Chekhov’s Mistess

Paris Review Interviews: The DNA of Literature

Last week I mentioned the Paris Review Interviews, which were announced but had not appeared. Thanks to the editors of the Literary Saloon, I found that they were indeed forthcoming. As promised, The Paris Review has posted the following announcement:

The DNA of Literature

The Paris Review has interviewed almost 300 authors whose work has defined the literary landscape of latter half of the twentieth century. From its first interview with E.M. Forster, the Writers at Work series has, in the words of The New York Times, “set the standard for literary interrogation.” Now the Paris Review Foundation proposes to make this vast archival resource—what has felicitously been referred to as the DNA of Literature—available online, for free, to anyone who visits the Paris Review website. In addition to the interview itself, the website will feature author photos, images of original manuscript pages, a special forum in which authors will be able to revise or expand their original interviews, and links to pages that provide up-to-date biographical information about the authors. A customized search engine will allow a reader not only to search by name and date, but also to search the full text of the interviews so that, for instance, a search for Gabriel García Márquez will turn up his interview along with every other interview in which his name is mentioned.

The project will launch in mid-November of 2005 [2004?], beginning with the interviews from the 1950s. These will be followed by interviews from subsequent decades, until all the interviews are available.

• January 10, 2005: The Complete Paris Review Interviews from the 1960s
• February 14, 2005: The Complete Paris Review Interviews from the 1970s
• April 4, 2005: The Complete Paris Review Interviews from the 1980s
• May 16, 2005: The Complete Paris Review Interviews from the 1990s
• July 1, 2005: The roll-out will conclude with the publication of
  The Paris Review Book of People with Problems (Picador, Trade Paperback Original)

Thanks Paris Review! It’s amazing that these interviews will be made freely available because they have been released in book form. Some are still in print, such as Latin American Writers at Work, featuring the usual suspects and Women Writers at Work, with Marianne Moore, Toni Morrison, Dorothy Parker, Maya Angelou, Susan Sontag, Joyce Carol Oates and others.

p.s. I think there’s a typo on the site’s announcement:The project will launch in mid-November of 2005
should probably read 2004.

Read widely, think well, and write often.

comments

Look for an article in USA Today this Thursday about this.

Enjoy,

    – Dan Wickett (11/09  at  08:21 PM)

Is that the DNA of Literature or sequencing the literary genome.How about something now on Montaigne. 

p.s.  I like the new look

sheri

    – Sheri (11/10  at  12:28 AM)

Officially, it’s Nov. 15.  The fun begins with the 1950s on Monday.

    – Ed (11/10  at  05:12 PM)

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About this Post

• Posted by: Bud Parr
• Date: November 09, 2004
• Filed Under:
  Wise Men Fish Here: Literature

Tags: The Paris Review

• Comments:3
• Links to this Post: Technorati

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