the great summer solstice

Slenderly, languidly, their hands set lightly on their hips, the two young women preceded us out onto a rosy-colored porch open toward the sunset where four candles flickered on the table in the diminished wind.

"Why candles?" objected Daisy frowning.  She snapped them out with her fingers.  "In two weeks it'll be the longest day in the year."  She looked at us all radiantly.  "Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it?  I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it."

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

books, a cat and beautiful architecture

Selected Works Used Books is located in Chicago's Fine Arts Building in the south part of the Loop -- this photo was taken after hours when the bookstore was closed but Hodge, the resident literary cat, was clearly still on the watch.  Selected Works is a great place to visit and browse through, and the whole Fine Arts Building complex itself is a vintage architectural jewel that celebrates Chicago's cultural heritage while fostering today's creative community.    

beggars of life

Jim Tully (1886-1947) was an author and journalist known for his tough, realistic yet occasionally poetic style, perhaps best exemplified in his 1924 "hobo autobiography" titled Beggars of Life.  Tully ran away from an orphanage when he was fourteen to ride the rails, work odd jobs, and pursue his dream of becoming a writer by hanging out in libraries and reading everything he could.  He eventually found his way to publication, often recounting tales of his vagabond days.

Beggars of Life was made into a movie starring Wallace Beery and Louise Brooks, though parts of the book were toned down to fit Hollywood standards of the day. The book itself is an interesting historical read (though not at all politically correct) and a quirky odyssey of life on the road, while the 1928 film version of Beggars of Life was an early talkie and noted as being a great Louise Brooks' performance.  The particular printing of Beggars of Life that I have was published in 1928 by Grosset & Dunlap and has stills from the movie included; the original was published by Albert and Charles Boni, who took a chance on so many groundbreaking writers of the day.

A famous writer of tramp life said that the poor always give to the poor.  Writers should not make definite rules about humanity.  They are always wrong.

From Beggars of Life by Jim Tully

what do you reread?

Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are is true enough, but I'd know you better 
if you told me what you reread.  
 François Mauriac

(quote from www.quotegarden.com; 
1933 Mauriac photo from wikimedia commons)

things that people do in books

There are many swanky editions of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1920 breakthrough novel, This Side of Paradise, but one of my favorites is the Dover Thrift paperback, still a bargain at just $3.50.

Somewhere in his mind a conversation began, rather 

resumed its place in his attention. It was composed not 

of two voices, but of one, which acted alike as 

questioner and answerer:

Question.--Well--what's the situation?

Answer.--That I have about twenty-four dollars to my name....

Q.--Can you live?

A.--I can't imagine not being able to. People make money in books and
I've found that I can always do the things that people do in books.
Really they are the only things I can do. 

This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald 

captain alatriste

A paperback copy of this appeared mysteriously on my desk at work and I never did find out who left it there -- so to begin with, the novel had an aura of real life intrigue beyond the already swashbuckling story of Arturo Pérez-Reverte's Captain Alatriste in 17th century Spain.  It's not annoyingly swashbuckling or adventurous, however, and has fine notes of dark humor and character throughout.  In fact, when I first discovered the book I flipped through it and was hooked by this passage:

It was evident that he and his companion had seen death face to face, with no soft lights or heroic drumrolls, but in the dark, and nearly in the back, like rats in an alleyway and several leagues from anything resembling glory.

The original was published in 1996 and this is the Plume/Penguin 2005 translation.  Arturo Pérez-Reverte is also quite interesting to follow on Twitter, if you habla español and enjoy Twitter being used in a fun and historical-literary way.

moon and sixpence

This pictured Penguin edition of W. Somerset Maugham's The Moon and Sixpence seems to be from 1979, with a colorfully collaged but maybe vaguely racist cover.  Maugham's 1919 novel focuses on Charles Strickland, a British stockbroker who leaves his comfortable, business-oriented lifestyle to pursue a passion for painting.  The story parallels the true quest of Paul Gauguin, though Strickland doesn't really have the same charisma that Gauguin did -- or at least not for me.  Like many of Maugham's tales it involves the amiable and neutrally observing Maugham-narrator, who usually happens to stroll into an unfolding major drama and then becomes everyone's confidant.  Such as how Mrs. Strickland (Amy) asks our narrator to go find her husband in Paris after he suddenly abandons his family.  Our narrator protests, as he often does:

"But I've not spoken ten words to your husband.  He doesn't know me.  He'll probably just tell me to go to the Devil."

Still, Mrs. Strickland persists even though she doesn't know our narrator too well either, and of course he goes to Paris and beyond and that's how we get our story.