The Drowned and the Unsaved The Drowned and the Unsaved
He jumped, of course. But also he was pushed. And when Primo Levi, on "a sudden violent impulse," threw himself down three flights of stairwell in the Art Nouveau apartment hou...
Mar 22, 2001 / Books & the Arts / John Leonard
On Shooting at Elephants On Shooting at Elephants
They laughed when I sat down with these two writers--and never mind that both books arrived in the same box. The bad gay boy and the cold war saint! The apostle of derangement an...
Nov 27, 2000 / Books & the Arts / John Leonard
How a Caged Bird Learns to Sing How a Caged Bird Learns to Sing
This article is adapted from a lecture that was part of a series on self-censorship in the media given at New York University. The lecture series is being published this month in T...
Jun 8, 2000 / Books & the Arts / John Leonard
A Closing of the American Kind A Closing of the American Kind
You will recall that when Augie March went to Mexico, he hooked up with an eagle, which he called Caligula.
May 11, 2000 / Books & the Arts / John Leonard
The Compleat Walker The Compleat Walker
Shortly before he died, Bruce Chatwin found God. This was on top of Mount Athos, after which he left for Katmandu. Looking down from the bees and grapes, he had seen an iron cros...
Apr 13, 2000 / Books & the Arts / John Leonard
The ‘Casanova of Causes’ The ‘Casanova of Causes’
To her biographer, Simone de Beauvoir confided a less than rhapsodic one-night stand, in 1946, with the Hungarian malcontent Arthur Koestler: "One night I got so drunk I let him ...
Mar 22, 2000 / Books & the Arts / John Leonard
Curtain Call With Terkel Curtain Call With Terkel
Charles Kuralt, who got around a lot himself but wore out faster, once remarked: "When Studs Terkel listens, everybody talks." Not so many years ago, in fact, we asked Kuralt to ...
Nov 25, 1999 / Books & the Arts / John Leonard
Mr. Debs, My Darling Mr. Debs, My Darling
In offhand, birdsong passing, Marguerite Young observes: "As for the nineteenth century, it may be said that it was probably the leakiest century there ever was and so would rema...
Oct 28, 1999 / Books & the Arts / John Leonard
Emancipation Proclamation Emancipation Proclamation
Upon his death in 1994, Ralph Ellison left behind some 2,000 pages of a never-finished second novel--more than forty years of fine-tuning what his literary executor, John F.
May 27, 1999 / Books & the Arts / John Leonard
Rushdie as Orpheus, on Guitar Rushdie as Orpheus, on Guitar
From the Satanic Versifier, more love and more death, with a song in his heart.
Apr 21, 1999 / Books & the Arts / John Leonard