From the category archives:

Letters

Anton Chekhov’s Letter to Dmitry V. Grigorovich

April 21, 2010

(The elderly novelist to whom this letter is addressed won his reputation in the middle of the century and was thus a survivor of the Golden Age of Russian literature.  He had written to young Chekhov, with whom he was not acquainted, hailing him as the outstanding writer of his generation and urging him to [...]

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To Make Bach the Grund of Grundrisse and the Chaconne of a Shocked Shack

Thumbnail image for To Make Bach the Grund of Grundrisse and the Chaconne of a Shocked Shack March 15, 2010

Today I thought I should add my secret voice to your evaluations.
Your intelligence may be genius, but remember as my mother saids also always to be nice.
A seventh grade teacher consoled me when I was teased:
You can always tell the genius by the enemies who surround him.

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WHAT’S YOUR IDEA OF A GOOD TIME?

February 26, 2010
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In 1977, Bill Berkson and Bernadette Mayer began a kind of interview correspondence where with they exchanged questions and answers on a variety of topics.

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