Daniel Kalder: “Former Penguin CEO and current Overlook publisher Peter Mayer has loved Russian literature for decades. Last June, following Russia’s turn as Country Focus at BookExpo America, he announced what is the culmination of this career-long fascination, The Russian Library, a colossal 125 volume series of translated fiction, poetry and drama to be published [...]
“Ancient Olympic dopers got their pre-Games hormone boost from chewing on raw animal testicles.” Brian Doherty on Gore Vidal, who is now dead: “Vidal had a winning mistrust of elites and understood–and this is the key to why so many cannot tolerate him–that they, especially in the American security and foreign policy apparati, didn’t necessarily [...]
I’ve been anti-Bill Maher for a few years now, ever since POLITICALLY INCORRECT transitioned from a unique and contrarian TV show to a vehicle for the no-brain comments of whatever four ABC sitcom actors the show was able to book at the last minute. A more notable flashpoint, though, occurred in the early 2000s. Maher said something dumb [...]