J.D. Salinger (1919–2010) remains one of the most fascinating paradoxes in American letters. Lauded as the author of The Catcher in the Rye, a book that gave adolescent alienation its most enduring voice, he also became a cultural riddle: a man who spent the last half of his life in near silence, publishing nothing, andContinue reading “The Enigma of J.D. Salinger: Genius, Recluse, and the Making of an American Myth”
Category Archives: Literature
In Memoriam: Dame Jilly Cooper (1937 – 2025)
It is with deep sadness that we mark the passing of Dame Jilly Cooper, who died on 5 October 2025 at the age of 88 after a fall at her home. Her unexpected death has come as a shock to her family, friends, and the countless readers who adored her work. Born Jill Sallitt onContinue reading “In Memoriam: Dame Jilly Cooper (1937 – 2025)”
Scott & Zelda: Legacy, Love, and the Geography of a Jazz Age
Few couples loom as mythically over the 20th century as F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. They were beautiful, brilliant, and reckless — the gilded children of the Jazz Age, as dazzling as the parties they haunted, and as doomed as the decade they defined. To speak of them is to speak of literature, glamour, andContinue reading “Scott & Zelda: Legacy, Love, and the Geography of a Jazz Age”
Italy in Highsmith’s Footsteps: A Ripleyesque Guide to La Dolce Vita
Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s novel, remains one of cinema’s most intoxicating portraits of Italy. Shot against the dazzling backdrops of Ischia, Procida, and the Amalfi Coast, the film is as much about setting as it is about identity — a world of sunlit villas, languid piazzas, and aContinue reading “Italy in Highsmith’s Footsteps: A Ripleyesque Guide to La Dolce Vita”
My World of Interiors 