Dear John

John Waters writes to his younger self

Sunday driver

Marilyn Monroe

Carol Landis

Adam West

Pique

In 1976, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories was published by the University of Chicago Press. It was the author Norman Maclean's first book, he was 74 years old.  The book was critically acclaimed and  nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. In 1981, Maclean was approached by the publishing house Alfred A. Knopf, who had rejected his first collection. Instead of tossing the query into the trash, he penned a scathing reply.

NORMAN MACLEAN
   Letter to an editor at Alfred A. Knopf, 1981

Dear Mr. Elliott:
 
I have discovered that I have been writing you under false pretenses, although stealing from myself more than from you. I have stolen from myself the opportunity of seeing the dream of every rejected author come true.
 


The dream of every rejected author must be to see, like sugar plums dancing in his head, please-can’t-we-see-your-next-manuscript letters standing in piles on his desk, all coming from publishing companies that rejected his previous manuscript, especially from the more pompous of the fatted cows grazing contentedly in the publishing field. I am sure that, under the influence of those dreams, some of the finest fuck-you prose in the English language has been composed but, alas, never published. And to think that the rare moment in history came to me when I could in actuality have written the prose masterpiece for all rejected authors – and I didn’t even see that history had swung wide its doors to me.
 


You must have known that Alfred A. Knopf turned down my first collection of stories after playing games with it, or at least the game of cat’s-paw, now rolling it over and saying they were going to publish it and then rolling it on its back when the president of the company announced it wouldn’t sell. So I can’t understand how you could ask if I’d submit my second manuscript to Alfred A. Knopf, unless you don’t know my race of people. And I can’t understand how it didn’t register on me – ‘Alfred A. Knopf’ is clear enough on your stationery.
 


But, although I let the big moment elude me, it has given rise to little pleasures. For instance, whenever I receive a statement of the sales of ‘A River Runs Through It’ from the University of Chicago Press, I see that someone has written across the bottom of it, ‘Hurrah for Alfred A. Knopf.’ However, having let the great moment slip by unrecognized and unadorned, I can now only weakly say this: if the situation ever arose when Alfred A. Knopf was the only publishing house remaining in the world and I was the sole remaining author, that would mark the end of the world of books.
 


Very sincerely,
 


Norman Maclean

Jeux Olympiques

The summer Olympic Games of 1900 were held in Paris, France as part of the 1900 World's Fair. Women athletes competed for the first time. Also new to the competition, hot air ballooning and motor car racing.

Entry ticket

Swimming events took place in the Seine

International air races

Corridor

Elliott Erwitt, A Corridor at Allied Chemical (1967)

Paul Delvaux, The Village of the Mermaids (1942)

George Tooker, Subway (1950)

Reverie

Lovely profiles in the paintings of Aristide Maillol.

Rent this space

The Waffle Shop in Pittsburgh,PA–

taking an old-school approach to sharing opinions.

The 'old man'

I wonder what he’ll think of me

I guess he’ll call me the 'old man'

I guess he’ll think I can lick

Ev’ry other feller’s father

Well, I can!

I bet that he’ll turn out to be

The spittin’ image of his dad

But he’ll have more common sense

Than his puddin-headed father ever had

I’ll teach him to wrassle

And dive through a wave

When we go in the mornin for our swim

His mother can teach him

The way to behave

But she won’t make a sissy out o’ him

—from Soliloquy by Rodgers & Hammerstein

Jeffrey Brown imagines a kinder, gentler Darth Vadar in his new book.

Don't try this at home

Ginger appears to be concentrating on her every move, Fred seems completely at ease. Pure gold!

Ella Jane

The sweet vocals of Ella Fitzgerald performing a little ditty she wrote. In this short movie clip, she is 25-years old.

Tearless onion

The Onion's Great Escape, a new book by Sara Fanelli will be released
soon. I've been a fan of her work for years. Her playful collage, distinctive
color palette and expressive handwriting have inspired so many illustrators.

Spring

Having lived for many years in Los Angeles, a city without real seasons, it's easy to forget the experience of their distinct colors and fragrances.

In Chicago we're experiencing a perfect spring; complete with cool 

weather, occasional rain and delicate new foliage.

Gustave Caillebotte captured so perfectly the quality of spring 

in his painting, The Effect of Rain.

Modern library

Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890-1954) book cover art. Always great.

Anthropometry

In 1879 Alphonse Bertillon began working as a clerk in the criminal records office of the Paris police department. With a sharp mind for statistics and a keen interest in anthropology, he noticed immediately the filing system lacking; criminal records had vague descriptions and low quality photography for the 'mug shot'.

Determined to improve methods of identifying offenders, he chose a practical approach of recording body measurements. His belief that the likelihood of any two people having the exact measurements would be next to impossible was the core of his new system, which he called 'anthropometry'.

By 1884, Bertillon's system was the method for filing criminal data, having successful results not only in determining repeat offenders but also in identifying human remains at crime scenes.

By the twentieth century, the Bertillon system was displaced by easily-recorded fingerprints.

Testing 1,2,3...

Thomas Edison's laboratory. Metal, glass, wood 

and plenty of room for brilliance.

Daily need

Dairy Council food cards with nutrition and calorie 

information printed on the back (circa 1960).

Peacock

Bianca and Mick:  a costume every day

Throw down the gauntlet

Nightmare

John Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare (1781)

Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard, Nightmare (1800)

John Anster Fitzgerald, The Nightmare (1857)

40 maps

Forty maps, including unsung yet beloved places like Charleston, 

South Carolina and Mumbai, India by Lena Corwin.