King's Road

New Tolkien Book

2009-02-18T11:08:00.000-08:00

Some favorite Norse myths - Sigurd the Gram-wielding, dragon-slaying Volsung and the Fall of the Niflungs - will be retold by J.R.R. Tolkien in the forthcoming The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun (May, 2009). Tolkien wrote the previously unpublished manuscript in Oxford in the 1920s and 1930s. His son, Christopher Tolkien, will provide commentary in the edition by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HarperCollinsUK for the British). Christopher has a good edition, by the way, of the Hervararsaga, the Norse saga that Olof Rudbeck drew a map for in Verelius' 1672 edition - the very map that would eventually lead him on his life-long quest for Atlantis.

The Party that Changed the World

2009-02-14T09:36:00.001-08:00

Wouldn't it be nice to have a clock that would slow down in times of pleasure and speed up in times of trial? That was once a wish of Austrian Emperor Francis I, who could certainly have used such a device in the autumn of 1814 when he opened his palace to a veritable royal mob who would never seem to agree, or leave. The occasion was the Congress of Vienna, a glittering peace conference at the end of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

For a time, Vienna became the capital of Europe, the site of a massive victory celebration, and home to the most glamorous gathering since the fall of the Roman Empire. Never before have more kings, queens, and princes lived in the same place for such a long period of time.

Catering to the whims of these houseguests would sometimes be exasperating. Vienna wits soon poked fun at the early impressions made by the crowned heads who would so readily accept Emperor Francis's generosity:

The Emperor of Russia: He makes love for everyone.
The King of Prussia: He thinks for everyone.
The King of Denmark: He speaks for everyone.
The King of Bavaria: He eats for everyone.
The King of Württemberg: He eats for everyone.
The Emperor of Austria: He pays for everyone.

In the end, after nine months of negotiations, celebrations, and intrigues, the Congress of Vienna would finally wrap up, drastically reconfiguring the balance of power and ushering in a modern age.

For more, see my book Vienna 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War, and Peace at the Congress of Vienna. I originally posted this on Wonders and Marvels, a fascinating new blog by Holly A. Tucker, Professor at the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University.

The White House Album Collection

2009-02-09T20:34:00.000-08:00

The Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, Ramones' Rocket to Russia, Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica, Kinks' Arthur, and Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run are some of the 2,200 albums that once stood in a hallway of the third floor of the White House. Under Ronald Reagan, however, the lps were packed off to the basement, where they apparently remain. David Browne, author of the well-received Sonic Youth biography (Goodbye 20th Century) writes more on the collection in the latest issue of Rolling Stone.

The Hunt for the Blue Baron

2009-01-26T08:47:00.000-08:00

Divers are on the trail for what some believe might well turn out to be the "richest wreck" in history - a 2.6 billion treasure just waiting some 800 feet below sea, 40 miles off Guyana. The ship, which carried ten tons of gold and seventy tons of platinum among other things, was allegedly sunk by U-Boat U-87 on way to Great Britain in June 1942. Look forward to a complicated legal battle. Read more here.

On King's Road

2009-01-21T10:09:00.000-08:00

King's Road was, at its height, a vibrant urban catwalk that showcased everything from the fashionable to the freaky, the bohemian to the punk. The Rolling Stones had their first rehearsal at No. 500, where Bill Wyman auditioned as the band's bass player; at No. 430, Johnny Lydon would join the Sex Pistols. Eric Clapton lived briefly at No. 152, often jamming at the Six Bells (No. 197). Many other artists lived here for a time from Bob Marley to Joe Strummer. It was here that Peter Sellers faked an injury to avoid playing Major T. J. "King" Kong in Dr. Strangelove, and the Rocky Horror Show, after opening in the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, moved to the Classic Cinema at No. 148.

King's Road boutiques, meanwhile, dressed the stars and their creations from Sgt Pepper to Major Tom. Another icon, no surprise, would be closely associated with the scene: James Bond, who, as Ian Fleming imagined it, lived in a trendy unnamed square just off King's Road. By the 1980s, however, this legendary thoroughfare had lost its edge, degenerating into what many critics summed up as just another bland high street and tame tourist trap. The Chelsea Drug Store at 49 King's Road had become a McDonald's.

This blog is named in honor of a street that for a time symbolized innovation, nonconformity, and youthful exuberance - with the hope that none of these forces disappear anytime soon from the world of creativity.

As for books on this mythic patch of pavement, I recommend Max Décharné's King's Road: The Rise and Fall of the Hippest Street in the World. Décharné also sings for the garage punk band The Flaming Stars.

Vera and the Ambassador

2009-01-20T21:27:00.000-08:00

Vera and her husband Donald Blinken, Ambassador to Hungary under Bill Clinton (1994-1998), will publish a dual memoir that will offer "a behind-the-scenes look at diplomacy and international relations in post-Communist Eastern Europe." It will also tell the story of Vera Blinken's return to Budapest fifty years after her escape in 1944.

In addition meeting everyone from Madonna to The Pope, the Blinkens played an important role in Budapest politics and society of the mid-1990s. Donald, for instance, negotiated Hungary's entry into NATO, and helped establish the NATO base at Taszár, the first in a former Warsaw Pact country and a strategic location for the Balkan wars and the airlift, while Vera created mobile breast cancer screening units that saved many lives. Hopefully there will be more on the Hungarian Refugee interviews following the 1956 revolution, which were digitalized here with their support and on their work lobbying the Hungarian government on behalf of Holocaust survivors.

By the way, their son Antony, a prominent foreign policy writer under Clinton, has just been named national security advisor to Vice President Joseph Biden.

Biden will blurb the book “President Clinton made a wise choice in sending Donald and Vera Blinken to Hungary. This book serves as a reminder of the critical role that ambassadors can play in advancing the interests of our country at the pivot points of history. Their teamwork was good for Hungary, good for our country, and it also makes for a great story.”

Vera and the Ambassador: Escape and Return will be published by SUNY Press in early February 2009.

George W. Bush Read My Book

2009-01-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

In 2008, according to Karl Rove in the Wall Street Journal, George W. Bush read "a heavy dose of history -- including David Halberstam's "The Coldest Winter," Rick Atkinson's "Day of Battle," Hugh Thomas's "Spanish Civil War," Stephen W. Sears's "Gettysburg" and David King's "Vienna 1814."

From Nashville to Philadelphia

2008-11-14T13:02:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I gave a talk on Vienna 1814 in the Senate Chambers of the State Capitol in Nashville. We had a wonderful crowd - thanks to all the people who packed the room, I enjoyed meeting everyone! Ed McClanahan and I decided to ride down to the Southern Festival of Books together. If you do not know Ed's books, do yourself a favor and get one now. What was it Bob Edwards said of him? "Most people who have had as much fun as Ed are dead."

Ed kindly indulged my curiosity about his adventures on the west coast in the sixties, not least with his friend Ken Kesey, the iconic psychedelic bus Further, and life in general as a Merry Prankster. The conversation spilled over, after arrival at the capitol, into the afternoon and late into the evening over an excellent dinner with Ed and Mark at Mambu's. The chefs, Anita and Corey, are fabulous. I look forward to reading Ed's latest book, O the Clear Moment, which has just come out. Here's a review in Newsday.

After Nashville, I headed north to give a talk on Vienna 1814 at the Napoleonic Historical Society Conference at the Union League in Philadelphia. What a wonderful weekend that was! The conference was outstanding in every sense, except for one: On Saturday, during a concert featuring music of the Grand Armée, news arrived that the Napoleonic scholar Ben Weider had died. If you don't know him, Weider was the author of several books on Napoleon, including Assassination at St. Helena Revisited with Sten Forshufvud and most recently Wars Against Napoleon with General Michel Franceschi. Just a few weeks before his death, Weider had donated about one hundred Napoleonic paintings, statues, snuffboxes, and other antiques from his personal collection to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. This included, among other things, one of Napoleon's hats from the Russian campaign, one of shirts, and a couple locks of his hair.

Weider was president of the International Napoleonic Society and also served the International Federation of Bodybuilders (Mr. Olympia, Ms. International, etc.,.), which he co-established. So, in addition to having his books in my library, I have some of his weights in my gym. It was Ben and his brother Joe who brought an obscure Austrian bodybuilder named Arnold Schwarzenegger to the States in the late sixties and launched his career. J. David Markham gave a touching toast. The Napoleonic world has lost a champion. My condolences to his family and friends all over the world.

This weekend, I'll be doing a book signing for Finding Atlantis and Vienna 1814 at the Kentucky Book Fair. If you are in the area, stop by.

Hitchhiker Typewriter

2008-07-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

After the summer break, I'll be hitting the road again with Vienna 1814 for talks in Philadelphia, Nashville, Miami, and other places, including an evening at the Carnegie Center here in Lexington. Details on these and other events will follow in the upcoming months.

In the meantime, you can still snag a first edition of Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, along with the typewriter that he used to hammer out the novel. It's a Hermes Standard 8, complete with a well-worn "x" key and an End Apartheid sticker on the side. The machine will come in its carrying case, that is, a cardboard box that originally held copies of Starship Titanic, which he wrote with Terry Jones, Monty Python performer and medieval historian extraordinaire.

The seller, N V Books in Great Wolford in Warwickshire, is asking $25,084.74, down about $100 from last week.

The Morris Book Shop

2008-07-03T11:44:00.001-07:00

For readers in Lexington, my friends Wyn and Hap have just opened a cool new book store called The Morris Book Shop. The Grand Opening will be Saturday, July 12. Robert Schneider of Apples in Stereo will perform. Jeffrey Scott Holland will be there with Weird Kentucky - I haven't seen Jeffrey in years! It should be a great day. The store has excellent taste: Wyn is currently reading, among other things, Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, "a worthy successor to Orwell's 1984," and Hap a certain book about "the Napoleonic 'after-party' that shaped modern Europe."

Bluegrass Festival

2008-05-16T11:26:00.000-07:00

Vienna 1814 has been made a store or staff pick at other book stores around the country, most recently by Joan Gray at Diane’s Books in Greenwich CT, while also continuing to hit bestseller lists, like the one this week at Reagan Washington National Airport. Thanks again to everyone for all your comments and support! Also, by the way, check out the latest issue of Harper’s for an essay by fellow Kentuckian, Wendell Berry, “Faustian Economics: Hell hath no limits” (and also an ad for Vienna 1814, the “Party that Changed the World”). Tomorrow, I’ll be at the Bluegrass Festival of Books at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington. These events are a lot of fun, so if you happen to be in the area, come by and say hello.

FreeKY Fest

2008-05-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

All last week, my old college radio station celebrated its twentieth anniversary with a series of concerts and events that culminated in a twelve hour “FreeKY fest” on top of a building in downtown Lexington. The headliners were Apples in Stereo, and they certainly didn’t disappoint. Do they ever? The band’s lead singer, Robert Schneider, is better known to my three-year old daughter as “Robbert Bobbert” – he is one of a handful of people she will give a real spirited high five. Cheers to all the organizers, performers, and everybody else who made the day such fun.

Another highlight (for me) was doing a two-hour music show on the station again for the first time in many years. I played some tracks from my late sixties British psychedelia collection, including Tintern Abbey and the Orange Machine. I also brought out a number of bands from the thriving Dunedin, New Zealand scene of eighties and nineties, as well as some exciting new bands that I really like, such as Ideal Free Distribution, whose 2007 debut features some wonderful material. Of course, I couldn't resist playing "Vienna" by Ultravox or, for my kids, "Rainbow Connection" by Kermit the Frog.

Speaking of college radio, I’ll be on WHRW-FM, Radio Free Binghamton early tomorrow evening to talk about other subjects I love to discuss, that is, Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna.

Thank You

2008-04-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

So much to say, time just flies by . . . let me begin by thanking everyone for packing into Joseph-Beth in Lexington for my talk the other day – what a great crowd and what fun to see everyone! A big thank you, too, goes to all the booksellers who have made Vienna 1814 a store or staff pick around the country, like at Rainy Day Books and Schuler Books; thanks, too, to all the readers who have already sent Vienna 1814 to some bestseller lists, such as Harvard University Book Store, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, and, in mp3 format, the top five nonfiction audiobooks on Amazon.

As I wrote earlier, I’m still enjoying being on the radio – today, I was on WKCT in Bowling Green and WEKU in Richmond. Actually it has been such a fun experience that I’ve agreed to go behind the mike in a different capacity, that is, as a disc jockey to host a two-hour music show, as part of a celebration of the station’s twenty years on the air. It’ll be my first time attempting to dj a radio show since my college days. Expect sheer chaos.

On Saturday, I’ll be at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest at Sloan Convention Center in Bowling Green, where I’ll talk about Vienna 1814 and be on a history panel with some fascinating people, including Tasha Alexander, author of Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which starred Cate Blanchett and picked up an Academy Award for costume design earlier this year. Historians on another "golden age" - late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth century piracy - Benerson Little and Robert A. Prather, will also be there, as well as Robert McCammon, Mitch Albom, and Harlan Coben. If you are in the area, come out and say hello.

Screen Plays and A Mutiny in the Baltic

2008-03-19T23:35:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much free time for pleasure reading the last few weeks, with the book launch and everything, but here's a new book that I wanted to mention right away for the many writers and readers who come by this site: Screen Plays: How 25 Scripts Made it to a Theater Near You - For Better or Worse. Among the films are Gladiator, Troy, American Beauty, Lost in Translation, Monsters Ball, Aviator, and Black Hawk Dawn. Cohen, who also conducted technical research for the film version of Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears, discusses the hits, misses, and explains why, uncovering the "alchemy of the movie business." Cohen's site is here.

Speaking of Tom Clancy, David Hagberg and Boris Gindin will soon publish their book telling the true story behind the 1984 novel, The Hunt for Red October. It's called The Mutiny, the title referring to an incident in the fall of 1975 on board the FFG Storozhevoy in the Baltic. Co-author Boris Gindin was on board the antisubmarine warship when Brezhnev ordered it destroyed. The Mutiny: The True Events That Inspired 'The Hunt for Red October is set for release in May. Hagberg's site is here, and Boris Gindin, here.

Amazon's New and Notable Books

2008-03-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

Good news . . . Vienna, 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War, and Peace at the Congress of Vienna has just been selected as one of Amazon.com's "New and Notable" books in history. The other selection is Nicholson Baker's Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, The End of Civilization.

In The New York Review of Books

2008-03-18T18:36:00.000-07:00

Here is an excerpt from an ad for Vienna, 1814 that my publisher placed in the latest issue of the New York Review of Books:

"The Party that Changed the World . . . The Congress of Vienna was the most audacious and extravagant peace conference in modern European history. What began as a series of debauched parties changed with word of Napoleon's escape - and led to agreements that drastically reconfigured Europe's balance of power, ushering in the modern age." Some reviews of my book are also cited.

By the way, too, I just heard about a new charity organization that is trying to create book collections for cancer patients in hospitals and clinics around the state. It's called the Kentucky Books for Patients Project, and it's sponsored by James Graham Brown Cancer Center, Louisville University Hospital, and Spalding University's MFA program. For more information about donating books, check out the project's blog.

On the Air

2008-03-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

Years ago, I had a blast hosting a college radio show. But I have to say that I had forgotten how much I enjoyed that until I found myself behind the mic again for Finding Atlantis. In the next few days, I’ll be happily on the air again talking about Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna on five or six radio stations, beginning Monday morning with WTKF-FM in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina. I can’t wait. I love radio. And I love talking about Napoleon and that glittering Vanity Fair known as the Congress of Vienna.

Happy Book Day

2008-03-11T23:30:00.000-07:00

These were the words I woke up to this morning, which my three-year old daughter proceeded to sing to the tune of "Happy Birthday" (and then "Happy Birthday" itself followed for good measure). What a wonderful opening to a wonderful day. Here's a picture given to me earlier today.

Congress of Vienna

2008-03-07T12:47:00.001-08:00

Here’s a description of my new book from my publisher:

“Vienna, 1814 is an evocative and brilliantly researched account of the most audacious and extravagant peace conference in modern European history. With the feared Napoleon Bonaparte presumably defeated and exiled to the small island of Elba, heads of some 216 states gathered in Vienna to begin piecing together the ruins of his toppled empire. Major questions loomed: What would be done with France? How were the newly liberated territories to be divided? What type of restitution would be offered to families of the deceased? But this unprecedented gathering of kings, dignitaries, and diplomatic leaders unfurled a seemingly endless stream of personal vendettas, long-simmering feuds, and romantic entanglements that threatened to undermine the crucial work at hand, even as their hard-fought policy decisions shaped the destiny of Europe and led to the longest sustained peace the continent would ever see.

Beyond the diplomatic wrangling, however, the Congress of Vienna served as a backdrop for the most spectacular Vanity Fair of its time. Highlighted by such celebrated figures as the elegant but incredibly vain Prince Metternich of Austria, the unflappable and devious Prince Talleyrand of France, and the volatile Tsar Alexander of Russia, as well as appearances by Ludwig van Beethoven and Emilia Bigottini, the sheer star power of the Vienna Congress outshone nearly everything else in the public eye.

An early incarnation of the cult of celebrity, the congress devolved into a series of debauched parties that continually delayed the progress of peace, until word arrived that Napoleon had escaped, abruptly halting the revelry and shrouding the continent in panic once again.

Vienna, 1814 beautifully illuminates the intricate social and political intrigue of this history-defining congress–a glorified party that seemingly valued frivolity over substance but nonetheless managed to drastically reconfigure Europe’s balance of power and usher in the modern age.”

This book was an absolute joy to write, and I have been thrilled with its reception so far – I hope you enjoy it too! Vienna, 1814 will be published next week in hardback, ebook, mp3, and cd, and it will be selected by some regional and national book clubs, including the History Book Club and the Military Book Club.

Like A Rolling Stone

2008-03-04T12:42:00.000-08:00

In addition to Martin Scorsese's upcoming Rolling Stones concert film Shine A Light, check out Steven Kurutz's fascinating new debut Like A Rolling Stone, which will also be released in April. Kurutz's book will follow two rival tribute bands, Sticky Fingers and Blushing Brides, on the 2005-6 tour, meeting other acts along the way such as the Kounterfeit Kinks and the Red Hot Chilli Bastards. Publishers Weekly reviews Like A Rolling Stone here, and Kurutz's blog is here.

Britain’s Star Warfare

2008-03-03T23:19:00.000-08:00

Newly released documents from MI5 shed light on the astrologer Louis de Wohl, a self-styled Modern Nostradamus who was hired to wage “star warfare” against the Third Reich from his west London hotel (i.e. The Psychological Research Bureau). Read more about the file at the National Archives here, here, or track down Louis de Wohl’s many books such as The Stars of War and Peace. A copy of his Secret Service of the Sky, along with a signed letter from the author, is for sale here.

Death in the City of Light

2008-03-03T11:25:00.000-08:00

Good news – here’s what I’ll be up to now, or rather continue to pursue, as the subject as long fascinated me, the story in Publishers Weekly and Publishers Marketplace: My next book, Death in the City of Light, will tell the true story of a hunt for a brutal serial killer in Nazi-occupied Paris. My book, Vienna 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War, and Peace at the Congress of Vienna will be published next week in hardback, ebook, and audio book.

The Beatles Flat

2008-02-20T11:20:00.000-08:00

Three weeks ago, NASA sent the Beatles song “Across the Universe” on its own magical mystery tour, well, across the universe. Now the apartment that manager Brian Epstein obtained for the Beatles to cushion their move from Liverpool to London, in wake of the September 1963 record-breaking No. 1 single “She Loves You” is for sale. It’s a two-bedroom flat, about 986 sq feet, on the fourth floor of Mayfair’s Green Street, and it's the only place that the band lived together. Sotheby’s International Reality is asking £1.75 million for this slice of “Beatlemania.” See pictures of the flat and its renovated rooms on the realty’s website here.

Napoleonic Buzz

2008-02-17T22:42:00.000-08:00

This post inaugurates a new series highlighting recent books of interest for anyone, who, like me, devours accounts of Napoleon and the Napoleonic Age.

In Book Three of War and Peace, Pierre Bezuhov stumbles
onto the Raevsky Redoubt and witnesses the Battle of Borodino; Tolstoy paints an unforgettable portrait, but how accurate is it really? Read Alex Mikaberidze's first-rate The Battle of Borodino: Napoleon Against Kutuzov, (Pen and Sword's Campaign Chronicles) and find out. Mikaberidze's colleague at the Shreveport campus of Louisiana State University, Michael V. Leggiere, also has an outstanding new book, the first in a two-part study that examines Napoleon's brilliant campaign of the spring of 1814, and, at the same time, unravels the complicated series of events and forces that led to Napoleon's fall. Leggiere's The Fall of Napoleon: Volume 1, The Allied Invasion of France, 1813-1814 (Cambridge University Press) will be continued in The War in France, 1814. And don't miss the extraordinary excitement that followed shortly afterwards, when the victorious powers (and a horde of others) poured into Vienna to redraw the maps, divide the spoils, and celebrate, which will be told in Vienna 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War, and Peace at the Congress of Vienna. Of course I'm not exactly unbiased, given my obsession with the dazzling, though little-understood Congress of Vienna, and well, you know.

In the not too distant future, too, I look forward to reading my friend Jeremy Popkin's forthcoming history of the revolution on the French half of the island of Santo Domingo (Haiti), which had important repercussions not only for France, but also the young republic of the United States. I'm also very excited about General Michel Franceschi and Ben Weider's Wars Against Napoleon: Debunking the Myth of the Napoleonic Wars, which was just published by Savas Beatie in December 2007. Read J. David Markham's excellent review here.

Rocket Men

2008-02-17T22:38:00.000-08:00

Chris Gainor, author of Arrows to the Moon: Avro's Engineers and the Space Race, has a new book detailing the early history of rockets from ancient China to Yuri Gagarin. Ever wondered when the blast-off countdown began? Watch Fritz Lang's 1929 silent film, Frau im Mond (Woman in the Moon/By Rocket to the Moon), where the rocket and space cabin, incidentally, were designed by the astrophysicist Hermann Julius Oberth. Gainor will undoubtedly tell many great stories in To a Distant Day (University of Nebraska, April 2008).

Rogue Surfer of Malibu

2008-02-15T07:02:00.000-08:00

David Rensin has an exciting new book about the legendary surfer Miki Dora, or Miki, Mickey, Miklos, or just Da Cat, a veritable virtuoso of the waves whose life spanned the emergence, and indeed explosion of surfing as a sport. Dora's skill and grace kept him in high demand as a stunt man in beach party films of the early sixties, and he later played himself in the 1990 film, Surfers: The Movie. Notoriously, Dora made little attempt to conceal his disgust at the sport's creeping commercialization. At the 1967 Malibu Invitational Surf Classic, for instance, Dora surfed past the judges, and, as Drew Kampion put it, bent over, dropped his black shorts, and exposed his naked ass to the gathered dignitaries and spectators.

It will be interesting to see what Rensin has uncovered about this iconic rebel surfer, and apparently, he has conducted many interviews of people who knew him well. I'm also looking forward to seeing what he has discovered about Dora's later adventures after he left Malibu and traveled the world, living by his longboard and his wits, that is, before credit card schemes resulted in a prison sentence. Dora died in 2002 of pancreatic cancer. Rensin's All for a Few Perfect Waves: The Audacious Life and Legend of Rebel Surfer Miki Dora will be published in April 2008.

1,071, 213 Words Later

2008-02-15T07:01:00.000-08:00

Science fiction author Neil Gaiman's blog recently turned seven years old, and to celebrate, he is offering any one of his books to his readers as a free download. You can help him decide on the book. Pop over to his site, and cast your vote. Polls close soon.

Years ago, after one of my lectures on classical myth at university, several students stopped by my office to continue the discussion, and, in the process, enthusiastically recommended Neil's books. Same thing happened the following semester after my Norse mythology seminars. So, if you don't already know Neil's work, here's a good chance to sample it. American Gods currently leads the pack, followed by Neverwhere, Fragile Things, and M is for Magic. Vote for your choice here.

Kentucky Fried Oscars

2008-02-13T05:53:00.000-08:00

Which state is Kentucky in, again? Okay I've never actually been asked that question, but it's a wonder and probably only a matter of time. In the six years or so that I lived and traveled in Europe, I was continually struck by what was by far the most common image of our state: Kentucky Fried Chicken. This was the case, too, despite the fact that KFC had been sold eons ago to Pepsi, and Harland David Sanders, or Colonel Sanders, had little experience of Kentucky before his fortieth birthday.

Our little state seems to excel at flying under the radar, merrily going about its business making booze, breeding thoroughbreds, and actually, in the last decade or so, producing some of the highest-profile celebs in the country. Two of the five Oscar nominees for Best Actor in a Leading Role this year, for example, are Kentuckians: George Clooney and Johnny Depp, and another Kentuckian, Ashley Judd, is surely up for something, or probably should be. (Image of Clooney and Depp above is from People's best dressed of 2007 issue and fashionolic). Beyond that, Kentucky continues to thrive in the literary arts, a long tradition that includes Robert Penn Warren, Hunter Thompson, Wendell Berry, Barbara Kingsolver, Sue Grafton, Silas House, and Jane Gentry Vance, now Poet Laureate. Kentucky's Gurney Norman wrote the counterculture classic, Divine Right's Trip, and Ed McClanahan lives here as well as all McClanafans know, he was one of the colorful Merry Pranksters who lit up the psychedelic Day-Glo magic bus Further with his good friend Ken Kesey. There isn't time to recount all the music and arts figures in the area. Let's just say that many came, saw, and left, but others have stayed, like Star Trek's William Shatner, who lives right down the road.

Yes image and reality don't always march hand-in-hand, or at least in the ways we often suspect. It should be interesting to see which impressions of the region stick, and which ones change, if any, as thousands descend on the Bluegrass for the upcoming World Equestrian Games.

Havana Confidential

2008-02-10T22:07:00.001-08:00

Award-winning true crime writer T. J. English has a new book exploring mobster Cuba under Batista, Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It to the Revolution. English has an excellent background for such a work, having written about everything from the Irish mob of Hell's Kitchen to a Vietnamese gang in Chinatown. So pour yourself a mojito, and enjoy. English's Havana Nocturne will be out in early May 2008.

The Graduate: A Sequel and A Look Behind the Scenes

2008-02-10T22:05:00.001-08:00

Last month, Charles Webb published the long-anticipated sequel to his 1963 novel The Graduate, continuing the story eleven years later in Home School. Now, Mark Harris takes us behind the scenes of Mike Nichols's 1967 film, in his upcoming book Pictures at a Revolution. Harris will provide many more details on the difficulties of the legendary 100-Day Shoot. As for Dustin Hoffman, he had his own concerns about his post-Graduate future: He survived for a few months on the $4,000 he had saved while working on the picture and then registered for unemployment, lining up on East 13th Street every week to pick up a $55 check while he looked for acting jobs.

The New York premiere of the film evidently did not raise his spirits: ''That night, the suits, the tuxedos, I can't remember a single laugh,'' says Hoffman. It was disastrous. I saw a lot of Levine's friends there, and they all looked like, what is he doing on the screen? It should be Redford!'' Mark Harris's Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, will be published later this week by Penguin. Here's a link to his website, and an excerpt from his book in the upcoming February 15 issue of EW, online here.

A Verney Weekend

2008-02-10T21:59:00.000-08:00

I finished Adrian Tinniswood's The Verneys about a year ago, and found myself rereading it this weekend, enjoying it just as much. If you don't already know it, Tinniswood's book tells the story of an eccentric aristocratic Buckinghamshire family swept up in the drama of the seventeenth century. One member became a pirate, another went insane, and Sir Ralph (1613-1696) kept just about every piece of paper, as did his son John, later Viscount Fermanagh. The Verneys thus draws on a wonderfully large family archive accumulated over the last few centuries.

My blurb on the back cover calls it a fascinating grand tour through a world turned upside down, showing the seventeenth century in all its splendor and brutality. Ross King, author of Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling and The Judgment of Paris, also on the back cover, calls it "A wonderful group portrait of an eccentric and ill-starred dynasty. Expertly handling the humorous words and unwise deeds of several generations of Verneys, Adrian Tinniswood breathes life into the turbulent history of an entire century." Take the quiz presented by Britain's Channel Four in conjunction with the book here.

Congress of Vienna Site

2008-02-08T00:16:00.000-08:00

The Congress of Vienna site coming soon . . . along with more on Napoleon and the Napoleonic Age.

I have been excited, too, to read the first pre-publication reviews of Vienna 1814. Most of these are available online, like the excellent one in Publishers Weekly and the recent one in Booklist, which called it outstanding, but here's an excerpt from a brand new one from the Library Journal. In its starred review, the Library Journal wrote: "King does a superb job of evoking the bedazzling social scene . . . This is a worthy contribution to the study of a critical historical event long neglected by historians. It should be in every European history collection." More to come on the Congress here and at the website, as we get closer to the release date.

The Swedish Translation of Finding Atlantis

2008-02-03T22:11:00.001-08:00

Finding Atlantis - the story of Olof Rudbeck and his search for Atlantis - was translated into Swedish in 2006 (Drömmen om Atlantis, hardback by Fahrenheit, paperback Månpocket). The translator, Frederik Sjögren, did an outstanding job. He has previously translated Bill Bryson, Mark Kulansky, and Ian McEwan, and has just published a translation of Frank Sch��tzing's The Swarm, film rights of which were purchased by Uma Thurman.

House of the Twenty-Four Hour Party People

2008-02-03T22:09:00.000-08:00

In addition to the films Control:The Ian Curtis Film and Joy Division, the latter by Grant Gee, who has also directed Radiohead videos, and the book published a few days ago, Paul Morley’s Joy Division: Piece by Piece, there is another memoir on the way. Bassist Peter Hook will tell about his experiences with Joy Division, New Order, and the legendary Manchester club, Haçienda. (The cedilla was inserted in the Spanish hacienda apparently because “çi” would then resemble the “51” in the club’s nickname “Fac 51”).

Hook’s memoir should be an interesting read, given the history of the Haçienda, which helped launch indie/dance crossover, acid house, rave, and whole “Madchester” music scene that exploded in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Haçienda closed for good in 1997. Director Michael Winterbottom had to recreate the club in an Ancoats warehouse for 24-Hour Party People.

Napoleon at the Super Bowl

2008-02-02T11:26:00.001-08:00

Garmin will feature Napoleon Bonaparte in its upcoming Super Bowl XLII commercial. I won’t say anything to spoil it, but it will be shown in the second quarter, or if you want to see it now beforehand, it’s here.

Write Us A Song, Mr.Guitar Man

2008-02-02T11:19:00.000-08:00

After deciding to learn to play the guitar and perform in six months, with the help of everyone from Johnny Marr to Roger McGuinn, the adventures chronicled in his Guitar Man, Will Hodgkinson now tackles the challenge of song writing. This time, he’ll seek advice from many others, including Ray Davies, Keith Richards, XTC’s Andy Partridge, Richard Hawley and Chip Taylor, who gave us “Wild Thing” at the age of 22. Hodgkinson’s Song Man: A Melodic Adventure sounds every bit as exciting as his debut.

Byron’s Landlady

2008-01-31T21:50:00.000-08:00

Andrea di Robilant has a new book about his great-great-great-great grandmother, Lucia Mocenigo, the daughter of Andrea Memmo from his A Venetian Affair and the wife of Alvise Mocenigo. Lucia later became a friend of Empress Josephine, a lady-in-waiting at the court of Napoleon’s stepson, Prince Eugène de Beauharnais, and eventually Lord Byron’s landlady, renting out the piano nobile of the Palazzo Mocenigo to the poet and his pets. Andrea di Robilant’s Lucia: A Venetian Life in the Age of Napoleon, published last autumn in Britain and Australia, hit bookstores in the States last week.

Norway the Space Nation

2008-01-31T06:36:00.000-08:00

For readers in the New York area, Pål Brekke of the Norwegian Space Centre (Norsk Romsenter) will present the next installment of the American Scandinavian Foundation’s series “Living in the Northern Landscape: Culture & Climate Near the Arctic Circle” tonight at 6:30 in the Scandinavia House on Park Avenue. Brekke will discuss, among other things, recent advances in solar physics, Sun-Earth interaction, and perhaps also the Andøya Rocket Range and the Svalbard archipelago in his talk, “Northern Lights & Satellites: Norway as a Space Nation.” Admission charge/free for students.

"Slacker Manifesto" for Generation X?

2008-01-30T07:12:00.000-08:00

Jeff Gordinier, editor-at-large at Details and Entertainment Weekly, has a book out later this spring that’s likely to spark a lot of discussion, X Saves the World: How Generation X Got the Shaft but Can Still Keep Everything from Sucking. According to the publisher, Gordinier will show “how Gen X innovations in art, comedy, technology, activism, and (gasp!) business have come to define the way we live now.” Generation X, the book will also argue, is “maybe, secretly, the ‘greatest generation’ of all” (Gordinier, X Saves the World). I'm looking forward to reading it.

Meet the McMafia

2008-01-29T22:18:00.000-08:00

Misha Glenny, author of The Balkans: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers, 1804-1999 and The Fall of Yugoslavia: The Third Balkan War, has a new book that will explore the political, economic, and criminal links of the borderless underworld that has emerged since the collapse of Soviet Union and the expansion of the European Union. The scale of this illegal international trade is staggering, and he will discuss everything from cybercrime to the “caviar mafia” of Kazakhstan. Glenny’s McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld will be published in April 2008.

High Noon at the 9:30 Club

2008-01-26T08:02:00.000-08:00

In 1982, the owner of D.C.’s 9:30 Club (now Nightclub 9:30) heard of two new interesting bands who happened to share the same name – one a post-punk quartet from the thriving D.C. music scene and the other a jangly band from a college town down south – and decided it would be a hoot to stage a battle of the bands. The challenge was made and accepted. The rules were simple: A coin toss would decide which band opened, and the victors would then rename the losers.

One member of the DC band described the evening: “The night came, and we lost the coin toss. No worries--we went on and played a killer set, got a lot of applause, then retired to the bar to enjoy our victory.” Then the other band took the stage: “I'm a little fuzzy about the progression,” he continued, “but I think the first song they played was Radio Free Europe. The crowd went silent, mouths hung agape, and when the last chord was struck, the room exploded. Crap.”

So ended the “Battle of the R.E.M.”s – the D.C. band included, by the way, Greg Strzempka, the future front man of Raging Slab and Chris Anderson, now Editor in Chief at Wired Magazine. (It’s Chris who is quoted above). Apparently, too, it was Mike Mills of the other R.E.M. who then renamed Anderson’s band: Egoslavia. Not bad! Chris's blog is here.

Winter Festival 2008

2008-01-24T19:46:00.000-08:00

For readers in the Bluegrass region, this year’s Winter Festival will begin on Sunday, February 3 at Jessamine County Public Library. One of my favorite people, Jane Gentry Vance, Kentucky’s Poet Laureate, will read from her latest work, the Lexington Philharmonic will perform, and I’ll give a talk about my adventures in writing. There will also be a film festival, an open mic night, a Civil War Extravaganza, a performance by the Bi-Okoto Drum & Dance Theatre of Cincinnati, and other activities for people of all ages. Read more about the week’s events here.

Vienna 1814: Book Club News

2008-01-09T22:07:00.000-08:00

Vienna 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War, and Peace at the Congress of Vienna has just been selected for the History Book Club and the Military Book Club for spring 2008. Details to follow as we get closer to the launch.

Rockin’ the Kremlin

2007-12-30T21:35:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday, the Scorpions played a concert at the Kremlin that celebrated the founding of the FSB, the successor security service to the KGB, NKVD, and the Cheka, which Dzerzhinsky, “Iron Feliks,” founded ninety years before on December 20, 1917. Lead singer Klaus Meine later said that he had no clue about the occasion of the show, which, it turned out, was packed by FSB agents and guests (who politely applauded the band’s perestroika-inspired “Wind of Change.”) Among the former KGB men present was the previous FSB director, and now Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

Audio Book on the Way

2007-12-19T09:05:00.000-08:00

Vienna 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War, and Peace at the Congress of Vienna, which will be published in March 2008, will now also be an audio book, an eleven cd-set released this spring. More details to come.

Black Postcards

2007-12-18T08:45:00.000-08:00

A promising new memoir is on the way from Dean Wareham, guitarist and singer of Galaxie 500, and then Luna, which Rolling Stone famously called “the greatest band you’ve never heard of.” The publisher bills the memoir as “a wickedly honest and unsparing account of a journey through the music world, the artistry, and the hustle . . .” (Wareham’s Black Postcards: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Romance). Also, the Galaxie 500 Peel Sessions (September 1989 and October 1990) have just been released, apparently for the first time, that is, besides the bootleg versions that circulated.

London Calling Again

2007-12-11T20:53:00.000-08:00

There’s a new book, just sold this week, about the North Kensington punk band The Clash, and the authors will be Paul Simonon, Mick Jones, and Topper Headon, that is, The Clash themselves (Joe Strummer died in late 2002). The band will tell their own story, from the early days of punk to releasing what Rolling Stone magazine called the best album of the eighties, London Calling (released in late ’79) and beyond. The Clash will reportedly feature “hundreds of photos, many never-before-seen and unique memorabilia from the band’s own collection.” (Publishers Lunch) Look for it in October 2008 on Atlantic UK.

Iron Curtain Odyssey

2007-12-10T23:02:00.000-08:00

Dominique Lapierre’s memoir of a 1956 road trip through the USSR has just been published in India. Lapierre was then a 25 year-old reporter for Paris Match, and Nikita Khrushchev had authorized the visit. Lapierre, the photographer Jean-Pierre Pedrazzini, their wives and a couple of Soviet reporters then set out on an almost three and a half month, 13,000 km trip behind the Iron Curtain. Given his previous books, such as his (and Larry Collins) Is Paris Burning and Freedom at Midnight, this should be a fascinating read. It has already been a bestseller in France. Lapierre's Once Upon A Time in the Soviet Union is not currently available in the States, but here's the website of the Indian publisher, Full Circle.

Chess, Tai Chi, and the Art of Learning

2007-12-09T20:28:00.000-08:00

Josh Waitzkin – the young chess prodigy featured in the memoir Searching for Bobby Fischer: The Father of a Prodigy Observes the World of Chess and the later Paramount film - discusses chess, martial arts, and the nature of learning in his book, The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence. After tying Kasparov in an exhibition game at age 11, Waitzin went on to win several national chess championships and five national championships in Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands (middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight divisions). He is also a spokesman for the fight against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Carol Jarecki has a two-part review of Josh Waitzkin’s The Art of Learning at ChessBase.

No Longer Dreaming in Latin

2007-12-06T07:18:00.000-08:00

I was asked the other day about the differences between researching Finding Atlantis and Vienna 1814. The first thing to come to mind was the nature of the source material. For Finding Atlantis, I used primary sources in a half dozen languages, including old Swedish, which Rudbeck wrote virtually all of his surviving correspondence and his 2,500 tome detailing his discoveries, the Atlantica. There were also a few (one hundred or so) letters in bombastic seventeenth century Latin that I translated, mainly “fan mail” to Rudbeck congratulating him on his work.

The Congress of Vienna also has a wealth of source material in a variety of languages – I used a half dozen on this book too, though not Latin or old Swedish. There were also more memoirs, diaries, correspondence, minutes of meetings, and many other valuable primary sources for recreating the daily life of the conference. More later, as we get closer to the book launch.

To Seize a President

2007-12-03T14:45:00.000-08:00

According to Czech resistance fighter and historian Radomir Luza in today’s Lidove noviny (h/t ceskenoviny), Czech exiles had plotted to spirit away President Edvard Beneš after the communist coup of February 1948. The president, one of the founders of Czechoslovakia, was to be seized from the secret police StB, and recruited to lead anti-communist resistance. The plot was never attempted because of the president’s poor health. Luza has written, co-written, and edited several books about Czech history, including A History of the Czechoslovak Republic, 1918-1948, The Transfer of the Sudeten Germans: A Study ofCzech- German Relations, 1933-1962, and, with Christina Vella, The Hitler Kiss: A Memoir of the Czech Resistance.

I, Napoleon

2007-12-02T21:05:00.000-08:00

A handwritten page from the final draft of Napoleon’s novella Clisson and Eugenie – a love story about a Corsican rebel who ultimately gets betrayed – was sold today by Osenat for $35,400. Napoleon wrote the story most likely in 1795 when he was a 26-year old general; the following year, he would marry Josephine and launch his first Italian campaign. Clisson and Eugenie was not published in his lifetime. See items at auction here (French) and one account of the sale in English here.

Michael Beschloss’ Next Book: Wartime Presidential Leadership

2007-11-30T07:27:00.000-08:00

Michael Beschloss' new book - sold at auction to Crown - will tell the two-hundred year story of American wartime presidential leadership (Publishers Weekly). Beschloss, who received an Emmy for his work on the “Decisions that Shook the World” series, now serves as NBC News Presidential Historian. He has been working on the subject since college, when he wrote an undergraduate thesis on Kennedy and Roosevelt, which later became Kennedy and Roosevelt: the Uneasy Alliance (1980).

The Nobel Prize Ceremony

2007-11-28T19:01:00.000-08:00

Several years ago, when I attended the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm, I enjoyed telling the story of Alfred Nobel’s most famous ancestor to everyone who would listen. Who’s the ancestor? It’s Olof Rudbeck. I told how he discovered and explained the lymphatic system as a teenager; how he built the grand anatomical theater for dissections, though soon tired of the business and rarely used it afterwards; how he founded the botanical garden which is now named after his successor Carl Linnaeus; how he collected cannons and fired them at celebrations. And of course how he spent the last thirty years of his life on an adventurous hunt for the lost civilization of Atlantis, which he believed he found in Sweden, all of which I later wrote about in Finding Atlantis.

Here’s a picture I took that evening:

Note the older gentleman standing second from left in the front. It’s John Nash, the economics wizard later featured in Sylvia Nasar’s biography, A Beautiful Mind. We didn’t know a fraction of the story at the time, other than Nash being, among other things, a pioneer in game theory.

So Al Gore, Dorris Lessing and everyone else heading out to Stockholm (or Oslo for the peace prize), give a toast to Alfred Nobel’s illustrious ancestor, Olof Rudbeck, who took time away from his obsessive search for Atlantis in Sweden to marry his daughter Vendela to a young Petrus Nobelius.

Inside the Black Kings

2007-11-27T06:39:00.000-08:00

Ideas for stories sometimes come in the most unexpected ways. For Columbia University sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh, it was during his first year of graduate school when he was being held captive in an abandoned housing project by the Chicago gang the Black Kings. Venkatesh will tell the story of his seven year relationship with the gang, which he won over and studied, in his upcoming memoir Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets. Sudhir Venkatesh has written widely on “vice careers,” including a collaboration with Steven Levitt on the economics of gang finance in The Quarterly Journal of Economics. One of his recent studies, Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor, won the C. Wright Mills Award in 2007. Gang Leader for a Day will be out in January 2008.

Rock 'n' Roll Office

2007-11-15T21:42:00.000-08:00

A new memoir is on the way from Dan Kennedy, Rock On: An Office Power Ballad, scheduled for February 2008. After landing his dream job with a giant record label, Kennedy soon finds himself disillusioned, to say the least. “The music business isn’t pretty,” as Kirkus Reviews put it, “but it’s pretty funny.” In Kennedy’s hands, it will be, no doubt. He is author of Loser Goes First, runs reallysmalltalk.com, and has contributed to McSweeneys for seven years. A ten-city book tour is in the works.

The Life and Times of a Fallen Planet

2007-11-15T21:39:00.000-08:00

Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History and director of Hayden Planetarium, will soon be publishing The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet. Tyson will tell the inside story of how the beloved little planet, well, got Plutoed. Originally scheduled for the spring, the publication date now seems to be June 2008. Tyson, among other things, has an asteroid named after him, Asteroid "121213 Tyson." You can read his monthly column at Natural History.

Party like it's 1814

2007-11-15T21:25:00.001-08:00

Good news. I was excited to learn that one of my favorite historians has just given us a wonderful review of Vienna 1814, my upcoming book on the Congress of Vienna, the spectacular peace conference that redrew the maps after the Napoleonic Wars and ushered in the longest period of peace Europe has ever known. It was also one of the greatest parties in history, with a dazzling array of masked balls, banquets and celebrations. Can't wait to tell you more, and I will do so as soon as possible.

Pirate Capitalism

2007-11-13T20:09:00.000-08:00

International Talk Like a Pirate Day, alas, has come and gone, but there’s a book being published in January that advises us to start thinking like one – that is, like a pirate or innovator who often shakes up our arts and industries with maverick, sometimes revolutionary solutions. The author, Matt Mason, is a former pirate radio DJ and co-founder of wedia, the nonprofit media company that covers humanitarian issues across the globe; his book, The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture Reinvented Capitalism sounds wonderful:

"How do you start a movement with a marker pen? What’s the connection between the nun who invented disco, and file sharing? How did a male model messing with disco records in New York in the 1970s influence the way Boeing design airplanes? . . . The Pirate’s Dilemma tells the story of how youth culture drives innovation and is changing the way the world works. " (Matt Mason, The Pirate's Dilemma)

I can’t wait to read it. In the meantime, Mason has a new blog, discussing everything from “Punk Capitalism” to the “Tao of Pirates.”

David McCullough's Next Book: Americans in Paris

2007-11-12T18:29:00.000-08:00

A few hours ago, it was announced that David McCullough has sold his next book to Simon & Schuster. The still untitled project will tell the story of Americans in Paris: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Fenimore Cooper, Edith Wharton, Langston Hughes, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Samuel Morse, Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William L. Shirer, Josephine Baker, to name a few. McCullough’s 1776 has 3 million copies in print, and his John Adams will be broadcast on HBO in the spring of 2008, the same time, incidentally, as my Vienna 1814 will be out. McCullough, at first, had trouble convincing his editor of the merits of writing about the cranky second president. John Adams went on to become the best-selling biography in Simon & Schuster history.

Writer’s Advance Tops Rolling Stone and Prime Minister

2007-11-12T07:54:00.000-08:00

When his forthcoming memoir went to auction, Keith Richards won an advance of 7 million. Last month, Tony Blair received 9 million for his autobiography. But the Welshman Ken Follett has bagged an even larger advance for his upcoming trilogy, tentatively entitled The Century, about families caught up in the crises of the first, second and cold wars. The advance, including foreign rights deals, is a reported 50 million dollars. Not bad for a socialist from Cardiff.

Not over until the First Baseman Sings, preferably Gilbert & Sullivan

2007-11-12T07:51:00.000-08:00

After arriving in the United States from his native Ireland in the late nineteenth century, John Clark ended up playing first base in the major league, blossoming into the major opera star who called himself “Signor Brocolini” and eventually becoming Gilbert & Sullivan’s first “Pirate King.” You can read many fun tales of vintage baseball in Peter Morris’s new book, But Didn’t We Have Fun: An Informal History of Baseball’s Pioneer Era, 1843-1870, which is scheduled to be published in the spring of 2008. Morris is also a National Scrabble Champion (1989) and World Champion (1991). Read about Clark, the new book, and Morris’ other works on the history of baseball here.

"For a time, the world's best rock 'n' roll band"?

2007-11-11T19:42:00.000-08:00

Author and music critic Jim Walsh has just published The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting, based on his intimate knowledge of the legendary south Minneapolis band and the thriving Minneapolis music scene of the 1980s. Walsh has already been praised by Publishers Weekly for writing a “loving, appropriately ramshackle tribute” to the Mats, detailing such infamous episodes as Paul Westerberg smashing copies of Hootenanny in local record store and the band’s “triumphant disaster” on Saturday Night Live. Trouser Press called the Replacements “for a time, the world’s best rock ‘n’ roll band.”

As a former disc jockey for a college radio station who played the Replacements many times over the years, I look forward to Walsh’s book. It should be a fascinating read. After all, what do fans ask the most of R.E.M.’s Peter Buck? “You played on [Replacements] 'I will Dare.' What was that like?” “More people bring that up to me than anything else,” he said.

Speaking of Peter Buck, Cable & Tweed have posted an old photo of him back in his days as a clerk at Wuxtry Records. Note the comics Conan the Barbarian and the first issue of Howard the Duck in the background.

Historian and Former German Chancellor Honored in Berlin

2007-11-11T18:56:00.000-08:00

Next week, Fritz Stern will receive the "Award for Understanding and Tolerance" from the Jewish Museum Berlin. Stern, former Seth Low Professor of History at Columbia University and who also taught at Yale, Cornell, and Berlin, is the author of many works, including Five Germanys I Have Known, Gold and Iron, Germany 1933, The Politics of Cultural Despair, The Failure of Illiberalism, and Varieties of History. The other recipient of this year’s prize will be Helmut Kohl, the former Chancellor of Germany who presided over the reunification. Kohl, who also has a PhD in history, is the longest serving chancellor in German history since Bismarck. He will be honored particularly for his efforts to rebuild relations between Germany and Israel. The ceremony will be held on November 17. Link (German). Also in Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

And Why Shouldn't Snoop Dogg be Filmed Golfing on Drugs?

2007-11-09T10:24:00.000-08:00

Dom Joly, writer, actor, producer and former diplomat, has published a new book called Letters to My Golf Club. Here Joly, known for his surreal hidden camera comedies like Happy Now? and Trigger Happy TV, fires off cranky, increasingly outrageous requests to British golf clubs. What, for example, is the club planning to do to combat illicit dog fighting on its grounds? “Will the Board allow Snoop Dogg to be filmed golfing on drugs?” Not available in the States, but here’s a link to the UK publisher.

Finding Atlantis in Turkish

2007-11-09T10:20:00.000-08:00

My book about Olof Rudbeck and his search for Atlantis (in Sweden), Finding Atlantis, has now been translated into Turkish, in a new paperback edition by Istanbul’s Vatan Gazetesi.

Animation Greats Go Live

2007-11-06T21:27:00.000-08:00

Janet Waldo, the voice of Judy Jetson, Wilma Flintstone’s mother (Pearl Slaghoople), the Smurf Hogatha, Josie McCoy (Josie and the Pussycats) and Morticia Addams (The Addams Family: The Animated Series) among many others will take your questions tomorrow at Stu’s Show on Shokus Internet Radio. She will be joined by Hanna-Barbera writer and historian Earl Kress, who has written for (among others) Animaniacs, Back to the Future, Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry Tales, Transformers, Woody Woodpecker, and received an Emmy nomination for his work on Pinky and the Brain. The host, Stu Shostak, has a long list of credits himself, including a ten-year stint as Lucille Ball’s film archivist.

So call in, (888) SHOKUS-5, it’s free. The show will air tomorrow 4-6pm Pacific time/7-9 Eastern at the above address. While you’re at it, wish the host a happy birthday.

A Beatle, Monty Python, and Young Douglas Adams Project

2007-11-06T20:11:00.000-08:00

Have you wondered what would have happened if a Beatle, a Monty Python, and a young Douglas Adams ever teamed up on a musical comedy? Too good to be true? Well, actually . . . In 1974, five years before publishing Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams had the opportunity to work with Beatle Ringo Starr and Python Graham Chapman on a project called Son of Dracula, which spoofed 1970s horror flicks.

The cast for this project included not only Ringo Starr (and George Harrison on the soundtrack), but also Keith Moon of the Who, John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, and a young, still relatively unknown Peter Frampton. David Bowie was apparently tapped to play the young son of Dracula, Count Downe, but the part went instead to the legendary songwriter Harry Nilsson. The film is indeed rare. Even the handy, 1700 page film-reference guide, Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever: The Complete Guide to Movies on Videocassette and DVD, does not list it.

In the spring of 1974, Son of Dracula debuted in Atlanta to fanfare reminiscent of Gone With the Wind. “We had 12,000 kids screaming,” Ringo Starr (who played Merlin the Magician in the film) remembered, describing the fans who lined up in excitement. But the enthusiasm was not to last. Contemporary reviews panned it. “A confusing, flat, and utterly misguided attempt to blend horror, comedy, and rock ‘n’ roll,” one critic said. Awful, plain awful, many others concluded. The day after the debut, the cast and crew quietly slipped out of town. Not long afterwards, Son of Dracula would disappear from theaters as well.

Curiously, too, as if the humor were not strained enough, the production studio (Apple) later demanded that Graham Chapman and the gang rewrite the entire dialogue, which was then simply dubbed over top the original scenes. Horror film connoisseur Kim Newman calls Son of Dracula “one of the rarest of all ‘70s British horror films . . . barely seen in America. Once you’ve seen it, you’ll know why.”

As recent as M.J. Simpson’s fascinating biography of Douglas Adams Hitchhiker (2003), the film had not been re-released in theaters, video, DVD, or otherwise. Now, however, it’s available on, Youtube. Don’t expect a masterpiece. Son of Dracula is one of many projects that flourished in the frenzied post-Beatle, post-Python, and pre-Hitchhiker period, some of which were good, and others not. Watch the rock horror opera here for yourself.

Linnaeus From Park Avenue to the Moon

2007-11-06T19:45:00.000-08:00

For our readers in New York, the Scandinavian House (58 Park Avenue) is hosting a lecture by Lund University’s Professor of History of Science and Ideas, Gunnar Broberg, entitled “Carl Linnaeus: Life and Achievements.” Broberg, winner of the August Prize, is world authority on Linnaeus, the king of flowers who gave us not only classification systems, but also words such as homo sapiens, mammalia, and even Rudbeckia, which he named after Olof Rudbeck and his son Olof Jr. Among the many honors paid to Linnaeus, there is a place named after him on the moon. For anyone interested in Linnaeus or eighteenth century Sweden, the event is a must. Be sure, too, to ask Broberg about cats. The lecture is November 12 at 6.30. Tickets $10/$8.

Also at the Scandinavia House is Sarah Edkins’ “The Myths and Magic of Iceland: A Voyage through Icelandic Children’s Literature,” which promises to take children up to age 7 “to an enchanted landscape of glaciers, volcanoes, magical creatures, and spellbinding stories.” On November 8 at 7.30pm, soprano Marion Melnik and pianist Marko Hilpo (Silbelius Academy, Helsinki) will give a concert in the Victor Borge Hall, this year being the 50th anniversary of Jean Sibelius death. On the fifteenth, too, there is a film night with several Swedish short films. Sarah Gyllenstierna will be there with her “I’m Your Man” (Soul Sister Films) and winner of Best Short Comedy at the Women of Color Film Festival. Wing-Yee Wu will be there with “For Memories” (2006). For more information on these and other events, visit the Scandinavia House or call 212 847-9740.

Daredevil Motorcyclist Not a Big Jump Actually

2007-11-02T19:49:00.000-07:00

What do you do after writing books about Dean Acheson, James Forrestal, Jimmy Carter, Henry Ford, John Kerry, Rosa Parks, Father Michael J. McGivney, Hurricane Katrina, and editing the Ronald Reagan diaries? This was historian Douglas Brinkley’s dilemma. His answer: a biography of the daredevil motorcyclist and seventies icon, Evel Knievel.

Actually this is not a big jump, pardon the pun. You may remember Brinkley shaking up the dry, run-of-the-mill history lecture format in the early 1990s when he took a small class of students on a six-week road trip across America, reading classics of literature and seeing everything from Graceland to Monticello. They met William S. Burroughs, toured Jack London’s place, and stayed with Ken Kesey, who took them on a ride on his legendary psychedelic bus, Further. (See his The Majic Bus: An American Odyssey). Brinkley has also edited the papers of Jack Kerouac, and he is now editing the third volume of the letters of Kentuckian Hunter S. Thompson.

Evel Knievel: Daredevil in Winter was sold on proposal last week. Given the drama surrounding the motorcyclist’s life, Brinkley’s book should attract many readers – and not just children of the seventies who rode red-white-blue bikes and tried to jump everything that did not move.

Hello, Darkness My Old Friend . . .it’s the Sounds of Saturn

2007-11-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

The Cassini spacecraft, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the European Space Agency, the Italian Space Agency, and many others bring us “The Eerie, Bizarre Sounds of the Saturnian System”, complete with microphones capturing the winds of Titan, h.t. Boing Boing. Listen for yourself at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Swedish? Well, of course

2007-10-29T22:22:00.000-07:00

Meet Olof Rudbeck, the man who announced that he had discovered Atlantis in Sweden. He then excavated what he thought was its capital, and opened a museum to house its artifacts. He also claimed to have discovered the Kingdom of Hades (near the Arctic Circle) – and then sent a “scientific expedition” to explore this shadowy Underworld. By the end of his thirty year quest, which soon became one of the more unusual in modern history, Rudbeck believed that almost every major figure of ancient Greek and Norse mythology had either visited Sweden, or had actually been Swedish.

Before this search became a lifelong obsession, Olof Rudbeck (1630-1702) had been the first Swede to make a major scientific contribution. He discovered and explained the lymphatic system – as a nineteen-year old. He was working largely on his own (his supervisor was too busy in the alchemy lab). Later, when Rudbeck became a professor, he built an anatomy theater for dissections, and founded a botanical garden, which developed into one of the larger ones on the continent. He discovered two comets, using instruments he built himself. Among many other things, Rudbeck started an early postal service in Sweden, operated fencing and dancing school, and harnessed the town river to power several machines in his factory. One of his favorite things to do was to make fireworks, and he would long enjoy lighting up the night sky with his home-made rockets.

All of this extraordinary talent was brought to his search for the fabled lost civilization, and the “discoveries” poured in at an alarming rate. By 1702, Rudbeck had compiled some 2,500 pages of evidence for his theories – I read every word of the four tomes of Old Swedish and Latin (including his surviving correspondence). Rudbeck's theories are perhaps the most rigorously-argued and wildly speculative theories of ancient history ever to be accepted, for a time, among many contemporaries. Rudbeck was admired at the court of Louis XIV, proposed as a member of the Royal Society in London, and celebrated in cafes, salons and academies across the continent. Avid readers were Leibniz, Montesquieu, and Isaac Newton. Rudbeck's Atlantica is, among other things, a veritable curiosity cabinet of the seventeenth century (From my book Finding Atlantis: A True Story of Genius, Madness, and an Extraordinary Quest for a Lost World).

My Library #1: Rudbeck's Atlantica (1679)

2007-10-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

One afternoon in the late nineties, I took a break from reading Olof Rudbeck’s letters at Lund University in southern Sweden, and went for a walk. Passing the cathedral and several cafes where I had spent many afternoons practicing my Swedish with patient friends, I entered an antiquarian bookstore. I browsed a bit, and then struck up a conversation with the man behind the counter. “Do you have anything on Olof Rudbeck?” I asked, hoping for something, or anything that I had not already read. “No, I don’t think so,” he said, looking down and shaking his head. But just to make sure, he went to the back to take a look. A few moments later, he returned with a first edition of Olof Rudbeck’s Atlantica.

Above (right) is the title page to the Atlantica (Swedish Atland eller Manheim). Rudbeck wrote the text in Swedish and his colleague, the classicist and professor of eloquence Anders Norcopensis translated it into Latin. The page (left) discusses a few of Rudbeck’s 102 “proofs” why Atlantis must have been in Sweden. Later volumes would offer additional support for his theory. For more on the Atlantica, see post "My Library" or read more about it in Finding Atlantis.

Staggering Genius “Wise Enough To Do Good”

2007-10-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

After winning the 2007 Heinz Award in Arts and Humanities this week, Dave Eggers will donate the proceeds ($250,000) to the innovative, nonprofit literary centers, the 826 Valencias (named after the first one in San Francisco’s Mission District). Each 826 focuses on teaching creative writing and expression to elementary, middle and high school students. "I think Dave has been a model of somebody wise enough to do good, other-centered things with his good fortune," George Saunders said at the award ceremony in Pittsburgh. At 37, Dave is the youngest recipient in the Heinz Award’s thirteen year history. Carolyn Kellogg reported in the LA Times, and also at her Pinky's Paperhaus.

What’s the Price of Being "the Rudest Man in Britain?”

2007-10-24T07:26:00.000-07:00

Actually, according to Tudor expert David Starkey, who was given that honor by the Daily Mail, it’s worth an additional 100,000 pounds a year, and that’s almost certainly an under-estimate. Yes, indeed, yesterday Starkey received a CBE from the queen. Apparently she asked him if he planned to do any more documentaries. 'Yes Ma'am," he was quoted as quipping, "On you. It's quite complimentary."

Starkey is currently writing a biography of Henry VIII to be published in 2009. Expect a big splash, as it will be joined with an exhibit at the British Library and TV series, all of which will commemorate the 500th anniversary of the year the notorious Tudor monarch, all of 17-years old, began his reign.

My Library

2007-10-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

Inspired by librarything, I decided to start an occasional series of blog entries featuring “Random Books from My Library.” The first selection – let me say at the onset – is not random. The book was not chosen for its literary merits, either, or its appeal to collectors. It was chosen simply for its value to me. It’s a first edition of Olof Rudbeck’s Atlantica (1679).

Readers of Finding Atlantis will remember this as the first volume of Rudbeck’s massive attempt to prove that the fabled lost world of Atlantis was actually in Sweden (Yes, that Atlantis and yes, that Sweden.). And Rudbeck became so convinced of his theory that he would soon challenge any thinker to Europe to come to the north and prove him wrong. He would pay the expenses.

Olof Rudbeck was – I should add at this point – a pioneering physician who discovered the lymphatic system (as a teenager) and then became embroiled in a bitter priority dispute with Thomas Bartholin. He was also an anatomist, botanist, architect, engineer, surgeon, painter, astronomer, inventor, shipbuilder, singer, composer, mapmaker, fireworks maker, prankster and general loose cannon around town. All those skills and experiences were brought to his search, and it was one wild ride.

The work, at first only 900 pages, swelled to four and a half volumes and some 2,500 pages of “evidence” he found of the lost Atlantis of ancient Sweden. By the end of the thirty year quest, Rudbeck had believed that he had found not only Atlantis, but also virtually every major god, hero, or other figure of classical Greek and Norse mythology - and they were all Swedes. Mount Olympus, Asgard, and even the Kingdom of Hades were all in Sweden. I read every word of the bulky work, which prompted more than a few of my Swedish friends to wonder who was more obsessed, Rudbeck or me. At any rate, I will begin my library series with the Atlantica, very soon, that is, as soon as I have a decent photograph of the book to post.

The Empire Strikes Back

2007-10-23T18:48:00.000-07:00

Historian Niall Ferguson, who was named one of “the world’s most influential people” by Time magazine (2004), will soon be blogging for the Financial Times (Link). This follows his appointment last month as a consultant to a £9.5 billion hedge fund with GLG Partners. He has written widely, including Virtual History (as editor), Paper and Iron, The Cash Nexus, The Pity of War, The House of Rothschild, Empire, Colossus, and most recently, The War of the World. "What's the point of having knowledge about modern history,” Ferguson once said in an interview (Robert Fulford), “if you confine yourself to writing monographs . . .?” I, for one, am looking forward to his new blog.

A Debut Author, A Self-Published Book, and A Seven Figure Deal

2007-10-22T23:07:00.000-07:00

Brunonia Barry has sold her first book, the self-published The Lace Reader to William Morrow in a seven-figure deal. It’s a thriller set in 1990s Salem, Massachusetts, her hometown, and deals with the experiences of a heroine, who like her family, can read the future by staring at patterns in lace. It’s a story, according to her website, “about trusting your own intuition, even if the rest of the world thinks you're crazy.” Here’s the Publishers Weekly review that generated the excitement that led to the book deal, and the selling of translation rights now across Europe.

Kudos to the “Leather-Jacketed Pied Piper”

2007-10-22T11:22:00.001-07:00

Neil Gaiman’s co-production of his Stardust is now out with a cast that includes Robert de Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer and Ricky Gervais. Next month we have his Beowulf with Anthony Hopkins, Ray Winstone and Angelina Jolie. Soon, too, expect a BBC version of Anansi Boys. Gaiman is understandably excited about this project with its African-Caribbean lore: “I don't think anybody,” he said, “has actually done a drama, the cast of which was almost completely black, in which the point of it was not that the cast was completely black." Anansi Boys is scheduled for November 17 on the BBC World Service. Interesting interview with Ian Burrell.

The Book that Got Away

2007-10-22T11:22:00.000-07:00

When I used to teach a university honors seminar on The Ancient World, I enjoyed screening the Coen brothers film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? This helped set the mood for the Odyssey, which, in my opinion, is one of the greatest adventure stories of say the last 2,600 years. I would have shown Raising Arizona or The Big Lebowski, too, if I could have worked them in between Aeschylus and Euripides.

At any rate, one story that Joel and Ethan Coen have not been able to bring to the big screen is James Dickey’s novel, To the White Sea, which centers around a B-29 gunner downed in Japan at the end of World War II, who proceeds to walk from Honshu to Hokkaido. One other thing: the lead character does not know any Japanese, and there’s no dialogue after the first five minutes. Discussion with collaborator Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men) and journalist Lev Grossman in the October 29 issue of Time.

Historian Signs Bat for Baseball Hall of Fame

2007-10-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

Historian Jacques Barzun, who will celebrate his 100th birthday next month on November 30, has signed a bat which will be presented to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. His words, "whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball,” already adorn the hall.

Ever since I read his Columbia Ph.D dissertation, which was published in 1932 under the title The French Race: Theories of its Origins and their Social and Political Implications prior to the French Revolution, I have immensely enjoyed his books. Barzun is a national treasure. For more on the celebration, check out Leo's Wong’s blog, Barzun 100 and the Jacques Barzun Centenniel.

Two New Exciting History Titles

2007-10-19T07:49:00.000-07:00

Laurence Bergreen follows the Venetian merchant Marco Polo along the Silk Road deep into Mongolia and China in Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu. Bergreen's last book about Magellan, Over the Edge of the World, was wonderful, and Simon Winchester has already called this one “a classic portrait that now surely can never be bettered." Bergreen's Marco Polo will be released next week, and Matt Damon will be starring as the young Venetian in an upcoming Warner Bros film.

Joseph J. Ellis, Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College, also has a new book out at the end of this month, American Creation: Triumph and Tragedy at the American Founding. American Creation follows his previous works, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Founding Brothers, and National Book Award-winning American Sphinx. Both Publishers Weekly and Booklist have already given it stellar reviews.

Agent Zigzag

2007-10-18T21:15:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Tom Hanks (New Line Cinema) purchased rights to Ben MacIntyre’s new biography of the colorful conman and World War II double agent Eddie Chapman, Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love and Betrayal. They edged out Warner Brothers, in a short auction, in a seven-figure deal. Hanks and Gary Goetzman of Playtones will produce.
MacIntyre is author of several popular histories, including The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief, and Forgotten Fatherland: The Search for Elisabeth Nietzsche. Agent Zigzag, published by Harmony Books, draws on many newly declassified MI5 files and hit bookstores in the United States in September.

From Olof Rudbeck to Quentin Tarantino

2007-10-18T21:02:00.000-07:00

Quentin Tarantino is apparently toying with the idea of setting a coming of age tale of an American bumming around in Stockholm during the 1970s. Obviously, there is a great deal of potential here. The Swedish capital is, in many ways, a writer and filmmaker’s dream. I visited Stockholm many times in the 1990s, and lived there for a spell too when researching Finding Atlantis. It is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Go Quentin! While you’re at it, be sure to take the short trip out to “Old Uppsala” and see where the enigmatic Olof Rudbeck believed that he had found Atlantis.

A brief introduction to the life of Olof Rudbeck and his obsession with Atlantis – the subject of Finding Atlantis – can be found in my post here.

Finding Atlantis Goes to China

2007-10-18T20:56:00.000-07:00

Finding Atlantis – the story of the flamboyant Olof Rudbeck (Sweden’s “Leonardo da Vinci”) and his adventurous hunt for the fabled lost civilization of Atlantis (which he believed he had found in Sweden!) – has been translated into several foreign languages. Thanks to Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, it’s now also out in Chinese.