Fran Lebowitz's Library

  Fran Lebowitz is a very funny person who has a very serious library of around 12,000 books. It is not the kind of library one would expect from someone kicked out of school twice, mostly because of "nonspecific surliness" or general petulance. She became an atheist at 7 and has smoked since she was 12, but is still around at 75. You may have seen her on Letterman or Leno, or even on Fallon or Maher. If you read anything about her or by her, you will laugh a lot. See, Fran Lebowitz on Wikipedia for starters. It doesn't mention that she owns a Checker Marathon, which seems about right.
   Almost ten years ago, she answered some questions about her library and some of them are presented below.
 
[When you saw her name above, you may have thought of that other Jewish New Yorker, the famous photographer who ran into financial trouble a few years ago and whose photo collection caused a real kerfuffle out in Nova Scotia. She is Annie Lebovitz, with a V not a W.]

From: "Fran Lebowitz: By the Book". The New York Times. March 21, 2017.

How do you organize your books?

  My books are organized first by category. Fiction, letters, essays. Those kinds of categories. And then there are many subdivisions. Then within categories, they’re alphabetized. I always have arguments with the guy who helps me organize my books, because I have a biography section. He says: “You can’t have a biography section. You have to have them arranged by writer. For instance, Henry James’s fiction, then the letters, the biographies, etc.” And I say: “I know. That’s the right way to do it. But that would take up too much space.” All the apartments I buy or rent are for my books, not for myself. I don’t need the space. I’m 5-foot-4. I have a whole bookcase that this guy calls “your crazy books.” The crazy book category. Those books are not alphabetized.

   I also have a large reference library. I have numerous encyclopedias; I have many, many dictionaries. I actually bought myself the Encyclopaedia Britannica in 1978. I always wanted it, and when I wrote my first book and had some money, I bought it. I didn’t have it growing up; I had the World Book, because it was less expensive. The Encyclopaedia Britannica was so hard to buy, I can’t tell you. I had to make one million phone calls. Because it was generally sold on an installment plan. They didn’t know how to send these books to someone who is just going to send a check.

Nobody uses these books anymore, but I do. When the second edition of the O.E.D. came out, there was nothing I wanted more. It was like $10,000. I had a friend who owned a bookstore, and I begged her to let me buy it at cost, and she did. It was still several thousand dollars, but I’m delighted to own it, even though I think it’s now free on the internet.

You’re in the process of moving your personal library. What’s that been like?

   Believe me, I’m not in the process of it yet. Because it’s so awful, I keep putting it off. But I just did it a year and a half ago. They come and pack the books. That takes three days. But two times before that, it took two months to organize them first. I have many bookcases. They have glass doors. They are mostly 19th-century. The books all go in certain places in my apartment. I like to have fiction in the living room, reference books in the writing room. I have 10,000 books. I know this because I move them. When I move, I go through them and take some out. Many books come to this house unbidden. And unbidden books, I don’t want to keep them. Once the books are all rearranged, I can put my hand on any book. I know where they all are.

When do you read?

   Pretty much all the time. Especially if I’m supposed to be doing something else. I was very frequently punished for reading as a child because I was reading when I was supposed to be doing homework. I got in trouble in school for reading, I got in trouble at home for reading. My mother would actually bang on my door and say, “I know you’re reading in there!” In my adult life, I’ve gotten in trouble for reading because I’m not writing when I’m reading. So it’s really rare that reading is unaccompanied by guilt for me. But I’ve learned to live with it. I feel guilty pretty much all the time.

How do you like to read? Paper or electronic? One book at a time or several simultaneously?

   Obviously, paper. I mean, actually, on his show once, Jimmy Fallon gave me a Kindle. He actually gave it to me as a present. I said: “I know you gave me this because I don’t have one. You know what else I don’t have? A Bentley.”

   I don’t think they’re horrible. I don’t object to them. I’m just not interested in them. People are always showing me this stuff like I’m from outer space and I’ve never heard of it. I have really bad eyesight, so they always tell me you can make the type bigger. I suppose that would be a good thing for me, but I don’t care. I’d rather squint.

"The only monogamous relationship I have had 
in my life is with my car."

You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?

   None. I would never do it. My idea of a great literary dinner party is Fran, eating alone, reading a book. That’s my idea of a literary dinner party. When I eat alone, I spend a lot of time, before I sit down to my meager meal, choosing what to read. And I’m a lot better choosing a book than preparing a meal. And I never eat anything without reading. Ever. If I’m eating an apple, I have to get a book.

Postscript:
  I see that this is the third private library in a row that I have presented, which is curated by a woman. The other two: Hannah Arendt and Marilyn Monroe!

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 7)

 Wine of Cardui - Probably the Only Wine in London in 1902
   Straight from Chattanooga, this elixir was used to treat "women's diseases".

This ad. is found in The Madison Daily Leader (South Dakota), on June 28, 1902. I am not sure if Miss Markell existed, but you can find plenty about the Wine of Cardui. And, there are empty bottles for sale on Amazon and ebay..

Anaïs Nin's Library

    I will do this quickly in order to push the unpleasant post below, farther down the page. This one will be the third in a row about a private library assembled by a woman; the last two belong to Geraldine Brooks and Louise Penny. Here is what Nin's library looks like.

  Given Nin's interests, one can say that this is a library for adults only. If now you are interested, then simply go to the Wikpedia entry for Anaïs Nin, where you will likely spend the rest of the day. There is little need for me to say much more since you will surely go deep into the erotic rabbit holes hinted at in the article provided. She had, for example, two husbands (at the same time), one in the east and another in the west, which she referred to as her "bicoastal trapeze."

  

This is the outside of the house in Los Angeles. It was designed by Eric Lloyd Wright, whose grandfather was Frank and the Wikipedia entries for both will provide you with more interesting content than I am offering. 

    Her full name is, by the way, Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell and she was a flamenco dancer, who also practiced psychoanalysis and slept with her psychoanalyst, Otto Rank. 
    To provide a bit more content, which will push the unpleasant subject below out of sight, I will mention an earlier post about people with Very Long Names. 
    I have also written often about Single-Author Journals and Nin has two devoted to her: Anaïs: An International Journal and A Café in Space: The Anaïs Nin Literary Journal.
    If you are new to the subject of erotica, see my: "Erotica: A Beginner's Guide."
    I have also done several posts about collections of books by men. See, for example, "Boys With Books."
Source: 
 "Anaïs Nin’s Los Angeles Hideaway Still Keeps Her Secrets: Shrouded by the pines of Silver Lake, the erotic writer’s minimalist, midcentury residence is a lasting monument to her life and legacy," Kurt Soller, The New York Times Style Magazine, March 21, 2022. 

Pee Parity

 The Shewee

   As an old fellow, I am familiar with problems relating to urination, but relieving oneself while out-of-doors is not one of them. It is far easier for males and for that I apologize. I have learned that there is a device for women which I will now call to the attention of you female walkers, and for you fellows who should keep it in mind for next year's stocking stuffers. The marketing person who came up with the name for the product, The Shewee, also deserves our attention and an award for doing so. 

   To avoid the charge of "appropriation" I will turn this post over to the woman author who knows more about the product and the process of using it than I do.

“The Pure Liberation of a Personal Urination Device: A Plastic Aqueduct Provides New Pathways For Relief,” Melissa Hart, New York Times Magazine, Dec. 17, 2024
   "The device appeared on the front porch for my birthday: seven inches of sturdy pink plastic shaped like a deep-bowled spoon. “Happy Peeing!” my friend — who, like me, is an avid hiker — had written on a note tied with a ribbon.
   The gift was a personal urination tool that allows people with vaginas to stand when they urinate. “Gross!” my teenage daughter groaned…. I assessed the gadget: a miniature aqueduct. My friend had included a washable absorbent paisley square — a pee cloth that could be attached to the user’s backpack with a strap that read “Piss Off.”

She then goes on to talk about feminine travails when hiking on trails. It appears that both this product and the idea have been around for a long time.

   "It turns out, however, that 18th-century women had already figured out how to pee standing up, during hourslong dinner parties without a toilet in sight. Encumbered by long, heavy skirts, they could hoist back their satins and silks and brocades and let loose in a handled porcelain chamber pot called a bourdaloue. In his painting “La Toilette Intime (Une Femme Qui Pisse),” or “The Intimate Toilette (A Woman Who Pees)” (circa 1760s), the artist François Boucher depicts a demure young woman holding back her pink and green skirts and petticoats so that she can go in a delicate vessel shaped like a gravy boat."

   Female Urination Devices are pictured and easily purchased via Amazon. For Canadian shoppers, here is a link to what is apparently "Canada's Official Shewee Retailer."

Women and Books

 

    I just completed yet another post about another guy with a library. Among the others you will find discussions of the books held by Stalin, Twain, Wilde, Gorey and Professor Macksey. There is even one titled, "Boys With Books" that deals with the book collecting of Colin Wilson and, Norman Mailer whose relationships with women were 'problematic', to say the least. 
  If there are any female readers of MM, they are likely to be shouting, genug shoyn, or, if not and they have happened upon it just now, "enough already." So, what about women and their libraries?
  As a male, under current rules, it is not appropriate for me to discuss a female subject, so I will keep this short and, let's face it, women are perfectly capable of finding on their own such stuff as is now presented.
  There is a Brooklyn bookseller run be women called Honey & Wax. If you go to their website today, they may be slow to respond since some are attending the annual Antiquarian Book Seminar in Minnesota. 
   Every year Honey & Wax sponsors a contest for young women book collectors. Size doesn't matter and,
 "The winning collection must have been started by the contestant, and all items in the collection must be owned by her. A collection may include books, manuscripts, and ephemera; it may be organized by theme, author, illustrator, publisher, printing technique, binding style, or another clearly articulated principle. The winning collection will be more than a reading list of favorite texts: it will be a chosen group of printed or manuscript objects, creatively assembled, that shine light on one another. Collections will not be judged on their size or their market value, but on their originality and their success in illuminating their chosen subjects." 
[I should mention that their definition of 'women' is an inclusive one and all of this is found on the H&W website."]
   The winners are interesting as the 2023 one indicates. It was Auroura Morgan's. “Hybrid Botanicals: A Modern Tattoo Artist’s Reference Collection.”
   I have probably appropriated enough, or even too much, but you may be wondering about the image at the top. It is an "American Woman's Questionnaire Scarf" and it is among the ephemera for sale at Honey & Wax. It could be yours for $85 (US).
Sources (and a tiny bit of CANCON):
  The Honey & Wax website is enough, but the attached article is interesting and it shows that one of the past winners of the H&W contest was a graduate student at the University of Toronto. It was for her collection of Yiddish children's books and she would surely know the meaning of genug shoyn. See: "Six Young Women With Prizewinning Book Collections," The Paris Review, Sept. 18, 2020.

Women Running Around

 

   A few days ago, I mentioned the  "Wonder Woman", Camille Herron, who is an ultrarunner.  She holds the world record for the 100 mile run (160km) and she has run 167 miles (270km) in 24 hours. I thought of those numbers when I read this:

"When Kathrine Switzer, a twenty-year-old journalism and English major at Syracuse University, set out to run the Boston Marathon in 1967, women were barred from it. Switzer registered under her initials and showed up anyway, only to be outed by reporters shouting, “It’s a girl! It’s a girl!” The race director tried to eject her physically from the course. Switzer and others later appeared on television to promote female runners, and the seventies jogging craze attracted women, too. President Richard Nixon signed Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments into law, promising female athletes equal access to facilities and funding in schools. In 1984, the Olympic Games held a women’s marathon for the first time. Today, more than half of all marathon runners are women."

   Apparently in the radical '60s, running for women was a radical endeavour, rather unfeminine and likely to cause damage to the undercarriage. Even if one was  only running  a marathon (26m or 42k). Some things for women have changed. 

Sources:
   The quotation is from a review of this book and a few others: Let's Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped the World by Danielle Friedman. The review is by Margaret Talbot, "Muscle Memory: Is Fitness Culture Our Friend," The New Yorker, Mar. 22, 2022, p.69.
   The photo above is from: "Women Are Better Than Men at Marathon Pacing, Says New Research," Kate Carter, The Guardian, Jan. 20, 2015.

The Bonus:
   During "March Madness" it is worth mentioning that now women can even play basketball like men. When I was in high school, the girls could only dribble three times. Now there are 68 teams of women running full tilt in the NCAA tournament. 
   One female basketball player who is not running is Brittney Griner, who was playing professionally in Russia and is now in detention there. See: "Brittney Griner, Star, W.N.B.A. Center, Is Detained in Russia," NYT, Mar. 5, 2022. 

The Delicate Subject of Cartoons

  

   A distinction should be made between the act of drawing a cartoon and the beheading of a person. Many seem to think that the decapitators are better citizens than the cartoonists. I tend to side with the cartoonists and the silent minority on this issue. I can’t imagine a cartoon as bad as a beheading. Although I strive to avoid current events, at least this post does not again mention still-President Trump. It does involve our Prime Minister.

   The issue concerns the French magazine Charlie Hebdo. Five years ago, twelve staff members at the publication were killed because they published cartoons of Muhammad. The killers are now going on trial, so the magazine decided to re-publish the images. A teacher chose to show the cartoons and discuss the issue of ‘freedom of the press” with his class. He was beheaded for doing so. I suppose the majority wonder how stupid the cartoonists and the teacher could be, while I think the beheaders deserve more criticism.

   President Macron apparently felt the same way and when he sought support, none was forthcoming from our Prime Minister. Trudeau had second thoughts, and just a few days ago the Leader of the Opposition had a few of his own, here are some of them:

“Regrettably, in the wake of the recent Islamist attacks in France, killings committed as acts of revenge for our freedoms, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insisted he did not believe in free speech if it could be used to offend someone. To be frank, these words are unworthy of a Canadian prime minister. They once again show Trudeau bowing to ideological Twitter mobs rather than standing up for a founding principle of our country.

Let’s be clear: no dogma, whether political or religious, is immune from criticism. As my colleague Gerard Deltell put it so well in the House of Commons, “Freedom of expression does not exist only when it suits us … It must exist especially when it does not suit our business.” And I will go further: tolerance, which truly defines our country, should not be a one-way street.”

   It does definitely seem like we are on a one-way street. If you are heading the wrong way, you are labelled  an 'Islamophobe' and criticism of Islamists can be classified as a hate crime or deemed 'blasphemous'. If you are among the politically correct and heading in the right direction you perhaps secretly admire those who are really good at cancelling culture, or at least the Western version of it.

   A few brave people spoke up about the issue of freedom of speech, but fewer still were willing to go much beyond that. I fear a fatwa myself for this rather mild critique, but will take the slight risk and go a step further and present a few jokes - but, certainly no images. The jokes are not mine, but I will give no source since the author of them may wish to avoid the fate of Salman Rushdie.

   These jokes were offered after the writer of them noticed that a major American newspaper was providing advice for the increasingly Muslim audience of readers, Here they are, but there are no pictures:

“Which way is Mecca? Ten Timely Tips for Budget Hajj Travel”

“Modern Romance: How Many Wives is Too Many?”

“Healthy New York: Maintaining Vitamin D Sufficiency Under the Burka”

“Food: Top 100 Kebob Houses in Lower Manhattan”

“Sunday Styles: Goat Tending for City Dwellers”

“Five Times A Day: Suing Employers Who Don’t Provide Prayer Rugs”

“Best of New York: Local’s Guide to Men-Only Tea Houses”

“Know Your Tenant’s Rights: Halal Animal Slaughter on the Balcony”

“Summer in the City: Cool Lightweight Burkas that Beat the Heat”

“Taxing Matters: Time for a Municipally Collected Jizya?”

“Healthy New York: Female Genital Mutilation Without Tears”

“CityScape: The 100 Most Beautiful Mosques on the Upper East Side”

“Modern Romance: How Young Is Too Young for Child Marriage? 14? 12?”

“Mosque and State: Time to Rethink the Founding Fathers?”

“The Feminist Muslim’s Guide to Politically Correct Wife Discipline”

   Some of the advice offered involves women and I was reminded of a curious incident that took place in Massachusetts. It concerned signs that were posted around the town of Winchester. The signs were plain and rather innocuous, but still perplexing as this headline indicates: "'Islam Is Right About Women': Odd Signs Spark Confusion in Local Town," Boston 25 News, Sept. 18, 2019. Was the sign poster being sarcastic? Is Islam right about women? Or Wrong? Here is the clever sign that is likely just a bit of troll bait.

Sources:

"Freedom of Expression a Founding Principle of Canada,"Erin O'Toole, Toronto Sun, Nov. 13, 2020.

See also: "Trudeau Shamed Into Supporting France, Freedom of Expression," Brian Lilley, Toronto Sun, Nov. 6, 2020.  These quotations are from this article:

"It’s a sad statement when leaders from around the world stand with France but Canada doesn’t.

The central question is whether it is ever acceptable to insult religious figures, specifically by showing images of Mohammed.

Islam forbids showing images of Mohammed, but I’m not a Muslim and shouldn’t have to live by that rule any more than their rule against eating bacon.

What he should have said is that while he may find the cartoons of Mohammed offensive and understands why Muslims do, it is a fundamental freedom to show them, publish them or discuss them."

Post Script:

I am too cowardly to use the image of you-know-who and hope the cartoon of Erdogan is not overly offensive. I am not the only coward. In 2009, Yale University Press published THE CARTOONS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD, by Jytte Klausen. Oddly enough, there is not one cartoon in it.

If you are interested in the debate over this issue, go back to the spring of 2005. At that time PEN awarded Charlie Hebdo a freedom of speech award. You will think that PEN members would be automatically in favour of presenting such an honour, but the event was boycotted by some. Of course Salman Rushdie, a former PEN president agreed since he had to go into hiding for several years, after the publication of Satanic Verses. Canadian author Michael Ondaatje, among others, protested.