Remembering Tran
Our longtime managing editor, Tran Huu Dung, died earlier this week.
Chances are you don't know the name Tran Huu Dung, who died earlier this week at the age of 77. But for more than 20 years as our managing editor, he was one of the pillars of Arts & Letters Daily. Our site (and newsletter) is the beneficiary of his expansive curiosity and voracious appetite for ideas and arguments. An enthusiast in all things (and ardent proponent of the exclamation point), Tran led a rich and varied life: father, grandfather, professor, economist. We'll miss him. — David and Evan
Book blurbs existed long before the practice had a name. For more than a century, they’ve trafficked in hyperbole and hysteria... more »
Late bloomer. Amy Clampitt was unknown to the literary world in 1978, when she had her first poem published. She was 58... more »
“Nobody would have the balls today to write The Satanic Verses,” says Hanif Kureishi. But if someone did, would anyone have the balls to defend them?... more »
By Diderot’s time, parchment production was neat and orderly. In the premodern period, it was an industry of gristle, stink, and carcasses... more »
Jeff Sharlet’s America is “a world of apocalyptic pulsings and unnatural peril.” Behind it lies grief, rage, and bad-faith histrionics... more »