Category Archives: Libraries

New James Baldwin letters

January 1, 2014 The 100 letters recently acquired by the Beinecke Library are not to famous people, just Baldwin’s friends.  The letters to Painter began in 1954, when his play “The Amen Corner” opened at Howard, and came up to 1964, … Continue reading

Posted in African-American literature, Europe, Friendship, Libraries, Turkey, Twentieth century literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Writers getting old: Ashbery, Angelou, Morrison

November 13, 2013 I was standing at the very back, and saw only a wall of people in front.  I’d also missed the introduction.   For most of reading, all I got was the voice, surprisingly strong, vigorous, the voice … Continue reading

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Jack Kerouac, Edwidge Danticat: Joual and Creole

October 10, 2012 The name on his birth certificate is Jean Louis Kirouac – that’s the most common spelling of the name in Quebec, which is where his parents were from.  His father, Léon-Alcide, continued to work as a printer … Continue reading

Posted in African-American literature, Americas, Atlantic, Autobiography, Canada, Caribbean literature, Cities, Comparative literature, Contemporary novel, Creole, Diaspora, Ethnicity, Gender, Global South, Latin America, Libraries, Media, mexico, peripheral networks, print medium, Publishers, Radio, Twentieth century literature, Vernacular dialects | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Spanish Civil War: Hughes and Hemingway

July 4, 2012 The Beinecke Library doesn’t have a great Hemingway Collection (most of his material is at the JFK Presidential Library in Boston), but I did find a rare photo, taken in Madrid in 1937, Hemingway with Langston Hughes, … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, Arabic, Caribbean literature, collaboration, Cuba, Cuban poetry, Ethnicity, Global South, Islam, Latin America, Letters, Libraries, Modernist poetry, Newspapers, peripheral networks, Spanish, Translation, Twentieth century literature, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments