“Hallmarks of her work, critics agreed, included her fleet, engaging prose and prodigious archival research. … What was more, where children’s biographies of an earlier age inclined toward unalloyed veneration, Mrs. Fritz’s were warts-and-all portraits of the often flawed men and women who left their impress on the world – and the resulting books were deemed far more humanizing as a result.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
A History Of Alphabet Blocks
“Perhaps alphabet blocks seem like an obvious idea now, but it took a lot of foundation to build up that pretty good idea into something incredibly common.” And by the way, “the guy who invented the word ‘Kindergarten’ also ensured [alphabet] blocks would always have a place in the toy aisle.”
France’s New Culture Minister Is One Of The Country’s Top Publishers
“[Françoise] Nyssen is the CEO of Éditions Actes Sud, based in the southern city of Arles, which has published the work of Nobel laureates Imre Kertész and Svetlana Alexievitch, as well as Prix Goncourt winners Laurent Gaudé, Jérôme Ferrari, and Mathias Ernard.”
Bangladesh To Get Its First Major Contemporary Art Museum
And it won’t be in Dhaka, the country’s capital. The Srihatta-Samdani Art Centre and Sculpture Park is due to open in late 2018 in Sylhet, a relatively affluent city in Bangladesh’s tea-growing northeast. Though the museum will be privately funded by the couple who are the country’s most prominent art collectors, admission will be free.
Felipe Ehrenberg, Mexico’s Fluxus Artist, Dead At 73
“Though not among the movement’s best-known adherents in the U.S., Ehrenberg was one of the most important exponents of its principles in Europe. … When he returned to Mexico in 1974, Ehrenberg participated in the country’s los grupos movement. Combining activism and anti-art, Ehrenberg and the other los grupos artists created sociopolitical work that could address oppressive political regimes.”
Philly’s ‘Den Mother To Composers’ To Retire After 34 Years
Linda Reichert, who co-founded the city’s Network for New Music in 1984, will step down as artistic director at the end of next season. “In its 33 years, the Network for New Music ensemble, flexible in size and instrumental makeup, has performed more than 500 new works plus 138 commissioned by the organization itself.”
The 17th-Century Tapestries That Survived The St. John The Divine Fire Are Back After 16 Years
“After 16 years of conservation, the 1644-56 Life of Christ tapestries by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli that crown the art collection of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine [in New York] have returned to view. Unlike their previous positions high above parishioners’ heads, they’re temporarily installed in the Chapel of St. James, wrapping around the room at eye-level, as they would have been in the 17th century.”
How A Novelist And His Editor Work With, And Against, Each Other
A good editor’s work is generally invisible to the reader, as most good editors think it ought to be. Here Colin Dickey writes about a lengthy back and forth between a writer and the editor who (heavily) edited his first novel (including cutting it by a third) – this 15 years later, when the novelist published his original 900-page version himself.
An Oral History Of Saturday Night Live’s Biggest Season In Decades
“Everyone from Kate McKinnon to Chris Rock gives THR backstage access to a historic season as they reveal how Melissa McCarthy became Sean Spicer (with help from Kristen Stewart), the joke Aziz Ansari had to cut, and how D.C. chaos is fueling the highest ratings in decades: ‘You almost feel like a war profiteer.'”
Why The Battle Between Netflix And The Cannes Festival Was Bound To Happen
“France is a paradise for moviegoers, with thriving cinemas and state subsidies for new productions. Netflix is a global streaming giant founded on the concept that movie theaters are a thing of the past. So it was perhaps inevitable that the two worlds would collide over the Cannes Film Festival.”