Blog Posts
The most beautiful and most brittle of all human things
Dear Frances, It’s a truth universally acknowledged – or, at least, in the relatively small world of your Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance… Read more “The most beautiful and most brittle of all human things”
Singularity
“Love is really a recognition of truth, a recognition of another person’s integrity and truth in a way that is compatible with — that makes both of… Read more “Singularity”
Questions of travel
‘Is it lack of imagination that makes us come to imagined places?‘ Every time I visited Ouro Preto, I used to ask for Elizabeth Bishop’s home. ‘There… Read more “Questions of travel”
Quotes
“It is best for us to continue in the belief that Eve actually ate an apple, and immediately ruined Adam in consequence! I like this belief, too, it speaks so well for the progressive power of women.” – 26 July 1857, ‘Early journalism’, in The Morgesons and Other Writings
The sadness of others one should leave alone. It is a small garden, a fragile delicate Arcadia, one should not disturb it. – I Am the Brother of XX
Menagerie of Authors
Frances Burney - Frances Burney (also known as Fanny Burney; married name Madame d’Arblay; 13 June 1752 – 6 January 1840) was an English writer. While her sisters were sent… Read more "Frances Burney"
Annie Ernaux - Annie Ernaux (born Annie Duchesne; 1 September 1940) is a French author. She attended a Lycée and studied at the Universities of Rouen and Bordeaux. Ernaux became a certified teacher, then… Read more "Annie Ernaux"
Lydia Chukovskaya - Lydia Chukovskaya (Lydia Korneyevna Chukovskaya/ Ли́дия Корне́евна Чуко́вская, 24 March 1907 – February 8, 1996) was a Russian writer. Born in Helsingfors (now Helsinki), which was then… Read more "Lydia Chukovskaya"
Albertine Sarrazin - Albertine Sarrazin (17 September 1937 – 10 July 1967) was a French-Algerian author. She was abandoned shortly after her birth, in Algiers, and put in the care… Read more "Albertine Sarrazin"
Emily Holmes Coleman - Emily Coleman (1899–1974) was an American writer. Her mother passed away when Emily was a child, and she was sent to a boarding school. She then attended… Read more "Emily Holmes Coleman"About
About this [blank] garden
“I am younger each year at the first snow.”
– Anne Sexton, in a letter to W. D. Snodgrass, in 1958.
A Self-portrait in Letters, Mariner Books (2004)
This is my blank space. A white page, as good as a garden covered in snow, not yet cultivated, but with some strong Spring hidden within; something simple, clean, yet to be stained; a seed with some flower all curled up inside, first waiting, then slowly unraveling.
