Jack London: Socialist author/racist jag

Posted by Jason Diamond Jack London was born on this day in 1876.  His books like Call of the Wild are required reading for many school students, and Roger Ebert gave the 1991 adaptation of White Fang, starring Ethan Hawke, three stars out of four.  But not as many of us are as familiar with his works on socialism, or his tirades against Asians and African-Americans.  Some of those writings were used be Ken Burns in his 2005 documentary of the boxer Jack Johnson, Unforgivable Blackness, as an […]

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Morning Bites: Downton to dollars, hatchet jobs, Jack London, SMITH’s “Moment,” Leigh Stein, and more

Kim Gordon riding the NYC subway sometime in the 1970s via Bryan Waterman. The best hatchet jobs of 2011. An interview with Leigh Stein (The Fallback Plan) at HTML Giant. The SMITH “Moment” party is recapped. “We’re just riding that ‘Downton Abbey’ wave,” – the publishing industry sees dollar signs thanks everyones favorite Edwardian clan. Here’s a single off Craig Finn’s forthcoming solo debut, Clear Heart Full Eyes. Follow Vol. 1 Brooklyn on Twitter, Facebook, and our Tumblr. Got tips for Bites?  Info@Vol1brooklyn.com

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Yelp reviews for Edith Wharton, Hemingway, and Edgar Allan Poe

Posted By Jason Diamond Yelp reviews tend to serve two purposes for me:  they tell me whether or not a place is good at giving people food poisoning, or they help me kill time when I’m bored and Wikipedia and Youtube just won’t do. I’m not sure if I’d call my obsession with reading Yelp reviews strange or quirky, after all, some of my friends spend hours of their day reading over Craigslist missed connections (or the n+1 version…), and […]

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Bites: Hemon and McCann Talk, Jack London’s 134th Birthday, Because Paul Auster Says so, Yummy Fur, and More

Aleksandar Hemon talks with with Colum McCann nin the new issue of The Believer.  I love both writers, but I put this at the top so I could post the Tony Millionaire illustration. People care that it’s the 134th anniversary of Jack London’s birth. If Paul Auster says that Paul Auster is putting out a new novel, it must be true. Steve Almond weighs in on Katie Roiphe’s males writers and sex fiction piece. Weird writer rituals. Dave Eggers talks […]

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