“Upon a large sheet of white paper a cartoonist is seen at work rapidly sketching the portrait of an elderly gentleman of most comical feature and expression. After completing the likeness the artist rapidly draws on the paper a clever sketch of a bottle of wine and a goblet, and then, to the surprise of all, actually removes them from the paper on which they were drawn and pours actual wine out of the bottle into a real glass. Surprising effects quickly follow after this; and the numerous changes of expression which flit over the face in the sketch cause a vast amount of amusement and at the same time give a splendid illustration of the caricaturist’s art.”
The Enchanted Drawing, 1900, from the Edison films catalog. (via)
NOW is PAST
“ Art, like fandom, asserts the possibility of fellowship in a world built entirely from the materials of solitude. ”
Michael Chabon, Manhood for Amateurs
Mark Twain’s handwritten manuscript pages of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
(Source: myimaginarybrooklyn).
(Source: bookshavepores)
(Source: vimeo.com)
Welch ein kleiner Gedanke doch ein ganzes Leben füllen kann!
-Ludwig Wittgeinstein, Vermischte Bemerkungen
A Partial Inventory of Gustave Flaubert’s Personal Effects
As Catalogued by M. Lemoel on May 20, 1880, Twelve Days after the Writer’s Death.
In the bedroom on the first floor:
panama hat
top hat
red silk cravat
5 pairs of gloves
19 shirts
2 dressing gowns
5 waistcoasts
7 walking sticks
tobacco jar
two pairs of bootsIn the dining room:
35 champagne glasses
48 porcelain dinner plates
a painting representing Napoléon I
a pocket watch in a gold case engraved with initials ‘GF’
a gold watch chain
a gold signet ring with square stone
a silver spoon and two forks marked ‘N flaubert’
5 oyster-knives with black handles and silver bladesIn the study on the first floor:
Engraving in oakwood frame representing The temptation of Saint Antoine by Callot
Marble clock with bronze figurines, maker’s name ‘Destigny’ engraved on dial
Photographic reproduction of painting entitled Visions
Array consisting of lances, javelins, arrows, mandolin, Basque drum, axe, oriental pipe, cardboard Chinese statuette
Large round table in mahogany
Green woolen tablecloth
One tiger skin, one lynx skin, one bear skin, white
Penholder in the shape of dragon
Bronze inkwell
Three paperknives, one with initials ‘GF’
Two Egyptian lanterns
Unfinished manuscript of work entitled Bouvard et Pécuchet
Creuzer, Religions of Antiquity in 11 vols
Works of Saint Theresa in Migne edition
Works of Walter Scott in 32 vols.
(In the drawer of one of the small bookcases is found the sum of 2515 francs, which sum is deposited with Maitre Bidault to cover funeral expenses, burial charges, and other debts.)
“Sometimes in life you get yelled at. No matter your moral fiber, it can’t be avoided all the time. It happens in Marine Corps boot camp; it happens in rush-hour subway cars; it happens if your mother catches you reading Lady Chatterly’s Lover at an impressionable young age. But one place you don’t expect to get harangued, one place where the lid’s supposed to stay on the pot, is poetry.”
—Eli Mandel, “D.H. Lawrence’s ‘Pomegranate’”
Photo source: Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
