Lit Hub Weekly: November 21-23, 2022

• Eleanor Lanahan on discovering the hidden artistic talents of her grandmother: the one and only Zelda Fitzgerald. | Lit Hub Art

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• Don’t shortchange short novels: Kenneth C. Davis on his year of reading briefly (and excellently). | Lit Hub Criticism

• When LEGO, the enemy of barefoot parents everywhere, turned the fall of the Berlin Wall into an epic ad campaign. | Lit Hub History

• Behind the creation of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” penned by Stevie Nicks: “It’s a poetic fuck-you, but it’s still a fuck-you.” | Lit Hub Music

• After a federal judge blocked Penguin Random House’s acquisition of Simon & Schuster, the deal is on the verge of collapse. | The New York Times

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• “It was through rewriting that she was able to imagine not only the darkest possible futures, but how to survive within them.” E. Alex Jung on the spectacular life of Octavia Butler. | Vulture

• “If the book industry is a walled garden, the site is a ladder.” Erin Somers considers the future of book publishing post-Twitter. | The Atlantic

• “It is no longer possible for me to deny that the man could be, epistolarily speaking, a bit of a drip.” T.S. Eliot expert Dr. Michelle Alexis Taylor weighs in on the poet’s letters. | The Fence

• “He is one of the theater’s greatest listeners.” Chloé Cooper Jones on the work of Will Arbery. | The New York Times Magazine

• Researchers claim to have found the oldest document written in Basque—a 2,100-year-old hand-shaped bronze plate. | El País

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• A beginner’s guide to Marcel Proust. | The Guardian

• “The fact of his persistence—no, not just his persistence, his amplification in the face of adversity, it is a reminder that there is no obligation to quit.” Bryan VanDyke’s ode to Percy Shelley. | The Millions

• Exploring the bibliomania of 19th-century New York City. | Lapham’s Quarterly

• Patti Smith talks about her latest book of photography. | NPR

• “I feel like the handmaiden of the subconscious. I’m just there to receive whatever it feels like sending.” George Saunders on inspiration. | Bookforum

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• Hephzibah Anderson looks back at The Well of Loneliness, a “beacon” of self-discovery for many. | BBC

• Ashawnta Jackson examines the “fakelore” behind certain assumptions about food, recipes, and culture. | JSTOR Daily

• “Joy is what emanates from us as we help each other carry our sorrows. Joy understands that no one is without sorrow. Period. Everyone’s heartbroken.” Ross Gay on living a joyful life. | Esquire

• More than 300 Iranian translators have expressed their solidarity with the country’s protest movement and “vowed to deliver the books and texts the regime prevented from being published to citizens in any way possible.” | Iran International

Also on Lit Hub:

Shirley Chisholm on why she ran for president • Celeste Ng on writing with a plan • What T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf first thought of each other • Bruna Dantas Lobato on discovering the intricate joy of miniatures • On Milton Gendel’s seven-decade Roman holiday • A brief history of eugenics • Michael Parker on worshipping water, in life and fiction • Ken Gordon is very skeptical about Noah Baumbach’s upcoming adaptation of White Noise • How to gain a gazillion followers online… according to the editor of the Taco Bell Quarterly • Breathless,  Parasite, and more films that inspired “lady director” Joyce Chopra • How the Six-Day War transformed American Jews’ relationship to Israel • When the Nation of Islam was introduced to America • How a forgery of a forgery began a career in the artistic underworld • Jefferson Cowie on the Southern practice of convict leasing • How Thomas Jefferson shaped colonial America’s story of itself • Annie Barrows reflects on creating the Ivy + Bean book series