London Review of Books (LRB) – August 7 , 2024: The latest issue features ‘Henry James Hot-Air Balloon’ – “The Prefaces” by Henry James; Trivialized to Death – “Reading Genesis” by Marilynne Robinson; Different for Girls By Jean McNicol…
The first time the man heard God, he uprooted his entire life, though he was very old. Then God appeared to him in person, an event which would embarrass later thinkers. God made the man an impossible promise in the shape of a son. His wife was ninety, and she laughed. When the child arrived, it was hardly unreasonable to think it a miracle. They named the child after the laughter.
In 1904 Henry James’s agent negotiated with the American publisher Charles Scribner’s Sons to produce a collected edition of his works. The New York Edition of the Novels and Tales of Henry James duly appeared in 1907-9. It presented revised texts of both James’s shorter and longer fiction, with freshly written prefaces to each volume. It didn’t include everything: ‘I want to quietly disown a few things by not thus supremely adopting them,’ as James put it. The ‘disowned’ works included some early gems such as The Europeans. The labour of ‘supremely adopting’ the stuff he still thought worthy was grinding. He worked on the new prefaces, which he described as ‘freely colloquial and even, perhaps, as I may say, confidential’ (though James’s notion of the ‘freely colloquial’ is perhaps not everyone’s) during the years 1905 to 1909. In some respects, the venture was not a success. ‘Vulgarly speaking,’ James said of the New York Edition, ‘it doesn’t sell.’
A week before the start of the Paris Olympics, Shoko Miyata, the 19-year-old captain of the Japanese women’s gymnastics team, was forced to withdraw from the competition by her national association. She had been reported to the Japan Gymnastics Association for smoking and drinking (on separate occasions, once for each offence). The president of the JGA, Tadashi Fujita, announced that Miyata had been sent home, and bowed deeply.
Country Life Magazine (August 7, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Huts for Heroes’ – Where adventures start…
A consolation and pleasure
Could Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, be considered an architect? He thought so — and Michael Hall tends to agree
The legacy
Carla Passino salutes the modest Henry Tate, whose name will live forever in the art world
The secret history of flowers
Healing, revealing, defence against thieving, our wildflowers’ names tell the story of our ancestors. John Lewis-Stempel reads the leaves
Up where the air is clear
An Antarctic explorer’s base or a Scottish fisherman’s shelter, the humble hut is a crucial element in stirring tales. Robin Ashcroft opens the doors
You rang, your majesty?
Even the most distasteful jobs could offer compensations to savvy servants in the Royal Household, finds Susan Jenkins
Going Dutch
The great Netherlandish masters have no equal in admirers and influence, believes Michael Hall
Harriet Hastings’s favourite painting
The biscuiteer picks a haunting scene in a lonely hotel room
Against the Grain
Carla Carlisle pays tribute to the memory of a farmer, honest broadcaster and dear friend
Bottoms up
What do the white behinds of rabbits, deer and foxes really say? Laura Parker deciphers scuts, rumps and rears
Summer’s last stand
Securing the harvest is the weather watcher’s concern in August, says Lia Leendertz
The good stuff
Hetty Lintell wraps up in style ready to hit the beach
Interiors
A party-ready sitting room and stylish touches for a home office
London Life
Rooftop cocktails
Wiggy Hindmarch, wine cellars and rosebay willowherb
William Hosie’s capital characters
Richard MacKichan on the British Museum Reading Room’s return
Presiding spirits
The fourth generation to nurture the garden of Glin Castle, Co Limerick, Ireland, is doing her predecessors proud. Caroline Donald explores a windswept haven beside the Shannon
Kitchen garden cook
Melanie Johnson conjures up treats with courgette flowers
It’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you do with it
Even the tiniest town garden can offer views and wildlife to rival open countryside, believes city dweller Jonathan Notley
Travel
Pamela Goodman gives in to whimsy in Wales
Harry Hastings delights in the Art Deco Hotel Casa Lucía in Argentina
Rosie Paterson rounds up the best new openings in Greece
Times Literary Supplement (August 7, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Paper Dreams’ – Dinah Birch on William Morris’s contradictions; Cancelled left and right; Downfall of the West; Sly old Chaucer; Beowulf, hero of the Northern World….
This week’s @TheTLS, featuring @dlbirch1 on William Morris; Rana Mitter on the West; @marywellesley on Chaucer; Claire Lowdon on Evie Wyld; Rosemary Waugh on Annie Ernaux’s The Years on stage; @anna_aslanyan on maps; M. C. on the Booker longlist – and more pic.twitter.com/HERuq3MWPp
The Darién Gap was once considered impassable. Now hundreds of thousands of migrants are risking treacherous terrain, violence, hunger, and disease to travel through the jungle to the United States.
Iranian Insiders Warn That Attacking Israel Is a Trap
Some say a big war will help the country’s enemies. But is anyone listening?
President Biden has proposed radical changes to the Court. Reviewing them is a reminder of why reform is so hard, despite dissatisfaction and a wealth of ideas.
Julie Benko, who hit it big after going on in place of Beanie Feldstein in “Funny Girl,” has a lot of advice for the Vice-President, now that she’s done with waiting in the wings.
By Zach Helfand
What Does Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Actually Want?
The third-party Presidential candidate has a troubled past, a shambolic campaign, and some surprisingly good poll numbers.
Boomers Daily 