LitHub Daily: July 13, 2015

TODAY: In 1894, Isaac Babel, author of Red Cavalry, was born. 

• “In the Rio dusk, Puig set up for his visitor, for the umpteenth time, a small portable cinema, made of words and faint light.” Javier Montes on the top-secret cinema of Manuel Puig. | Literary Hub
• To celebrate the forthcoming pub date of Go Set A Watchman, the Internet celebrated with 1,000 articles. Here is the first chapter, Harper Lee’s backstory, and an investigation into what Lee wanted for the book. | The Guardian, NPR, Bloomberg
• And the dark underbelly: shady selections from the pieces about Watchman’s publication history. | The Hairpin
• “Why do I write? The answer to that is unknowable. I probably do so because I was moved by things I read and felt an urge to imitate them.” A final interview, via e-mail, with James Salter. | BOMB Magazine
• Unlocking vs. indulging, reading vs. re-reading: on the reader’s process. | NYRB
• On Anne Garréta’s Oulipian Sphinx, which resists traditional narratives, gender, and non-cetacean systems of classification. | Bookforum
• On the spellbinding writing of Clarice Lispector, alluring enchantress and, now, glamorous ghost. | The New Yorker
• Everyone’s favorite bookseller, Amazon, is expanding its empire to include unnecessary censorship. | Electric Literature
• No alternative to Jamesian awareness short of dying: on John Ashbery’s most recent poetry collection. | Hyperallergic

Also on Literary Hub: Elliott Bay Book Company takes pause from their 500 events to chat · An excerpt from Michel Faber’s The Book of Strange New Things

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