This space is for an eclectic selection of links, suggestions and ideas for the LitSalon community. We hope to highlight some of the most intriguing and illuminating things that catch our eye so please email us if you have anything you’d like us to consider for inclusion.
Shakespeare’s First Folio Anniversary
It is unlikely to have escaped your notice that today is the 400th anniversary of publication of the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays (published on 8 November 1623, seven years after William Shakespeare’s death). There have been all sorts of celebrations and comments, but Folio 400 is worth checking out as a one-stop repository of information.
A Salonista recommended film: The Nettle Dress
Salonista Sophie Toumazis has been working on publicity for The Nettle Dress, a documentary film about textile artist Allan Brown, who spent seven years making a dress using 14,400 feet of thread made from the fibre of locally foraged stinging nettles. In doing so, he relearned the ancient crafts of foraging, spinning, weaving, cutting and sewing, an act of devotion that helped Allan to survive the death of his beloved wife. The film has been described by Sir Mark Rylance as “exquisite . . . Extremely beautiful and helpful for anyone suffering loss or grief. An inspiration.” and by Mark Kermode as “hypnotic and meditative”. More information here.
Our late September newsletter is out now!
Read it here.
For Virginia Woolf enthusiasts . . .
Charleston – former home and studio of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant – has for many years been a destination for those fascinated by Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury group. The Charleston Trust has opened a new arts and exhibition space in nearby Lewes to extend opportunities to explore the lives and work of an extraordinary community of artists and writers and their successors. The first exhibitions are Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and Fashion – to accompany Charlie Porter’s book of the same title – and Jonathan Baldock: through the joy of the senses showing the artist’s large-scale sculptural works.
Following in Mrs Dalloway’s footsteps . . .
Our first Mrs Dalloway walk, led by Karina Jakubowicz, took place on Saturday 16 September. In glorious September sunshine, a group of Woolf enthusiasts followed the path outlined in the first pages of Mrs Dalloway as, in 1923, Clarissa Dalloway makes her way from Westminster to Bond Street on her mission to buy flowers for her party.
Why read Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man?
Ahead of her study beginning on 10 October, Toby explains why she believes Invisible Man is one of the great American novels.
Includes extracts from the recording of the spiritual ‘No More Auction Block‘ performed by Martha Redbone, accompanied by Aaron Whitby on piano, in the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House on 21 March 2017. Based on the work of Howard Zinn (1922–2010), directed by Anthony Arnove In association with Voices of a People’s History of the United States (peopleshistory.us), co-presented by Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Onassis Cultural Center New York Part of Onassis Programs at BAM. View the whole performance here.
Homer’s Iliad
The wonderful Emily Wilson’s new translation of Homer’s Iliad is now published. Her 2017 translation of The Odyssey was celebrated as revelatory in delivering Homer to readers in the English language The Iliad is expected to be equally ground-breaking and will be the focus of both our 2024 travel study in Greece and a new eight-week study led by Mark Cwik starting on 30 October.
Read Charlotte Higgins’ Guardian interview with Emily Wilson here.
