F. Scott Fitzgerald in drag for the Princeton Triangle Club, 1915-1916. And because he was such a free bitch, he was voted most beautiful Show Girl for the play “The Evil Eye” which he wrote the lyrics for and starred in.
Movie Trailer of the Day: Flashy first trailer for Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann’s movie adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, starring Tobey Maguire as narrator Nick Carraway, Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan, and Leonardo DiCaprio as the titular Gatsby.
Here’s the official synopsis:
The Great Gatsby follows Fitzgerald-like, would-be writer Nick Carraway as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz and bootleg kings.
Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to a mysterious, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby, and across the bay from his cousin, Daisy, and her philandering, blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan. It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super rich, their illusions, loves and deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams and high-octane tragedy, and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles.
The Great Gatsby opens in 3D on December 25th.
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Now that the trailer for Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby is out, what do you think? It looks to be a spectacle.
I had the good fortune of working with Maurice when he created our most recent December ‘Best Books’ cover. It wasn’t until late in the process that I actually worked directly with him. When we spoke for the first time, he immediately cut down any notion that I should treat him any differently because he was “Maurice Sendak.” He wanted to know how I liked the illustration. In fact, in a voice mail, he told me that if I didn’t like the illustration he was going to commit Hara-kiri.
Although said as a joke, he really did want to know if he did an acceptable job. “People think I sleep on nails” he later told me.
We spoke a few times, and the bulk of the conversations had nothing to do with the assignment. Instead we spoke on a wide range of topics. I enjoyed these conversations immensely. It’s well known that Maurice was brilliant, and opinionated, and blunt, but I found out that he was also kind and extremely down-to-earth.
When I sent him copies of the December issue, I included a note and said “I hope your appearance on our cover helps you in building your career.” Another phone call came a few days later. Apparently he liked that I didn’t treat him differently just because he was Maurice Sendak.
—Mark Tuchman, art director, School Library Journal
(via schoollibraryjournal)
I’m sorry everybody but Mark Tuchman is the bomb.com: “I included a note and said ’I hope your appearance on our cover helps you in building your career.’”
I hope your appearance on our cover helps you in building your career.
(via libraryjournal)
Between Shades of Gray being confused for Fifty Shades of Grey
That is terribly awkward, especially considering the first book is a YA novel about WWII and the latter is well, about sex.
But Ruta Sepetys doesn’t mind since it’s bringing her good publicity, and states that even after people figure it out, many of them stay and listen to her speak.
That is pretty awesome.
“Hello, Martians. Let Moby-Dick Explain” by Margaret Atwood
“You are an observer,” they said. “Please tell us: Does America have a different ‘flavor’ from that of other countries? Is it the center of the cultural world? How does it look to outsiders?”
“America has always been different from Europe,” I said, “having begun as a utopian religious community. Some have seen it as a dream world where you can be what you choose, others as a mirage that lures, exploits and disappoints. Some see it as a land of spiritual potential, others as a place of crass and vulgar materialism. Some see it as a mecca for creative entrepreneurs, others as a corporate oligarchy where the big eat the small and inventions helpful to the world are stifled. Some see it as the home of freedom of expression, others as a land of timorous conformity and mob-opinion rule.”
“Thank you,” said the Martians, after looking up “thank you” on translate.google.com™. “How may we best discover the essence of America?”
“Through its literature, would be my choice,” I said, “but I’m biased.”
Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville (ebook)
Hooray for short story month! This’ll be fun.
Harper Lee was born on this day in 1926!
Read her letter about book banning here.
Dirty Books Reveal Secret Lives of People Living in Medieval Times
The ground-breaking research has even managed to pinpoint the moment that people fell asleep reading the same book.
For example one of the dirtiest pages in a selection of European religious books was a prayer to St Sebastian who was often prayed to because his arrow-wounds (the cause of his martyrdom) looked like the bubonic plague.
This shows us that the reader of the book was terrified of the plague and repeated the prayer to ward off the disease
