THE WALRUS SAID . . . . . . . . . being a bookish blog

Monday, August 11, 2025

The Biblio File: images of N.E. bookstores, for bibliophiles


Eight Cousins Bookstore, Falmouth, Massachusetts

David Levine on writers: Oliver Sacks

David Levine (1926-2009) was one of America’s most prominent illustrators during a career that spanned decades. No less an authority than Jules Feiffer described him as "the greatest caricaturist of the last half of the 20th century,” although Levine continued to work in the early years of this century as well. Levine’s subjects included himself (above) and people from many walks of life. Authors, scribes and scribblers were a big part of the mix, as these caricatures make clear. 

Lit Toons: Cartoons with a bookish bent

First Lines: Alexandre Dumas


On the 24th of February, 1815, the look-out at Notre-Dame de la Garde signalled the three-master, the Pharaon from Smyrna, Trieste, and Naples.

The Count of Monte-Cristo
Alexandre Dumas

"They say it's your birthday" - writers born on August 11



Enid Blyton  (1897)
Louise Bogan  (1897)
Andre Dubus  (1936)
Alex Haley  (1921)
Michelle Moran  (1980)

Sunday, August 10, 2025

The Biblio File: images of bookplates, for bibliophiles


David Levine on writers: Alice Sebold

David Levine (1926-2009) was one of America’s most prominent illustrators during a career that spanned decades. No less an authority than Jules Feiffer described him as "the greatest caricaturist of the last half of the 20th century,” although Levine continued to work in the early years of this century as well. Levine’s subjects included himself (above) and people from many walks of life. Authors, scribes and scribblers were a big part of the mix, as these caricatures make clear.  

Lit Toons: Cartoons with a bookish bent

Peanuts

First Lines: P.G. Wodehouse


Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French.

The Luck of the Bodkins
P.G. Wodehouse

"They say it's your birthday" - writers born on August 10



Jorge Amado  (1912)
Laurence Binyon  (1869)
Suzanne Collins  (1962)
Mark Doty  (1953)
Dorothy B. Hughes  (1904)
Joyce Sutphen  (1949)