Library-of-America

Book Review: “Breslin: Essential Writings” — Compulsive Reading

March 18, 2024
Posted in ,

The notion that columnists like Breslin were “deadline artists” is apt. Their task was to come up with a story idea, track it down, then give it a narrative spark, all ahead of a ticking clock as the drop-deadline for the next edition loomed.

Read More

Book Review: “Shake It Up” — Great American Writing on Rock and Pop

May 8, 2017
Posted in , , , ,

On the whole, this anthology, along with igniting discussions about sins of omission, will make for entertaining browsing.

Read More

Book Review: “The Unknown Kerouac” — Unnecessary?

November 22, 2016
Posted in , ,

The Unknown Kerouac is good for the advancement of Kerouac scholarship, but the book hardly justifies, for the average reader, its price and size.

Read More

Book Review: The Joy and Glory of Virgil Thomson’s “The State of Music & Other Writings”

October 12, 2016
Posted in , ,

The Library of America volumes of Virgil Thomson’s writings will help reestablish him as one of the 20th century’s preeminent musical scribes.

Read More

Book Interview: Library of America’s “War No More” — Why Not Give Peace a Chance?

May 30, 2016
Posted in , ,

Library of America’s anthology War No More explores a distinctively American tradition of antimilitarism.

Read More

Book/Theater Interview: Library of America Celebrates Arthur Miller’s Centennial

October 16, 2015
Posted in , , ,

The Library of America has done its part to applaud Arthur Miller’s 100th birthday with a handsome 3-volume set of his plays.

Read More

Book Interview: Todd Tietchen on Jack Kerouac — Torn Between Routes and Roots.

April 20, 2015
Posted in , ,

The hope is that general readers and scholars will realize a more rounded comprehension of Jack Kerouac.

Read More

Book Interview: Marion Elizabeth Rodgers on the Expanded “Days” of H. L. Mencken

September 25, 2014
Posted in , ,

In The Days Trilogy, Expanded Edition, H. L. Mencken comes off as a marvelously mellowed master, his trademark savagery smoothed over, its energy focused on generating a pungently picturesque vision of a vanished America.

Read More

Fuse Book Interview: James Shapiro on America’s Complicated Relationship With Shakespeare

May 1, 2014
Posted in , , ,

“Americans have been most drawn to the great tragedies—in our classroom and on our stages. “

Read More

Book Interview: Jewish-American Writer Bernard Malamud at 100 — Appreciating the Beauty of the Ethical

March 23, 2014
Posted in , ,

“Bernard Malamud is the great sentence-maker, the great craftsman, and the sheer quality of those sentences has never perhaps been given its complete due.”

Read More

Recent Posts