TUMBLR
A scrapbook of stuff I'm reading / looking at / listening to / thinking about...
Posts tagged "letters"
Frank Sinatra tells George Michael to suck it up and embrace his success
Talent must not be wasted…those who have talent must hug it, embrace it, nurture it, and share it lest it be taken away from you as fast as it was loaned to you.
(thx @aweissman)
Letters of Note: Drive safely and don’t abuse alcohol, drugs or candy
Here’s a link to the full text of the letter Winston Smith wrote me when I was 13, and here’s the story of how we met 15 years later.
Had a good time this morning reading these selected letters from Rub Out the Words: The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1959-1974. In addition to complaining to Allen Ginsberg that his mother won’t send him “Mother Money” so he can get back to the states, I enjoyed these bits:
On reading Rimbaud:
Nothing obscure in his poetry if you see it as IMAGES. Here is a book of his poems with the French translation opposite will improve your French. A game I play is to type out phrases from Rimbaud or any poet I fancy. Then I cut into sections. Rearrange putting section four with section one and section two with section three and select a new arrangement.Try it some time with Rimbaud or any writing.
Telling his son how to listen to music:
I hear you dig music. Try it with ear phones you can play it any time that way without bothering people around you. Besides music is different when you hear it right in your ear. It should be simple operation to plug your record player for ear phones.
On his letters being “ungrammatical”
it is not due to carelessness or accident. The English language—the only really adjustable language—is in state of transition.. Transition and the old grammar forms no longer useful..
A rebus-letter sent by Mark Twain to his wife
Mark Twain (1835–1910, née Samuel Clemens) wrote essays on art and doodled in his journals, letters, and manuscripts, sometimes to entertain his children and sometimes for his own amusement. In addition, he used his artwork to secure patents for three inventions, including an “Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments” (to replace suspenders); a history trivia game; and a self-pasting scrapbook coated with a dried adhesive that only needed to be moistened before use.
Read more: The Visual Art and Design of Famous Writers
John Waters’ letter of advice to his 16-year-old self, from the book, Dear Me
Filed under: anger
(Source: vaincre, via fuckyeahmanuscripts)
E. B. White with his dachshund, Minnie, and his letter to The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals:
I have your letter, undated, saying that I am harboring an unlicensed dog in violation of the law. If by “harboring” you mean getting up two or three times every night to pull Minnie’s blanket up over her, I am harboring a dog all right.
Filed under: dudes with their dachshunds
1910 extortion letter written by George Pavlick of “The Black Hand,” featuring bad Italian accent and doodles!
Hilarious. Thanks to Katharine Mead for sending it to me!
1961 letter from Groucho Marx to T.S. Eliot: “I had no idea you were so handsome.”
