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

Friday, January 17, 2025

The Biblio File: images of readers, for bibliophiles

David Levine on writers: Samuel Pepys

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: Laurence Sterne


I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly considered how much depended upon what they were then doing;—that not only the production of a rational Being was concerned in it, but that possibly the happy formation and temperature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind;—and, for aught they knew to the contrary, even the fortunes of his whole house might take their turn from the humours and dispositions which were uppermost:—Had they duly weighed and considered all this, and proceeded accordingly,—I am verily persuaded I should have made a quite different figure in the world, from that, in which the reader is likely to see me.

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Laurence Sterne

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

Thursday, January 16, 2025

The Biblio File: images of publishers, for bibliophiles

Quill Tree Books

David Levine on writers: Samuel Butler

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: Jonathan Safran Foer


What about the teakettle? What if the spout opened and closed when the steam came out, so it would become a mouth, and it could whistle pretty melodies, or do Shakespeare, or just crack up with me.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Jonathan Safran Foer

"They say it's your birthday" - writers born on January 16



Inger Christensen  (1935)
Anthony Hecht  (1923)
Mary Karr  (1955)
Valentin Kataev  (1897) 
William Kennedy  (1928)  
Ruth Reichl  (1948) 
Robert Service  (1874)  
Susan Sontag  (1933)