Zora Neale Hurston’s hand-drawn Christmas card (1926). From Fannie Hurst’s papers at the Harry Ransom center in Austin, TX. Via the Ransom Center’s Instagram account.
Tag: Art
American Christmas Devil
Concert of Angels and Nativity — Matthias Grünewald
Merry Christmas from Winsor McCay
The Christmas Tree — Fairfield Porter
Nativity — Francesco di Giorgio Martini
“Failing Up with Jar Jar Binks” — Peter Bagge
The Mystical Nativity (Detail) — Sandro Botticelli
Goldie Han, a Star Wars illustration by Tomer Hanuka
Nativity — Hans Baldung
The Nativity — Albrecht Altdorfer
A Christmas card by Tomi Ungerer
Star Travel — Roberto Matta
Three Books
Homesick: New & Selected Stories by Lucia Berlin. Lovely Black Sparrow trade edition, 1990; design by Barbara Martin. An amazing book, a revelation to me. I picked it up looking for the posthumous collection A Manual for Cleaning Women (that track is collected here) based on, well, the hype. But the hype was more than right, and I feel simultaneously abashed that I didn’t know Berlin before and grateful to know her writing now.
Three Hainish Novels by Ursula K. Le Guin. An omnibus collecting Rocannon’s World, Planet of Exile, and City of Illusions. 1967 hardcover by Nelson Doubleday. Jacket design by John Lisco; cover illustration by Jack Woolhiser. I finished City of Illusions this weekend—probably the most accomplished of her earliest (non-)trilogy, synthesizing high adventure into a philosophical exploration of truth and lie. A reread of The Left Hand of Darkness is next.
Purity and Danger by Mary Douglas. 1988 trade paperback by ARK. No designer or cover artist credited. I dug this out at some point in my big Le Guin read/re-read, and it’s been hanging around since. Can’t remember why.
The Waiter — Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Morphology — Roberto Matta
Leda and Her Children — Giampietrino
Biblioklept 