On April 21, 1950, the FBI’s New York Division reported that Crockett Johnson was one of “400 concealed Communists.” Â In June, the New Haven office began compiling a file on him. Â These are the first 15 pages. Â (Clicking on each page will yield a larger image.) This (above) is one of the less accurate pages…
Month: April 2012
Book People Unite
This is fun.  Reading Is Fundamental‘s new promotional video features a song by the Roots; vocals by  Jack Black, Chris Martin (Coldplay), John Legend, Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Jason Schwartzman, Nate Ruess (vocalist for fun.), Melanie Fiona, Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney, Wild Flag), Regina Spektor and Consequence; appearances from Pinocchio, Madeline, Greg (the Wimpy Kid),…
Research, Writing, and Getting a Life
One of the many pleasures of Edmund de Waal’s The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance (2010) is its evocation of the thrill of research. As he traces the history of his family’s netsuke (small Japanese ivory and wood carvings), de Waal describes great-great-great grandfather Charles Ephrussi’s art-collecting in nineteenth-century Paris as “‘vagabonding’ … done with…
Google’s Brave New World: The Feed Is Here
But the braggest thing about the feed, the thing that made it really big, is that it knows everything you want and hope for, sometimes before you even know what those things are. It can tell you how to get them, and help you make buying decisions that are hard. Everything we think and feel…
Harold and the Purple TARDIS
Karen Hallion mashes Dr. Who with Crockett Johnson‘s Harold and the Purple Crayon! An apt comparison.  Just as the crayon guides Harold through improbable distances, so does the Tardis – its ability to navigate the universe is as impressive as that purple crayon. Hat tip to Fashionably Geek and Gene Kanenberg Jr. (on Facebook).  The t-shirt…
