Letters of Note.Com

Kurt Vonnegut's first letter after escaping from Dresden. An alternative origin story for Superman that involves time travel and Olympic Medals. Edgar Allen Poe apologizing for his conduct because his friend made him drink too many "juleps." Letters of Note is a great website that features fascinating letters, notes, faxes, and memos. The site updates daily and includes, in addition to the examples mentioned above, J.D. Salinger arguing that Holden Caulfield is "unactable" Hunter S. Thompson haranguing a producer over an adaptation of The Rum Diary (which was never completed) and animation advice from the creator of Ren and Stimpy. There are also letters by Allen Moore, Robert Heinlien, Philip K. Dick, Van Gogh, Dr. Seuss and many more. It's a fascinating way to lose an afternoon.

Logicomix Links

Logicomix, the graphic novel about Betrand Russell has taken off. I mentioned it in this blog post and made it a staff pick. We're having trouble keeping it in stock. If you're interested in the book visit the Logicomix home page. They've also put together a documentary about the making of the book.

Here's the trailer the publisher's created.

Exquisite Corpse

If I were to picture my ideal intellectual website, I'd be pretty close to picturing The Exquisite Corpse. It's an online journal of stories, poetry, essays, book reviews, art, multimedia art, etc. It has a serial comic. A collection of twitters from the dead. News. Excerpts. Interviews with William Burroughs. It's like getting all of your smart artsy friends together in one room and actually controlling which one of them gets to talk. It is run by the writer, poet, intellectual Andrei Codrescu, author of The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tristan Tzara and Lenin Play Chess, and New Orleans Mon Amour, along with collections of poetry and other works. If you're looking to spend some intellectual time on the web, the Exquisite Corpse is the place to go.

Great Essay

This article in the New York Review of Books by Helen Vendler is one of the best works of poetry criticism I've read in quiet a while. Too many critics end up speaking a near foreign language when they analyze a work, but here, in the context of a book review Vendler takes a complex, abstract topic, W. S. Merwin's line breaks, and presents an accessible, tangible analysis. A great article if you're a poetry reader or looking to become one.

Literary Links

The holidays have kept us away from the blog for a few weeks, but I have had the chance to pull together some literary links.

First up, I found this link on Bookdwarf, a good literary blog run by a buyer for the Harvard Bookstore, to a listing of the most anticipated books of 2009. It's a great list and a lot to look forward to.

Clayton Eshelman is the pre-eminent translator of my favorite poet of all time, Cesar Vallejo. Bookslut (a book review site) has an interview with Eshelman about his work as a translator and his own poetry. The interview also includes an examination of a Vallejo poem. It's a cool interview and a good introduction to Vallejo.

Finally, with his new poetry collection My Index of Slightly Horrifying Knowledge, Paul Guest has quickly become one of my favorite living poets. He's up there with James Tate, Brian Turner, Kevin Young, and Noah Eli Gordon. (More on Paul Guest later.) He has a blog where he posts poems and writing.