Book Ends
Posted: December 29, 2012 Filed under: Books, Writing and Writers | Tags: book buying, book collecting, book collector, book reviews, books, books by christopher hitchens, books by john updike, christopher hitchens, donating books, John Updike books, reading, writing Leave a comment »
John Updike posed in front of bookshelves.
By Dick Loftin.
I often wonder what happens to the collections of books once the owner dies. I’ll find myself staring at my bookshelves wondering what will happen to my books after I’m gone. Do they go off to Goodwill? A used bookstore [which would be OK] or rest in a pile next to the garbage bags, waiting on the collector? I know this last possibility will not happen. My wife knows my books are an extension of me, and she would probably keep many of them and donate the rest.
After the deaths of John Updike and Christopher Hitchens, I fanaticized about being able to browse through their books. To spend time among the books of these lovers of words and writing would be an amazing experience, I’m sure. I will often look on You Tube for videos of Updike, Hitchens, and other writers in their offices or personal libraries, to catch a glimpse of their bookshelves. My eyes strain as I try to make out the titles. I was excited to notice I had a book on Christianity that was owned by Hitchens. And for a few seconds, I felt very smart. You can learn a lot about someone by looking at their bookshelves. You can learn more if they don’t read at all. Readers are better.
On December 28, 2012, the New York Times Sunday Book Review published a wonderful essay by Andrew D. Scrimgeour. In the piece, “Handled With Care,” Mr. Scrimgeour, as the Dean of Libraries at Drew University, writes about his job as an academic librarian. He has the privilege of perusing through the libraries of those who have died, picking and choosing the books to be taken and added to the university’s collection. Just imagine looking through the bookshelves of someone who loves books as much as you do.
It is a fascinating and interesting essay. You can read it Here.
——-
Source:
Photo of John Updike from finebooksmagazine.com
Your Past, Relived in Your Books
Posted: January 23, 2012 Filed under: Books | Tags: Ariel Durant, Bennett Cerf, Bill Clinton, Billy Graham, biography, books, business, C.S. Lewis, christopher hitchens, Conrad Hilton, David Crockett, Davy Crockett, Diarmaid MacCullough, Donald Trump, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Edgar Allen Poe, Empire State Building, essays, Gerald Ford, Harry Truman, Hilton Hotels, history, J. Paul Getty, John F. Kennedy, John Kenneth Galbraith, Julian Sumons, Langston Hughes, Martin Luther, Michael Wallis, poetry, Random House, reading, Richard Nixon, Robert Lowell, Rockefeller, Stock Market Crash of 1929, Teddy Roosevelt, Thoreau, Wallace Stevens, Will Durant, Will Rogers, Winston Churchill, writing 1 Comment »
Winston Churchill at his desk. Source: maritimequest.com
by Dick Loftin
Winston Churchill once wrote if you don’t have time to read all of the books you buy, at least be acquainted with them. While cleaning out some bookshelves—to move out some impulsive purchases at book fairs and yard sales—I discovered some lost treasures. It is fun to be surprised by a book you forgot you had. Buried deep in the bookshelf is a forgotten volume, rediscovered like an old friend. “Oh, there, you are!” it shouts to you.
My main interests are history and biography, so finding books that I had purchased months or years ago in the back of a bookshelf was like taking a walk down memory lane. There was, “As I See It,” an autobiography of J. Paul Getty, the great oilman. I learned from Getty that thinking is probably the most important skill to develop in business. Bennett Cerf’s “At Random,” a book about his time at Random House, is a great book about the book business and his relationship with the authors he published. I lost my first copy of it years ago, but was overjoyed to find it online.
There are biographies of the Rockefellers, and a couple of books about the Empire State Building in New York. The Empire State Building was built in the middle of the depression by men glad to have a job and a hand in building an architectural icon. It is quite possibly the greatest building in the world.
I find some political figures interesting. I have several books by and about Richard Nixon, a couple by Eisenhower, there are books on Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton (an avid reader and fascinating figure no matter what your politics.) There are books by and about by JFK, Teddy Roosevelt, and one of my favorites, Harry Truman.
Faith and one’s “inner life” is interesting to me, so I have several books by C.S. Lewis (I found myself saying, ‘Yes!’ out loud numerous times while reading ‘Mere Christianity.’) I have a few by Billy Graham and a collection of Martin Luther’s writings. There is the massive “Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years,” by Diarmaid MacCullough, which I was pleased to discover was on the bookshelf of the late Christopher Hitchens.
I have Thoreau’s “Walden,” (who doesn’t?), a sad biography of Edgar Allen Poe, written by Julian Sumons in 1976, called, “The Tell Tale Heart.” I was delighted to find some old book reviews and other clippings tucked inside the book. There was an Associated Press story about the individual who left a bottle of cognac and roses on Poe’s grave in Baltimore, and had done so for 33 years. It is a tradition that continued for decades, but I read in the Wall Street Journal, that the person who held up the tribute to Poe failed to show up for the third year in a row. The “Poe Toasters,” as they are called, now believe this great literary tradition for a giant of the written word, is over.* But, finding the clippings took me back to the time when I bought the book. Try that with a Kindle!
Michael Wallis’ fine biography, “David Crockett, The Lion of the West,” is a great read. Early in the book, Mr. Wallis makes clear, it is “David,” not “Davy” Crockett. I have several of Mr. Wallis’ books. He is a terrific writer and historian. I have Richard D. White, Jr’s., well-received “Will Rogers: A Political Life,” a new biography of the beloved Oklahomans life as a political humorist and writer.
The classic business book by John Kenneth Galbraith on the Stock Market Crash of 1929, which I found at a book festival, is among biographies of Conrad Hilton and the early books of Donald Trump, when he was more interested in real estate than being a celebrity.
I rediscovered various memoirs, several volumes of poetry (Robert Lowell, Langston Hughes, Wallace Stevens) and essays I absolutely love. They come from everywhere, book fairs, flea markets, antique shops, estate and garage sales, and I will haunt every bookstore in every town I visit. I once bought a book by Christopher Hitchens and Billy Graham on the same night. The young lady behind the counter gave me a puzzled look as I paid for them. I had to smile at the irony.
It is very easy to get attached to your books. They are your history. They provide a background and a place for the memories of your life. You remember when and where you bought them, who your friends were at the time, where you lived, who you loved and who loved you. You remember what you thought and how your thinking has changed over the years, quite possibly by the books you read. Your books are about your life as much as the person who wrote it. Your books are your “relivable past.”
Books are quiet reminders of who you were, and could very well represent what you are today. I bought the eleven volume “Story of Civilization” by Will and Ariel Durant when I was in my late twenties, fully intending to begin reading when I was fifty. I’m several years behind schedule. But that is the beautiful thing about books. Even as the years pass, the books remain. And books, better and more reliable than some friends, will wait for you. Whenever you are ready to get reacquainted. Which proves Winston Churchill was a wise man. Very wise.
* Here is a nice write-up on the apparent end of the “Poe Toaster,” from litstack.com
Who Is Christopher Hitchens?
Posted: December 16, 2011 Filed under: Books, Writing and Writers | Tags: christopher hitchens Leave a comment »
Christopher Hitchens in his Washington, D.C. home, October 2010.
Christopher Hitchens died on Thursday, December 15, 2011, at 62. Endpaper Review profiled Mr. Hitchens on December 1, 2011. We are reposting it here. We are saddened by the passing of Mr. Hitchens, a man who was passionate about writing and books. -DL
by Dick Loftin
Christopher Hitchens is an atheist. He is also a disagreeable man. Those were my first two impressions of him. Maybe the two are connected, but he is also brilliant. A brilliant writer and thinker. You may not agree with what he writes or thinks—his views on religion are enough to get anyone going—but the power he holds over words and language, his vast knowledge of books and literature are impossible to ignore. And brilliance is always a useful thing.
The purpose of this post, and Endpaper Review for that matter, is to focus on the “big three”—books, reading and writing. A Google search for Hitchens will yield nearly six-million results, so his views on religion are easily accessible. Here, I am concentrating on his writing career.
When I become aware of a writer, and it has only been in the past few months that I have started reading Hitchens, I want to know more about the life before I read too much of the work. The work will often mirror the life—I want to see the reflection.
Like the late John Updike, Hitchens is a writing machine. He is extremely well-read and will often quote the classics in his reviews and other writings. I like “volume” in writers. I like heft. That is, I like to look at a lot of writing when I start reading an author. Hitchens does not disappoint. His output is vast. His published work includes ten books, four pamphlets (who knew people still wrote pamphlets?), five collections of essays, including his most recent, and what may be his final book, “Arguably,” and six collaborations with others. His main topics are religion, of course, and politics, but there are also books about Thomas Jefferson and Hitchens’ hero, George Orwell (I have his Orwell book, but I haven’t read it yet.) Thomas Paine, Bill Clinton, and Henry Kissinger are other subjects. He likes Paine; he doesn’t care much for Clinton and Kissinger at all. If you read his views on Mother Teresa, brace yourself. The scope and depth of his writing life is impressive.
While most of us struggle for hours or days to get a good piece of “useful” writing, Hitchens will kick out a thousand finished words, ready for publication, before noon. What would take most people two hours, Hitchens can get done in thirty minutes. There is a reason for this. Hitchens is very clear in his thinking. He knows what he believes. He knows what he wants to say, and how to say it. There is something to admire in someone who is absolutely certain about what he thinks and believes. How many people do we know who are so sure—and aren’t afraid to say it? Words seem to travel from Hitchens brain and fall out of his fingers.
There is an excellent article about Hitchens, published in the New Yorker in 2006. Written by Ian Parker, “He Knew He Was Right,” is a lengthy profile of Hitchens’ life from birth up to the publication of “God Is Not Great,” the book that made Christopher Hitchens, “Christopher Hitchens.” In the article, he talks about the writing process: “Writing is mainly recreational. I’m not happy when I’m not doing it… If I take even a day from it, I’m uneasy.” The article goes on to say he doesn’t cut-and-paste, backspace, or delete. Impressive. Writers are also great sponges. They absorb words. In the same article, novelist Ian McEwan says of Hitchens, “(He) seems instantly neurologically available. Everything he’s ever read, everyone he’s ever met, every story he’s ever heard.”
His book reviews are sharp and right to the point. Of David Mamet’s “The Secret Knowledge,” reviewed in the New York Times on June 17, 2011, Hitchens throws a dagger in the very first line: “This is an extraordinarily irritating book,” he writes. Sharp? Yes. Pointed? Yes. Makes you want to keep reading? Absolutely. I want to know why the book is so irritating and who would be a better reviewer than Hitchens, a man who irritates so many?
We need writers like Christopher Hitchens to prod us, to challenge us into deeper thinking. To challenge our “common” thinking. He puts it online, on paper, and in books to read and absorb. A book is meaningless if it isn’t absorbed. So, while I may disagree with Hitchens in one area, I may agree with him in a hundred others. I think that is how you need to look at these things, or none of us will get anywhere. Hitchens thoughts on religion may send you over the cliff, but when he speaks of Thomas Jefferson or writes lovingly about John Updike, he leaves you wanting more.
Hitchens is suffering from stage four cancer of the esophagus. He likes to say, “There is no stage five.” And even though it will be the disease that will ultimately kill him, his greatest fear is losing his voice. He’s a talker and he learned years ago if you know how to talk, you can write. He is an expert at both.
His piece for the June 2011 issue of Vanity Fair, “Unspoken Truth,” is difficult to read. The sadness he reveals in losing his voice, his “writer’s voice,” is so obviously painful for him, you wish there was something you could do, as you hold back tears. It makes me grateful to know that after Christopher Hitchens is gone, his excellent body of work will remain.
Hitch lives on.
—————–
Recommended Reading and Source Material:
“Unspoken Truths,” by Christopher Hitchens, Vanity Fair, June 2011. “He Knew He Was Right,” by Ian Parker, The New Yorker, October 16, 2006. “Christopher Hitchens, a Man of His Words,” review of his book, “Arguably,” by Bill Keller, The New York Times, September 9, 2011.
“Topic of Cancer,” by Christopher Hitchens, Vanity Fair, September 2010. “Farewell to John Updike, a man of wry and reserved delicacy and elegance.” by Christopher Hitchens, Slate.com, February 2, 2009; “Christopher Hitchens: Not Going Gently,” by Liesl Schillinger, The New York Times, August 14, 2010;
“A Voice, Still Vibrant, Reflects on Mortality,” by Charles McGrath, The New York Times, October 9, 2011. “David Mamet’s Right-Wing Conversion,” by Christopher Hitchens, The New York Times, July 17, 2011; Additional Material: “Q&A with Christopher Hitchens,” Interview by Brian Lamb, C-Spanvideo.org., January 14, 2011. An outstanding interview with Christopher Hitchens on his illness and other subjects. The video also provides an enviable look at the bookshelves in Hitchens Washington, D.C. home.
Who Is Christopher Hitchens?
Posted: December 1, 2011 Filed under: Books, Writing and Writers | Tags: christopher hitchens 4 Comments »Christopher Hitchens in his Washington, D.C. home, October 2010.
Christopher Hitchens died on Thursday, December 15, 2011, at 62. Endpaper Review profiled Mr. Hitchens on December 1, 2011. We are saddened by the passing of Mr. Hitchens, a man who was passionate about writing and books. -DL
by Dick Loftin
Christopher Hitchens is an atheist. He is also a disagreeable man. Those were my first two impressions of him. Maybe the two are connected, but he is also brilliant. A brilliant writer and thinker. You may not agree with what he writes or thinks—his views on religion are enough to get anyone going—but the power he holds over words and language, his vast knowledge of books and literature are impossible to ignore. And brilliance is always a useful thing.
The purpose of this post, and Endpaper Review for that matter, is to focus on the “big three”—books, reading and writing. A Google search for Hitchens will yield nearly six-million results, so his views on religion are easily accessible. Here, I am concentrating on his writing career.
When I become aware of a writer, and it has only been in the past few months that I have started reading Hitchens, I want to know more about the life before I read too much of the work. The work will often mirror the life—I want to see the reflection.
Like the late John Updike, Hitchens is a writing machine. He is extremely well-read and will often quote the classics in his reviews and other writings. I like “volume” in writers. I like heft. That is, I like to look at a lot of writing when I start reading an author. Hitchens does not disappoint. His output is vast. His published work includes ten books, four pamphlets (who knew people still wrote pamphlets?), five collections of essays, including his most recent, and what may be his final book, “Arguably,” and six collaborations with others. His main topics are religion, of course, and politics, but there are also books about Thomas Jefferson and Hitchens’ hero, George Orwell (I have his Orwell book, but I haven’t read it yet.) Thomas Paine, Bill Clinton, and Henry Kissinger are other subjects. He likes Paine; he doesn’t care much for Clinton and Kissinger at all. If you read his views on Mother Teresa, brace yourself. The scope and depth of his writing life is impressive.
While most of us struggle for hours or days to get a good piece of “useful” writing, Hitchens will kick out a thousand finished words, ready for publication, before noon. What would take most people two hours, Hitchens can get done in thirty minutes. There is a reason for this. Hitchens is very clear in his thinking. He knows what he believes. He knows what he wants to say, and how to say it. There is something to admire in someone who is absolutely certain about what he thinks and believes. How many people do we know who are so sure—and aren’t afraid to say it? Words seem to travel from Hitchens brain and fall out of his fingers.
There is an excellent article about Hitchens, published in the New Yorker in 2006. Written by Ian Parker, “He Knew He Was Right,” is a lengthy profile of Hitchens’ life from birth up to the publication of “God Is Not Great,” the book that made Christopher Hitchens, “Christopher Hitchens.” In the article, he talks about the writing process: “Writing is mainly recreational. I’m not happy when I’m not doing it… If I take even a day from it, I’m uneasy.” The article goes on to say he doesn’t cut-and-paste, backspace, or delete. Impressive. Writers are also great sponges. They absorb words. In the same article, novelist Ian McEwan says of Hitchens, “(He) seems instantly neurologically available. Everything he’s ever read, everyone he’s ever met, every story he’s ever heard.”
His book reviews are sharp and right to the point. Of David Mamet’s “The Secret Knowledge,” reviewed in the New York Times on June 17, 2011, Hitchens throws a dagger in the very first line: “This is an extraordinarily irritating book,” he writes. Sharp? Yes. Pointed? Yes. Makes you want to keep reading? Absolutely. I want to know why the book is so irritating and who would be a better reviewer than Hitchens, a man who irritates so many?
We need writers like Christopher Hitchens to prod us, to challenge us into deeper thinking. To challenge our “common” thinking. He puts it online, on paper, and in books to read and absorb. A book is meaningless if it isn’t absorbed. So, while I may disagree with Hitchens in one area, I may agree with him in a hundred others. I think that is how you need to look at these things, or none of us will get anywhere. Hitchens thoughts on religion may send you over the cliff, but when he speaks of Thomas Jefferson or writes lovingly about John Updike, he leaves you wanting more.
Hitchens is suffering from stage four cancer of the esophagus. He likes to say, “There is no stage five.” And even though it will be the disease that will ultimately kill him, his greatest fear is losing his voice. He’s a talker and he learned years ago if you know how to talk, you can write. He is an expert at both.
His piece for the June 2011 issue of Vanity Fair, “Unspoken Truth,” is difficult to read. The sadness he reveals in losing his voice, his “writer’s voice,” is so obviously painful for him, you wish there was something you could do, as you hold back tears. It makes me grateful to know that after Christopher Hitchens is gone, his excellent body of work will remain.
Hitch lives on.
—————–
Recommended Reading and Source Material:
“Unspoken Truths,” by Christopher Hitchens, Vanity Fair, June 2011. “He Knew He Was Right,” by Ian Parker, The New Yorker, October 16, 2006. “Christopher Hitchens, a Man of His Words,” review of his book, “Arguably,” by Bill Keller, The New York Times, September 9, 2011.
“Topic of Cancer,” by Christopher Hitchens, Vanity Fair, September 2010. “Farewell to John Updike, a man of wry and reserved delicacy and elegance.” by Christopher Hitchens, Slate.com, February 2, 2009; “Christopher Hitchens: Not Going Gently,” by Liesl Schillinger, The New York Times, August 14, 2010;
“A Voice, Still Vibrant, Reflects on Mortality,” by Charles McGrath, The New York Times, October 9, 2011. “David Mamet’s Right-Wing Conversion,” by Christopher Hitchens, The New York Times, July 17, 2011; Additional Material: “Q&A with Christopher Hitchens,” Interview by Brian Lamb, C-Spanvideo.org., January 14, 2011. An outstanding interview with Christopher Hitchens on his illness and other subjects. The video also provides an enviable look at the bookshelves in Hitchens Washington, D.C. home.
