Poet Passports

Ezra Pound's passport

more poet passports in Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities

Thomas Pynchon Age Progression

An age progression made from Thomas Pynchon's last known photograph.

Forensic Art (interesting site)

hat tip to pack-horse and carrier

Artists' Illustrated Letters

Getting the Picture is a delightful exhibition of illustrated letters selected from the collections of the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. From thank you notes to love letters, travel accounts, graphic instructions and other and various missives and hello-theres, they have a lot of personality and make my letters look embarrassingly vanilla. They range in date from the early 19th century into the 1990s and are as unique and fascinating as the artists who created them.

There were so many good ones, I had a hard time choosing. Nonetheless, I managed to cobble up a few for you here.

You can click on the images to read the letters.


















Edith Schloss to Philip Pearlstein, Mar. 25, 1981


















Joseph Lindon Smith to Parents, June 15, 1894


















Waldo Peirce to Sally Jane Davis, Apr. 25, 1943


















Red Grooms and Mimi Gross Grooms to Elisse and Paul Suttman and Edward C. Flood, 1968


















Max Bohm to Emilie Bohm, Sept. 14, 1899 (page 1)


















Yves Saint-Laurent to Alexander Liberman, ca. 1970 June 7


















Warren Chappell to Isabel Bishop, Sept. 6, 1982


















Gladys Nilsson to Mimi Gross., 1969 Apr. 4

There are also a number of letters from well-known artists including, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp, Winslow Homer, Roy Lichtenstein, Man Ray, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and Andy Warhol - however, in the case of this exhibition, I found that generally, the more famous the artist, the less interesting the letter. Your mileage will likely vary on this, so have a look and see for yourself. You could certainly use up a few hours enjoying these.

thanks to the Glasgow School of Art Library (an excellent resource)

Notebooks

Thornton Wilder, [Manuscript notebook containing dialogue for Merchant of Yonkers and notes on "other projects"] (YCAL MSS 108)

Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities - Notebooks

plot

Plot chart for Norman Mailer's book Harlot's Ghost, undated.

Harry Ransom Center: The Mystique of the Archive

via The Dizzies
via The Elegant Variation

stray bullets

Bringing a Trove of Medieval Manuscripts Online for the Ages One of the oldest and most valuable collections of handwritten medieval books in the world, housed in the magnificent baroque halls of the library in this town’s abbey, is going online... (roughly 7,000 handwritten manuscripts, many over a thousand years old)

Martin Scorsese and me - mentored by a master Celina Murga has experienced what all young film-makers must dream of – being mentored by Martin Scorsese. The master craftsman of American cinema explains why fostering talent is important to him, while Murga reveals what it’s like to be on set with a legend.

Black and white TV generation have monochrome dreams I'm not from that generation, but I watched a lot of B&W growing up. I have no recollection of any monochrome dreams. The white in B&W television always looked blue to me. I have an aunt that can tell what color something is in black and white. The family always razzed her for it, but I think maybe she could.

Obscure History: Let The Military Help In A Heist On October 17th, 1906, Wilhelm Voigt, a 57-year-old German shoemaker, impersonates an army officer and leads an entire squad of soldiers to help him steal 4,000 marks.

also:
Home Movie Day!!
The Invisible Library (list of fictional books from fiction) (via)
Giant Plush Microbes (all the favorites) (via)
FACT mix: Murcof
Black Swan Glossary (Taleb) (via)
Penguin Cover Notebooks (via)
Qwitter e-mails you when someone stops following you on Twitter...

viddy:
The Power of Art: Caravaggio (via)
Jim Henson - Ripples (via)
Diego Stocco: DIY Musical Machines

Sick Day

image

I'm a bit under the weather, so just this one post today. I'll be back with you tomorrow. In the meantime, it's lots of bed rest and Monty Python for me, the archives and my splendid blogroll for you, if you need some.

But before I leave you, a few notes and some videos.

First of all, I was shamelessly pleased to discover that Uncertain Times was kindly and thoughtfully introduced by the esteemed Jahsonic. His weblog and Art and Popular Culture Wiki are required reading and reference.

some news:
Sad to say, an American Tourist Is Killed in Beijing
Babies born 8/8/08 at 8:08; 8 pounds, 8 ounces (thx)
Update: Fake-CNN spam mutates as attacks continue

some nugs:
Literary Voyeurism (enough to choke on)
Roald Dahl's “Taste” - Read by John Lithgow for Selected Shorts series on public radio. (don't miss it) (via)
Roadside Architecture is back on the road. (prev)
Darren Aronofsky updated his blog.

some video:

The Chambers Brothers - People Get Ready (via)




From The Last Waltz, The Band performs It Makes No Difference. I forgot how good they were. (via)




August 9th is Frank Zappa Day in Baltimore. Enjoy an excellent live version of Inca Roads.

And finally, Procrastination. (not the one that made the rounds a few months back)



See you tomorrow!

from: Oscar Wilde to: Walt Whitman (1882)

Transcription:

Before I leave America I must see you again--there is no one in this wide great world of America whom I love and honour so much. With warm affection, and honourable admiration, Oscar Wilde.

Whitman and Oscar Wilde:

In January and May 1882 the Irish writer Oscar Wilde visited Whitman at his home in Camden, New Jersey. He told the poet that his mother had read Leaves of Grass to him as a child, and that his Oxford friends carried the book with them on their strolls. Whitman was delighted with Wilde, whom he described as "a fine large handsome youngster." Wilde, in America on a lecture tour, sent a portrait taken at the New York studio of Napoleon Sarony to Whitman as a keepsake. Wilde was one of the many artists and intellectuals who made pilgrimages to Whitman's door in the poet's later years.

Revising Himself - Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (Manuscripts, images, ephemera, the works in this Library of Congress exhibit.)

via delete the adjectives

The Book Review's Booty

NYTimes:

Here at the Book Review, we get a ton of mail.

Every once in a while, when we’re pulling the endless books and press releases from publishers out of envelopes, out plops a little item of some sort. In fact, of every sort. From tennis balls to whoopee cushions, we’ve seen it all.

via SlushPile.net