First Author Photographs of Famous Writers

Flavorwire compiles a list of their favourite dust jacket photographs

Emily Temple (Flavorwire): 'Authors have to be pretty careful about the photos they choose to have on their dust jackets. Not only is it remarkably easy to fall prey to one of those pesky author photo clichés, but those first baby-faced pictures that grace debut novels might just go down in history — if they’re lucky. To that end, we scoured the web to pull together a few surprising, intense, and charmingly youthful author photos from some of our very favorite authors’ first works' [Read More]

Also at A Piece of Monologue:

• Faber & Faber Writers' Gallery
• Portraits of Beckett as a Famous Writer
• Gordon Ball: Beat Generation Photographs
• Burroughs 23: Charles Gatewood's Photographs of William S. Burroughs
• Writers: Philip Roth

20 Most Iconic Book Cover Designs?

Online gallery includes classic novels by Salinger, Heller, Lee and Ellison

Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange. Design: David Pelham

Flavorwire lists its top 20 book cover designs (link via Susan Tomaselli) [Read More]

Also at A Piece of Monologue:

• The Book Cover Club
• Book Cover Archive
• The Great Gatsby: Re-Covered
• Peter Mendelsund's Book Designs
• Peter Mendelsund on Franz Kafka
• Will Self Paperbacks get a new look

Disjecta: This week's links

Artist Tony Lee Jnr reimagines Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

Literature:

Philip Larkin: As the Larkin25 festival begins, Rachel Cooke explores the private life of the problematic poet
William Faulkner: Designer Tony Lee Jr reimagines Faulkner's novel, As I Lay Dying
Harper Lee: Author grants rare interview to The Mail on Sunday
Samuel Beckett on Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka on Loneliness
J. M. Coetzee: The Guardian reports that Coetzee has smiled in public. News indeed.
J. M. Coetzee: Coetzee scholar David Attwell interviews the writer about his work and influences
Beryl Bainbridge 1934-2010

Philosophy:

Slavoj Žižek: Interviewed by Sean O'Hagan in The Observer

Music

Miles Davis: A brief clip from Louis Malle's Lift to the Scaffold

Film & Television:

Slavoj Žižek: On the racist subtext of The Sound of Music
10 Great Films That Were Never Made
Watch Hitchcock's Rebecca at the London Freud Museum

Art:

Free Art: UK Government may consider charging admission to national arts galleries and museums
Charles Saatchi gives art gallery to the public

Thank you to all link contributors, who can be found on the A Piece of Monologue Twitter page.

Disjecta: This week's links

This week, Will Self writes on the work of Bavarian filmmaker Werner Herzog, a campaign is launched for critical theorist Slavoj Žižek to host Saturday Night Live, and Eric Hobsbawm reflects on being a jazz writer. In other news, the Francis Bacon In Camera exhibition is set to continue until 20 June, Owen Freeman displays his artwork for new editions of William Burroughs' work, and Hollywood artist, actor and filmmaker Dennis Hopper has passed away, aged 74.

Literature:

James Joyce: Brian Donnelly on Ulysses
Franz Kafka: Review of Ritchie Robertson's Kafka: A very short introduction
Mark Twain: Autobiography to be published 100 years after Twain's death
Harper Lee: It's the summer of To Kill A Mockingbird
Paul Auster: Since Invisible, is Auster still postmodern? One reviewer is not so sure.
William S. Burroughs: Owen Freeman's beautifully-drawn editions for 4th Estate
Bristol Short Story Prize 2010
Samuel Beckett on Holiday

Philosophy & Critical Theory:

Beckett, Blanchot, Philosophy Conference June 2010
Jacques Derrida: This month's featured writer on A Piece of Monologue
Jacques Derrida: On Gilles Deleuze and forgiveness
Hélène Cixous: New book, White Ink: Interviews on Sex, Text and Politics
Will Slavoj Žižek host Saturday Night Live?
Simone de Beauvoir: New York Times reviews new translation of The Second Sex

Theatre:

William Shakespeare: Watch Ian McKellen's performance of King Lear free online
William Shakespeare: The Guardian on the best history plays
Are plays proper literature?

Film & Television:

Dennis Hopper 1934-2010: The Guardian provides a retrospective
Dennis Hopper 1934-2010: A career in clips
Jean-Luc Godard: Godard's Film Socialisme references Beckett, Derrida and Benjamin
Werner Herzog: Will Self writes on director Werner Herzog for GQ magazine
Werner Herzog narratives Plastic Bag

Music:

Jazz: Eric Hobsbawm on being a jazz writer

Art:

Francis Bacon: In Camera Exhibition 27 March - 20 June 2010
Waiting for Blobbot: Rebecca Dyer introduces her ontological creation to the world of Samuel Beckett

Thank you to all link contributors, who can be found on the
A Piece of Monologue Twitter page.

Disjecta: This week's links

It's been very quiet here at A Piece of Monologue over the past few weeks. This is in part due to a heavy workload, and a series of personal commitments. Things should resume their regular pace in the next week or so, but in the meantime Twitter has been a'twitter with all sorts of literary news. Samuel Beckett has popped up time and again in the media, primarily in relation to Liberal Democrats leader Nick Clegg's note of admiration. You can read more on the literary tastes of the potential UK leadership candidates below, along with news on the upcoming Shakespeare & Company literary festival, and a quiz on the 'bad days of literature'. Enjoy!

Literature:

James Joyce: A timeline
W. G. Sebald: Gabriel Josipovici on The Emigrants
Maurice Blanchot: The Madness of the Day
Don DeLillo: DeLillo and déjà vu
Jorge Luis Borges: On the transformative power of art
Harper Lee: A Teacher's Resource on To Kill A Mockingbird
Samuel Beckett: Jacques Roubaud on his father's friendship with Beckett
Samuel Beckett: Boyd Tonkin on Beckett's lessons for political leaders
Samuel Beckett and J. M. Coetzee: Liberal Democrats leader Nick Clegg on literary heroes
J. M. Coetzee: On censorship
Literary Tastes of the UK Leadership candidates
William Burroughs Shooting William Shakespeare
Philip K. Dick: Bookslut on the legacy of quintessential paranoid sci-fi writer
Faber & Faber: Win a tour of the archive
Jeff Garlin's Book Club
Shakespeare & Company festival, Paris: Will Self among those who will appear
Shakespeare & Company: The Letters of Sylvia Beach
Quiz: Bad days in literature
Brönte Sisters Power Dolls

Philosophy & Critical Theory:

Friedrich Nietzsche: Francis Fukuyama puts Nietzsche into historical context
Woody Allen: Is Woody Allen reading too much Schopenhauer?
E. M. Cioran: New translated section of Book of Delusions published

Film:

Woody Allen: Will the Real Avatar Please Stand Up (New Yorker)
Woody Allen: Is Woody Allen reading too much Schopenhauer?
Fritz Lang: More information on the restored Metropolis

Music:

Jazz: Miles Davis and Gil Evans performing in 1959
Classical: Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony premiered 186 years ago this month
Bob Dylan: On fame and celebrity

Art:

Gothic Alphabets

Thank you to all link contributors, who can be found on the
A Piece of Monologue Twitter page.