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Open Letters Review

Open Letters Review

An Arts & Literature Review

Open Letters Review

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November 30, 2023

The Needle and the Lens by Nate Patrin

November 30, 2023/ Christopher Kumpa
The Needle and the Lens by Nate Patrin

An abbreviated but enjoyable romp through film and music.

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November 30, 2023/ Christopher Kumpa/
Art & Music
The Needle and the Lens, Nate Patrin, movies, rock 'n' roll, Christopher Kumpa
August 28, 2023

Schubert: A Musical Wayfarer by Lorraine Byrne Bodley

August 28, 2023/ Steve Donoghue
Schubert: A Musical Wayfarer by Lorraine Byrne Bodley

A lively, knowledgeable biography of the great composer.

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August 28, 2023/ Steve Donoghue/
Art & Music, Biography/Memoir
Schubert: A Musical Wayfarer, Lorraine Byrne Bodley, Franz Schubert, classical music, biography, musical biography, music, Steve Donoghue, 2023
August 09, 2023

Art Review: After Impressionism

August 09, 2023/ Kiran Gill
Art Review: After Impressionism

A review of the summer’s exhibit at London’s National Gallery.

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August 09, 2023/ Kiran Gill/
Art & Music
art history, art exhibition, Kiran Gill, 2023
October 04, 2022

Shy by Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green

October 04, 2022/ Michael Adams
Shy by Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green

Mary Rodgers’ posthumously published memoir appears in all its dishy, opinionated glory

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October 04, 2022/ Michael Adams/
Society & Culture, Art & Music
Mary Rodgers, Richard Rodgers, Guettel, Shy, Freaky Friday, Theater, Broadway, Review
April 03, 2022

I Was Better Last Night by Harvey Fierstein

April 03, 2022/ Michael Adams
I Was Better Last Night by Harvey Fierstein

The inimitable playwright and actor writes a candid, affecting memoir.

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April 03, 2022/ Michael Adams/
Art & Music, Film & Theatre; Adaptations
memoir, Harvey Fierstein, theater, Michael Adams
March 14, 2022

Drawn to Nature by Simon Martin

March 14, 2022/ Steve Donoghue
Drawn to Nature by Simon Martin

A celebration of the artwork that’s attended Gilbert White’s odd masterpiece for centuries.

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March 14, 2022/ Steve Donoghue/
Art & Music, Animals & Nature
Drawn to Nature: Gilbert White and the Artists, Gilbert White, Natural History of Selbourne, natural history, nature art, Steve Donoghue
September 15, 2021

Putting It Together by James Lapine

September 15, 2021/ Michael Adams
Putting It Together by James Lapine

From postcard to Pulitzer, the saga of a classic American musical.

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September 15, 2021/ Michael Adams/
Art & Music, Biography/Memoir
Lapine, Sondheim, Sunday in the Park, Seurat, Musicals, Michael Adams
August 16, 2021

Hirschfeld: The Biography by Ellen Stern

August 16, 2021/ Michael Adams
Hirschfeld: The Biography  by Ellen Stern

Line by line, a unique artist joyfully chronicles the popular arts of the 20th century.

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August 16, 2021/ Michael Adams/
Biography/Memoir, Art & Music, Film & Theatre; Adaptations
Hirschfeld, Ellen Stern, theater, art, NIna, Biography, Michael Adams
January 30, 2021

Ibsen's Kingdom by Evert Sprinchorn

January 30, 2021/ Steve Donoghue
Ibsen's Kingdom by Evert Sprinchorn

A new biography of the great playwright turns the spotlight on his works.

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January 30, 2021/ Steve Donoghue/
Biography/Memoir, Art & Music
Ibsen's Kingdom, Ibsen, Evert Sprinchorn, biography, Steve Donoghue
January 08, 2021

Singular Sensation by Michael Riedel

January 08, 2021/ Michael Adams
Singular Sensation by Michael Riedel

A veteran reporter recalls the vibrant, colorful New York theater of the ‘90s.

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January 08, 2021/ Michael Adams/
Art & Music, Biography/Memoir
Michael Riedel, Singular Sensation, Broadway, Michael Adams
August 30, 2020

Heart Full of Rhythm by Ricky Riccardi

August 30, 2020/ Steve Donoghue
Heart Full of Rhythm by Ricky Riccardi

A new book details a key transition in the career of the great Louis Armstrong.

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August 30, 2020/ Steve Donoghue/
Biography/Memoir, Art & Music
Ricky Riccardi, Louis Armstrong, biography, jazz, Oxford University Press, Steve Donoghue
July 06, 2020

The Equivalents by Maggie Doherty

July 06, 2020/ Hannah Joyner
The Equivalents by Maggie Doherty

While looking for the rooms of their own that Virginia Woolf argued all women writers needed, a group of female artists and scholars in early-1960s created their own Bloomsbury and prefigured the beginnings of second-wave feminism.

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July 06, 2020/ Hannah Joyner/
Biography/Memoir, Art & Music
Maggie Doherty, Anne Sexton, Maxine Kumin, Tillie Olson, Marianna Pineda, Barbara Swann, American history, Hannah Joyner
June 29, 2020

No More Giants

June 29, 2020/ Michael Adams
No More Giants

An unimpeachable and provocative collection drawn from almost every one of Sondheim’s projects.

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June 29, 2020/ Michael Adams/
Art & Music
Stephen Sondheim, Michael Adams, music, musicals, Peter Gethers, Russel Perreault, Everyman Pocket Poets, Penguin Random House
April 21, 2020

Calder: The Conquest of Space - The Later Years by Jed Perl

April 21, 2020/ Steve Donoghue
Calder: The Conquest of Space - The Later Years by Jed Perl

The second volume in Jed Perl’s indispensable biography of Alexander Calder.

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April 21, 2020/ Steve Donoghue/
Biography/Memoir, Art & Music
Alexander Calder, Steve Donoghue, art history, biography, Jed Perl
April 21, 2020

From 2017: Calder: The Conquest of Time - the Early Years: 1898-1940 by Jed Perl

April 21, 2020/ Steve Donoghue
From 2017: Calder: The Conquest of Time - the Early Years: 1898-1940 by Jed Perl

The first volume of Jed Perl’s landmark biography of Alexander Calder.

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April 21, 2020/ Steve Donoghue/
Biography/Memoir, Art & Music
Jed Perl, art history, biography, Steve Donoghue
November 13, 2019

The Lives of Lucian Freud by William Feaver

November 13, 2019/ Steve Donoghue
The Lives of Lucian Freud by William Feaver

Nobody alive today is in a better position to write an enormous, definitive biography of this artist.

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November 13, 2019/ Steve Donoghue/
Biography/Memoir, Society & Culture, Art & Music
William Feaver, Lucian Freud, biography, painting, art & artists, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Steve Donoghue
October 10, 2019

For the Love of Music by John Mauceri

October 10, 2019/ Karel Carpenter
For the Love of Music by John Mauceri

 Mauceri takes on the ambitious task of teaching the reader to listen to music. 

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October 10, 2019/ Karel Carpenter/
Art & Music
John Mauceri, composers, music, Karel Carpenter, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
October 08, 2019

The Photo Ark: Vanishing by Joel Sartore

October 08, 2019/ Steve Donoghue
The Photo Ark: Vanishing by Joel Sartore

Here are the animals on their way off the planet.

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October 08, 2019/ Steve Donoghue/
Animals & Nature, Art & Music
environment, endangered species, photography, Steve Donoghue, National Geographic, Joel Sartore
June 28, 2019

Old Town Road Single by Lil Nas X

June 28, 2019/ Olive Fellows
Old Town Road Single by Lil Nas X

A song with a country twang and a trap beat that’s been raising blood pressure since March 2019.

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June 28, 2019/ Olive Fellows/
Art & Music
music review, country music, Lil Nas X, Columbia Records, Olive Fellows
May 01, 2019

Gropius: The Man Who Built the Bauhaus by Fiona McCarthy

May 01, 2019/ Steve Donoghue
Gropius: The Man Who Built the Bauhaus by Fiona McCarthy

McCarthy is a wonderfully sympathetic biographer, and her reading and research in these pages is vast.

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May 01, 2019/ Steve Donoghue/
Biography/Memoir, Art & Music
Fiona McCarthy, Harvard University Press, architecture, Steve Donoghue
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Editors:

Steve Donoghue
Sam Sacks
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Olive Fellows
Jack Hanson
Jennifer Helinek
Justin Hickey
Hannah Joyner
Zach Rabiroff
Jessica Tvordi

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