On Holiday with Emma Straub
Escaping the “melting concrete armpit” of Manhattan is what many New Yorkers will be dreaming of in the infernal months ahead. When the tarmac starts to gleam and descending to the subway becomes a...
read moreHouse of SpeakEasy Blog
Stay Silent and Soon Amazon Will Be Telling the World What It Can Read
In this article, originally published in The Sunday Times in the UK, House of SpeakEasy co-founder Amanda Foreman outlines the ongoing battle between online retailer Amazon and book publishers, led...
read moreCapote’s Undoing
I’ve never been psychoanalyzed… I’ve never even consulted a psychiatrist… I work out all my problems in my work. — Truman Capote By the time Capote died, at the age of...
read more“How About Never – Is Never Good For You?” Bob Mankoff on the Joy of Cartoons
If you don’t know Bob Mankoff, reading his memoir, How About Never — Is Never Good For You?: My Life in Cartoons (Henry Holt, 2014), will be a glorious case of friends-at-first-sight....
read moreTo Rise Again At A Decent Hour
Whatever you think you know is subject to change at my whim. I will not be contained by my news feeds and online purchases, by your complicated algorithms for simplifying a man. Watch me break out...
read moreCan The News Make Us Better?
You’re back at work after a lovely long weekend. You log on to your computer. What’s the first thing you do? Check the news? Read on. In his latest book, Alain de Botton, who has made a career...
read moreThe Ink Runs Dry
Borgesian understatement, Nixonian analysis, Putinian philosophy, and a rediscovered Kodak disc camera. The ink, the wine, and the laughs were all flowing at Tuesday’s Seriously Entertaining...
read moreCurtain Call: The Ink Runs Dry
What happens when The Ink Runs Dry? Fortunately, the House of SpeakEasy has a talking cure. We’re delighted to welcome Jonathan Alter, David Gilbert, Christopher Mason, Jay Parini and Amanda...
read moreBetween the Crisis and the Catastrophe: Amanda Vaill on the Spanish Civil War
Spain’s war had become an experimental exercise — which will prevail, fascism or socialism? Whose weapons are stronger, Germany’s or Russia’s? — that the rest of the...
read moreFive Minutes with Maestro Christopher Mason
Christopher Mason, who makes his House of SpeakEasy bow on May 20 (tickets on sale here), is an author, journalist, photographer, television presenter, wearer of excellent bow-ties, and...
read more