Monday, January 28, 2008

Here's an article on how some youths up in Vermont vandalized a farmhouse that Robert Frost had once owned.

Also, see Jessica on Thomas Wolfe. He's one of those authors to whom posterity has not been kind. He reminds me of Steinbeck on crack (or maybe Ecstasy). He was a definite influence on Kerouac - if you read portions of Of Time and the River and then On the Road you'll see it more clearly. If I remember right, the review of Kerouac's first novel, The Town and the City called it "Wolfean." (Not having read Kerouac's first novel, I can't say for myself.) Of Time and the River is one of those books that I've started to read several times but have never finished, in part due to its length (I do not envy his editor), and partly because I have commitment issues when it comes to literature - I am quite promiscuous. I can speak to how good You Can't Go Home Again was, however.

With what little time I have these days I've been revisiting Robert Lowell, and discovering James Merrill. Also, I've been rereading Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy.

I know it's been a while, things have been busy. I'll think of something substantive to post soon, or else will call this little experiment off.