Also known as Richard Kostelanetz, or, as the NYTimes dubbed him, “the bibliomaniac of Ridgewood,” he is the author of hundreds of books — yes, hundreds, you read that right — and recently turned 82.
Archives for June 2022
Celebrating William Wyler
His Hometown in Alsace Puts on a Hollywood Show
Wyler was Laurence Olivier’s mentor, the love of Bette Davis’s life, John Huston’s best friend, Audrey Hepburn’s inspiring taskmaster, and Barbra Streisand’s father figure. His major motion pictures were touchstones for an entire generation. He guided more actors to Academy Awards than any other director. He also won three Oscars himself. “Olivier once told me he learned more about film acting from Wyler than from any other director; I can say the same,” Terence Stamp recalled in my Wyler biography “A Talent for Trouble.” Despite his reputation as a demanding director who sometimes drove actors to tears, he was a beguiling personality in private.
A Body of Work: ‘He could hear it breathing’
The pulse of Cold Turkey Press depends on a publisher* who maintains that well-made limited editions can be more influential than widely disseminated mainstream publications. But it also depends on the dissident poets and artists like Malcolm Ritchie, the late Heathcote Williams, Mark Terrill, the late Thomas Brasch, Jay Jeff Jones, David Erdos, William ‘Cody’ Maher, and others whose work he has chosen to publish.
On Ambition: From Nixon to Keats to Elvis, from Little Richard to Samuel Johnson, from Moses to Hannibal, Lenin to Alexander the Great, Spinoza to Ghandi to Albert Camus
I know of no writer who covers as much territory with as much lighthearted intelligence as A. Robert Lee. Here he is on the subject of ambition in his latest book, OUTSIDE IN: Hinges and Swivels, just out from Time is an Ocean Publications. — jh
‘A Solo Among Men’
Abbie Conant won an audition for first trombone in the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. But the conductor, Sergiu Celibidache, preferred a man upfront and demoted her. Conant speaks about coping with that as she looks back at her tenacious struggle for justice. Conant’s husband, the composer William Osborne was instrumental in a feminist campaign against sexism at the Vienna Philharmonic. As he said at the time, “If it were just the Vienna Philharmonic, the whole issue would be much too parochial to bother with. The real issue is that women are not treated fairly …”
These Many Years Later, Algren for Real
For the first time, yesterday, I saw the DVD cover art of “The End Is Nothing the Road Is All,” a 2015 documentary. I was poking around on my laptop when I came across it by accident. Except for the fact that it showed up on Facebutt, which I try to avoid, it was a nice surprise.
Imagine That!
A Swiss Counterweight to Conformism
UPDATED with videos of the performance. In the heart of St. Gallen, a town not far from Zurich, where Dada began, there is a haven for the outlandish and the curiously extravagant. It is a place for the exchange of ideas and information, passionate discussion, chamber music, and for poetry. The American poet Louise Landes Levi, who is based in Japan, performed there on Tuesday, June 7.
A Uranium Jubilee for the Queen of the Arms Trade
How Queen Elizabeth II profits. Text by Heathcote Williams. Editing and narration by Alan Cox.