biblioklept

It happened that the ship, gaining her port, was moored to the dock on a Fourth of July; and half an hour after landing, hustled by the riotous crowd near Faneuil Hall, the old man narrowly escaped being run over by a patriotic triumphal car in the procession, flying a broidered banner, inscribed with gilt letters: “BUNKER-HILL 1775. GLORY TO THE HEROES THAT FOUGHT!” It was on Copps’ Hill, within…

For years after, there were tales told in Colorado of the amazing, world-reversing night of Fourth of July Eve 1899. Next day’d be full of rodeos, marching bands, and dynamite explosions—but that night there was man-made lightning, horses gone crazy for miles out into the prairie, electricity flooding up through the iron of their shoes, shoes that when they finally came off and got saved to use…

Our Ambassador has spoken of our Fourth of July and the noise it makes. We have got a double Fourth of July—a daylight Fourth and a midnight Fourth. During the day in America, as our Ambassador has indicated, we keep the Fourth of July properly in a reverent spirit. We devote it to teaching our children patriotic things—reverence for the Declaration of Independence. We honor the day all through…

We spent the most of the last week of June in Boston, a city I’d never been to before. It was ostensibly a birthday present for my son, who wanted to see one of his favorite noisy rock bands play, but it was also an excuse to exit the dreadful cruel wet heat of Florida summer. We stayed in the Back Bay neighborhood and did many of the requisite touristy things one expects of touring visitors, but…

Detail from photograph of William T. Vollmann by Alexander Sorondo Just over a year ago, Alexander Sorondo published a long profile of William Vollmann in The Metropolitan Review. Today, at his website Big Reader Bad Grades, Sorondo has published an account of his recent visit to Vollmann out in Sacramento. Titled “We Always Leave Things Unfinished,” and ostensibly about Vollmann’s forthcoming…

“I Don’t Get It” by Robert Crumb, published in Mystic Funnies #1, Alex Wood, 1997.

“Rogue Tomato” by Michael Bishop THE METAMORPHOSIS OF PHILIP K. When Philip K. awoke, he found that overnight he had grown from a reasonably well shaped, bilaterally symmetrical human being into . . . a rotund and limbless planetary body circling a gigantic gauzy-red star. In fact, by the simple feel, by the total aura projected into the seeds of his consciousness, Philip K. concluded that he…

“Legman assman bustman, abominable Henry” (from Henry’s Fate and Other Poems) by John Berryman Legman assman bustman, abominable Henry wandered thro’ France & Italy agog: my God what visible places. Everywhere he studied with both his eyes the faces of those whose fates were his, like a Sligo bog to be cut & burnt, or be flourisht amongst great clouds for a long time ah next San Marco choiring,…

Pause, 2019 by Rosa Loy (b. 1958)

Lithogenesis is by Rainer J. Hanshe “with flares of” Dejan Lukić. The book, subtitled A Choral Poetics of Accretion, Rupture, & Becoming, is forthcoming from Contra Mundum. Their description: Lithogenesis: A Choral Poetics of Accretion, Rupture, & Becoming announces a radical reconfiguration of writing — not as expression, but as mineral formation, as geophonic resonance. It begins from the…

Portraits of Kafka and His Father, 1957 by José Luis Cuevas (1934–2017)

From Mi pequeño (Mon fiston) by Olivier Schrauwen, Norma Editorial, 2009.

In his contemporary review of John A. Williams’ 1972 novel Captain Blackman, George Davis wrote that “One of the major burdens for the black novelist is that he has to correct so much accepted history.” This is the quest of both Williams and Captain Abraham Blackman: to correct so much accepted history; specifically, to correct the accepted and misinformed mainstream history of Black soldiers in…

Shadows of Liberty, 2016, by Titus Kaphar (b. 1976) William T. Vollmann has published a long essay, “American Ephemera,” in the latest issue of Harper’s. The essay is larded with citations, illustrations, and other “ephemera.” Here are the opening paragraphs of Vollmann’s preamble to the essay, “An Explanation”: What dimensions has our America? I propose to offer you this antique measuring…

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“Flag” by Noel Freibert. Published in Kramers Ergot #9, 2016, Fantagraphics Books.

RIP David Hockney, 1937-2026 David Hockney, a prolific giant of the last century, died yesterday at 88. I will leave others with greater expertise to unpack Hockney’s bearing on the (so-called) art world. I do know that people reacted with real emotion to his paintings and drawings. I saw that firsthand on the few occasions I was lucky enough to see a Hockney hanging in a gallery. Below is a slim…