Word
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WordFest at The Mount
Opening Night of Biannual Event
By: - Sep 15th, 2012Last night the biannual WordFest, the second such, opened on a comic note in The Stables of the Edith Wharton estate The Mount in Lenox. Hoping to make WordFest eventually into an annual gathering Mount director, Susan Wissler, introduced two local authors Kevin O’Hara and Alison Larkin who read from their books to the delight of an audience that near to filled a spacious room. This was followed by a wine and cheese reception.
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Peter Matthiessen Wheelwright's As It Is On Earth
Lenox Born Author's Debut Novel
By: - Sep 13th, 2012There will be a reception and reading to celebrate the publication of Peter Matthiessen Wheelwright's debut novel As It Is On Earth on Saturday, September 22nd, from 4-6 p.m., at Johnnycake Books, 12 Academy Street, Salisbury, CT 06068. The book introduces us to Taylor Thatcher, the irreverent scion of a fallen family of Maine Puritans, attempting to chart his own course away from the entanglements of his family over seven days leading up to Columbus Day, and the end of the Millenium, 1999.
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Susan Wissler Describes The Mount's Strong Season
Reducing Debt and Quadruple Programming
By: - Sep 02nd, 2012Susan Wissler, director of Edith Wharton's estate The Mount, in Lenox, discusses reducing debt from $9 million to under $4 million. In the past three years programming has quadrupled with an ambition to run year round. Some $750,000 has been raised to renovate The Stable as a performance, office and conference center. The September Vogue has an 18 page spread shot at The Mount by Annie Liebovitz. The second WordFest returns September 14 to 16.
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Saratoga: A Day At The Races
And Behind the Scenes
By: - Aug 19th, 2012We spent a fabulous day at the Saratoga Race Course, Saratoga Springs, New York, with our guide Don George, who has lived half of his life with horses as owner and trainer. 50 plus photos accompany the article, a visual story.
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The Mount's Berkshire WordFest 2012
Literati and Glitterati Gather September 14-16
By: - Jul 25th, 2012The Mount announces the launch of its second literary festival, Berkshire WordFest 2012, to be held at Edith Wharton's historic estate in Lenox during the weekend of September 14-16, 2012. The festival will bring nearly twenty nationally acclaimed writers--John Berendt, Adam Gopnik, Heidi Julavits, Matthew Pearl, Francine du Plessix Gray, and poet Mary Jo Salter among them--to The Mount for panels, interviews, and public conversations. The festival will also include many free readings by writers and poets with ties to the Berkshire region.
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A View from the Interior of Nazi Hell
Victor Klemperer’s Editor At Brandeis University
By: - May 02nd, 2012A life-long diarist, Jewish-born Professor Victor Klemperer documented the Nazi Regime from his hellish nightmare in the City of Dresden. His records of how one man and his family were humiliated and tortured by the Gestapo, how the very German language was distorted for Nazi use and the lies and degradation of an intensely evil regime are now historical evidence of what the Third Reich really was. In a lecture at Brandeis University, his former student Walter Nowojski told the story of finding and publishing Klemperer's voluminous writings. It took Nowojski 16 years, and it is a gift to civilization.
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Edith Wharton's The Mount Opens May 5
Highlights of the 2012 season
By: - Apr 23rd, 2012This past January, Edith Wharton turned 150 and The Mount has been celebrating this important milestone all year long. That is why we are excited to announce our 2012 season, Edith Wharton: 21st Century Muse. We hope you will join us as we pay tribute to The Mount's remarkable creator with programming highlighting Wharton's life, work, and achievements. The Mount's opening day is May 5th.
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Four Evenings of Favorite Poems
North Adams Public Library
By: - Apr 05th, 2012Thurs. April 12 is the 1st evening of a new series of poetry readings : 'Shakespeare as You Like It' ! This will be followed by : April 26 - Wit and Whimsy, May 10 - Puzzling Poetry, May 24 - Poetry As Song. Bring a poem to read aloud or speak from memory at a gathering on poetry's power to transform.
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The Sewing Machine by May Menassa
An Autobiographical Novel
By: - Mar 20th, 2012The plot of The Sewing Machine is inspired by the author family saga and woven on flashbacks about the Lebanese civil war as a background canvas. This autobiographical novel is a testimonial to Menassa's mother who died while resolutely asking for her missing sewing machine. This insistent and obsessive question, while setting the author on a quest for the lost object, also awakens an emotional description of her family dynamics. The sewing machine is nothing but a pretext, an alibi, not unlike Proust’s Madeleine exploring her mnemonic labyrinth. This metaphor is also a triggering impetus to relate and retrace the story of the beloved brother, the poet Victor.
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The Real Romney, A Questionable Political Drama
Boston Globe Insider Series At The Boston Athenaeum
By: - Mar 06th, 2012The Late Former Georgia Governor Lester Maddox once said. "The problem with the Georgia Prison System was the quality of the prisoners." This is like the current Republican Primary season. On March 5, there was a forum at the Boston Athenaeum to discuss The Real Romney, a 400 page tome about the former governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The political drama was in the retelling of the facts and focus.
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The Rich Hours of the Poor Book
Daniel Leuwer’s Unique Poor Books Collection
By: - Dec 04th, 2011Daniel Leuwers collection of rare books in manuscript format with illustrations by artists is touring the world. The exhibition started in France with a beautiful art catalog comprising 500 books. It is an endeavor where the book transcends the publishing industry to venture in the artistic realm. The catalog is potentially a great 2011 holiday gift.
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The Back Chamber By Donald Hall
Former US Poet Laureate's First Book of Poetry In A Decade
By: - Nov 11th, 2011Rarely giving interviews, former US Poet Laureate Donald Hall agreed to have a conversation with his former University of Michigan student George Abbott White for BFA. On a beautiful sunlit November day, the two sat down at Hall's New Hampshire farm to an extensive dialogue about what went into his life and poetry. This was a special exchange both personally and professionally.
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A Reason to Believe, Lessons from an Improbable Life
Governor Deval Patrick @ Boston BookFest, with NPR’s Guy Raz
By: - Oct 16th, 2011Parttime Berkshire resident Governor Patrick Duval has penned a memoir, A Reason to Believe: Lessons from an Improbable Life. In it, he has personalized some aspects of his Horatio Alger life, but not all. He says though temporarily broke he was not poor. His is a lesson of a life lived to the fullest taking advantage of the opportunities and not dwelling on the difficulties.
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The Torah Codes
Dan Brown Meets the Shekinah
By: - May 23rd, 2011Is the Bible—that is to say, are the first five books of it—prophetically encoded? The implications that arise from such a question ought to (although they won’t; we all know they won’t) provoke far more widespread spiritual introspection and serious religious debate than the argument over whether Jesus of Nazareth lived to a ripe old age in the South of France, making babies with Mary Magdalene. Ezra Barany's homage to Dan Brown opens us to speculations on subjects as diverse, and as intimately related, as the availability of free energy from the fabric of space-time and the nature of the divine feminine.
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Berkshire Living Folds
Seven Year Old Award Winning Publication
By: - May 09th, 2011Seven years ago Michael Zivyak founded the regional magazine Berkshire Living. As editor he brought on board former Berkshire Eagle popular music critic Seth Rogovoy. Over the past couple of years it created a strong on line presence with links to national and local news and arts stories. While it consistently received awards for journalistic excellence like all print publications, particularly startups, it faced a tsunami of challenges. These included a sour economy, limited readership that swells and contracts with seasons, and ever increased costs. It will be missed.
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Theodoros Stamos, 1922-1997.
A 90th Birthday Poem
By: - May 05th, 2011Theodoros Stamos (Greek: εόδωÏος Στάμος), (December 31, 1922 – February 2, 1997). A recent poem by Gerard Malanga on the occasion of the 90th birthday of the abstract expressionist painter.
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HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton
Me and the Duke of Windsor
By: - Apr 24th, 2011There is a media frenzy for the Royal Wedding of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton. Be still dear heart. My coverage of Royalty began in 1947 when I interviewed the Duke of Windsor. He invited me for cookies and cake in his suite at the Waldorf Astoria. But Mom wouldn't let me go. She never explained why.
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Berkshire Living Magazine Changes Hands
Acquired by Today Media
By: - Feb 18th, 2011The publishing conglomerate, Today Media, has acquired the six year old Berkshire Living which also publishes Berkshire Business Quarterly and Berkshire Living home + garden. Out of its Pittsfield office it also produces e-newsletters BerkshireDaily and WeekendPreview, BerkshireLiving.com. Following the sale and reorganization the founder Michael Zivyak remains as publisher and Seth Rogovoy will continue as editor-in-chief.
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Small Press Publisher Takes Advantage of Literary Pirates
Son of Ereubus Goes Viral
By: - Jan 28th, 2011Rhemalda Publishing had to make a choice--use valuable resources to take up a fight against pirates or find a way to use it to its advantage. Rhemalda Publishing and Author J.S. Chancellor teamed up by posting a request on Chancellor’s Facebook fan page for readers who had downloaded the book illegally to consider posting a review of the book online.
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Edit Wharton Writing Competition
Berkshire High School Students Eligible
By: - Jan 04th, 2011The Mount, the historic estate of Edith Wharton, has announced a call for entries for the 2011 Edith Wharton Writing Competition. High school students in Berkshire County and surrounding areas are invited to participate in the annual contest, which was created by The Mount to honor Wharton’s remarkable achievements.
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Letters to Iris and Leo by Zeren Earls
A Writing Style Invented by the Author?
By: - Dec 29th, 2010With this book review we recommend Zeren Earls' auto biography, which is subtitled: 'A Life Journey Through Continents and Cultures.' And that it is ! A rich tapestry: Growing up in Turkey; she was the first foreign student at Duke University; married an American and immigrated to the USA. Among other positions, she directed the organizations 'First Night Boston' and 'First Night International' each for ten years. Today, and for many years, she has lived and traveled in the US, Europe, and the world extensively.
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Son of Ereubus
Book One of the Guardians of Legend Trilogy
By: - Sep 30th, 2010Debut novelist J. S. Chancellor manages the patterning of light-within-dark, the flickering back and forth between warring tendencies--like a street magician dancing a black-and-silver coin across the backs of her fingers.
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Cinders
Happily Ever After Isn't As Long As You Think
By: - Sep 02nd, 2010Argyle’s Cinderella, while playful in some areas, humorous in others, is haunting in its elegance and simplicity. The prose itself is pitch perfect for the narrative, to the point where as a reader you forget that you’re reading. It’s presented like the glass slipper that it is: beautiful, translucent, and full of unexpected magic.
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Eric Rudd's Chapters: A Literary Exhibition
North Adams Project on Eagle Street
By: - Aug 17th, 2010The artist/ entrepreneur is also a writer and novelist. He has combined these disparate interests Chapters: A Literary Exhibition. It is on view in the Flatiron Art Space 2 through October 16.
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The French Blue by Richard Wise
Historical Novel Traces The Hope Diamond
By: - Aug 10th, 2010The Berkshire jeweler/gem merchant Richard Wise has written a historical novel, The French Blue. This is his second book, his first, Secrets Of The Gem Trade, a non-fiction connoisseur’s guide to gemstones, published in 2003 has been through three printings and has become something of a bestseller.
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