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Nan A. Talese was established in 1990 and has built a distinguished list of fiction and nonfiction writers, including Margaret Atwood and Ian McEwan. It is distinguished both by new authors of fiction and nonfiction, as well as the authors Mrs. Talese has published for many years. Among its writers are Margaret Atwood, Pat Conroy, Jennifer Egan, and Ian McEwan. Read more
News
“You may kiss me.”
Ogi: The Japanese folding fan
No one was more likely to catch a chill than the flirt. Before the eighteenth century, “to flirt” meant to move with a sudden, brisk motion, similar to flitting or flicking. “Flirting a fan” described the coquette’s pastime, and later a new fan-related word, “flirtation,” was used to describe her aim, too—playing at love, without serious intentions.
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A Terrifying Top Hat
Topper: Otherwise called the top hat, a high-crowned, cylindrical men’s hat in silk or beaver
London hatmaker John Hetherington incited a riot with his wondrous shellacked top hat in 1797, “a tall structure having a shiny lustre calculated to frighten timid people,” according to one report. “Several women fainted at the unusual sight …
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Josephine Baker's Leopard, Chiquita
Felines: Members of the cat family
At age fourteen, Josephine Baker (1906–1975), born in the slums of East St. Louis and already separated from her first of five husbands, had struck out on her own to join a vaudeville troupe. She was deemed too dark and too skinny to join Broadway’s chorus line, but eventually landed a role clowning across the stage as the “end girl,” the one who couldn’t quite keep up with the rest and crossed her eyes and goofed around instead.
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A Drastic Pre-Appendectomy Haircut
The Bob: A women’s style of short haircut
History credits French libertines with inventing the scandalous hairstyle, cut sharp and short at the jawline. A lithe American dancer, Irene Castle (1887–1918), popularized the racy hairstyle in the United States. Castle and her dashing husband, Vernon, known for their smooth tango and mincing maxixe, were ballroom idols when she gave herself a drastic pre-appendectomy haircut, making headlines in 1914. “I just couldn’t stand the thought of having strange nurses and attendants fussing over my head,” she said.
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Charles Isherwood's Gift Pick for Theatre Lovers
The New York Times theatre critic Charles Isherwood recently named Must You Go? as one of his hot holiday picks for theatre lovers. “Antonia Fraser’s heartfelt memoir of her life with Harold Pinter is an engrossing, anecdote-rich feat for theater lovers whose tastes extend beyond the glitter of Broadway,” he wrote. “The book ultimately sheds humanizing new light on a writer with a public reputation for his stern sense of ethics and the clammy, unsettling spell cast by his plays.”
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John Waters is a Fan!
During their stints as prison teachers, John Waters screened Pink Flamingos and Avi Steinberg screened Shakespeare. But both shared the experience of listening to the harrowing stroies told by inmates, which started churning their creative minds. Waters used the experience to influence his later work, while Steinberg used it to shape his literary debut, Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, then, that Waters named the memoir as the last great book he read during the Miami Book Fair. (For the record, we’re still pleased as punch, while Avi admits on his Facebook page that he can die now.)
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Pat Conroy on Pat Conroy
How many pages does Pat Conroy read a day? (Answer: 200) What book did Conroy’s mother read to him at age 5? (Answer: Gone With the Wind) What book made Conroy want to become a writer? (Hint: “He wrote about a family so dysfunctional, so horrible, that I thought, my god, he’s writing about my family.”) Hear Conroy tell it in his own words on Minnesota Public Radio. Audio after the jump.
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The Hottest Hostess Gift for T-Day
What better way to celebrate T-Day than by giving a gift that’s sure to warrant thanks? Our illustrated compendium of style Encyclopedia of the Exquisite will impress the most curious-minded and sophisticated of Thanksgiving hosts. Michael Kors, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Tory Burch are already among the book’s admirers. And The Denver Post just weighed in favorably:
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Win a Signed Copy of Running the Books!
We’re giving away three signed copies of Avi Steinberg’s comic memoir Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian. Click here to enter. “Acidly funny. . . . […]
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Pat Conroy Video Interview
Pat Conroy talks to Barnes and Noble about his influences, his fans, and his life as a reader.
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