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Tag Archives: Joseph Cornell
“Since we do float on an unknown sea I think we should examine the other floating things that come our way very carefully.” — poet Elizabeth Bishop
“All the intellectuals were communist except me. I’m always very perverse so I went in for T.S. Eliot and Anglo-Catholicism.”– Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop, born on this day, is one of my favorite poets. She didn’t write all that many … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Elizabeth Bishop, Harriet Monroe, Joseph Cornell, Marianne Moore, Michael Schmidt, poetry, Seamus Heaney
13 Comments
“I wish I had not been so reserved.” — Joseph Cornell’s final words
Today is the birthday of artist Joseph Cornell. “Cornell is superb. I first saw the Medici Slot Machine when I was in college. Oh, I loved it. To think one could have bought some of those things then. He was … Continue reading
Posted in Art/Photography, On This Day
Tagged art, Elizabeth Bishop, Joseph Cornell, Lauren Bacall
7 Comments
“Every day life feels mightier, and what we have the power to be, more stupendous.” — Emily Dickinson
“If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know … Continue reading
“I’ve had the kind of fame which I felt was just the right amount.” — Lois Smith
Lois Smith, who turns 95 years old today, made her film debut in 1955, playing a young prostitute in East of Eden. She has a small scene with James Dean, and then exits the film forever. But the memory of … Continue reading
2022 Books Read
Some re-reads this year, but a lot of new-to-me authors as well. New novels written by faves. Been a year of upheaval and transitions. I’ve managed to keep up my regular reading schedule. I just don’t feel right if I’m … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged A.S. Byatt, Alfred Hitchcock, Anne Fadiman, art, Australia, Biography, books read, Canada, Christopher Hitchens, Edmund Burke, Elinor Lipman, England, entertainment biography, essays, Eve Babitz, friends, Germany, Greece, Hitler, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Janet Malcolm, Joan Didion, Joseph Cornell, Lorrie Moore, Machiavelli, Master and Margarita, Memoirs, Michael Curtiz, Mikhail Bulgakov, Mitford sisters, nonfiction, Paul Zindel, politics, Quentin Tarantino, Robert De Niro, Russia, Ryszard Kapuściński, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Beatles, Tom Wolfe, true crime, Victor Klemperer, Victor Serge, war, William Hazlitt, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, WWII, YA fiction
10 Comments
Recommended: Biographies
For starters: My recommended Fiction books My recommended Non-Fiction books BIOGRAPHIES: American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, by Joseph Ellis I’ve written a lot about Joseph Ellis’ work here. While I love David McCullough’s work so much, Ellis is … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books, Directors, Founding Fathers, James Joyce, Theatre, writers
Tagged A. Scott Berg, Abigail Adams, Alexander Hamilton, American Sphinx, Benjamin Franklin, Biography, Bruce Springsteen, Charles Lindbergh, Charlotte Bronte, David McCullough, Dean Martin, Edie Sedgwick, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ellen Terry, Elvis Presley, Emily Bronte, George Washington, Henry Irving, His Excellency, Howard Hawks, Howard Hughes, James Dean, Jerry Lee Lewis, John Adams, John Wayne, Joseph Cornell, Joseph Ellis, Marlon Brando, Mitford sisters, Montgomery Clift, Nick Tosches, Nureyev, Orson Welles, Oscar Wilde, Patricia Bosworth, Patricia Highsmith, Richard Ellmann, Ron Chernow, Sam Cooke, Simon Callow, Tennessee Williams, Thomas Jefferson, Truman Capote, W.B. Yeats, Zelda Fitzgerald
9 Comments
Bookshelf Tour #7
Moving on to biographies. Please ignore my wretched ceiling. I had nothing to do with it. I also lost the top shelf of my bookshelves when I moved here in February. Still room for a row of books though. I … Continue reading
Cornell Connection
Poster for Wes Anderson’s new film Joseph Cornell’s “Pink Palace” I know I am not the first one to recognize the influence that Joseph Cornell has had on Wes Anderson. It’s everywhere in his work, from the feel, down to … Continue reading
The Books: Utopia Parkway: The Life And Work Of Joseph Cornell, by Deborah Solomon
Daily Book Excerpt: Biography Next biography on this shelf is Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell (ArtWorks), by Deborah Solomon They made their way past several more curricula vitae holding cocktails, as well as a number of … Continue reading
Happy Birthday to The Belle of Amherst
Emily Dickinson was born on this day in 1830. It is not known why she withdrew from society so completely. Theories abound. Books have been written. But the mystery remains. What we have are her poems. A wide interior life … Continue reading
Posted in On This Day, writers
Tagged Camille Paglia, Emily Dickinson, Joseph Cornell, poetry
14 Comments

