Reviews and News:
Mussolini’s last lover: “When Clara Petacci, known as Claretta, first met Mussolini in April 1932, she was a gushing, busty young Fascist of twenty, with dark hair, a prominent nose and good legs; he was forty-nine, shaven-headed, with a jutting chin, a fleshy mouth and burning eyes, and he had been dictator of Italy for the past eight years. The encounter took place at the seaside resort of Ostia, where both had gone to enjoy a fine spring day. Emerging from her chauffeur-driven family car, Claretta bounded over to pay homage to the Duce. Mussolini was gracious. Although never as pretty, as intelligent or as interesting as many of his other lovers, Claretta became his most enduring, and it was she who shared his gruesome end.”
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The life and prose of Henry Green: “His novels, which concern people of all classes engaging in games of deception to keep their bored hearts alive, or to win a thing as simple as happiness, have begged adjectives like difficult and even poetic—that backhanded writer’s writer’s compliment—because his realism is faithless, his characters forget their motivations, and his incredible syntax is neither definitive of one novel nor consistent from that to the next. Even from line to line he changes his mind about how to write.”
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Robert Graves, reluctant war poet.
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What do we know about Shakespeare from his portraits?
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Plutarch’s moralism: “While Plutarch admires, more or less, Pompey’s martial prowess, Caesar’s single-mindedness and Brutus’s patriotism, he shows clear contempt for Mark Antony. Upright citizens, he writes, ‘abhorred his drunkenness at all hours, his heavy expenditures, his wallowing in love affairs, his days in sleeping or walking about distracted and hung over, and his nights at revels, theaters, and the wedding festivities of mimes and buffoons.’ Of course, ‘the crowning evil that befell him was his passion for Cleopatra.'”
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Take a ride (virtually, of course) on a massive model train set with 8 miles of track: “The complex dioramas include 400 bridges, 200,000 pounds of plaster and 50,000 ft. of model train track which equates to over 8 miles, he said. It can take a family more than two hours to tour all the sets.”
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Essay of the Day:
In The Millions, Sari Botton writes about the ups and downs of ghostwriting:
“Exactly how much do I make writing other people’s stories? For most books, I receive a flat rate — anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000 in my case, plus or minus a percentage of the author’s royalties. Sometimes I get a percentage of the author’s advance –25 percent to 40 percent in my experience, plus or minus a percentage of the author’s royalties — but I am told the top ghostwriters get 50. In the best cases I have gotten 40, with 25 percent of the author’s royalties. Here and there, I charge by the hour, $50 to $90, for what I call “editorial hand-holding” for clients who can sort of write, but need a lot of guidance and editing work.
“For me, ghostwriting is a job — one I wouldn’t do if I didn’t need the money. Like any job, it has its pros and cons, its ups and downs — lots of freedom, the satisfaction of helping someone tell their story; but also, frequently, having to handle intense personalities with kid gloves.
“And yet, I still have not given up on ghostwriting entirely. For every bad client there’s also an instance of grace — mostly people grateful for my ability to help them express themselves, even if their books haven’t been blockbusters. There have been moments that made it all worthwhile, like helping an author’s daughter, who had severe learning disabilities, write an afterword that made her feel proud. Not to mention it’s a way for me to use the skills I have to make at least some money, while working at home, at my own pace.
“Here are a few of my most memorable deals from almost two decades in the trenches.”
Read the rest. (HT: Collin Garbarino)
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Image: Lava stream
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Poem: Al Basile, “Sgt. Darden”
