The Great Gatsby was originally published in April 1925, which means that those who first read it were much nearer in time to Henry James and even Charles Dickens than we are to Scott Fitzgerald. And that reflection brings a shock. For just as the book survives in our minds partly as a period…
Pablo Picasso “Nudes in a Forest,” Paris, spring 1908 watercolor, gouache and graphite on wove paper 47.6 x 59.1 cm (18 3/4 x 23 1/4 in.), Philadelphia Museum of Art / Courtesy of National Gallery of Art Pablo Picasso was the most inventive artist the West has ever known, and his drawings let us…
Notes to Self What art writing can learn from the lessons of literature Italo Calvino at his home in Paris (1984) I have always imagined that ‘creative’ writers confront the blank page accompanied by a coterie of kindred spirits – authors, fictional characters, fantastical creatures or historical figures – with whom they identify or against…