FYI #83
The Best-Paid Woman in NYC, a London Review of Books podcast episode on J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950). Francesca Wade, author of Square Haunting and a new biography of Gertrude Stein, wrote about Greene for the Review. Greene’s letters to Italian Renaissance art historian, scholar, and connoisseur Bernard Berenson (1865–1959) have been digitised and made available via the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.
A new page for Australia’s literary sector, media release from the Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke, about the establishment of Writing Australia
Writing Australia: can the new national literature body make a real difference for authors?, by Esther Anatolitis, via the Guardian
Release of the Creative Australia external report into its governance, decision-making and risk management processes in relation to Australia’s participation in the 2026 Venice Biennale.
Enjoyed reading Chloe Dalton’s book, Raising Hare (2024). Dalton has been making the case for the protection of hares with a ‘close season’.
what does it mean to watch clouds? what can it mean?, via Jenny Odell’s newsletter.. A fiercely protected capacity for love is, in the end, how we stay alive against the encroachments of cynicism and despair.
A 58sqm/624sqft Apartment in Naples That Balances Beauty, Ruin, and Reinvention, via Never Too Small
From Madonna to New Order and Oasis, one man’s odyssey to make an ‘atlas of album cover maps’, via the Guardian. Maps on Vinyl by Damien Saunder
I’ve heard good things about these exhibitions at Bundanon, Betty Kuntiwa Pumani: maḻatja-maḻatja (those who come after) and David Sequeira: The Shape of Music.
What Happens After A.I. Destroys College Writing?, by Hua Hsu.. Education, particularly in the humanities, rests on a belief that, alongside the practical things students might retain, some arcane idea mentioned in passing might take root in their mind, blossoming years in the future. A.I. allows any of us to feel like an expert, but it is risk, doubt, and failure that make us human.
Will American democracy survive the Dark Enlightenment? interesting lecture by historian Sarah Churchwell, via ABC Radio National
Anna Funder’s Closing Address at the Sydney Writers’ Festival