-
His Critical Condition: On F. R. Leavis [by David Lehman]
In literary criticism, we remember the great practitioners by their errors and blind spots. Samuel Johnson dismissed Milton’s “Lycidas” — perhaps the greatest elegy in English literature — as artificial and insincere. T. S.…
-
“Mother Died Today” [by David Lehman]
Mother Died Today Mother died today. That's how it began. Or maybe yesterday, I can't be sure. I gave the book to my mother in the hospital. She read the first sentence. Mother died…
-
WEDNESDAYS WITH DENISE: May 10, 2023
In March, Todd Boss launched his podcast THERE'S A POEM IN THAT. Unlike Cheryl Strayed’s "Dear Sugar" advice column on The Rumpus, or Rick Moody’s “Life Coach” column on Literary Hub, Boss’s podcast does not…
-
MACKENDRICK: Sweet Smell of Success (1957) [by Lewis Saul]
Alexander Mackendrick Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis), a press agent, is pissed. J. J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) has been shutting his gossip out of his famous newspaper column for days now — all because…
-
Anna Eva Bergman: woman painter, woman’s painting, woman as painter [by Tracy Danison]
Anna-Eva Bergman N°33 1947 ‘Ensomhet’ huset (gyllne snitt), “Solitude: the house (gold part)” Gestern, hab’ich zu viel Weißwein getrunken… It’s always so difficult to know where to begin. The sound of the phrase Gestern,…
-
Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath
Giorgio de Chirico, turning away from the surreal landscapes and abstract forms of his great period, went for refreshment to mythology, as in his 1940 painting "The Boar Hunt." That's how I started out.…
