a wonder that he found enough time to peck away at the typewriter as well and write his literal hundreds of novels, but it seems that from sheer determination, focus, organization and a realistic scope of what he wanted to put into a literary work, he managed to get it all done.

The idea condition for the reader is to have time to read a whole book in one evening.  ** Georges Simenon, "Chez Simenon" -- NY Times, Oct. 24, 1971

eating well

It's about a month or so into the New Year and if one of your resolves was to eat healthier, here are four cookbooks to think about perusing while menu-planning.  Anna Getty's Easy Green Organic features basic organic living tips along with recipes -- and some especially delicious soup offerings.  There's also a dessert treat that involves dipping olives into dark chocolate; if you're among the olive lovers of the world, these two ingredients combined will most likely delight rather than disconcert.  I was lucky enough to find a flawless copy of Didi Emmons' Vegetarian Planet for 50 cents at a thrift store and became a big fan upon making the Ratatouille with Soft Basil Dumplings.  With 500+ pages of other creative recipes, Vegetarian Planet really puts a fun spin on vegetarian (but not vegan) cuisine.  Another nice thick cookbook full of tasty and healthy variations on vegetarian/pescetarian themes is The Moosewood Restaurant Favorites, which I was also lucky enough to win a free and autographed copy of.  If you can't get to Ithaca, NY to dine there in person, you can bring Ithaca to your own kitchen (two favorite recipes of all-time are the Moosewood's variation on the Mulligatawny theme and their Indian Stuffed Eggplant).

And finally, A Painter's Kitchen compiles recipes from the surely very uncluttered and tidy home and hearth of artist Georgia O'Keeffe.  Authored by Margaret Wood, who was O'Keeffe's companion and mentee when the artist was in her nineties, A Painter's Kitchen includes classic yet distinctive recipes (meat included) with the same rich simplicity of O'Keeffe's artwork.  Organic long before it became trendy, O'Keeffe had a large garden at her New Mexico ranch.  As Wood details:  "Miss O'Keeffe owned a small mill for stone-grinding her flour, and most of her bread was homemade.  She bought eggs and local honey from various neighbors and preferred to use herb salt rather than the commercial iodized variety."  The White Fruit Cake from A Painter's Kitchen is delicious and a lighter, tarter version of the traditional holiday staple, using lemon juice and golden raisins and pecans instead of molasses and candied fruit and walnuts.

"There were rows of squash and corn and tomatoes, lettuce and peppers...raspberries, apples for applesauce, peaches and pears.  What was not eaten in the summer was put up for the winter, just as had been done in the kitchen at Sun Prairie sixty years earlier."  From Georgia O'Keeffe:  A Life -- Roxana Robinson

(Pictured:  Two Pears -- Georgia O'Keeffe, 1921)

a london life

Though not one of his best-known works, Henry James' 1888 novella A London Life is still definitely worth reading.  Laura Wing is the principled young American heroine -- to the point of being almost exasperating -- but James never allows Laura to compromise, even though her strong moral character doesn't make her London life an easy one.

Laura's beautiful sister Selina is hardly inclined to let morals get in the way of her own enjoyment of life; Selina has married up and is the ersatz mother of two adorable little boys, but she and husband Lionel are pretty much ready to part ways.  Selina has a lover and isn't discreet about it, which torments Laura to no end.  The plot follows a slightly winding path to a realistic conclusion (for Selina and her husband at least), and then Laura makes her disenchanted way back to America, specifically Virginia.  However, anyone who's read Edith Wharton will know that America at the end of the 19th century wasn't quite a haven free of social subterfuge and adultery -- we can only hope that Laura remains in Virginia, which perhaps had more virtuous standards back then than Lily Bart's New York.

Among A London Life's better points are the side characters, such as the quirky and intriguingly named Lady Ringrose -- "a clever little woman with a single eye glass and short hair."  There's also the wonderful and wise Lady Davenant, who urges Laura to be more pragmatic in her dealings with people and situations.  James describes the near-octogenarian as "full of life, old as she was" with "a witty expression" which "shone like a lamp through the ground-glass of her good breeding."  When asked whether she had a crush on Lord Byron back in her youthful days, Lady Davenant replies, "Bless me, yes...[h]e was very nice-looking but he was very vulgar."

James also distinguishes himself as usual with fine turns of phrase or dialogue.  Selina is noted as being uniquely lovely, with curiously charming "long eyes" and a tendency to float through her days "with a serenity not disturbed by a general tardiness."  Selina's husband Lionel is an coarse yet upper-crusty Brit who states bluntly that Selina can't stand him and hates him "as she'd hate a hump on her back.  There isn't a feeling of loathing that she doesn't have for me!  She'd like to stamp on me and hear me crack, like a black beetle...."

At the end, we don't know whether Laura ends up with her offbeat suitor and fellow American Mr. Wendover, just that he has followed her back to the States and that her general inclination towards him is not surprisingly morally upright.  Though he has "worthy eyes" and seems to be a "good young man," he tends to treat all subjects "as if they were equally important," whereas Laura feels one needs to teach him be more discerning.  Which she no doubt will.