Category Archives: Writing

All Guns Are Loaded

Posted on August 15, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

I was tickled by this list of book titles that the great noir writer Raymond Chandler created but never used. The Islands in the Sky was eventually a title by Arthur C. Clarke and The Black-Eyed Blonde was used by both Erle Stanley Gardner … Continue reading →

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The Narrow Road to the Deep North

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

As some readers know, much of my time is generally occupied finding and selling antiquarian travel books. Although I focus mostly on 19th and early 20th century travel guidebooks, I am interested in other travel literature and unrelated genres, as … Continue reading →

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Bookshop Noir

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

When I stumbled upon the film noir gif below it reminded me what a pivotal role the bookshop Geiger’s Rare Books played in the noir classic. It’s been years since I’ve actually viewed the film, but I got a little … Continue reading →

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Not in the Nick of time

Posted on August 5, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

I recently read that there is a prequel to The Great Gatsby scheduled for publication in January 2021 when the copyright expires on F.Scott Fitzgerald’s great American novel. On January 1, 2021, the iconic book enters the public domain in … Continue reading →

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August Everything Is Wrong

Posted on August 4, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

“August” by Mary Oliver Our neighbor, tall and blonde and vigorous, the mother of many children, is sick. We did not know she was sick, but she has come to the fence, walking like a woman who is balancing a … Continue reading →

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wave down to future generations

Posted on July 28, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

“Photograph of a Gathering of People Waving” by Clarence Major based on an old photograph bought in a shop at Half Moon Bay, summer, 1999 No sound, the whole thing. Unknown folk. People waving from a hillside of ripple grass … Continue reading →

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It’s really about the coffee

Posted on July 27, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

These days I spend an inordinate amount of time on my coffee roasting obsession. When I’m not researching green beans to buy, I’m looking for books and articles on coffee in general. I recently stumbled on this unusual artist book … Continue reading →

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Decameron 2020

Posted on July 24, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

The New York Times magazine recently published a Decameron for our plague times. The  29 free short stories were written by some of today’s most acclaimed writers. The project editor wrote: Inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s “The Decameron,” a 14th-century collection … Continue reading →

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A Tale for Plague Times

Posted on July 19, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

“The Masque of Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe The “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal—the redness and the horror of blood. … Continue reading →

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A Writer’s Hierarchy of Needs

Posted on July 18, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

 

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