Neglected Books

From the NY Times in 1932: Benjamin de Casseres to write a magazine by, and entirely about, himself. "It will be a magazine of aggressive individualism," he added, somewhat unnecessarily.

"Ethics. That's what makes the press respected!"

Remembering a time when these words wouldn't cause a snort of derision.

Russell Simpson as a city desk editor in The Honor of the Press (1932).

Angels in Ealing (1939), the second and last novel by Eileen Winncroft, AKA Martha Blount, AKA Henrietta Pryke Franckeiss Macloughlin, imagines the afterlife of two East Enders who die in a car crash after slipping off for a bit of all right.

neglectedbooks.com/?...

I'm with you. But I'm also a realist. This will be a tough transition and I hope BlueSky makes it.

Albert Collins knew...

It's not an exaggeration to say that 9 out of 10 software companies would rather slap on millions of lines of code as bandaids than to invest in a robust, scalable, sustainable core architecture.

The departing BlueSky CEO says the platform needs "a seasoned operator focused on scaling and execution”—which is pretty much the hardest and least respected job in software. Don't hold your breath.

A stock photo of a man -- not my colleague -- sitting in a car.

I once ran into my officemate sitting and smoking in his car on a side street in Brussels in the middle of a workday. I said hello and asked what he was doing. "Waiting for someone. To go somewhere and do something," he replied, as if there were nothing the least suspicious.

(Not him in the photo.)

Sally Eilers delivers a completely authentic, convincing explanation of why she shot a man in her apartment. From Made on Broadway (1933). It's a shame she was mostly used for dramas—she's terrific here as a street gal Robert Montgomery attempts to turn into a star.

Oof. I can see why. It'd be one thing if Perutz was a well-recognized name, but these are near-mystifying to browsers.

Though many of Austrian Jewish novelist Leo Perutz's books are available in print in English translation, his work remains far less well known than that of his contemporaries Joseph Roth and Stefan Zweig. Back in 2013, I looked at Little Apple, his novel of war and obsession.
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That's right. And once upon a time, you could get Peach Melba ice cream.

Melba toast was named after the opera singer Dame Nelly Melba. Think about it, though: "Your ladyship, we have created this dish in your honour of your singing: dry, flavorless, crustless, unbuttered toast."

"I'll teach you to play around with Mother's clothes, Norman!"

I've watched at least 500 Pre-Code films by now, but I swear nothing has shocked me more than this scene of Loretta Young (who was cast as the good girl 99.99% of the time) smacking her (illegitimate) son for using her kimono to carry beer bottles in. From Born to be Bad (1934)

No, that was an original screenplay by Paddy Chafevsky, as I recall.

Funny, yes, but sometimes also grim. I recall a baby deliberately being left to die of exposure in a cold room in one of her books.

I'm not sure it actually was hair and not a helmet.

No, I'm sorry, but Ivy lived in a world entirely of her own.

I simply cannot too strongly encourage men to try the same experiment. It fundamentally reset my approach to reading—but more than that: it reset how I try to understand the world.
3/3

I found the experience so illuminating and transformative that I continued for another year, which was when I read Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage for the first time.
2/3

On International Women's Day, I'm remembering the year I devoted to reading nothing but the work of women writers.
1/3

Pithy — but pretty much beyond any writer's control.

I understand. I found an old paperback in terrible condition, or else I'd have been in the same situation.

Kenneth Fearing's first novel, The Hospital (1939), set the formula he followed through six more: a Rashomon-like tale of a few dramatic days told by a half-dozen characters, each of dubious reliability, and all powered by Fearing's boisterously cacophonic prose.
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Mr. J. Pontefract Cholmondeley of Ottawa, Canada offering an opinion entirely appropriate to someone named J. Pontefract Cholmondeley.

"In olden days, a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking
But now, God knows
Anything goes,"
Cole Porter, 1934

"Hubba, hubba, hubba!"
John Wayne in His Private Secretary, 1933

Ethel Mannin’s AN AMERICAN JOURNEY is being republished in May by Boiler House Press thanks to Brad Bigelow who is the force behind @neglectedbooks.com
There is a story here: Back in 2023, I had been posting photos from my trips on the Greyhound bus. Brad saw them & got in touch asking if I… (1)

Protest sign with photo of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. that reads, "My Brain Worm Knows More About Science Than I Do!"

Getting ready to Stand Up For Science later today.
@standupforscience.bsky.social

In honor of her birthday (BOTD 1900), here's a rare example of Louise Beavers's singing. "The Pick-Up," from Safety in Numbers (1930) starring Charles "Buddy" Rogers.