Lit Hub Daily: July 12, 2019
THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET
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TODAY: In 1681, Abigail Williams, the central character in Arthur Miller’s 1953 play, The Crucible (and played brilliantly by Winona Ryder in Miller’s 1996 film adaptation), is born.
- “Imagine a story of desire where desire wasn’t ruinous.” Saskia Vogel on Three Women and the reportage of desire. | Lit Hub
- How America came heartbreakingly close to universal healthcare (but opted for profit instead). | Lit Hub
- “Hans Christian Andersen, lonely and lugubrious, seems strikingly like his unnamed mermaid.” Gabrielle Bellot on the queer allegory of The Little Mermaid. | Lit Hub
- “A shared language allows you to extend a hand for holding.” Courtney Maum on finding friendship with her online Spanish teacher. | Lit Hub
- Daniela Petrova’s love letter to the library: “One place where I always feel at home.” | Lit Hub
- Old world Puritanism weaponized for the New World: on the Brides of Jamestown and the relentless campaign against unmarried women in 16th and 17th century England. | Lit Hub
- New titles from Chuck Wendig, Svetlana Alexievich, Karl Marlantes, and Lisa Taddeo feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks
- The theatrical adaptation of Joan Didion’s National Book Award-winning memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, about the untimely deaths of her husband and daughter, is returning to stage in a Seattle run. | Seattle Times
- “Above all, he is a poet of intersections and crossings”: Read a profile of Akhil Katyal, a Delhi-based poet whose work navigates experiences of queerness, bilingualism, and economic privilege in India. | GQ India
- A Christian college has revoked an offer of an assistant professorship to a writer due to the contents of his novel, including a lesbian character, swear words, and a scene in which a character “decides to hope instead of pray.” | The Hub
- Meet the man who is writing 365 children’s books in 365 days as a gift to his daughter. Yes, he also has a day job. | The New York Times
- Jack the (Book) Ripper? Well, someone is systematically ripping used books in half in the seaside town of Herne Bay. | The Guardian
- “Both [math and stories] exist in the imagination, and both can remain safely hidden in your mind until you’re willing to share.” Catherine Chung and Steph Cha in conversation. | Guernica
- At the risk of being too meta . . . are we at peak newsletter? (And is that actually kind of a good thing?) | Vanity Fair
Also on Lit Hub: On The Literary Life, Mary Beth Keane on the moment she realized she was writing a book • Marian Ryan in Berlin, reading Han Kang • Lit Hub Recommends • Read from Teru Miyamoto’s novel Inhabitation.
