“Four rare books — including a 17th century edition by Sir Isaac Newton — were returned to Russian libraries Monday after police arrested three people suspected in their theft.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
Regressing to Harry
Everyone has read Harry Potter by now, of course, and the franchise shows no signs (so far) of waning in popularity among all age groups. But why are adults so interested in these books aimed at children? Certainly, they are well-written and exciting, but what is it about today’s world that is making grown-ups more interested in reading about sorcerers and witchcraft than about love, sex, tragedy, and other more traditional ‘adult’ literary subjects?
Desperately Seeking Sanders
A British art historian claims that she has found records proving the existence of John Sanders, an actor and painter thought to be responsible for the only living portrait of William Shakespeare. Trouble is, the painter Tarnya Cooper has ‘found’ is not the right John Sanders, judging from his age and relative inexperience at the time the portrait in question was painted. Still, historians feel that Cooper’s John Sanders may well lead them to the John Sanders they’re all looking for.
They May Be Broke, But They’re Good
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra might be struggling under mountains of debt (the orchestra’s executive director recently threatened that that bankruptcy would be a possibility if local donors didn’t step up the level of their fiscal generosity) and wondering how to replace outgoing music director Mariss Jansons, but out-of-town reviews of a recent East Coast tour seem to suggest that, artistically, the PSO has never seen better times.
The Re-education of Jonathan Franzen
It’s been a year since Jonathan Franzen dissed Oprah and her book club. He says things have changed, but others aren’t so sure. “Franzen has the most dire case of literary status-anxiety that I have ever seen,” says Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of the New Republic. “He demeans his own seriousness with his flurries of positioning.”Others are more positive. “This is someone whose work is galvanized by his own contradictions, his own warring instincts,” says Henry Finder, editorial director of the New Yorker.
Former National Ballet Dancer Dies in Motorcycle Accident
William Marri, 33, a former principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, died Saturday after being in a motorcycle accident in New York. Marri had left the National last March to join the cast of the Billy Joel/Twyla Tharp show Movin Out, which recently landed on Broadway. “Marri was riding his motorcycle before an evening performance when he crashed.”
Bay Area Blues
Northern California’s East Bay arts groups are hurting in the economic downturn like arts groups everywhere. Ticket sales are down, government funding has been slashed, and corporate donations have slipped.
No Hard Feelings – Poet Gives Mag $100 Million
Some 30 years ago, the editor of Poetry Magazine rejected a submission by one Mrs Guernsey Van Riper Jr. of Indianapolis. Over the next few decades she kept submitting poems and he kept rejecting them. It turns out she was fabulously wealthy, and, now 87 years old, has just made a gift to the influential Poetry of $100 million over the next 30 years, with “no strings attached.”
And Minnesota
Minnesota has traditionally funded the arts at a higher level than the rest of the country. But a new report says that foundation giving to the arts has been scaled back, and that small arts groups are hardest hit by the financial squeeze. Dance is the poorest-funded of all the arts.
Newly Rich
This gift has suddenly turned Poetry from a struggling journal little known outside literary circles to one of the world’s richest publications. [Editor Joseph] Parisi said it was by far the largest single donation ever made to an institution devoted to poetry. ‘There just isn’t anything to compare it to. We will be the largest foundation in the world devoted to poetry. It’s a huge responsibility, as I’m realizing every day more and more.”