NOTES 2008
May 16:
Jim's Picks...
Arnie
& Jack: Palmer, Nicklaus, and Golf's Greatest Rivalry by Ian O'Connor
(Houghton Mifflin)...The sports book of the year..a triumph. The author also
spent quality time with both. Great gift for golfers!
May 14:
Jim's Picks...
The Films Of Samuel Fuller: If You Die, I'll Kill You! by Lisa Dombrowski
(Wesleyan University Press) The last, great Hollywood director...cigar & all!
Hollywood Ambitions: Celebrity In The Movie Age by Marsha Orgeron (Wesleyan
University Press)..A well-researched look at Ida Lupino, Jack London, Wyatt Earp,
Gertrude Stein and Clara Bow. (Yes! those names are correct).
May 12:
Writer's On Writing...
Clifton
Fadiman wrote ..The Lifetime Reading Plan...
...On reading Shakespeare...the following dozen plays out of his 37 written
may be recommended as minimum reading, to be done not as a block but in the
course of your lifetime...The Merchant Of Venice, Romeo And Juliet, Henry IV
(parts 1 and 2), Hamlet, Troilus And Cressida, Measure For Measure, King Lear,
Macbeth, Antony And Cleopatra, Othello, and The Tempest.
May 9:
On Chicago...
"What
the court found is interesting, that we have a form of corruption where the true
recipients of corrupt schemes are not always the defendants themselves, but that
they are doing if for their patron, for a third party, " Collins said.
Gee. Who's he talking about?
Maybe the individuals know.
...Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass quoting former U.S. Atty.
Patrick Collins, a prosecutor in the Robert Sorich
case...April 16.
May 7:
The subtitle Gandhi had chosen for his
autobiography was..."The Story of My Experiments With Truth".
May 5:
My Favorite Books...
Bill
Wilson wrote...Alcoholics Anonymous...
THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
May 2:
Jim's Picks...
My Name Is Bill: Bill Wilson and the Creation of
Alcoholics Anonymous by Susan Cheever (S&S)...A short, tough look at Bill
W.
April 30:
Jim's Picks...
Meditation:
A Simple 8-Point Program for Translating Spirutual Ideals Into Daily Life by
Eknath Easwaran (Nilgiri Press)...This man's collection of wisdom should be
read, collected and passed on. They have changed my life.
April 28:
Jim's Picks...
The
Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama by Pico Iyer
(Alfred A. Knopf)... I have been waiting for this book to be written for over 20
years. A MUST READ!
April 25:
Writer's At Work...
Peter Robinson wrote...Friend of the Devil...
"I
do my best work up at a lakefront cottage without cable, telephone, mail, or
internet connections. I do have a Black Berry, though, and that works up there, so
I'm still connected to the world by a thin thread. I mean, I wouldn't want to be
completely out of touch.!"
April 23:
My Favorite Writers.....
David
Mamet wrote the play.. American Buffalo...
THEODORE DREISER
WIlLLA CATHER
DAWN POWELL
GEORGE V. HIGGINS
PATRICK O'BRIAN
JOHN le CARRE
April 21:
Jim's Picks...
Process: An Improviser's Journey by Mary Scruggs and Michael J. Gellan (www.nupress.northwestern.edu)
I have been hearing about this book from Michael Gellman for the past two years.
I also think we had the same girlfriend at one time. I first met Mr. Gellman
when he was playing Tim O'Malley's father in "The God Show". A play I've seen
"5" times. Gellman is at home on the stage as Geraldine Page was.
This a book is about the veil being torn (ripped) open and the mysterious world
of improv theater is presented for all to see and maybe, perhaps, slightly
comprehend.
Thanks for the "look-see" Mr. Gellman. You are a re-doubtable person and I love
spending the late summer nights with you over coffee in front of Second City on
North & Wells in Chicago with the feel of Alan Arkin and John Belushi in the
air.
April 18:
Writer's At Work...
Erica
Jong wrote Fear Of Flying,,,
"When I first began writing, it was much more instinctive. Now, my work is
much more thought out. I recognize the importance of a strong story-line in a
way I did'nt before."
April 16:
Writer's On Writing...
Tennessee
Williams wrote the play Cat On A Hot Tin Roof...
"The terror of the white page in the typewriter."
April 14:
My Favorite Books...
Clifton Fadiman
wrote...The New Lifetime Reading Plan
April 11:
Writer's On Writing:
John Keegan wrote The Face Of Battle...
"As
to writing itself, what helped? I have an ear for the rhythm of prose, which I
think essential to readability. The other great help was foreign languages.
Knowledge of foreign languages is the best of guides to the structure and
subtleties of one's own."
April 9:
Writer's At Work...
George
P. Pelecanos wrote Hell To Pay...
"It is an unusual way to make a living. The work itself
can be intense, solitary and socially retarding. When I'm writing a novel, I
write 7 days a week. On serious jags, I rarely leave the house. There are also
long periods of inactivity, just sitting around thinking, bouncing a rubber ball
on the hearth, listening to music, mind navigating intricacies of plot and
characters, dreaming. I've learned that this is part of my job, too. "
April 7:
My Favorite Books...
Benjamin C. Bradlee wrote A Good Life...
WITNESS
April 4:
Writer's On Writing...
E.B. White wrote The Elements Of Style...
"The best writing is rewriting".
April 2:
On
Paul Scofield...Who Died in England March 20...
"Not just the best there is, but the best there has ever been." ...
Richard Eyre "Of the 10 greatest moments in the theater, eight are Scofield's" ...
Richard Burton
March 31:
Jim's Picks...
Never Enough by Joe McGinniss (S&S) An exhaustive account of the murder of
Hong Kong-based Merrill Lynch power broker Rob Kessel by his wife Nancy.
Baldwin's Harlem by Herb Boyd (Atria Book/S&S) A biography of James Baldwin
centering on his life in Harlem...New York City.
My First Movie: Take Two...edited by Stephen Lowenstein (Pantheon) I love these
books. The chapter on Sam Mendes & American Beauty is a must read for film
buffs.
March 28:
Writers On Writing...
William
Styron wrote Sophie's Choice...
"When I was a young writer there had been a stage where Camus, almost more than
any other contemporary literary figure, radically set the tone for my own view
of life and history. I read his novel "The Stranger" somewhat later than I
should have--I was in my early thirties--but after finishing it I received the
stab of recognition that proceeds from reading the work of a writer who has
wedded moral passion to a style of great beauty and whose unblinking vision is
capable of frightening the soul to its marrow."
March 26:
My Favorite Books...
Alan Greenspan wrote The Age Of Turbulance...
REMINISCENCES OF A STOCK OPERATOR
Every book on J.P. MORGAN
THE GENERAL THEORY OF EMPLOYMENT, INTEREST AND MONEY
AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND CAUSES Of THE WEALTH OF NATIONS
March 24:
Writer's At Work...
Herman
Melville wrote Moby-Dick...
"To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme."
March 21:
Writer's At Work...
Ralph
Ellison won the National Book Award for his first novel...Invisible Man...
"I am not trying to run a case history in sociology or psychology...I want to
investigate the nature of leadership through a literary technique: purpose to
passion to perspective, the basic pattern of prose fiction."
March 19:
My Favorite Books...
Ralph Ellison wrote Invisible Man...
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
THE IDIOT
THE POSSESSED
MOBY-DICK
March 17:
Writer's On Writing...
Elizabeth
Hardwick...was co-founder of The New York Review of Books...(www.nybooks.com/hardwick)
"There are really only two reasons to write: desperation or revenge."
"The only way to learn to write is to read."
March 14:
Jim's DVD Picks...
My great and true friend, Bill Zehme, started my off-camera DVD narration
hobby. Billy Z. was interviewing Mike Nichols for the cover of New York Magazine
and made me the gift of Mr. Nichols doing the off-camera narration of Catch 22
on DVD. Up until then I thought that DVD extras were trailers & interviews.
WELLLLLLL !!! Hello!!!!!
SAVE THE TIGER (Paramount)
Off camera narration by the director, John G. Avildsen and producer/writer,
Steve Shagan.
Jack Lemmon's 1973 Best Actor Oscar performance. The behind the scenes
commentary is mesmerizing.
(I also dropped by Chicago's Shake, Rattle, and Read bookshop in Uptown and
bought Don Widener's 1975 bio, Lemmon (Macmillan)
THE WORLD AT WAR...26 episodes narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier (A&E)
On-camera narration by Jeremy Isaacs. Episode # 1...The Making of the Series.
It is the best summary on the making of a major documentary I have ever heard.
This is a must!!!
THE GODFATHER...Part I...(Paramount)
Off-camera narration by the director, Francis Ford Coppola...
Absolutely sensational...must be seen immediately.
March 12:
Writer's At Work...
"I work
on a manual typewriter because I like the feeling of making something happen
with my hands. I like paper. I like to see the key come up and hit that paper."
...David McCullough won the Pulitzer Prize for Truman.
March 10:
Writer's On Writing...
"I've got the readers I want."
...Ann Rice wrote Interview With The Vampire.
March 7:
Jim's Picks...
Saul Bellow: Novels 1956-1964...edited by James Wood (www.loa.org) Chicago's
pride and joy and Nobel Prize winner.
Arthur Miller: A Literary Reference To His Life And Work by Susan C.W. Abbotson
(Facts On File/Infobase Publishing) A one-stop source on the New York City
master.
Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front by Todd DePastino (W.W. Norton) An outstanding bio
of the gifted editorial cartoonist.
March 5:
My Favorite Books...
Bruce McCall wrote
Thin Ice: Coming of Age in Canada...
PADDLE-to-the-SEA
THE BOOK OF MODERN WARPLANES
PICKWICK PAPERS
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
A TALE OF TWO CITIES
A FAREWELL TO ARMS
THE GIFT
March 3:
Jim's Pick's...
Ralph Ellison: A Biography by Arnold Rampersad (www.vintagebooks.com)... A
major literary event now in trade paperback.
Chase's Calendar Of Events 2008 (McGraw-Hill with CD-ROM)...12,500 entries, 194
countries, 365 days, 50 years and counting!
February 29:
Jim A. Talks With The Author's...
The Long Embrace
Please ask the author of The Long Embrace why Alfred Hitchcock was'nt
mentioned in her book. I know they had a confrontation at Chandler's house while
working on Strangers On A Train.
Thanks Jim A
Hi Jim- Here’s what Judith replied. Best, Katie
Please tell Jim
that it's one of the things I meant to get into the book, had thought about, but
somehow I never put in the information about Hitchcock and Chandler working on
the screenplay for "Strangers on a Train" and the strife and enmity between the
two men, how Hitchcock once came to La Jolla because Chandler refused to go to
him in LA. ("If Mohammed won't go to the mountain," he said, "let the mountain
come to Mohammed,"-- or something like that)..and when Hitchcock pulled up in
the limo how Chandler said something like, "Look at the fat bastard," as
Hitchcock struggled to get out of his car. This comment was reported by his
housekeeper, and shows Chandler's less than generous side. They had a
fundamental difference about thow they saw Patricia Highsmith's book. The
letters are available in the collection that show why Chandler disagreed with
Hitchcock, and I think it's very revealing about both men. Anyway, it's one of
the few things I realized I didn't get into the book that I might have, the
story of their relationship, but by the time this occured (around 1949) Chandler
had washed his hands of Hollywood. Hitchcock, you might say, was the last straw.
I hope that answers Jim's question.
Best, Judith
February 27:
Jim's Picks...
My
Fall From Grace: City Hall to Prison Walls by James J. Laski (Author House)
A true-crime must read. Jim Laski takes us on a long journey...start of crime,
execution of crime, implicated in his crime and finally his indictment,
confession and sentencing and his time in prison.
This outstanding book stands alone with the chapters on the U.S. Atty's office
in Chicago.
February 25:
"There is for a man two things in life that are
very important, head and shoulders above everything else...find work you like,
and find someone to live with you like. Very few people get both."
...from interview with Cormac McCarthy...Rolling Stone...December 27, 2007.
February 22:
My Favorite Books...
Paul West wrote
The Tent Of Orange Mist...
THE COMPLETE PROSE OF SAMUEL BECKETT
ABSALOM, ABSALOM!
February 20:
Writer's On Writing...
James Dickey
wrote Deliverence...
"We've always had a tradition in America of hounding our artists to death. Look
at the list of our great artists, you see a continual history of defeat,
frustation, poverty, alcoholism, drug addiction. The best poets of my generation
are all suicides."
...from...The Writer's Quotebook...edited by Jim Fisher (Rutgers University
Press)
February 18:
Of all the books
published throughout history, Don Quixote is second only to the Bible in terms
of total number of copies printed.
February 15:
My Favorite Books...
Richard Wilbur wrote Things Of This World...
HUCKLBERRY FINN
THE POEMS OF ROBERT FROST
THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV
THE SET PURPOSE OF THINGS
THE MISANTHROPE
February 13:
Writer's At Work...
Robert
Penn Warren wrote All The Kings Men...
"If you are seriously trying to write fiction you can't allow yourself as much
evasion as in trying to write essays."
February 11:
"Nine Worthies"
In popular medieval legend, Charlemagne was one of the "nine worthies," the
greatest knights of history. Other worthies included King Arthur and Alexander
the Great.
February 8:
Writer's On Writing...
Cormac McCarthy
wrote Blood Meridian...
"Writing is rewriting. I just sit down and write whatever is interesting. If
you're writing mystery stories or something, you might want to have an outline,
because it all has to have a logic and fall into place and have a beginning, a
middle and an end. But if you're writing a novel, the best things just sort of
come out of the blue. It's a subconscious process. You don't really know what
you're doing most of the time."
February 6:
The
Death Of Ralph Barton...
"As much as Ross prized cartoons, he spent little time with the artists
themselves because the few he had known well tended to lead even more
complicated lives than the writers. In 1931, he was overcome with sadness and
guilt when one of The New Yorker's" charter artists, Ralph Barton, killed
himself (his wife, Carlotta, had left him for Eugene O'Neill). Ross was sad
because Barton was a good friend and talented contributor, he was guilty because
Barton had told him he intended to kill himself, and Ross did'nt believe him."
...from... Genius In Disguise: Harold Ross Of The New Yorker by Thomas Kunkel
(Random House)
February 4:
Writer's At Work...
Mary Gordon wrote
The Company Of Women...
"There may be some writers who contemplate a day's work without dread, but I
don't know them. Beckett had, tacked to the wall beside his desk. a card on
which were written the words: 'Fail. Fail again. Fail better'."
February 1:
My Favorite Books...
Cormac
McCarthy wrote No Country For Old Men...
MOBY DICK
January 30:
Writer's On Writing...
Albert Camus wrote The Plague...
"We only think in images. If you want to be a
philospher, write novels."
January 28:
Writer's On Writing...
Samuel
Beckett wrote the play Endgame...
Beckett's most famous play is Waiting For Godot. Asked who Godot was, Beckett
replied, "If I knew, I would have said so in the play."
January 25:
Writer's On Writing...
T.S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948...
"The essential advantage for a poet is not to have a beautiful world with which
to deal; it is to be able to see beneath both beauty and ugliness; to see the
boredom, and the horror, and the glory."
January 23:
Writer's At Work...
Paul
Claudel wrote the play The Break Of Noon...
"Besides Racine, who is for me the greatest writer, there is one other--Franz
Kafka."
January 18:
Writer's On Writing...
Virginia Woolf
wrote Mrs. Dalloway...
"...any turn in the wheel of sensation has the power to crystallize and transfix
the moment."
January 16:
Writer's On Writing...
Anton Chekov wrote
The Cherry Orchard...
"Let the things that happen on the stage be as complex and yet as simple as they
are in life."
January 14:
Writer's On Writing...
Joseph
Conrad wrote Lord Jim...
My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to
make you hear, to make you feel--it is, above all, to make you see. That--and no
more, and it is everything."
January 11:
"George Foreman is
the first person I have been in the ring with I know can kill you." (Bossman
Jones...Foreman's sparring partner before "The Rumble In The Jungle".)
from...My View From The Corner...A Life In Boxing by Angelo Dundee with Bert
Randolph Sugar (McGraw Hill)
January 9:
Jim's Picks...
The Last Great Fight by Joe Layden (St. Martin's Press) Mike Tyson vs.
Buster Douglas...Febuary 10, 1990.
The Long Embrace by Judith Freeman (Pantheon Book) Raymond Chandler and his
life-long love affair with his wife, Cissy Pascal. The in-person research is
astounding!
Miles Davis by Jeremy Yudkin (Indiana University Press) An invaluable biography
of the musician who invented "cool".
My View From The Corner by Angelo Dundee (McGraw-Hill) A very exciting
book...live from ringside...and really funny!
January 7:
My Favorite Books...
Herman
Wouk wrote The Caine Mutiny...
HUCKLEBERRY FINN
DON QUIXOTE
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ANTHONY TROLLOPE
January 4:
Writer's At Work...
Toni Morrison wrote Beloved...
"What I Really want is that intimacy in which the reader is under the impression
that he isn't really reading this; that he is participating in it as he goes
along. It's unfolding, and he's always two beats ahead of the characters and
right on target."
from...Writers On The Art Of Writing by Nancy Crampton (The Quantuck Lane Press)
Jim Agnew's Best BookPick...2007...
M y Best Book pick
of 2007 is...True Believer: Inside The Investigation And Capture Of Anna Montes,
Cuba's Master Spy by Scott W. Carmichael (Naval Institute Press/www.usni.org)
True Believer is a non-fiction page turner. The rare book you carry around with
you until you've finished it and then read it again to focus on the complicated
parts.
The arrest of Anna Montes took years of quiet patience on Scott Carmichael's
part and his great book reflects that due deligence.
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