LiteraryTraveler.net

In The Catskills was originally published by Houghton Mifflin in 1910. Tomorrow, the publishing house is re-releasing John Burroughs selected writings about his home in the Catskills and his observational travels through them.

When I moved out to Boston from Buffalo, I thought I would work for an established publishing house like Houghton Mifflin, live in the city and eat fresh-baked croissants wearing leather gloves. Things turned out differently, and I learned what I really love about Boston is its extraordinary proximity to well-preserved trails, ponds, trees and mountains. How fortunate I am to have forged a relationship with these things, the way I thought I only could with French baked-goods.

Burroughs wrote from the bark of this kind of personable environmentalism; one which illustrates self-reflection in nature while proposing each element is worth conserving in and of itself. His work was highly acclaimed and has inspired many travel- and nature-writers to highlight a light-footed love of their own backyards as well as the grandest mountains.

My own backyard is small, but my appreciation for the nature around me is far and wide. Burroughs influence has asked us for a century, “Look up at the miracle of the falling snow”–sometimes more lovely in the city lights.

It is with a heavy heart that LT found out today that famed Catcher in the Rye author J.D. Salinger died at the age of 91 of natural causes in his New Hampshire home.

Catcher in the Rye is the novel that defined adolescent angst for so many high school students in the US.  Published in 1951, the book became a literary staple in classrooms as well as in the hearts of American readers.

Salinger lived a reclusive life in the town of Cornish, New Hampshire, refusing interview requests and publicity.  He also gave up publishing his writing, since he hadn’t published a story since 1965.

Salinger, however, came out of hiding in 2009 through attorneys to sue an author who wrote a continuation novel about Holden Caulfield’s life sixty years after the original book took place.  Salinger and his onslaught of attorneys sued the writer in defense of copyright and won.  Publication of the sequel has been banned in the US.

As we say goodbye to one of the most brilliant novelists of all time, take a look our Holden Caulfield-inspired LT article published in 2007 entitled: Holden Caulfield in Winter Manhattan.

Rest in peace J.D. Salinger . . .

Jennifer, Network Editorial Director

Would you travel using a guidebook that is over 150 years old? Probably not, but if that “guidebook” was Frances Calderon de la Barca’s Life in Mexico, you would still be in good hands.

In our newest feature article, Frances Calderon de la Barca: Life in Mexico, author Inka Piegsa-Quischotte ventures to Mexico for a wedding, following the footsteps of the tenacious Frances Calderon de la Barca.

When her husband was appointed ambassador to Mexico in 1842, the Scottish-born Frances followed, determined to vividly recreate her experiences in the foreign country for her friends and family. The compilation of her letters, Life in Mexico, was considered accurate enough to be used as a guide for American Officers during the Mexican War in 1847!

In Mexico, Inka finds that Frances’ words still ring true. In the same spirit as Frances, Inka journeys to Mexico with an open mind and a desire to share the sights, smells, and tastes of the country.

As a result, her adventures give us a little glimpse of “Life in Mexico” today!

An adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play “The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond” comes out in theaters today. Directed by Jodie Markell, the story examines the lust and longing of Fisher Willow, a tenacious, sometimes foolhardy young woman living in the South. I picture Fisher as the kind of woman who shatters glasses, slaps faces, and kisses while sobbing. She isn’t very tough, but she likes to think she is. She’s well-traveled and flighty.

The kind of woman who lives on the verge of insanity, who won’t define right and wrong, whose radical values are affirmed after many exciting trials, in light of her bright eyes, long legs and sophisticated intellect. The story is totally romantic.

I call it romantic because this character is one I always dreamed of being. As a child, my imagination was encouraged but I didn’t have the kind of nomadic, liberal, or unfortunate upbringing that creates moody musicians, free-thinkers or bad-asses. Of course now I believe character traits like that can stem from any background. I also believe there is no way to fake sexy-crazy.  I hope actor Bryce Dallas Howard’s plays Fisher Willow with sincere formidably; because to fake that kind of misunderstood sadness is a disservice to sad people. Tennessee Williams’ would know.

“Youth In Revolt,” adapted from C. D. Payne’s 1993 novel Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp, is directed by Miguel Arteta and comes out today.

Payne, born in Akron, Ohio in 1949, lived in the mid-West until college, when he moved to Boston to attend Harvard. He graduated with a degree in History, then moved to California to edit, proofread and publish, among other things.

Director Arteta, known for his quiet, thought-provoking work like “The Good Girl,” suspends Payne’s protagonist Nick Twisp, played by Michael Cera, in a heady yet lovelorn light. Nick is often baffled and gaffed by the adult characters in the story, especially his mother and her boyfriend, who propose a vacation to a cabin-in-the-woods, which turns out to be an old trailer-in-the-park.

The setting matters to the audience because it reflects the disappointment Nick feels by being young and not getting what he longs for. What Nick wants more than anything, of course, is sex. When he meets Sheeni, a girl with her own high-school-age fantasies (French culture), he creates an alter-ego, François. Like a fantasy, Nick and Sheeni’s intelligent, well-versed dialectic creates a crisp, funny, retro foreground to juxtapose the background.

“Youth In Revolt’s” story travels outside the characters’ physical world as we become aware of the exciting potential of hip, bright young-love. The family retreat and the campfire coziness of the woods is a fun way to see through the run-a-muck mind’s-eye of a young guy obsessed with sex, but more importantly who values intellectual, world-travel-friendly dreams.

We rarely publish full-scale biographies.  However, this one was so compelling I couldn’t pass it up.

Introducing our newest article: Zelda Fitzgerald: The Roaring Twenties Icon by Sara Hodon.

Zelda Fitzgerald sadly knew the depths of despair all too well.  She lived most of her adult life in them.  Even sadder, her marriage to F. Scott was not the partying, drunken fun that it appeared on the outside.

Amidst all the chaos, Zelda attempted writing, yet failed.  She never reached the heights that her husband did, a mental anguish she never overcame.

Explore your literary imagination with the beautiful, mischievous and misunderstood Zelda Fitzgerald!

Jennifer, Network Editorial Director

Take a look at our hilarious, newest Feature article entitled:

Tips for Driving in England: Shakespeare, Henry James & Thomas Hardy

I selected this article in particular because it was quite different from our usual articles.  As author Hunter James crashes around the countryside of “traditional England,” he discovers what is acceptable in this unique literary world and what is not.

Hunter James uses driving as a vehicle, excuse the pun, to explore the native lands of Shakespeare, Henry James (and maybe some Brenda James?) and the insufferable Thomas Hardy.  Even a little Dickens might be thrown in there.

Can he convince the Brits at Stratford-upon-Avon that Shakespeare didn’t really write all of those stories?  Are his praises sung by the curator?  Read and find out!

Jennifer, Network Editorial Director