An Extraordinary Novel of Ordinary Lives
“His finest-tuned tale yet.” The tale in question is Kent Haruf’s Benediction, just published by Knopf, and the phrase comes from one of a growing body of reviews filled with praise for the novel. In...
View ArticleA Treasure Among Treasures
What do Prince Charles, Terry Jones of Monty Python fame, and author Hilary Mantel have in common? Apart from their British roots, all three have been assisted by Mary Robertson, The Huntington’s...
View ArticleAdd Dame to Her Name
British author Hilary Mantel has been named Dame of the British Empire in Queen Elizabeth’s annual birthday honors, announced earlier this month. The Huntington, as home to her literary archive,...
View ArticleRequiem for a Novelist
One of the greatest rewards of my job as a literary manuscripts curator is meeting and becoming friends with the authors whose papers I collect, and one of the sweetest of these friendships has been...
View ArticleAl Martinez, Bard of L.A.
I was born July 21, 1929, the year of the market crash and the start of the Depression. But they weren’t my fault. —Al Martinez, quoted in “Out of the Shadows,” Tu Ciudad, Dec./Jan. 2006. It was...
View ArticleLiving and Writing on the Edge
Poets, of course, aren’t the only ones to suffer in our world, they just talk more about it. —Charles Bukowski, from “Looking Back at a Big One.” Sunday, August 16, marks the 95th anniversary of the...
View ArticleEdith Wharton’s Book of the Homeless
Few people know that Edith Wharton (1862–1937), the eminent American author, played a significant role in the war effort during World War I. Wharton lived in France for much of her life, and, appalled...
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