Weekend Bites: Van Wyck Brooks, 1950s Magazines, James Baldwin, John James Audubon, and More

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Pulitzer Prize winning critic and historian, Van Wyck Brooks, was born on February 6th, 1886. According to his Wikipedia page, misers really liked him: He was a long-time resident of Bridgewater, Connecticut, which built a town library wing in his name. Although a decade-long fund-raising effort seemed to fail and was abandoned in 1972, a miserly hermit in Los Angeles, Charles E. Piggott, with no connection to Bridgewater surprised the town by leaving money for the library in his will. With $210,000 raised, the library addition went up in 1980.”

On James Baldwin and religion.

Mastering the Zakuski spread.

Russians writing on Russianness.

John James Audubon is coming back to the New York Historical Society.

Great magazine covers of the 1950s.

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