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New York Review Books: Then the Backlash Came
Filed under: On the Spot Tagged: Chris Hedges, Curzio Malaparte, Dino Buzzati, Fred Wiseman, Georges Simenon, John Banville, John Gray, Marina Harss, New York Review Books, Northwestern University Press, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Tete-Michel Kpomassie, Timothy Snyder, Vasily Grossman, Walter Murch, events
Jonathan Taylor writes:
Just kidding! Everyone loves New York Review Books Classics, and for good reason. Few things are as unreservedly worth celebrating as the 10th anniversary of this publishing project, which is single-handedly reshaping the understanding of the world's recent literary past. By the way, their cover design scheme has become so well-known, does anyone remember that, a whole decade ago, it was rather different? Here's my edition of J.R. Ackerley's My Father and Myself, alongside the current one:
Anyway, Martin's got the New Yorker Festival covered, but NYR Books are having their own anniversary festivities through November—in New York, London and both Cambridges—listed here, including:
- Monday, September 21, 7 pm Idlewild Books hosts a reading by Tete-Michel Kpomassie, author of An African in Greenland
- Tuesday, October 6, 7 pm Idlewild Books, launch party for the first graphic novel published by NYRB, Poem Strip by Dino Buzzati, featuring translator Marina Harss
- Tuesday, October 13, 7 pm London Review Bookshop, John Banville and John Gray discuss the work of Georges Simenon
- Thursday, October 29 NY Institute of the Humanities, New School Tishman Auditorium with Fred Wiseman, Walter Murch, Timothy Snyder, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Chris Hedges discusssing the war writings of Curzio Malaparte and Vasily Grossman
Incidentally, Timothy Snyder is the author of a recent eye-opening article in The New York Review of Books about where, and how, the greater part of the Holocaust took place, that should be a must-read for all humans.
And the mention of Malaparte reminds me the great work of another series, a little lower-profile, but whose distinctive jackets are equally signals of worthy reading you might not otherwise know about: Northwestern University's European Classics. They brought Malaparte's Kaputt to my bookshelf before New York Review Books yet existed, as well as another eventual NYRB title, Stefan Zweig's Beware of Pity.
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They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is currently written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. (Unsigned posts through October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.)
The site is designed and maintained by House of Pretty and illustrated by Jesse Ewing for Inkleaf Studio. Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (who also draws our daily comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The kissable Emdashes logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World; PDF, p. 20)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, man about town, and New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Report: Learning to read with comic books--that are edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
- Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
- Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Review: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
- Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
- Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)
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