Sylvia Plath’s Summer as a Guest Editor at Mademoiselle in New York
Sixty years ago this month, a 21-year-old Sylvia Plath started work at Mademoiselle magazine (at the time billed as a “quality magazine for smart young women”) as one of 20 junior guest editors assigned to the August college issue. In Andrew Wilson’s Mad Girl’s Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted, published earlier this year, Wilson writes that as […]
MagNet 2013: 3 Panels of Interest to Writers & Editors
I’ll be taking part in three panels at MagNet, Canada’s biggest professional development and networking conference for magazine professionals, next week. GOING FOR GOLD: HOW TO CREATE AWARD-WINNING CONTENT – Thursday, June 6, 2-3:15 p.m. http://magnet.magazinescanada.ca/sessions/?sessionInfo=ED5 – (Everyone wants to win awards. This session, with a panel of editors, art directors and writers — well, […]
The Sleek, Space-Age Hermes 3000
My friend and colleague, Lisa Bendall, a talented writer and editor, first typed on her dad’s Hermes 3000. (On her web site there is a sweet picture of her, at seven, using it: http://www.lisabendall.com/about_lisa.html.) Introduced in 1958 by the Swiss manufacturer, E. Paillard & Company, it soon had a reputation for being a reliable, durable and […]
Daphne du Maurier at her Underwood
British novelist Daphne du Maurier was one of five “Women of Achievement” selected for a set of British stamps issued in August 1996. The image included her portable Underwood typewriter, I’ve never read her but certainly know her reputation, especially because many of her works have been adapted into films, including the suspense novel Rebecca (directed […]
Frank Sinatra Has A Cold
Long ago, I found two copies of the April, 1966 issue of Esquire with Gay Talese’s cover story, “Frank Sinatra Has A Cold.” I tore the cover off one, had it framed and it hangs on a wall of my office, for inspiration [see image]. The article is, of course, the now-legendary profile of Sinatra at the […]
Everybody Street & the Hot Docs documentary festival
Looking forward to seeing Everybody Street at Toronto’s Hot Docs festival. It’s a doc about New York’s legendary street photographers, including the likes of Luc Sante, Mary Ellen Mark, Bruce Davidson & Jill Freedman. And, pictured here, Joel Meyerowitz. The director, Cheryl Dunn, was commissioned by the Seaport Museum in New York to make it. Street photographers are […]
The Redesigned Royal Quiet DeLuxe
The Royal Quiet DeLuxe had been around for awhile and earned a reputation for easy typing & rugged durabilty. Then, in the mid-’40s, Royal commissioned legendary industrial designer Henry Drefuss (famous for the Westclox Big Ben alarm clock and later for designing the Princess Phone for AT&T and the Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera) to update its flagship typewriter. […]
The Woodstock Electrite typewriter
Love this vintage ad for the Woodstock Electrite typewriter. Woodstock was owned by Sears-Roebuck and the Electrite, as the name suggests, was among the earliest electric typewriters (made in 1925-6). The message accompanying this ad read in part: “Happy Days! — now that she has a Woodstock Electrite. A fresh start in the morning with no ‘hang-over’ […]
The Cheque is in the Mail
As a freelance writer for more than three decades, my life has been ruled by this immutable law of astrophysics for longer than I like to remember.
3 Chord Johnny at El Mocambo, Sat April 6, 2013
The journalists’ (plus ringers) band in which I play will be at the El Mocambo in Toronto on Saturday, April 6th. You could say we’re a bit like the Toronto version of The Rock Bottom Remainders, that U.S. writers’ band. (Except we’re not as famous or as wealthy as Stephen King, Matt Groening, Dave Barry, […]