A Surfing Life and A Pulitzer

Who would have ever imagined a surfer would win the Pulitzer Prize for a memoir about surfing? Surely no one, unless they have read William Finnegan's latest book, Barbarian Days, A Surfing Life, (Penguin Press), or his career-changing 1992 two-part New Yorker article, Playing Doc's Games, about a daring league of surfers in San Francisco, led by one particularly extreme surfer known as "Doc". That piece is still on many reader's short list as "the best piece of surf writing, ever". Disclaimer here: William (Bill) Finnegan is my first cousin and I have been a true fan throughout his long, distinguished career. As a staff writer at The New Yorker for nearly three decades, he has traveled the world covering political conflicts, racism, neo-nazi gangs, and social injustices with a courageous fly-on-the-wall spirit. He has published four previous books on such gritty topics as apartheid in South Africa, a civil war in Mozambique and troubled teens in America at the intersection of poverty and drugs. As the years went by, he continued his reluctance to come out of the closet and reveal his fierce devotion to surfing—which ironically is what helped pave his less-traveled path into a career of serious journalism. Surfing, has always been considered to be a self-indulgent sport relegated to those who were less concerned with sentence structure than with the formation of waves. And in Bill's mind, surfing is far less a sport than a beautiful addiction.

In yesterday's announcement for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, the committee announced Barbarian Days was chosen "for a finely crafted memoir of a youthful obsession that has propelled the author through a distinguished writing career". Bill has always navigated his own path, and eventually found himself through his devotion of surfing. His win is a validation for him and all who choose to bravely explore their own passions despite missteps and challenges. I am so proud of him for writing his tales of wave-seeking adventures and I am thrilled he has now been recognized by a peer group of scholars, poets, journalists and critics who fully agree he is also a serious writer of surfing. And you don't have to be a surfer or anywhere near water to enjoy this book! 

Above: Finnegan surfing Cloudbreak in Fiji in 2005. Photo credit at top goes to Barbarian Days publisher, Penguin Press, via Instagram. The other two photos are credited to William Finnegan.

Of Doodlers and Artists

Google celebrates the 112th birthday today of the great American writer, John Steinbeck, with this inspired set of illustration work. I tried my best to Google the name of the talented artist responsible for them, but all I got was "we have a team of doodlers." 'Fess up Google! These artworks are not mere doodles. To see them all in live action, today only, visit the Google of my wrath. Meanwhile, it is my pleasure to share them with you here:

 https://www.google.com/

Stephen Colbert Writes Again

Media meister Stephen Colbert released his 3rd book yesterday, America Again, now in 3D. In a recent book review he wrote for GQ, he offered to give it "three thumbs up out of four stars". This is from someone who also suggested the GQ editor use "Weepy Garamond" for the opening sentence, "It's no secret that America is hurting". Read it and weep! Get yours here.

::Illustration by Kelsey Dake

Literary Table Napkins

Enjoy the company of four of the world's greatest writers at your dining table. This set of four cotton napkins featuring the typewritten letters of Jack London, Emily Dickinson, D.H. Lawrence, and Mark Twain will enliven any meal. Never mind that Emily Dickinson's loveletter to Susie was written about ten years prior to the invention of the typewriter—it  will melt your heart. Mark Twain's note to a young child named Joy will make you rethink every letter you have ever written. "The idea of your house going to the wanton expense of a flower garden!—aren't you enough? And what do you want to go and discourage the other flowers for? Is that the right spirit? is it considerate? is it kind? How do you suppose they feel when you come around—looking the way you look? And you so pink and sweet and dainty and lovely and supernatural? Why, it makes them feel embarrassed and artificial, of course; and in my opinion it is just as pathetic as it can be."
      However clever and irresistable, this set of four literary letters are only available from Anthropologie for a ridiculous sum, and the cotton cloth is much too thin. It seems far too high a price to pay for keeping good company, but then again, good friends are indeed priceless.

So Long Ray

 A tribute to a great man, a great writer and a great lover of books (and cats). Listen to Ray Bradbury speak on writing his first and most celebrated book, Fahrenheit 451, on a rented typewriter. His life's work was motivated by curiousity and a love for reading and books, and he shares this same spark and offers words of encouragement "to do what you love" with great passion. What a dear man...who is nearly upstaged by his cat in the end. And many thanks to Maria Popova at Brain Pickings for calling this video to my attention. 
      In 2007, my student Darcy Kries chose to redesign the book Fahrenheit 451 for her book project in my Type III class. I never shared her book design on Letterology in the past, as this took place long before I began this column. In Mr. Bradbury's honor I want to share it here now, as it is still one of my favorite of student book designs. And of course this book has one of the greatest of opening lines ever (as seen in the last photo below). Stay tuned soon for more student book design work in the near future at this same location. 

The Type Rider

Take one poet, add a typewriter, a bicycle and a birthday wish to travel cross country, and you have the makings of a great story. Maya Stein soon hopes to publish this story of her dream of the open road, and it will be written by people she meets along the way. She turns 40 years old in May and wants nothing more but to cycle at a clip of approximately 40 miles a day, for 40 straight days to Milwaukee, WI, the birthplace of the typewriter. Along her journey she wants to meet up with people and invite them to contribute their voices to a communal typewritten poem, or series of poems. She wants to bring people together through the written word and has developed a Kickstarter campaign to reach $15,000 in the next 40 days to do so. I admire her spirit of adventure, her sense of purpose, and the image of a Remington ten forty; the "moveable typewriter" in tow behind her bicycle. Just the numerology alone—of the 40 miles, 40 days, 40 years and a ten forty Remington is all too Pythagorical (if there is such a word ;) So donate $4 or $40 and send Maya on down the road from Amherst, MA to Milwaukee, WI. With all my talk of the open road lately, I'm thinking it's near time I take Letterology on a big road trip.
::Thanks to Rob for this Type Rider link. He bravely types for peace, democracy, and the glory of the typosphere at Typewriter Heaven.

Where Ideas Come From

Frank Chimero's The Being There Diary, asks the question: "What was the very best moment of your day?"

When asked where he gets his ideas, writer Nicholson Baker comments:
If you ask yourself, 'What's the best thing that happened today?' it actually forces a certain kind of cheerful retrospection that pulls up from the recent past things to write about that you wouldn't otherwise think about. If you ask yourself 'What happened today?' it's very likely that you're going to remember the worst thing, because you've had to deal with it—you've had to rush somewhere or somebody said something mean to you—that's what you're going to remember. But if you ask what the best thing is, it's going to be some particular slant of light, or some wonderful expression somebody had, or some particularly delicious salad. I mean, you never know...
::Via Austin Kleon's Tumblr, Lustik