Continuing his mind-boggling tour of Phantom Libraries, Jonathan Law discovers that the books that Samuel Taylor Coleridge didn't write have a more powerful presence than the ones he did... Among the most tantalizing treasures of oblivion are the numerous phantom works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge – works promised to friends, family, ... Read More...
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From the brothels of Hamburg to a place amongst the musical Gods, Mahlerman tells the story of Johannes Brahms... In 1854 the now-obscure composer Peter Cornelius coined the phrase The Three B's by way of describing, for him, the so-called 'Holy Trinity' of composers comprising J S Bach, Beethoven and Hector ... Read More...
Having reviewed comical imaginary libraries from Swift to The Sims, Jonathan Law turns to stranger, more dreamlike worlds, for 'large are the treasures of oblivion'... So far, this has been mostly for laughs. The libraries invented by Rabelais, Donne, Joyce, and Swift were all uproarious things, even where the humour seemed to be laced with something ... Read More...
This week Mahlerman introduces one of Poland's most original composers - now rarely performed, but capable of near-genius... Most of the composers we have run a slide-rule over in these pages have, with a few exceptions, come from modest, even impoverished backgrounds. The great good fortune of Karol Szymanowski was that ... Read More...
Seventy years ago today the age of the atom bomb began with the Trinity Test and a gigantic mushroom cloud in the New Mexico desert. The man who led the Manhattan Project, Major General Leslie Groves, was an 'abrasive and sarcastic S.O.B'. But, writes Seamus Sweeney, he also produced what may be one of the best guides ... Read More...
Steerforth discovers David Karp, a cerebral novelist whose name has unaccountably vanished from the literary canon... Until I found this novel in the cavernous basement of Camilla's Bookshop in Eastbourne, I had never heard of David Karp. I can't remember why One caught my eye, but as soon as I read ... Read More...
Nige uncovers a remarkable piece of precocious satire: a young Max Beerbohm sticking it to an Oscar Wilde at the peak of his powers... Browsing my overcrowded bookshelves with a view to some thinning out, I came across a collection of previously uncollected pieces by Max Beerbohm, A Peep into the ... Read More...
Steerforth remembers one of the more flamboyant dabblers of the 20th century... One of the most colourful and unjustly forgotten characters of the last century is Lord Berners. Born Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson in 1883, Berners went to Eton and worked as a diplomat until he inherited his title. For the remainder of ... Read More...
Gaw uncovers one of the secrets of a good obit: stick around, keep working... Christopher Lee died a knight, lauded for a film career that extended from propping up a very poorly British industry to featuring in some of the most profitable film franchises in Hollywood history. I don't want to knock ... Read More...
Let's face it, if anyone ever deserved a punch in the jaw, then it was Papa Hemingway... I had always believed that Wallace Stevens, poet and insurance company executive, led a life of exemplary dullness, all but devoid of incident. But then I came across a passing reference to the time ... Read More...