16 June (1918): George Orwell to J.R. Ackerley
When a book of mine is discussed at the length of a column there shall be at least some mention of what I have actually said…
13 June (1961): Brainard Cheney to Flannery O’Connor
It may seem irresponsible of us to speak of the delights of our visit with you all, since the near fatal and grim involving you. But we just cannot deny that we had a wonderful time!…
12 June (1955): Tennessee Williams to Maria St. Just
There is still a little too much snap, snap, off with his head, or hers, the hell with croquet!…
11 June (1811): Percy Bysshe Shelley to Elizabeth Hitchener
What is man without his soul? he is not man…What are vegetables without their vegetative power? stones without their stony?…
10 June (1951): Jack Kerouac to Neal Cassady
I wrote that book on COFFEE…remember said rule. Benny, tea, anything I KNOW none as good as coffee for real mental power kicks…Remember! COFFEE! (try it, please)…
9 June (1935): Katherine Anne Porter to Caroline Gordon
I don’t want to be a scourge to anybody, I merely would like to stop being a scourge to myself…
The South of FranceFrom the Print
The stuff was thick. It was denser today, and so when Trimble dropped his key card outside his office door, it was not swallowed up like so many before it. Instead it rested on the surface, with its magnetic strip down…
6 June (1837): Amos Bronson Alcott to Ralph Waldo Emerson
Quacks! Quackery! Poor sick, infirm, lunatic Humanity…
On Surveillance: A Conversation
“Remember that great line from 1984? ‘If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on the human face—forever.’ The way I look at these recent revelations about our surveillance capacities—I think that what’s been revealed to us, essentially, is the boot of the future. This massive surveillance/intelligence system, documented by Snowden and others—this is the boot of the future. And the question is going to be, eventually, who wears the boot?”
5 June (1928): Carl Sandburg to Helen Keller
Possibly the finest thing about your performance is that those who hear and see you feel that zest for living, the zest you radiate, is more important than any formula about how to live life…