James Baldwin at David Zwirner
I worked with Hilton Als on a James Baldwin show; now Als has curated an exhibit about him
The continuing glory of the New York Review of Books
The New York Review was always great, but it may be even better under new editor Ian Buruma
Robert Silvers was our greatest editor
Robert Silvers died this week but his New York Review of Books brought me years of pleasure
New York City Illustrated, 1910
A century on, a tourist souvenir reveals the architectural wonders of a city long lost
The amazing marginalia of In Search of Fatima
A reader hostile to everything lets her feelings be known
Hilton Als on Amiri Baraka and James Baldwin
Hilton Als met Amiri Baraka only once: at the James Baldwin tribute I directed at Lincoln Center
Zadie Smith on libraries and the state of the state
How did something as fine and useful as a public library become an ideological issue?
One year on in Egypt: Art, Politics and Power
The Egyptian revolution happened in the middle of my Egypt novel and I didn’t know what to do about it
Transition: An International Review
Transition began in Uganda in 1961; by the late-1990s it was perhaps the finest magazine on earth
Hitch 1949-2011
Christopher Hitchens wrote like a polymath on a bender and his bombast was a pure reading pleasure
Hypnotism for Everybody by Pandit Lakshmi Doss, Chennai, India, 2004
It reflects a particularly Indian fondness for mystical possibility paired with a gift for gab
A Savage War of Peace by Alistair Horne
The best book about the 9/11 attacks and war in Iraq, though it is about France in 1950s Algeria
Arab arts and political radicals in London this weekend
And there are cool Arab arts of all sorts in London this summer
Samandal comic book, debut issue, 2008, Beirut, Lebanon
An eclectic mix of graphic styles and languages that captures the cultural mixed-up-ness of Beirut
Patti Smith sends me to the Chelsea Hotel
The Chelsea, she writes, was like a doll’s house in the Twilight Zone. Indeed.
Diabolik fumetto ‘Il Morto che Ritorna’, Italy, 1995
Italian comic books await a Quentin Tarantino to make them cool again
French diary from WWII
The cramped hand suggests a shortage of paper, the mysterious letters and numbers hint at a code
Talking with Lila Azam Zanganeh about Nabokov and happiness
Finding a kindred spirit on the rich cultural heritage lost to exile
Little Red Book by Mao Tse-tung, second edition, 1967
The rare second edition of Mao’s famous book, with a foreword by Lin Biao before he fell from grace
Blue Guide to Yugoslavia: Paris, France, 1970
A travel guide to Yugoslavia, before war tore it apart