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From Stephen Elliott
What was your favorite book as a child?
The Phantom Tollbooth? Little House on the Prairie? Something by Roald Dahl that was kind of grotesque and frightening but also a complete immersion in delight?
The Sensible Nonsense Project collects short essays about favorite childhood books and how they continue to reverberate with us into adulthood.
...moreThere are lots of things to be happy about today.
For instance, Open Culture unearthed Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s dark short story “Man from the South” starring a young Steve McQueen who makes a wager for a convertible. Also starring a hatchet and several severed pinky fingers.
...more
Donald Sturrock’s biography of Roald Dahl bridges the gap between the literary impresario and the troubled man.
Two further reasons to drop your day job and write full time rather than watch all this literary glamor ringside are Jonathan Ames and Sophie Dahl. Unless, of course, you don’t have a hit show on HBO, Dave Letterman calling you for repeat visits, Mick Jagger at your heels, or the legacy of a literary legend to fall back on.