Nice article from the AP’s Hillel Italie entitled Writers Welcome a Literary President-Elect. The gist is that President Elect Obama actually wrote his books and actually writes his own speeches. Writers, who normally as a group vote for liberal Democrats, appreciate that the words he speaks come from his own mind and reflect his own feelings. Writers also appreciate the cultural trickle down in the way art exists inside and outside a culture.
Great piece in The Guardian telling of an unpublished novel by William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. Seems it dealt with the murder of David Kammerer by Lucien Carr and Carr may not have wanted it published during his lifetime. Apparently the book is a great example of the early stages of what turned out to be two distinctly different writing styles.
Finally, there is the death of John Leonard. I believe the Salon article on his life to be a gem and have linked it here. I always have felt that Leonard was one of the most erudite critics around and loved the idea that he strove to tell more than whether or not a book was good or bad; he scrutinized the who, the what and the why of it. We need much more of that.
