Category Archives: Writing

Virtually Independent Bookstore Day

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Tomorrow more than 630 bookstores across North America are planning to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day . Booksellers are promoting a variety of virtual and in person events this year. Kids’ and YA events: 1:00 p.m. ET: Lisa Brown drawing class from Goldfish Ghost 1:30 … Continue reading →

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On the Road

Posted on August 27, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

The iconic artist Ed Ruscha has long been inspired by urban America – its cars, billboards, gas stations and low-slung houses all strung out in a seemingly endless sprawl. The short film below combines images from the Getty Research Institutes’s … Continue reading →

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Making Hay

Posted on August 24, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

“Haymaking” by William Carlos Williams The living quality of the man’s mind stands out and its covert assertions for art, art, art! painting that the Renaissance tried to absorb but it remained a wheat field over which the wind played … Continue reading →

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August Heat (can drive you mad)

Posted on August 18, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

William F. Harvey (1885–1937) wrote the timely tale August Heat  which concerns a fateful encounter at the end of a sweltering Summer day. August 20th, 190–. I have had what I believe to be the most remarkable day in my … Continue reading →

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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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