Tag: new york times

Johnny Depp – From Actor to Publisher

October 16, 2012

Johnny Depp is starting his own literary imprint – a list of books called Infinitum Nihil  (meaning nothing is forever) –  part of HarperCollins, which will publish titles that reflect his tastes and interests. Some of the books acquired for Infinitum Nihil are The Unraveled Tales of Bob Dylan by Douglas Brinkley (planned for release in 2015), and House of Earth, a  recently discovered novel by folk singer Woody Guthrie (scheduled for release in January). Should be an interesting collaboration. You can read about it in today’s ArtsBeat section of the New York Times.

Laura

Talk Like an Egyptian

September 19, 2012

Ancient Egyptians didn’t only speak through hieroglyphs – they spoke and wrote Demotic Egyptian, meaning “the tongue of the demos, or the common people.” Now scholars at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute have published online a 2,000-page dictionary of these Demotic words. This Chicago Demotic Dictionary is being called “an indispensable tool for reconstructing the social, political and cultural life of ancient Egypt during a fascinating period.” This is the second dictionary project the Oriental Institute has worked on – last year the final installment of a 21-volume dictionary of the language of Mesopotamia was completed. Read the entire article from the New York Times here.

Laura

Frank Lloyd Wright Archive Moving to New York

September 5, 2012

According to this New York Times article, architect Frank Lloyd Wright saved almost every sketch or drawing he ever did, including  “a doodle on a Plaza Hotel cocktail napkin of an imagined city on Ellis Island, and his earliest pencil sketch of the spiraling Guggenheim Museum”.  When he died  in 1959 all of his papers were stored  at his former headquarters — Taliesen, in Spring Green, Wisconsin., and Taliesen West, in Scottsdale, Arizona. Now the Museum of Modern Art and Columbia University’s Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library will have joint stewardship of his entire archive, making it more accessible to the public.  “The collection includes more than 23,000 architectural drawings, about 40 large-scale, architectural models, some 44,000 photographs, 600 manuscripts and more than 300,000 pieces of office and personal correspondence.” Librarians at Avery will be able to make the papers available to researchers and educators starting at the end of next year. Check the EPL catalog to find material by and about Frank Lloyd Wright.

Laura

Playwriting Award to David Henry Hwang

August 27, 2012

Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang won the $200,000 Steinberg award for playwriting, considered the most generous prize in theater. He said the award will allow him to focus primarily on writing plays. He is finishing a new work inspired by the life of Bruce Lee, “Kung Fu,” which will be staged Off Broadway in fall 2013, and is also working on a film adaptation of his play Chinglish which was performed both in Chicago and New York. The prestigious Steinberg award, created in 2008 to honor established, midcareer, and emerging playwrights is given every other year. Tony Kushner (Angels in America) won it  in 2008 and Lynn Nottage (Ruined) in 2010. Read the article in today’s New York Times.

Laura

Julia Child's 100th Birthday

August 15, 2012

Born 100 years ago today, Julia Child revolutionized cooking in America when her book Mastering the Art of French Cooking was published in 1961.The Dining & Wine section of today’s New York Times has some wonderful tributes to her, including one from her friend and colleague Jacques Pepin, and food writer Julia Moskin. Don’t miss her fabulous-sounding recipe for floating island with apricot creme anglaise! She became a TV icon with her cooking show The French Chef, and inspired the 2009 film Julie & Julia. See the EPL catalog for the many books by and about her.  Bon appetit!

Laura

Film and Stage Composer Marvin Hamlisch, 1944-2012

August 8, 2012

Pulitzer-prize winning composer Marvin Hamlisch died Monday at the age of 68. He is one of a handful of artists to win all the major creative prizes, including an Oscar for The Way We Were, a Grammy for best new artist, and a Tony and Pulitzer for A Chorus Line. Born in 1944 in New York, he was reproducing on the piano songs he heard on the radio at the age of 5 and was accepted into the Juilliard school at the age of 7. He had a long association with Barbra Streisand, beginning when he was rehearsal pianist for her show Funny Girl. But he said he had to beg her to sing the theme song from the 1973 film The Way We Were, noting “she thought it was too simple.” His score for the film The Sting made him a household name. In recent years Mr. Hamlisch became an ambassador for music, performing and giving talks at schools, often criticizing the cuts in arts education. For the full obituary see this NYT article.

Laura

Summer Camp for Book Geeks

July 24, 2012

Rare Book School takes place for 5 weeks each summer at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. It brings together librarians, scholars, collectors, and “random book-mad civilians” for intensive courses in book history, bookbinding, etc – including one session dedicated to hand-marbled papers from the 18th century to the present, and another using tape measures and mini light sabers to trace pages to a “specific paper mold in a specific mill.” Students return year after year for this unique experience. Read the entire NYT article here.

Laura

Ray Bradbury, 1920-2012

June 6, 2012

Known as the master of science fiction, Ray Bradbury died Tuesday at the age of 91. More than eight million copies of his books were sold during his lifetime, including the short-story collections The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man and The Golden Apples of the Sun, and the novels Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes. Born in Waukegan, Illinois, he and his family moved to California when he was 13. “Waukegan had everything that was good about a small town,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times in a 1991 interview. “ There’s a park in Waukegan named in his honor. Mr. Bradbury was presented with the National Medal of  Arts in 2004 and received a special Pulitzer citation in 2007 “for his distinguished, prolific and deeply influential career as an unmatched author of science fiction and fantasy.” You can read the entire New York Times article here. For more of Mr. Bradbury’s works check the EPL catalog.

Richard Roeper’s column in today’s (June 7) Chicago Sun-Times is also worth reading.

Laura

Oprah's Book Club is Baaack

June 4, 2012

Oprah Winfrey is reviving her book club after a 2-year break.  This new version of  her book club is called Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 and has been updated with with digital and social-media elements such as Facebook and Twitter.  Her first pick is Wild by Cheryl Strayed, a nonfiction tale of the author’s author’s epic hike of the Pacific Crest Trail that was published in March.  Wild is sure to climb up the NYT best-seller list now that it has the Oprah seal of approval.  Check out today’s article in the New York Times.

Laura

Get On The "Write" Train

May 25, 2012

Executive Director of the New York Writer’s Coalition and volunteers offered free writing workshops throughout New York  City last week, including a session on a round trip subway train to Flushing, Queens.  Participants were told they could write whatever they wanted during the 75-minute trip. Several dozen people joined the diverse group,  including a jewelry designer, a student, and a Colombian immigrant (who wrote an ode to her spine “thanking it for its support”).  Check out the full article from the New York Times.  Next workshop on the Evanston Express?

Laura

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