THE WALRUS SAID . . . . . . . . . being a bookish blog

Monday, March 18, 2024

The Biblio File: images of bookplates, for bibliophiles

David Levine on writers: Brian Moore

David Levine (1926-2009) was one of America’s most prominent illustrators during a career that spanned decades. No less an authority than Jules Feiffer described him as "the greatest caricaturist of the last half of the 20th century,” although Levine continued to work in the early years of this century as well. Levine’s subjects included himself (above) and people from many walks of life. Authors, scribes and scribblers were a big part of the mix, as these caricatures make clear.  

Lit Toons: Cartoons with a bookish bent

Grant Snider

First Lines: Jane Rule


Conventions, like clichés, have a way of surviving their own usefulness.

Desert of the Heart
Jane Rule

"They say it's your birthday" - writers born on March 18



Richard Condon  (1915)
Joy Fielding  (1945) 
George Plimpton  (1927) 
John Updike  (1932)  
Franz Wright  (1953)
 

Sunday, March 17, 2024

The Biblio File: images of bookmarks, for bibliophiles

 And you read your Emily Dickinson 
And I my Robert Frost 
And we note our place with book markers 
That measure what we've lost

David Levine on writers: John le Carré

David Levine (1926-2009) was one of America’s most prominent illustrators during a career that spanned decades. No less an authority than Jules Feiffer described him as "the greatest caricaturist of the last half of the 20th century,” although Levine continued to work in the early years of this century as well. Levine’s subjects included himself (above) and people from many walks of life. Authors, scribes and scribblers were a big part of the mix, as these caricatures make clear.

Lit Toons: Cartoons with a bookish bent

First Lines: Michael Bond


Mr. and Mrs. Brown first met Paddington on a railway platform. In fact, that was how he came to have such an unusual name for a bear, for Paddington was the name of the station.

Paddington Bear
Michael Bond

"They say it's your birthday" - writers born on March 17



William Gibson  (1948) 
Frank B. Gilbreth Jr.  (1911) 
Paul Green  (1894) 
Kate Greenaway  (1846)
Karl Gutzkow  (1811)
Siegfried Lenz  (1926)
Penelope Lively  (1933)