Arts & Life

Books
Arts

An Aging Rake, An Ingenue, And A Strapping Young Painter In 'Tristana'

5:44am November 30, 2014

by Juan Vidal

NYRB Classics has just reissued Tristana, an 1892 novel by the great Spanish author Benito Pérez Galdós. Critic Juan Vidal says Tristana's intelligence and emotional richness is comparable to Dickens.

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as British mathematician and scientist Alan Turing in The Imitation Game; Charles Dance plays Commander Denniston. Director Morten Tyldum says the movie is set up like a mystery — "like a puzzle you're piecing together."

Arts

In 'Imitation Game,' An Outsider Takes Center Stage

6:29pm November 29, 2014

by NPR Staff

Director Morten Tyldum says he wanted the film, about World War II code breaker Alan Turing, to show "how important it is to actually celebrate those who are different than us instead of fear them."

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Former U.S. Poet Laureate Mark Strand (right) with Mexican author and Nobel Prize winner for literature, Ocatavio Paz, at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, in 1995. Strand has died of cancer at age 80.

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Mark Strand Dies At 80

3:38pm November 29, 2014

by Scott Neuman

The Canadian-born poet was known for his wit and introspection. He also won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and Yale University's Bollingen Prize.

Published in London around 1795, this "copy" of a letter from Jesus in heaven was the imagined correspondence between Jesus and King Abgar of Edessa.

Jesus Started A Chain Letter — And Other Hoaxes

2:26pm November 29, 2014

by NPR Staff

After Jesus died, he supposedly wrote a letter to Earth. A copy of that letter is now on display, along with other historic fakes and forgeries including a famous — and bogus — anti-Semitic tract.

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Documentary Recalls The Talented, Difficult Life Of Bing Crosby

12:05pm November 29, 2014

Bing Crosby has long been the voice of the Christmas season, and now he's the subject of a new American Masters documentary. NPR's Scott Simon talks to Kathryn and Mary Crosby about his legacy.

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Arts

Art And Death Are Two Things At Once In 'How To Be Both'

12:05pm November 29, 2014

It's hard to say where Ali Smith's new novel begins and ends; it depends on which copy you hold in your hands. She tells NPR's Scott Simon why she made two versions of How to be Both.

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Free-range chickens stand in a pen at an organic-accredited poultry farm in Germany.

Books
Arts

Chicken Confidential: How This Bird Came To Rule The Cultural Roost

12:05pm November 29, 2014

by NPR Staff

Andrew Lawler's Why Did the Chicken Cross the World? explores the secret to the domesticated bird's success: "You can turn the chicken into almost anything," he says, from religious symbol to dinner.

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The Mystery Of The Missing Brains

12:05pm November 29, 2014

by Matt Largey

For decades, a rare collection of human remains sat in a basement closet at the University of Texas. A new book tells the story of that collection — and the enduring mysteries that surround it.

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Chad Coleman, left and Sonequa Martin-Green star as Tyreese and Sasha on AMC's The Walking Dead.

Arts

Diversity On 'The Walking Dead' Wasn't Always Handled Well

6:22pm November 28, 2014

by Eric Deggans

AMC's hit zombie drama The Walking Dead airs its midseason finale Sunday. It's now one of TV's most diverse shows, but critic Eric Deggans says it hasn't always served non-white characters well.

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'New Yorker' Cover Shows A Divided St. Louis

6:22pm November 28, 2014

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Bob Staake, illustrator of the controversial cover of The New Yorker, which depicts the St. Louis skyline divided in half by the colors black and white.

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