Ivan Lett— Rare is the book campaign that immensely satisfies both personally and professionally. As work began for The Richard Burton Diaries, edited by Chris Williams, there was a typical shape to the assumptions for such a book coming from Yale University Press: “Oh great, the diaries of the Victorian
Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita has become a literary classic, read over and over by those who cannot pull themselves away from Humbert Humbert’s troubling yet tragically beautiful prose. In John Sutherland’s Lives of the Novelists: A History of Fiction in 294 Lives, he traces beloved authors like Nabokov back through when
Follow @yaleARTbooks Congratulations to the Yale University Art Gallery! The brilliantly expanded Gallery formally opened to the public last Wednesday, December 12th, to wide and universal acclaim; doubly covered in the New York Times, art critic Holland Cotter asserts that the museum is now “a destination.” The Boston Globe’s Sebastian
Emily Bernard starts her biography, “This book is a portrait of a once controversial figure, Carl Van Vechten, a white man with a passion for blackness.” And while today more people can recognize Carl Van Vechten as a patron and leader of the black arts and Harlem Renaissance movement, in
Here, Francis J. Bremer, author of the recently published biography, Building a New Jerusalem: John Davenport, a Puritan in Three Worlds, discusses the intertwined religious and political histories of Boston, the first founders—its clergy, and their importance to our historical understanding. Francis J. Bremer— At a time when religion is politically
Follow @yaleARTbooks The Art Institute of Chicago has a boisterous, expansive holiday spirit. The annual wreath-ing of the stately lions that welcome all visitors to the Art Institute took place on November 23rd, bestowing on the building a resolutely festive air. Inside the building, an infinitely more delicate decoration has
Our weekly roundup of news among university presses takes special significance as we gear up for the holiday season. Safe travels to your family and loved ones, readers! Princeton University Press is currently holding several Holiday Book Giveaways for titles such as Two Cheers for Anarchism: Six Easy Pieces on
While John Keats may often be remembered today as the quintessentially tragic Romantic figure, Nicholas Roe explains in his recent biography, John Keats: A New Life, that the reality of the celebrated poet’s character was far more complex. Keats’s life was dogged by insecurities, sexual frustration and drug use, and
Michael Slater, author of The Great Charles Dickens Scandal is not the only one preoccupied with the secret affairs of Charles Dickens. In his sweeping guide Lives of the Novelists: A History of Fiction in 294 Lives, John Sutherland introduces and explores 294 of literature’s greatest artists, providing biographical details
Follow @yaleSCIbooks “If heaven had given me choice of my position and calling, it should have been on a rich spot of earth, well watered, and near a good market…” – Thomas Jefferson, 1811 Thomas Jefferson was passionate about horticulture and his gardens at his home in Monticello. Peter J.