Jason Roberts Remembers J. D. Salinger
This is a difficult death to parse, absence compounding absence. The overriding distinction of J.D. Salinger, both as a writer and as a celebrity, has always been his fundamental non-presence.…
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Rumpus Articles
This Dictionary Has Oral Sex In It!
I just learned from Jacket Copy that “Menifee school district in Riverside County has removed the 10th edition of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary from all school shelves after a parent complained…
Zinn On Anarchism, Majority Rule and The Nation State
“Rousseau once said, if I am part of a group of 100 people, do 99 people have the right to sentence me to death, just because they are majority? No,…
Salinger Links
Charles McGrath’s obit for The New York Times: “J. D. Salinger, Enigmatic Author, Dies at 91.” Links to every story J. D. Salinger published in The New Yorker. A collection…
J. D. Salinger
“I hope to hell that when I do die somebody has the sense to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetary.…
Defending Memoir, or, The Problem with Taylor
Journalism is hard, underpaid work, and attacking memoir is low hanging fruit, especially when it's so tied to the celebrity memoir and the platform writer, the worst impulses of the publishing industry.
Czechoslovakian Expose
The first three parts of this book cover series were titled “Slovakian Expose,” but this was mainly because I found these images at online Slovak bookstores. (See the last part.)…
Morning Coffee
Now even earlier! I have a thing about redheads. The top ten books written by librarians. Matthew Rainwaters looks at the Texas criminal justice system. Why yes, I would like…
“Family Elegy in a Late Style of Fire,” a Rumpus Original Poem by Kara Candito
Family Elegy in a Late Style of Fire After Larry Levis In the story no one will tell, my Great Uncle Salvatore is an errand boy for the mafiosi and…