“The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” “Up in Michigan” and “Indian Camp” are just a few of the classics in The Hemingway Stories (Scribner), released in conjunction with the PBS series and presented in chronological order. $17, amazon.com; Blu-ray or DVD of the docu-series, $40, shop.pbs.org More than 70 years of classic literature design is featured in the Postcards From PenguinBox, a collection of 100 postcards, each featuring a different book jacket. $25,penguinrandomhouse.com Mark Twain outlined. John Steinbeck pretended his audience was one person. And Hemingway drank. Acknowledging the writing blocks that have stunted even the greatest minds, the solid wood Writer’s Block makes a conversation piece for fellow bibliophiles with more than 100 authors to choose from, including Twain, Steinbeck and Louisa May Alcott. $10 each or $25 for three, literaturelodge.com If you’re nostalgic for the lost art of diagramming a sentence, check out the Sentence Diagrams of Great Literary Openers. The set of cards uses the old-school Reed-Kellogg system to diagram the opening lines of 12 classics, including Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. $13, shop.nybooks.com Proud of your own book collection? Have artist Jane Mount illustrate your favorite classic titles in an Ideal BookshelfCustom Print. Starting at $105, idealbookshelf.com On January 1 of this year, the copyright on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby expired and the book entered the public domain, which means we’re due for a few adaptations and re-creations, including a miniseries for A+E Studios and Nghi Vo’s novel The Chosen and the Beautiful (Tordotcom, June 1), a magical retelling from the perspective of a queer Vietnamese American. $27, amazon.com
4.7 million
That’s the number of ratings Goodreads’ top American literary classic has. No surprise, it’s To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and George Orwell’s 1984 are a close second and third.
Cheers!
Great American writers were seldom without a gimlet. William Faulkner was known for his mint juleps (bourbon, mint and simple syrup). F. Scott Fitzgerald loved a good gin rickey (lime juice, gin, topped with club soda). Ernest Hemingway turned to mojitos, dry martinis and the vermouth panache, a blend of sweet and dry vermouth with Angostura bitters. Next, You Can Make the Martini From the Iconic Hollywood Hangout Musso & Frank Grill
