LiteraryTraveler.net

There seems to be two schools of thought when it comes to eReaders.  On one side we have the tech savvy convenience driven consumer who appreciates the ease of carrying multiple books on one device, whether it be for traveling or her daily commute.  The other side is hesitant, with fear of sacrificing beloved books on the altar of technology, and would prefer to forgo packing other essentials in order to squeeze a few more paperbacks into his carry on.  For better or worse, it seems like this eReader is here to stay.  If it is any indication of the future, even IKEA is jumping on the e-book bandwagon.  According to The Economist, IKEA has updated its popular “Billy” bookcase to a design with deeper shelves and glass doors that is less than ideal for storing books in print.  Up to this point I have been skeptical of making the switch to electronic books, but with the new Kindle Fire, which merges the convenience of an eReader with the benefits of a tablet, I could be convinced.

The Kindle Fire was released last month and for $199, a fraction of other tablets, which raises the question of whether it can compete. But it’s intended to. In addition to the typical features of an eReader, the Kindle Fire can store music, movies and TV shows, as well as provide the user access to a limited version of the Android app store. Although the 7 inch screen is smaller than the iPad screen, and it doesn’t have a camera or a microphone, it seems like the perfect gateway device for those looking to segue into electronic reading.  As for eReader veterans, the Kindle Fire offers all the previous benefits of the older model (except now it’s back-lit like other tablets) with a lot of really convenient added perks, such as web browsing and access to e-mail.

Also tossing its hat into the ring this holiday season is the Barnes & Noble rival device, NOOK Tablet.  Reviews on the NOOK are similar to that of the Kindle, with different sites favoring one over the other to the point where, if you have a tendency to over think, you might want to flip a coin.  Differentiating the two more than anything is their advertising campaigns.  While the NOOK is advertised in a commercial featuring ‘Glee’ favorite, Jane Lynch, and a catchy tune, Amazon targets serious bibliophiles in its commercial, which quotes Voltaire and pays homage to early printing as predecessor to the eReader.  Does this say something about the target demographic for each?  For the consumer like me who may not be as tech savvy as she would like, product promotion can speak volumes.

Ultimately, whether you choose Kindle, NOOK, or splurge on the iPad this holiday season, do it in style.  There is no reason you can’t have the convenience of an eReader and showcase your support for the book simultaneously.  If you want the ease of a Kindle, but still want to broadcast your literary roots – or perhaps mask that closet Twilight addiction – Out of Print Clothing offers eReader jackets with classic book art from Pride and Prejudice to The Great Gatsby, and everything in between.  So keep reading, your secret is safe with me.

Chances are you’ve heard of the Florida Keys’ sprawling overseas highway. You may even have enjoyed the unique pleasure of traversing its 120 plus miles by car. If this is the case, you’ve got turn-of-the-century real estate and railroad tycoon, Henry Morrison Flagler to thank, as he engineered the original over-seas-railroad back in 1912. In fact, if you have set foot in the state of Florida in the past century, you’ve seen his fingerprints all over. From the mega-resorts of Palm Beach to the quaint seaside villas of St. Augustine, Florida is littered with monuments to Flagler’s prodigious (even by Gilded Age standards) accomplishments.

Known as the “father” of modern Florida due to his construction and philanthropic efforts, Flagler has countless streets, schools, hospitals and even entire towns named in his honor. In 2006, Key West erected a statue of Flagler on the site where his finest achievement, the overseas railway, once ended. Although a modern highway has since replaced the railroad tracks, the first overseas railway remains the jewel in Flagler’s crown. By founding the Florida East Railway and spearheading its expansion, Flagler facilitated the development of the state’s remote, swampy hinterlands and provided access to the Keys. Perhaps more than any other region of Florida, Key West has flourished due to his efforts. Before the overseas railway, Key West was isolated from the mainland by more than 120 miles of ocean. After its completion, the island gradually became a popular destination, evolving into the eclectic melting pot of artists, locals, travelers and outcasts that it is today.

The overseas railway is merely an episode in the storied life of Henry Flagler. This month on the Literary Traveler Blog, as part of our ongoing series on Key West, we will be exploring the life of this titan of industry. Stay tuned for more, including his profitable friendship with John D. Rockefeller and the tale of grand failure that was Flagler’s first business venture!

Jimmy Buffett is a tropical legend. With so much of his life and work based around the atmosphere of Key West, it’s easy to forget that Buffett wasn’t always an easy-going beach boy. In fact, Buffett was born on December 25, 1946 in Alabama, where he spent the majority of his childhood. He developed an interest in music early, learning several instruments, including the guitar and trombone, during childhood.

He went to university in Mississippi, then moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in order to work as a correspondent for Billboard magazine, one of the premier music magazines in the country. Buffett focused on composing country music, not the tropical, beachy style he is known for. His love for music never abated, and although he was working as a writer, he also began performing his music in public in Nashville and in New Orleans, Louisiana. Though he loved the culture of New Orleans and the people around him in Nashville, Buffett’s life completely changed when another musician, Jerry Jeff Walker, invited him to visit the Keys.

Buffett became immediately enamored of Key West’s history, its inhabitants, and its culture. In an interview, Buffett once stated that for him, one of the most incredible things about the Keys was “that it was completely virgin territory, completely different from what [he’d] left behind.” The people he met were larger than life, the bars teeming with great stories waiting to be told. The relaxed lifestyle in which people could go out onto the beach to catch their food, make love, smoke marijuana, and simply while away the hours resonated with him. And in addition to all that, Buffett fell madly in love with the islands’ history: the smuggling heritage, the Native American history, the literary heritage, the slave and gold trades, and of course, the pirates.

Buffett was inspired by these elements and befriended talented artists, pirates, drug smugglers, drunks, and tourists alike, often ending up in jail overnight and finding work in various Key West staple establishments. Unwilling to return back to Nashville, he remained in Key West for some time, and his music truly began to shape itself into his characteristic musical style. By combining what he saw, lived, and breathed in Key West with warm, tropical lyrics and a love for pop, folk, country, and coastal music, he invented his own brand of music, often referred to as “gulf and western.” His music gradually became popular with denizens of Key West and outsiders alike, and when his number one single “Margaritaville” was released in 1977, it became the unofficial anthem of Key West.

Even though Buffett comes and goes to the islands these days, he’s become as much of a Key West figurehead as legendary author Ernest Hemingway. Through his music, literature, and Margaritaville brand, Jimmy Buffett turned his love for this culture into a lifestyle and business venture and, forty years later, continues to transport the tropical feel of the Florida Keys to households all over the world.

From Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams to Elizabeth Bishop, Key West is steeped in literary history.  You can see Bishop’s house on White Street, have a drink at the bar where Hemingway was a regular and attend a show at the theatre named in Tennessee Williams’ honor.  Key West has as much to offer literature aficionados as it does beach bums, but, you may ask, what can Key West offer the contemporary writer?  The literary scene in Key West is far from a thing of the past.  In fact, Key West has much to lend aspiring writers hoping to follow in the footsteps of their literary predecessors who once called Key West home.  In addition to the annual Key West Literary Seminar, The Key West Writers Guild, a non-profit organization founded in 1995, has been supporting local writers since its inception.  According to their website, the Guild “provides a friendly forum for authors to share their writings and receive encouraging and helpful feedback.”  They meet twice a month and provide an inclusive community for all writers of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and prose, both published and unpublished.  In addition to providing a forum for discussing their work, the Guild also holds an annual short story contest.  The winning submissions have subsequently been compiled into anthologies, which are available for purchase locally in Key West. The latest edition, Voices from Key West, is available on Amazon.com.  In conjunction with the Florida Keys Council of the Arts, they also honor one writer annually with an award for the best work in progress.

While it is not a requirement, many members of the Guild are published, and their works run the gamut from thrillers and children’s books to romance novels and literary fiction.  Although not a prerequisite, it is no surprise that many of the Guild’s members are creatively inspired by their surroundings.  Joanna Brady Schmida, a member since 1998 and the Guild secretary, won the annual award in 2009, and her self published novel, The Woman at the Light, is praised on Amazon.com as “a wonderful ‘trip’ to Key West’s past.”

The members of the Guild come from all walks of life, bonded together through their love of writing.  The Guild president, Diana Reif, is an attorney, and the members’ day jobs cover as wide a spectrum as the genres in which they write.  Dorothy Francis, music teacher and mystery writer extraordinaire, has written books for both children and adults, and her Key West mysteries include the aptly titled Conch Shell Murder and Pier Pressure.  Mike Dennis, musician and professional poker player, also found inspiration in his surroundings.  His second published work Setup on Front Street is the first of a trilogy of noir novels set in Key West.  Peg Gregory, a retired nurse turned romance writer, penned Starfish, a piece of romantic fiction inspired by the city’s past.

Whether historical fiction, romance novel or psychological journey through the region’s darker side, local writers cannot help but be fascinated by the rich culture and breathtaking beauty of Key West.  I think sometime-Key West-resident Hemingway would agree. After all, his only novel set in the United States, To Have and Have Not, is set in Key West, where he began writing it. Strangely enough, although Hemingway and Tennessee Williams resided in Key West simultaneously, they reportedly only met once.  Providing a community of intellectual nourishment and mutual admiration, it is safe to say that if Key West is to ever again see the likes of two such literary greats, they will have met more than once… perhaps even twice a month at Guild meetings?

  “Then we came to the edge of the stream and the water quit being blue and was light and greenish and inside I could see…the wireless masts at Key West and the La Concha hotel up high out of all the low houses”  – Ernest Hemingway, To Have and Have Not

If you are planning a trip to Key West, there are plenty of hotels to choose from, but for the literary traveler the choice is easy.  Dating back to 1926, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the La Concha not only provides you with luxurious accommodations amidst the excitement of popular Duval Street, but it also gives you access to a lush history without even leaving your hotel room.  The La Concha boasts a rich past, with former guests running the gamut from Harry S. Truman to Al Capone, and of course, literary legend, Ernest Hemingway.

At only seven stories high, the La Concha is the tallest building in Key West and one of its best known features is its rooftop bar and observation deck, which offers incredible views of the infamous Key West sunsets.  It is easy to picture Hemingway tossing back a daiquiri against a backdrop of dusky island ambiance.  In fact, he started work on his 1937 novel, To Have and Have Not, in a suite at the La Concha.  The novel, set in Key West, pays homage to the hotel, noting its prominence on the horizon as the protagonist, Harry Morgan, leaves Key West for Cuba.

Hemingway initially made the move to Key West with his second wife, Pauline, at the suggestion of fellow writer John Dos Passos.  In 1936 he met Martha Gellhorn at his favorite watering hole, and present day hot spot, Sloppy Joe’s.  If the walls of the La Concha could talk they would tell tales of their affair, which ultimately led to his third marriage.  For the true literary traveler, a stay in Hemingway’s suite at the La Concha is a very real possibility. While in Key West you can definitely walk a mile in his shoes, but why not kick off those shoes and spend a night in his suite?

While the literature aficionado and history buff alike will take pleasure in sitting where Hemingway sat as he penned his classics, a warning to those looking to stay in the room where he wiled away his days.  According to a chapter on the hotel in Greg Jenkin’s Florida’s Ghostly Legends and Haunted Folklore, strange and possibly otherworldly happenings have been reported in the suite, and one possible culprit is believed to be the ghost of a mischievous Hemingway playing tricks on guests who have taken over his space.  For those who enjoy a little mystery with their history, a tour of haunted Key West landmarks actually starts in the lobby of the La Concha.

For further information on Hemingway’s ties to Key West and the La Concha check out Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon’s 2008 literature themed travel guide, Novel Destinations, a very comprehensive handbook for the literary traveler that The Chicago Tribune calls “a fun read whether for armchair travelers or actual literary pilgrims.”  Now doesn’t that sound like a great book to peruse en route to Key West?  So pack your bags, find a sitter for your six-toed cats, and we will meet you on the rooftop of the La Concha for a mojito in Hemingway’s honor.

In Key West, this Thanksgiving week is not all about the turkey. Starting Thanksgiving Day, Key West is hosting the twelfth annual Pirates in Paradise event, featuring eleven jam-packed days of “pure piratical escapades” that honor and celebrate Key West’s vibrant maritime history.

Key West and its surrounding islands were important both to pirates like Blackbeard and Calico Jack and the people trying to catch them. From the Keys, pirates could take cover while ambushing merchant shipping along the Straits of Florida, which was an extremely significant trade route at the time. And following the War of 1812 when Congress cracked down on piracy, one of the primary anti-piracy squadrons established its headquarters on Key West. So what better way to celebrate the pirate lifestyle and Key West’s history than with a pirate-themed festival?

Sponsored by the Monroe County Tourist Development Council, Pirate Radio 101.7 FM, 4 Orange Premium Vodka, and Pusser’s Rum, the Pirates in Paradise Maritime Heritage and Music Festival began at ten in the morning on Thanksgiving day, kicking off with a “Thankstaken” Pirate Party and Feast. But if you missed it, don’t fear: that’s only the beginning. Over the course of the festival, there will be plenty of events and activities for kids and adults alike, for those who simply have a passing interest in pirates, and those who have a serious investment in history.

Over the course of the eleven days there will be a Pirate Village and art fair, featuring period crafts, art, clothing, jewelry, vittles, and plenty of rum, beer, and grog because let’s face it – what’s a pirate without his alcohol? For pirate-obsessed adults, there will be a sailor’s shipwreck holiday ball, craft beer tastings, a rock and roll dance party, an end-of-hurricane season party, a Miss Pirate Key West Pageant, talent, and swim suit competition, and plenty of costume contests, including one for the most buxom wench and bad-ass pirate.

As an all ages event, Pirates in Paradise offers tons of activities for aspiring young buccaneers. There will be a carnival, a kid’s costume contest, and Pirate Art 101 “Color Along” with pirate artist Don Maitz (whose work has been featured in National Geographic). Additionally, in the pirate village, parents can go to a pub and peruse pirate wares while the kids participate in treasure hunts and coloring contests.

For those seeking unusual entertainment, Pirates in Paradise has it all. Some of the most anticipated events of the festival are the authentic reenactments of the famous Pyrate Trials of Anne Bonny and Mary Read and the tall tales storytelling competition, which allows contestants to tell their biggest fabricated story before a panel of nationally renowned authors.

Interested in history and literature? You’re in luck. There are opportunities to sail aboard a real pirate ship, and on Wednesday, November 30, there will be a special excursion on the schooner Wolf where one can join authors Roz Brackenbury, Robb Zerr, and Christine and Michael Lampe on a one and a half hour ride. Prior to the excursion will be an Authors and Artists Luncheon at the Pirate Village VIP tent. Author Robert N. Macomber will, throughout the week, be giving presentations, historical walking tours through Old Town, and partaking in the Literature & the Sea Sunset Happy Hour along with other pirate guests.

Although the festival isn’t free, admission to the Pirate Village is only $5 per day for adults and free for kids under the age of twelve. If you and your family are interested in spending a lot of time at the festival and really getting your pirate on, take advantage of the insanely cheap eleven day festival pass: it’s only $20, and will get you free daily admission to the Pirate Village and Festival VIP Hospitality Area!

For tourists in the Key West area this Thanksgiving weekend and beyond, this could be a wonderful opportunity to discover the great historical roots of the Florida Keys that doesn’t sacrifice fun for education. And don’t worry – if you can’t make it this year, there’s always next November!

Photo by Daniel Peckham

The state with the prettiest name,
the state that floats in brackish water,
held together by mangrave roots
that bear while living oysters in clusters,
and when dead strew white swamps with skeletons,
dotted as if bombarded, with green hummocks
like ancient cannon-balls sprouting grass…

So begins Elizabeth Bishop’s famous ode to the state of Florida. Of course, in a traditional sense, this isn’t an ode, for while it speaks of Florida—almost sings of Florida—it doesn’t call to the region. Like many of Bishop’s poems, which are set apart by their precise descriptions and finely-observed detail, this poem describes Florida to an outsider. It captures a place filled with pelicans and rot and beauty and teenage flesh. Florida feels, to me, like an intimate portrayal drawn from a vast distance.

Yet Bishop didn’t experience Florida from a distance. After moving to Key West in the early 1930′s, Elizabeth decided to stay in the city, moving from apartment to house and enjoying the booming literary scene (as well as the lush surroundings).

Embarrassingly, this is new information for me. I have long admired Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry—I love her confessional style, her raw emotion, and her delicate balance of imagery and abstract—but I insisted on thinking of her as a Massachusetts girl, much like myself. However, the truth is that Bishop didn’t belong to Boston, and even her first book of poems bares testimony to that fact. Titled North and South, the collection jumps back and forth from Key West to Boston, moving from the cold brick and winter twilight of the North to the invading sun and carnival colors of America’s far south. It compares and contrasts the two, never really settling on either, playing to the strengths and terrible weaknesses of both.

But this is, in essence, what I admire so much about Bishop’s poetry. Before I began writing our Key West Friday series, I had never given much though to what I’m going to call her “landscape pieces.” I much preferred her descriptions of love, loss, and anger. But buried within these tantalizing images of a place I have never been (for I haven’t quite made it down to Florida quite yet) is something I can recognize. Reading her poems about Florida is a bit like looking at an old postcard. They provide a fragmented and slightly distorted and appealing picture of America.

Key West is, for Bishop, a place that is filled with growth and overrun with decay. She describes with equal the “enormous turtles, helpless and mild” that are doomed to “die and leave their barnacled shells on the beaches and the fireflies, who come after dark and “map the heavens in the marsh / until the moon rises.” In another poem, titled Florida Deserta, she spends the first stanza discussing summer clouds that “shade the houses / soothe they eyes” and “banish the break-bone fever” before launching into a description of the summer stars. She captures them converging “invisibly on each tin roof,” turning light into color and the shine of hundreds of scales. For Bishop, Florida is alive and pulsing, constantly moving with heat and the glittery refracted light of water and ocean.

After a more thorough exploration, I realize I have to give up Bishop as a fellow Bostonian. She’s much too American to be limited to a single city—even a single state. I think it is her particular skill for imagery, for drawing dreamscapes out of words, but after reading Elizabeth’s lines on Key West, it’s hard not to wonder: what else is out there, waiting with half-closed eyes?

Bishop, in her usual cryptic way, has one answer:

The alligator, who has five distinct calls:
friendliness, love, mating, war, and a warning–
whimpers and speaks in the throat
of the Indian Princess.

The National Book Awards are a pretty big deal. They may not be as publicized as the Grammys or as glamorous as the Oscars, but on the American literary scene, there are few greater honors.

The National Book Award is given to writers by writers, recognizing the best of American literature since 1950. This coveted award has advanced the careers of both emerging and established authors, and many past winners have become staples of American literature, including William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Thomas Pynchon, Rachel Carson, and William Carlos Williams – just to name a few.

Each year, the National Book Foundation receives many entries, but to be eligible, a book must be written by an American citizen and published by an American publisher between December 1 of the previous year and November 30 of the current year; no entry can be self-published. This year, 1,223 books were submitted to the foundation, which were then narrowed down to only twenty finalists, or five finalists per category: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature. Judging each category are five reputable authors who are doing great work in their genre, and who are sometimes past finalists or winners themselves.

Although there has always been a ceremony to announce the winners of the award, for the first time in history, the 2011 award ceremony will be webcast live from New York City tonight at 8 pm EST.  There is no registration necessary: the broadcast will be featured on the foundation’s homepage, www.nationalbook.org. Here viewers can watch, in real time, the winners in each of the four categories accept their awards, and see Mitchell Kaplan (co-founder of Miami Book Fair International) and John Ashbery (National Book Award and Pulitzer-winning poet)  receive their lifetime achievement awards. If that’s not exciting enough, the host of the event will be John Lithgow, a talented author, actor, and musician who has written ten books and acted in films and television shows such as Dexter, the Shrek franchise, Terms of Endearment, and Dreamgirls.

This year boasts an incredibly talented group of finalists, all of whom are after the hefty $10,000 prize, a bronze sculpture, and the respect of writers and readers all over the country. These finalists are:

For Fiction:

-       Andrew Krivak,  HE SOJOURN (Bellevue Literary Press)
-       Téa Obreht, THE TIGER’S WIFE (Random House)
-       Julie Otsuka, THE BUDDHA IN THE ATTIC (Alfred A. Knopf)
-       Edith Pearlman, BINOCULAR VISION (Lookout Books)
-       Jesmyn Ward, SALVAGE THE BONES (Bloomsbury USA)

For Nonfiction:

-       Deborah Baker, THE CONVERT: A TALE OF EXILE AND EXTREMISM (Graywolf Press)
-       Mary Gabriel, LOVE AND CAPITAL: KARL AND JENNY MARX AND THE BIRTH OF A REVOLUTION (Little, Brown, and Company)
-       Stephen Greenblatt, THE SWERVE: HOW THE WORLD BECAME MODERN (W.W. Norton)
-       Manning Marable, MALCOLM X: A LIFE OF REINVENTION (Viking Press)
-       Lauren Redniss, RADIOACTIVE: MARIE & PIERRE CURIE, A TALE OF LOVE AND FALLOUT (It Books)

For Poetry:

-       Nikky Finney, HEAD OFF & SPLIT (TriQuarterly)
-       Yusef Komunyakaa, THE CHAMELEON COUCH (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
-       Carl Phillips, DOUBLE SHADOW (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
-       Adrienne Rich, TONIGHT NO POETRY WILL SERVE: POEMS 2007-2010 (W.W. Norton)
-       Bruce Smith, DEVOTIONS (University of Chicago Press)

For Young People’s Literature:

-       Franny Billingsley, CHIME (Dial Books)
-       Debby Dahl Edwardson, MY NAME IS NOT EASY (Marshall Cavendish)
-       Thanhha Lai,  INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN (Harper)
-       Albert, Marrin, FLESH AND BLOOD SO CHEEP: THE TRIANGLE FIRE AND ITS LEGACY (Alfred A. Knopf)
-       Gary D. Schmidt, OKAY FOR NOW (Clarion Books)

Tune in to the live feed now to see which four finalists walk away with the prize!

Leonard Bernstein was born and raised in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where his family ran a bookstore. He studied in Boston and Cambridge, as well as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In New York City he became known as a producer, in Vienna and Israel he was touted as one of the world’s greatest conductors; it was Tanglewood, however, to which Bernstein would “come home” to perform the work, and foster the friendships, that helped shape who he was as a person.

Cynthia Woods, Music Director of the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra and acclaimed international guest conductor, sheds light on the importance of Place in Leonard Bernstein’s life and career.

While Bernstein had long standing associations with many orchestras and areas–New York, Vienna, Israel–his lifelong relationship with Tanglewood, Massachusetts, stands out as one of the most defining places and experiences of his life.

Leonard Bernstein was accepted into the Tanglewood program in 1940 by Serge Koussevitzky, the iconic conductor and director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at that time. Bernstein had already finished his studies at Curtis with Fritz Reiner, another major influence, but it would be his time spent studying with Koussevitzky that would shape the public persona that everyone would come to know; the flair for the dramatic, the commitment to new music, and a love of teaching became principals that defined him for the rest of his life. It would also be at Tanglewood that first summer where Bernstein would meet another of his greatest friends and musical influences, Aaron Copland.

Bernstein maintained a relationship with Tanglewood for the rest of his life, eventually taking over for Serge Koussevitzky, teaching young conductors and composers, and leading the BSO in their summer season. It would also be at Tanglewood that he would “come home” to give his final concert. On August 19, 1990, Bernstein gave his final concert, almost collapsing on stage from a coughing fit, forcing himself to continue on and giving one of his greatest performances. All of his friends and family say that he knew it would be his final performance. He would die a few weeks later on October 14, 1990.

The Cambridge Symphony Orchestra is playing A Tribute to Leonard Bernstein, Sunday November 13, 2011, at 4:00PM at the Somerville High School on Highland Avenue.

The program includes the Overture to Candide, an operetta composed by Bernstein in 1956, based on the satirical novella by French philosopher Voltaire; a sweet and compelling orchestration of West Side Story, which premiered on Broadway in 1957; and in excellent contrast, Symphony No. 3 by early Romantic composer, Robert Schumann.

Please join us for a beautiful program and a historical, musical tribute to Leonard Bernstein—the places that influenced him, and indeed, the places influenced by him.

Last week, we talked about Ernest Hemingway, one of America’s greatest writers, most famous drinkers, and a sometimes resident of Key West. Today, we’re going to shift our focus (but only a little) to yet another classic American author known for his culinary quirks: Tennessee Williams.

While Williams is more often associated with New Orleans than with the great state of Florida, the playwright and author spent years commuting between Manhattan and his modest residence in Key West. A true literary traveler, Williams lived all over the world, establishing homes everywhere from London to Rome, only to move once more when the mood struck him. According to some, It was in his Key West home where Tennessee wrote the first draft of his most famous and arguably most widely-read play, A Street Car Named Desire. Visitors to the city can still see his small bungalow, located in the New Town neighborhood, though sadly, it is privately owned and no longer open to the public.

Despite his long-time affiliation with Key West, many of the recipes in Troy Gilbert’s cookbook, Dinner With Tennessee Williams: Recipes and Stories Inspired by America’s Southern Playwright, have a decidedly Louisisiana flavor. However, the off-beat little book—which features recipes created by Greg Picolo, a New Orleans native and chef at the Bistro Maison de Ville—can still be viewed as a surprisingly literary way to enjoy all types of Southern cuisine. The publisher describes the book thusly:

Like Hemingway to Cuba or Mark Twain to the Mississippi, certain writers are inextricably tied to their environments-the culture, the history, the people, the cuisine. The plays of Tennessee Williams evoke the ambiance and flavor of the South. Part food memoir and part cookbook, this fresh look at the world of this great American playwright-both in real life and in his plays-is the perfect book for literary lovers and food lovers alike.

Inside the conceptual cookbook, you can find recipes for dishes like Grilled Ahi Tuna with Pineapple Relish, Maw Maw Lola’s Fig Preserves, and Chop Suey Soup. All the dishes are inspired by Tennessee’s plays, and are accompanied with archived photographs from Williams’ life and quotes from his distinctive dialogue.

As holiday season fast approaches, we can’t help but think this would be the perfect gift for a budding chef, bookworm, or even world traveler. Food, literature, and a little bit of Southern charm? That’s pretty much all we need to escape this dreary New England winter.

Please enjoy an accompaniment to Literary Traveler’s November 5th article by Veronica Hackethal, Becoming Dostoyevsky. This addition of Behind The Article is packed with existential quandaries inspired by the man himself. 

Literary Traveler: You give the impression that being unwary is especially dangerous in Russia? Why do you think that is, and do you think it’s a theme of Dostoyevsky’s work?

Veronica Hackethal: The word “unwary” seemed best to describe my experience of a winter-time dawn in St. Petersburg. During night, we are asleep, unwary of the world around us. The December dawn creeps over St. Petersburg, encroaches so gradually that if you don’t have a clock, it can be difficult to realize that dawn is occurring. This can be very disorienting.

I think that being unwary (thoughtless, unalert, unmindful) is dangerous in and of itself, not just in Russia but everywhere. Someone who is unwary is indeed asleep. Not having a sense of oneself, one’s relationship with the larger world, and the effects of one’s actions on others is a very dangerous state of being. One cannot, then, predict one’s actions to future events, or even to one’s own behavior.

While I’m not sure if being unwary is one of Dostoyevsky’s main preoccupations, I think it is connected to one of his major themes: catharsis through introspection. It is through introspection that one gains self-awareness and takes responsibility for oneself and one’s actions. I think this is a major theme of Dostoyevsky’s existentialism.

An example is Raskolnikov’s reaction to having murdered the pawn broker. Though he had rationally thought out the murder beforehand, he was unaware of the power of his conscience, unaware of his irrational reaction to having committed the act. Through introspective wandering, he grapples with his conscience, and takes responsibility for his actions. It is through the compassion of Sonia’s love that redemption is ultimately found, another of Dostoyevsky’s major themes. In The Idiot, he wrote, “Compassion is the chief and perhaps the only law of human existence.”

LT: Where do you think the Underground Man exists in contemporary literature and art? Can we suffer from existential crises today, considering our propensity toward technology, specifically technologically expressed human emotion?

VH: You mean “Do I still exist if no one responds to my facebook posting?” Just kidding. Regarding Dostoyevsky’s influence on existentialism in contemporary writing, where do I begin? Some consider Notes from the Underground to be the first existentialist novel. Its descendants include Camus’ “The Stranger”, Sartre’s “Nausea”, Ralph Ellison’s “The Invisible Man” and Richard Wright’s “The Outsider.” Films like “Clockwork Orange”, “The Matrix”, “The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, and “Up in the Air” all contain elements of existentialism. Then there is the Theater of the Absurd: Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” and Sartre’s “Huis Clos”. And don’t forget Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead”. More recent books that contain elements of Dostoyevsky’s existentialism include “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera, and my recent favorite “Super Sad True Love Story” by Gary Shteyngart.

I think that Dostoyevsky predicted the existential crises from which we suffer today. In his later work, one of his preoccupations was with science and technology: the accoutrements of modernity are inadequate substitutes for religion, love and human understanding. I wonder if the rise of religious fundamentalism is a backlash to the inability of science and technology to assuage the irrational in us. There is alienation and loneliness in connecting virtually with others. But I wonder, do issues of existentialism even register with us anymore? Are we too overloaded with information, rushing too much to keep up with the mundane (e.g. bullet-point top ten lists) to question the meaning of our lives?

LT: I’ve never been to Russia, is it equally stark and opulent? Can you characterize your trip through St. Petersburg in a passage from one of Dostoyevsky’s novels or essays?

VH: I suppose my essay could be considered a light-hearted nod to Dostoyevsky’s wandering, introspective characters, like the narrator in “White Nights”, Raskolnikov in “Crime and Punishment”, or Stavrogin in “The Possessed”. Here I am wandering aimlessly, almost dreamlike, in this unknown city where I can’t speak the language and where I don’t know anyone. Do I really exist as I thought I had? How do I define myself? Much of independent, solo travel is like this. At such times, the insights into oneself and others are particularly valuable.

I think the following passage from “White Nights” sums up the alienation and loneliness of suddenly becoming a wandering outsider, a foreigner in a society into which I’d plopped down by way of Aeroflot:

“For though I had been living almost eight years in Petersburg I had hardly an acquaintance. But what did I want with acquaintances? I was acquainted with all Petersburg as it was; that was why I felt as though they were all deserting me when all Petersburg packed up and went to its summer villa. I felt afraid of being left alone, and for three whole days I wandered about the town in profound dejection, not knowing what to do with myself. Whether I walked in the Nevsky, went to the Gardens, or sauntered on the embankment, there was not one face of those I had been accustomed to meet at the same time and place all year. They, of course, do not know me, but I know them. I know them intimately, I have almost made a study of their faces…”

That said, Russia is beautiful, and I encourage readers to visit! In the last decade, many of the buildings neglected during Communism have been spiffed up. My jaw dropped when I saw the extravagant buildings along Nevsky Prospekt. The Bolshoi recently reopened after a six year, billion dollar renovation. The Hermitage, Mikhailovsky, and Stanislavsky theaters all sparkle. So, I would say the word for Russia today is opulent. What is stark about Russia is past history, Soviet times, and the sky during winter. The food can also be a bit wanting.

LT: Please briefly elaborate on the significance of a crossroads in Dostoyevsky’s life and work with a historical or literary example.

VH: Aside from living at a physical crossroads during the last years of his life, Dostoyevsky lived at a time of rapid change, a crossroads of history, when Russia was deciding whether to turn toward the rationalism, industrialization and modernism of the West, or to conserve the traditional Russian culture embodied in the mysticism and faith of Russian Orthodoxy. Cross roads are places of transition, liminal zones, and are dangerous places in many cultures. Dostoyevsky’s preoccupation with crossroads as opposite extremes can be seen in the dualities he develops in his writing, the themes of Western materialism vs. Russian spirituality, rational vs. nonrational, sacred vs. profane. Many of Dostoyevsky’s characters grapple with such dualities; they live at crossroads, in a metaphorical sense. These themes can be seen in the moral struggles of The Brothers Karamazov. The patricide can be taken to symbolize the death of the tsar and traditional Russian society. Ivan’s atheism/rationalism is juxtaposed with Alyosha’s faith, while Dmitri grapples with the guilt produced by his sensualist/materialist ways.

Sitting in a beer garden atop the ancient Vyšehrad courtyards, my host, Radka took a swig of pilsner and began, “A friend once asked me, ‘What are the Czech people like?’ And I said, ‘Czechs, we just don’t bother.” She laughed before elaborating. “We work hard, but all we want is a home and a happy life. We don’t think bigger than that, usually.”

But Radka thinks bigger than that. She’s restless and wants to see the world, which marks another change in a country that has seen so many: a growing generation of dreamers. She is learning Arabic in an effort to learn more about a culture that she believes is grossly misunderstood, and I had to agree.

We peered down at central Prague from across the Vltava River. Punk-rock hippes and young families mingled together on the grass along the cliffside. It was nearly sunset, and night and dreams, like the vivid fantasies of Kafka, would soon arrive.

A bronze statue of Franz Kafka sitting on the shoulders of a headless, limbless man stands in the city of Prague. It represents a dream that he had, which is described in one of his earliest short stories, “Description of a Struggle,” published in 1909, six years before The Metamorphosis.

Critics often dismiss Kafka’s “Struggle” as one of his lesser works – unpolished and adolescent. But Prague went through many stages as well before the city reached its bright, shiny state. From the first settlements in the Paleolithic era to the iron fist of the Soviet Union, Prague has survived many dynasties, dukes, and kings. Now it is a lovely tourist sight, but that was certainly not always the case. Perhaps this is why the “Struggle” statue so well represents both Prague and Kafka.

In 1924, Kafka died at the age of 40 from a combination of tuberculosis and starvation at a sanatorium in Vienna, but his body was returned to his true home in Prague, where it remains inside the New Jewish Cemetery, with so many others.

Prague, though, lives on. And Kafka’s “Struggle” is now intrinsically a part of it. He sits on the headless man’s shoulders, witnessing the changing world.

Radka and I left the beautiful Vyšehrad and returned to her apartment 20 minutes from the center. There the buildings shot up from the flat ground in identical cubes with small windows and dull paint – the remnants of communism. Shops and restaurants were rare, not like the vibrant neighborhoods of other cities I’d seen. But inside the apartment, Radka whipped up a delicious regional stew and opened a bottle of Moravian wine. Stories and laughter followed. We weren’t bothered.

Hemingway drinks in the Plaza Del Gastillo, July 1959.

Today’s edition of Key West Friday is going to focus on something very near and dear to my own heart: literary cocktails. More specifically, I want to talk about one of the greatest mixologists of the 20th century—I’m speaking of Ernest Hemingway, of course—and his personal creations.

Though some may think of Hemingway as just another author you had to read in high school, overlooking Hemingway’s massive influence on American culture, masculinity, and writing would be a sorry mistake. Even if we leave aside his incredible literary talents, Hemingway was far more than simply a writer. He was a celebrity before we truly had celebrities; he single-handedly defined a generation in a way that few authors have since. While his perpetually disillusioned anti-heroes certainly played a role in capturing and symbolically creating the post-war American, (Hemingway’s case is, I happen to believe, one of those chicken-or-the-egg issues. Did he simply record what he saw, and capture the disenchanted drifting of many young men, or did his novels contribute to a certain image of the American identity that was beginning to coalesce? I imagine it was a bit of both) his actual person was just as instrumental in the process. He was, according to those that knew him, a force of nature.

He let loose his forceful personality during his time in Key West, where he lived for several years before relocating to Cuba. During this time, Hemingway did little to reel in his natural vivaciousness, and found himself what PBS’s Michael Palin describes as “Hemingway’s wild adventures:”

In a rain-splattered Key West street, he duked it out with Wallace Stevens after the poet had insulted him. In his beloved boat, Pilar, he battled man-sized fish (managing to shoot himself in both legs while trying to gaff one shark). Hemingway belted back drinks at Sloppy Joe’s, a speakeasy that went legal after Prohibition ended. While at his favorite watering hole, he befriended a young journalist named Martha Gellhorn, who traveled with him to Spain to cover the civil war there. Eventually, she would become his third wife.

As Palin makes clear, these episodes were often fueled by alcohol. But what kind of alcohol?

Here we have to turn to another source. According to the wonderful site Codex 99, in 1937, Hemingway created a drink that Charles Barker later included in his book The Gentleman’s Companion. Hemingway called it a “picker-upper” but it went down in history as “Death in the Gulf Stream.” Despite the morose name, the actual mix sounds rather delicious. For those of you interested in celebrating Key West Friday at home, here’s the recipe for Hemingway’s scary little cocktail:

2 oz. Lucas Bols Oude Genever
4 dashes Angostura
1 lime
Add crushed ice to a thin tumbler. Lace the ice with 4 dashes of Angostura and add the juice and crushed peel of 1 lime. Nearly fill the tumbler with Genever.

Of course, you can always go the traditional route and make yourself a mojito, but we think this Death sounds much more impressive. Happy drinking.

I just read a column The Life Report by David Brooks in the NY Times. He suggested that readers over the age of 70 submit a report of their lives and describe the things that have been important to them and how well they believe they have done them. He references some essays by a Yale graduates on their 25^th and 50^th anniversary graduations.  

Many regretted the risks that they didn’t take and the conventional aspects of their lives but I suppose that’s what makes up the vast majority of life, is the every day – those things that you do and the people that you see and the fabric that becomes your life. Friends and Family, school, work etc.. If you are a risk taker then maybe you get the rewards or maybe you suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

In my case I have certainly had plenty of risk and taken a few chances that have paid off and some that haven’t (and there are still some that I am holding on to and some I have to pay back.)  As someone whose passion is traveling and reading, I get to travel a bit – not as much as I would like but the times I do get to travel can be pretty cool. One regret is that I don’t get to read as much as I would like, but when I do, I love it. I would suggest that risk taking is best when done as much or as often as possible. It’s those times when we stop taking risks or stop trying that we cower back into mediocrity while we wallow in our defeats.

I am suggesting to David and to everyone else that we don’t wait untill the age of 70 but that everyone write our life reports today, no matter how old or young we are and split it them into two parts. One an inventory of what we have done and then second what do we want the second act or third act to be about. My second act would be a bit of a travel report and list all the places I have never been but wanted to go.  First stop Montreal. Please send us your travel reports at Literary Traveler submissions@literarytraveler.com

Courtesy of Joanne Harris/Leonardo Cendamo Photography

“Publication was never my initial objective,” admits British author Joanne Harris. “I kept writing because I liked it, and on some level I guess I had to do it… but when my first book was published, I was absolutely delighted. And better even than just being published, I was actually read by people,” she told Literary Traveler, laughing.

In case you are unfamiliar with Harris’ work (or deceived by her humble attitude), she is one of the most popular British writers living today. Though her most famous novel may well be Chocolat, which was made even more memorable by the film with Johnny Depp, she has also penned everything from young adult novels (Runemarks) to cookbooks (The French Kitchen).

Along with Bill Bryson, Joanne Harris was invited on board Cunard’s the Queen Mary 2 as part of their Literature & Liners series, where she spoke to the passengers about her two greatest passions: writing and food. After her book signing, we were able to sit down with Harris for a private interview—which we naturally recorded.

In this latest installment of Literary Traveler TV, Joanne Harris talks to our editors about the experience of traveling on such a grand old ship, how she became a writer, and perhaps most interestingly, her thoughts on the intersections between food, travel, and literature. “I think food has always been a popular theme in literature. I’ve been wrongly–but flatteringly—attributed this task of having brought food in fiction into popularity, but it’s not at all true. I think, with it’s link to travel, it’s also one of the most accessible ways to learn about another culture.”

Learn more about Joanne Harris and her literary musings by watching our video interview here. And for more Literary Traveler TV, please check out our YouTube channel.

I am very excited to announce Key West Fridays at Literary Traveler. We are taking a trip to Key West in January. To celebrate that fact we are launching a new tradition of Key West Fridays.  We are going to share ideas and thoughts and the great stories of Key West to help get you excited about visiting Key West.

Why Key West? In the spirit of Key West - Why not? One of the first literary trips we took involved a long drive to Key West. It was one of the experiences that inspired us to start the website. Key West just has a unique blend of natural beatuy, spirit and literary history that few places possess. And this January, the editors of Literary Traveler will be traveling on a tour with Ann Kirkland of Classical Pursuits to Key West to discuss great books, shoot video and have fun.

Key West is one of the islands that make up the Florida Keys, a tropical coral archipelago known for its beautiful geology and fossil life. It has a fascinating history of politics and immigration, literature and innovation, arts and language. And we hope to bring it to you on Key West Fridays.

There are few writers who can so seamlessly marry information with a strongly absurdest sense of humor. Bill Bryson is one of those rare authors. Unlike the dry, factual essayists we read in school, Bryson’s books are not only sidesplittingly funny, but also deeply authoritative and observant.

As you might be able to tell, we have been reading Bryson for years, and admiring his singular style and voice. From the first book we picked up on the Appalachian Trail, the 1998 A Walk in the Woods to his wildly popular A Short History of Nearly Everything.

In 2010, while traveling across the Atlantic on the Cunard’s Queen Mary 2, Literary Traveler got to meet the famous writer. Bill was taking the cruise as a special guest for their Liners & Literature series. During this time, he had a few duties: relax, enjoy himself, and speak to the other passengers about his impressive career, his thoughts on Britain, and his unique views on writing and reading.

“Everybody likes books that are about them,” he observed during our interview. “My book about growing up in Iowa seemed to really resonate with Americans. The other book that did very well in America was A Walk in the Woods… but the book that sold in Britain was Notes on a Small Island. I suppose it’s natural that people are most attracted to something about them.”

He also revealed the genesis of his writing career. “My dad had a great collection of hardback books from the 1930s and 40s, and he had a lot of books by PG Wodehouse. He had books by people like James Thurgood, Robert Benchley, and S.J. Perelman—four really, really funny writers. I picked up these books when I was thirteen and fell in love with the idea of being able to use language as a way of making people laugh.”

To learn more about Bill Bryson, take a few minutes to watch our full interview with the author, shot on board the Queen Mary 2. Covering everything from baseball to the Brits, it’s the perfect way to get to know one of the most beloved humor writers living today. See the clip at Literary Traveler TV here.

Courtesy of Cunard

Last summer, your editors at Literary Traveler were lucky enough to cross the Atlantic on the majestic and elegant Queen Mary 2. The week-long Transatlantic cruise offered most everything we overworked writers need—excellent food, plenty of rest and relaxation, and of course, a bit of literary stimulation.

The trip we attended on the grand old liner wasn’t your average cruise. Literary Traveler was invited to attend one of their Cunard Insights enrichment programs, the 2010 Literature and Liners trip, alongside influential authors like Kate Atkinson, John Berendt, Bill Bryson, and Joanne Harris. During our stay, we were able to attend Q&As with the authors, panel discussions, and book signings.

In order to better document the journey, we also brought our camera. To learn more about the Queen Mary 2—including details about its history, the various amenities available onboard, and the surprising attractions that draws thousands of passengers each year—take a look at our video on YouTube. And stay tuned for further details about the author discussions with Bill Bryson and Joanne Harris.

Where is the stereotypical, lounging vacationer?, Image by Flickr user Micky

For most people, a vacation means snoozing on the beach, catching rays by the lake, or reading for pleasure, but a new trend in tourism suggests that a vacation can be a truly life changing experience. Volunteer tourism, also known as volunteer travel or voluntourism, is a new type of vacation that incorporates sightseeing with service, allowing participants to visit and learn about a new place and culture while using their skills and passions to make a difference.

Groups like Cross-Cultural Solutions, Global Volunteers, Voluntourism.org and Hands Up Holidays arrange these trips, providing clients with opportunities to better the local communities they visit as well as to relax and tour. Trips can last a single week or up to three months, and while most occur in a variety of countries, Voluntourism.org also provides opportunities to take volunteer vacations within the U.S.

A variety of service projects are available to suit your interests and skills, including building and renovation, teaching English, assisting in medical facilities, and supporting environmental preservation. Most organizations equally encourage families, couples, and single volunteers, though some countries and projects may require different different ages and skill sets.

Although many of these trips require demanding, physical work, organizations provide varying levels of comfort and activity. You may choose a trip that truly matches your interests and lifestyle. Most trips provide free time in the evenings and on weekends to explore the surrounding area on your own, but some trips stress this more than others. Hands Up Holidays, for example, describes its vacations as “luxury” and offers just a “taste” of volunteering, while Voluntourism.org seeks truly dedicated volunteers who are willing to put a lot of time and thought into their service experience.

And now the question we’ve all been waiting for: How much does it cost? Of course this depends on where you’re going and how long you’re staying, but in general it seems trips organized through the groups mentioned above are not outrageously expensive, but also not the least expensive way to go. Many fall between $1,000 and $3,000, not including airfare. It’s important to recognize, however, that in many cases this fee includes guided service experience and other cultural activities like language lessons or field trips in addition to lodging and food. Sure it might be cheaper to fly to Thailand, stay in a hotel by the beach and lounge the day away, but you won’t necessarily learn anything about Thai culture, and you certainly won’t be helping anyone besides the owner of the hotel (assuming you stay put in your hotel beach chair). 

If you are on a tight budget, never fear, there are inexpensive ways to volunteer! (pardon the rhyme). Instead of allowing a volunteer travel agency to do the work for you, plan your own trip around a certain service event like a beach or park clean up, or contact an organization directly to ask if you can help out during your vacation. Though this requires more work on your part, you’ll escape the administrative/organizational fees included in the previously mentioned packaged trips.

Of course, voluntourism isn’t for everyone. Critics argue that it’s just another gimmick to get well-meaning individuals to take expensive, exotic vacations guilt-free. They claim that the various projects completed by vacationers don’t make a real impact on the lives of locals and voluntourism organizations could conceivably take advantage of poor communities around the world to sell trip packages.

I see how voluntourism could be suspiciously good to be true (who would pay to volunteer during time off??), I think that overall the heart of volunteer travel is in the right place. Normally vacations are for relaxing and concentrating on personal and family indulgences. Volunteer tourism, on the other hand, recommends that you accomplish more with your time off: improve the well-being of others around the world and more deeply understand different communities and cultures. For me, that sure beats a day at the beach!

Check out Matador Network’s Complete Guide to Volunteer Tourism to see if it’s right for you!

Lucian Freud, Girl with Roses, 1947

Last week, Lucian Freud, one of the greatest painters of the 20th century, and grandson of Sigmund Freud, passed away in his London home. He was 88.

With a family history like his, it isn’t surprising that Lucien was brimming with talent. Though he started off his career a bit rocky (he was a gambler, womanizer, and a wild card), in the post-World War II years, he became one of the most significant artists working in Europe. His slightly abstracted, often grotesque paintings came to define a new wave of figurative art. Like the Secessionists before him, and the German Expressionists, his portraits were filled with a sense of vulnerability, intimacy, and occasionally, dread.

While you can compare some of Freud’s paintings to earlier artists like Egon Schiele and Otto Dix, he quickly created a style of portraiture that was all his own. I admit to finding his portraits incredibly disturbing—in a good way. Freud’s subjects stare out from the canvas, wide-eyed and distorted, with a fleshiness and weight that is at once exaggerated and oddly true to life. His portraits are neither beautiful nor smooth. They are not pretty to look at, but they convey something real, something human.

It’s always a tragedy when a great figure like Freud passes, but in many ways, Freud’s career had run its course. I can’t be alone in preferring his earlier work to his later portraits, though some of his most recent work is perhaps more recognizable, due to the status of his subjects. His depiction of Queen Elizabeth II, for example, is not really a traditional royal portrait, but it has gained widespread fame nonetheless. A painting he did in 2002 of a pregnant Kate Moss has the same odd combination of celebrity draw and high-brow artistic appeal.

Despite his later triumphs, when reading his obituaries I’m struck again and again by his first forays into figurative art. In paintings like “Girl With a Kitten” and “Girl With Roses,” Freud calls to mind the old masters and the traditional Flemish portraits. To me, these pieces look like a modernized version of Jan Van Eyck’s pieces, imbued with (unsurprisingly) a 20th century awareness of the complexity of the human psyche. There is something deeply psychological about Freud’s distortions, which both flatten the face and draw forth the eyes, which gaze distractedly. It feels at once both intimate and distant, smooth and slightly frayed. The subjects bare many of the markers of female beauty, yet under Freud’s brush they are thinned, flattened, and made far more ghostly.

Freud’s death is a terrible loss for the art world, but his artistic contributions will not be forgotten. As he once told his biographer, ”For me the paint is the person,” and through his creations, Lucian lives on.