I’m on the Acela to Washington, D.C., my favorite way to reach the capital from New York City. The dining car is so crowded there is only one seat left—the one across from me. A man approaches to ask if he can take it and I answer, “Of course!” As he settles himself, he […]
Tag: summer reading list
When the weather begins to warm each spring, my mind turns toward a summer reading list for those long afternoons escaping the hot weather inside.
I scour a variety of sources for books to add to mine, one of the most surprising ever was the painter Vincent van Gogh! When I read the number of books (and the variety of them) that he wrote about to his brother Theo, I thought, Wow! This guy was such an avid reader, I certainly couldn’t go wrong adding some of his titles to my own summer reading list. Then, I thought, why not share this tack with my readers on The Diary of an Improvateaur.
His comments about the book had great depth, and I found myself appreciating his story even more after I brought his thoughts into a cohesive post. What fascinated me the most is that he didn’t read as a writer would; he continuously saw literature as an artist would: “There is something of Rembrandt in Shakespeare, and of Correggio in Michelet, and of Delacroix in Victor Hugo, and then there is something of Rembrandt in the Gospel, or in the Gospel something of Rembrandt, as you like it. And in Bunyan there is something of Millet, and in Harriet Beecher Stowe there is something of Ary Scheffer.” If you want to see what books he read that I recommend as terrific beach reading, click through to the post.
The Nature of Noble Loyalty
It’s spring in London and the flowers are bursting forth on Cheyne Walk, which skirts the edge of the River Thames until it gives way to the Chelsea Embankment. I have ambled along the street for nearly an hour identifying plaques representing the famous people who’ve lived on nearly every block. Finally, I’ve reached […]
British Society in the African Bush
Two men are chatting, the legs of their folding wooden campaign chairs sunk in sere grasses. There is leather box at their feet, a tea service, replete with silver spoons, spilling from it. They are the epitome of British society in the African Bush during the 1920s, their pith helmets and khakis the veritable […]
The Sensuous Delight of Place
Like Katherine Mansfield’s enigmatic stories, the book Place by Tara Bernerd feels like “a thread with a subtly woven texture embracing ecstatic feeling, sensuous delight.” The quote is from an essay by Angela Smith in a remarkable book titled The Modernist Party. Edited by Kate McLoughlin, the collection of literary explorations surveys the dinner party through […]
A Midcentury Cougar on the Prowl
The nickname cougar, signifying women who have “a thing” for younger men, hasn’t been around for as long as they’ve been cropping up in popular culture. Before she had an epithet, she was a moody manipulator whose wardrobe was as chic as it was sexy, her story the perfect narrative for a midcentury cougar. Her interiors […]
A Summer Reading List à la Vincent van Gogh
Irving Stone curated and edited down the copious letters that Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo, turning the most meaningful ones into a volume titled Dear Theo: The Autobiography of Vincent van Gogh. In these outpourings to his sibling, he speaks of books he is reading and art he is studying, even […]
The Soul of Great Leaders
Whenever I see a photograph of a Native American, I can’t help but think of Crazy Horse, and I’ve seen a fair number of them in my lifetime given the years I spent in the mission field, traveling to and from the Sioux and Athapaskan reservations in South Dakota and Alaska. During one late […]
How to Set a Mood
The 1968 version of The Thomas Crown Affair starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway is a mercurial mélange of masculine and feminine charisma in equal measure. It’s as apt an example of how to set a mood as the new releases by Currey & Company debuting at High Point Market this week, the Aviva […]
Furnishing Pastimes of Henry VIII
As I mentioned in my last Improvateur article presenting a brief history of Hampton Court Palace, I launched into a furnishings fantasy when I heard the narrators and experts interviewed in the PBS documentary Secrets of Henry VIII’s Palace reveal anecdotes illustrating life within the palace walls during the Tudor king’s reign, which included […]
Decorating Hampton Court Palace
The premise of this article and the next one I’ll post here on The Diary of an Improvateur (next week) began with a rather capricious question: how would it feel to decorate Hampton Court Palace, a jewel in the Tudor King’s built crown, in a way that if the luminaries in Henry VIII’s court were […]